Jason Bermas
Prison Planet.com
Sunday, September 27, 2009

In what was possibly the most surreal, horrific, and unimaginable thing I have ever witnessed in my life, 1200 Riot Police and Military Personal rabidly attacked a group of well under 300 American citizens, many of them just students that were unaware there was even a protest going on.  They then expanded their perimeter and shut large areas of Oakland down.  This is how my last experience at the G20 in Pittsburgh went down, out of control authorities mercilessly attacking an unarmed crowd with batons, tear gas, pepper spray, sound weapons, and rubber bullets.  Around 10pm on Friday night, long after the vast majority of dignitaries and protesters had left, it became evident that the outrageous show of force by the Military and Police was not enough to stave off their thirst for blood.

When I first arrived on the scene Luke Rudowski of We Are Change and a small group of protesters were peaceably assembling among a much larger number of college students just out for another weekend of fun in Schenley Plaza.  Around ten minutes later Rob Dew arrived and we began filming the entire scene, it was evident that the number of police already in the area and the amount who were massing and surrounding the perimeter was extremely alarming.

As Luke bull horned that the people in this park meant the police no physical harm, and that they were simply exercising their right to free speech, a couple of masked individuals began to scream “He doesn’t speak for us”.  These few provocateurs and well meaning idiots could have been easily dealt with by a handful of regular police officers dressed in their standard uniform, however that solution does not offer the pretext for over a thousand heavily armed psychotics to encircle and engage the American people.

I began to become extremely frightened as to what the outcome of the situation was going to be as I began to witness LRAD weapons showing up, dogs beginning to circle the perimeter, and then everyone putting on their gas masks.  During all of this I was threatened with arrest three times and physically charged and chased by one of the officers.  At that point I realized they were about to attack, and they did.  Hundreds of armed to the teeth trained professionals began their march towards innocent young men and women, and then took it much further by launching tear gas canisters, battening people trying to leave, and firing rubber bullets randomly into the crowd.  Luckily I was able to slip through the cracks of a blockade of only 6 or so riot thugs as they tried to amass more in that area and form another brutal line.

Ipersonally witnessed a young man on a bike being beaten for no reason whatsoever and as he fled the officers then beat his bike.  When the young man tried to retrieve his bike his knuckle was broken.  Another man was gassed so badly he had to be taken to the hospital.  This is how “Peace Officers” treat us?

During the very quick first burst of the madness I lost touch with Infowars Producer and Cameraman Rob Dew, I immediately thought he had been arrested, and I was correct.  He was illegally detained and digitally fingerprinted in a separate process for “protesters”.  Rob was cuffed all evening in a room full of other detainees, and was not released until 10:20 am the next morning with no charges being brought against him.  Military and Police mocked them as Americans were being detained and processed often laughing at college students that had been beaten for no other reason for being in the wrong place around their campus that evening.

Luke Rudowski received multiple battens to his back and legs as the jackals descended on him with force, even though he had made it clear to all of them he wished them no violence.  For his peaceful efforts Luke and Lee from We Are Change were separated from the rest of the more than one hundred detainees and sent to State Prison.  Luke was strip searched, mocked, and charged with Disorderly Conduct and Unlawful Assembly, and will have to go back to Pittsburgh Wednesday to face charges.  The Military and Police laughed as they took note of the “Superstar” that had been all over the news on channel 11 and even National NBC, taking a sick pleasure in the torture of another human being.

Welcome to the New Amerika.

Source: Prison Planet

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In the latest incident, deputies used a Taser on Alton Warren Ham, 45, of Oklahoma after he started “fighting” with them, according to a sheriff’s news release issued Friday morning.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Ham on Tuesday night in Hughson on suspicion of home invasion robbery. It was unclear what Oklahoma city Ham was from.

On Wednesday, the deputies were trying to move Ham to a cell for his safety because he had “exhibited irrational behavior and was combative,” according to the news release. Ham stood 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 200 pounds.

Sheriff’s officials declined to release some details.

“Some of the details we don’t have because this is still under investigation,” Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Beck said. “I don’t know how many people (the detectives) still have to interview.”

Beck said he did not know where in the jail Ham was being held when the jail staff noticed he was acting strangely. But about 2 p.m., the deputies decided to move Ham to the safety cell, also known as a “sobering cell.”

Inmates are placed alone in the safety cell so they can’t harm themselves or other inmates. The cell has a door with a small window, and sheriff’s officials say the walls are not as hard as those of other cells. The cell has no bars.

As the deputies were moving Ham, “he started fighting,” according to the news release. When asked if Ham was punching or kicking the deputies, Beck said he could not release those details.

It was unclear how long the struggle with the jailers lasted. Beck, who is a sheriff’s spokesman, said Friday he didn’t have information about how many deputies were involved in the struggle, how many deputies used a Taser on Ham or how many times Ham was struck by Tasers.

Deputies then put Ham into the cell.

Beck said the deputies and medical staff stayed with Ham in the cell until he became unresponsive. Medical staff tried to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful. Ham was pronounced dead at the jail at 2:38 p.m., Beck said.

Enlarged heart found

Sheriff’s officials said an autopsy showed that Ham had an enlarged heart and coroner officials are awaiting toxicology results before they can determine a cause of death. Beck said it could be four to six weeks before the toxicology results are returned.

Ham was arrested about 9:20 p.m. Tuesday after he broke into a home in the 3000 block of Euclid Avenue in Hughson, Beck said.

An 84-year-old woman, who lives alone at the home, told deputies Ham first knocked on the front door and continued “banging on the door,” demanding to be let in because he was being chased by a group of Latino males, Beck said.

The woman refused and called 911, but Ham broke a front window and entered the house, Beck said.

Ham ransacked the home while the victim was still inside. The woman, who was not harmed, went outside and was met by deputies who were dispatched to the scene.

Deputies went inside and found Ham, who had a 4-inch cut on his arm and was bleeding profusely. Beck said Ham suffered the cut while breaking the window.

Source: The Modesto Bee

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Like many in the intelligence community, Tyler Drumheller, a retired chief of CIA operations in Europe, is waiting to see if his former colleagues will be left holding the bag for the Bush administration.

As early as Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce theappointment of a special prosecutor to investigate acts of torture performed by the CIA as part of the Bush administration’s so-called “enhanced interrogation” program.

Holder, initially reluctant to investigate for fear of stoking a political brushfire, reportedly considered pursuing inquiry after reading through a grisly 2004 CIA inspector general report about detentions and interrogations that the agency is scheduled to release on Monday. Reports to date have indicated that Holder is considering restricting the inquiry to low-level CIA interrogators who went beyond acting in what President Barack Obama has called “good faith” toward Bush-era Justice Department legal guidance that the Obama administration has revoked.

Drumhelle — who was never an interrogator — said restricting an inquiry to CIA interrogators is unfair. “What happened is a reflection of policy” at the time, Drumheller said. “None of this stuff was done in a vacuum.”

It may be no surprise that a former senior CIA official doesn’t think CIA interrogators ought to fall on their swords for a torture policy concocted at the highest levels of the previous administration. Perhaps less intuitive is that Drumheller is aggressively seconded by the civil libertarian community. Civil libertarians are preparing the delicate message that Holder’s anticipated inquiry ought to go much further at a time when prominent Republican senators argue that any inquiry at all is going dangerously too far.

“Worse than doing nothing at all” was how Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, described Holder’s possible decision to stop an inquiry at low-level interrogators in a recent Los Angeles Times interview. The pungent quote struck some in the human-rights community as too real — an authentic expression of how the community feels that but one that nevertheless left Holder, a necessary ally for any thorough torture investigation, exposed.

Indeed, on Wednesday, nine GOP senators wrote to Holder to oppose any inquiry at all. “[T]here is little doubt that further investigations and potential prosecutions of CIA officials would chill future intelligence activities,” the senators argued. “The intelligence community will be left to wonder whether actions taken today in the interest of national security will be subject to legal recriminations when the political winds shift.”

Malinowski said he stands by the remark, particularly as the Obama administration prepares to make a momentous choice. “There is a way [Holder] could do this in a way that could do harm, and it’s hard for me to say otherwise,” Malinowski explained. “I’ll take half a loaf on almost any issue, but if this ends with a few grunts getting prosecuted, I really believe that will be worse than not going down that road.”

Yet he and others in human-rights circles are prepared to give Holder room from the outset for the expected inquiry to germinate into something more systemic — provided that Holder doesn’t explicitly rule such a thing out from the outset. “The question for us is not where an investigation begins, but where it ends,” said Jameel Jaffer, the head of the ACLU’s national-security project. “If the attorney general were to grant immunity to senior officials, that’s something we’d react very negatively to. But if the attorney general announces a narrower investigation but not foreclose on a broader one, we’d probably say that’s an important first step, a crucial step, and now [a prosecutor] should be given prosecutorial authority to follow the facts.”

Several in the civil-liberties community argued that an investigation that didn’t explicitly rule out examining the role of senior administration officials and legal advisers would naturally examine their role in torture, since it would be impossible to establish that a low-level interrogator exceeded legal guidance without establishing what that guidance was and what legal legitimacy it enjoyed. “The boundaries are the boundaries of illegitimate memos,” said Jaffer’s colleague Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU.

Vince Warren, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, added that he saw a de facto convergence of interests with the CIA, an agency that the human rights community more often views adversarially. “If investigators are only looking at low-level people, low-level people necessarily have to say, ‘I was just following orders, you have to look at these folks [who gave the orders], without them I wouldn’t have done it,’” Warren said. “There’s an opportunity for people in CIA to agree with idea that looking at these issues just from the point of contact, if you will, is completely missing how this entire torture system operated.”

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Tracy Schmaler, said the department would not comment on the “decision [or] timing” about any prospective torture inquiry.

Even so, Monday is the deadline set by a federal judge in New York, Alvin Hellerstein, in a case brought by the ACLU for the Obama administration to disclose a 2004 report authored by John Helgerson, the former inspector general of the CIA, about the agency’s implementation of the Bush administration’s torture policies. Much of the contours of Helgerson’s report are now familiar, particularly after Holder declassified memoranda from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that reference the report in its footnotes. The report was the source of the revelation, first reported by Marcy Wheeler, that CIA interrogators waterboarded 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed 183 times and his colleague Abu Zubaydah 83 times.

Civil libertarians object to the idea that those who decided waterboarding was legal and desirable ought to be exempt from prosecution while those who implemented it beyond the guidelines of legal memoranda ought to be targeted. Warren called that “torture by legal memo” and said such an inquiry would “parallel the way the Bush administration handled Abu Ghraib.”

Yet some fear the release of Helgerson’s report will create political pressures similar to those of the infamous Abu Ghraib photos: to focus on the lurid and gruesome incidents documented, rather than the policies that engendered them. “Some people disagree with me and say we should support anything that takes us down this road” to an investigation, Malinowski said. “I really hope on Monday I’ll be able to do that, depending on how Holder finesses it and how much space there is in the process he announces to explore the culpability of those who engaged in this behavior, regardless how explicit he is.”

In anticipation of the outcry on the right over an inquiry, the ACLU’s Goodman contended that exempting Bush administration officials from an investigation would be a politicization of justice. “What is political is when you give a free pass to politicians,” she said. “Enforcement is neutral, important thing.” When Goodman made a similar point at the progressive political convention, Netroots Nation, on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly ran a clip of her after narrating that liberals like Goodman “don’t much like America” — a potential indication of the battles to come over prosecuting the architects of the Bush administration’s torture policies.

As for Drumheller, the former CIA official demurred on the prospect of a de facto alliance with the civil liberties community. But he made a point that many in the community endorse. “This was carried out as a policy at a time of great stress for the country, a tricky situation,” Drumheller said. “I fear there’s a temptation [that] the easiest course is to find low-level people who, in view of someone, exceeded their brief and concentrate on that. That will miss whole purpose of the issue.”

Source: Colorado Independent

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When explaining to people that the government will order a mass vaccination campaign as early as mid-September, 2009, many say, “They aren’t going to vaccinate me.” If you ask public health and law enforcement officials they will tell you that the law does not allow people to be vaccinated against their will. That may be true in times of peace while elected officials are performing their duties and civil governments are still empowered. However, in a declared state of emergency, the civil authority is supplanted by martial, or military authority. Civilian officials and employees may be “deputized” to help administrate martial authority during an emergency, but civil law is effectively suspended for the duration of the emergency. The following article, originally written in Dec., 2001, has been edited and updated slightly to show that, if/when a medical emergency is declared, people will be forced to submit to a variety of inconveniences without their consent—including invasive medical interventions—or face severe consequences one generally associates with war zones. It is also plainly stated that no one working for or with the government will be held liable for death or damages to persons or their properties should they result from good-faith performance of their “lawful” duties. Since October, 2001, the tenets of MSEHPA has been sewn into the pandemic preparedness plans of most, if not all, of the several states. ~PandemicFluOnline

Within weeks after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began promoting health policy legislation that dramatically suspends civil rights during declared state of biological emergency. The text of the “Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA)” gives public health officials and governors of the several states the power to arrest, transport, quarantine, drug and vaccinate anyone suspected of carrying a potentially infectious disease. The Boston Globe originally broke the October 31, 2001. The story was almost immediately forwarded to medical freedom activists throughout the country who responded en masse in outspoken opposition to the proposal. The article was quickly removed from The Globe’s website.

The 40-page MSEHPA was authored by Lawrence O. Gostin and James G. Hodge of the Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities.

While stating that their proposal considered the “civil rights of the individual,” the appeals process described in the text describes the nearly absolute powers of public health authorities to detain people against their will and force them to submit to whatever medical intervention deemed appropriate by authorities. The process gives little hope that the individual will prevail in an appeal and that he will continue to be detained throughout the process.

Unless intentional harm can be proven, the proposal states, “Neither the state, its political subdivisions, including the governor, public health authorities, the police, or other state officials, [will be held liable for] the death or injury to persons, or damage to property, as a result of complying with, or attempting to comply with this Act or any rules promulgated pursuant to this Act.”

Then Department of Human and Health Services Secretary Tommy Thompson acknowledged existence of the CDC model. He said, “We need not only a strong health infrastructure and a full stockpile of medical resources, but also the legal and emergency tools to help our citizens quickly.”

Under the proposed law, one case of smallpox or swine flu in a public school could trigger authorities to urge a governor to declare a state of emergency. Once such is declared, the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and most cherished civil liberties will be immediately suspended in addition to states being empowered to take immediate possession of private property under the doctrine of eminent domain.

Under Section 406 of the proposal under the heading, “Compensation,” it is explained that, “Compensation shall not be provided for facilities or materials that are closed, evacuated, decontaminated, or destroyed when there is reasonable cause to believe that they may endanger the public health…”

Under the “Mandatory Medical Examinations” section (502) of the law, persons refusing to submit to medical examinations and/or testing are liable for misdemeanors and forced isolation. If public health authorities suspect individuals may have been exposed to broadly defined infectious diseases, or otherwise pose a risk to public health, officials may issue detainment orders. In the case of an urban attack, or even one suspected, possibly thousands of people could be marshaled into isolation camps, according to the law.  In this case, physicians, assisted by police, will be required to perform state medical examinations and tests.

Under the law, “infectious diseases” are very broadly defined. “An infectious disease may, or may not, be transmissible from person to person, animal to person, or insect to person,” the authors explain in the text.

Section 504 of the Act details vaccination and treatment protocols. Following these mandates, public health authorities may compel people to be inoculated and/or drugged with any medicaments selected by the state. Individuals refusing to be vaccinated or treated would be liable for a misdemeanor, subject to police arrest, isolation or quarantine.

“Section 807” repeals existing state laws that are in conflict with the Act. Under this part, for instance, previous laws granting medical, religious, or philosophical exemptions to vaccination would be repealed.

Former Secretary Thompson explained that, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) led a process to develop a Model State Emergency Health Powers Act that will be an important tool for state and local officials to respond to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.”

Thompson also sated that, the proposed model has been developed “Over the past six months.”

According to the CDC production, “Preparing for the Next Influenza Pandemic” which was broadcast via satellite to health departments all over the world February 26, 1999, the federal government has been developing the infrastructure for total control of medical emergencies since 1973. The CDC stated that, after the swine flu debacle in which high percentages of the 45 million people who were inoculated against the disease developed a different disease called Guillean Barre, President Nixon ordered that the Federal Guidebook to Pandemic Preparedness be prepared.

The CDC admitted that the guidebook was still in “draft form” as of 1999, but that President Clinton ordered the formation of the Working Group on Influenza Preparedness (known by the CDC as “the GRIP”) take up where the guidebook left off. As of this writing, Federal Guidebook to Pandemic Preparedness has not yet been made available to the public.

Official MSEHPA update

The link below contains the most recent tracking of MSEHPA and plainly states the intent of the model act’s provisions. To be certain as to how officials in your state will be administrating a declared state of medical emergency, you can obtain copies of state and local pandemic preparedness plans online or through your local health department. You will likely discover that your state and local plans mirror the key provisions of MSEHPA.

From the weblink at http://www.publichealthlaw.net/MSEHPA/MSEHPA%20Surveillance.pdf

The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA) grants public health powers to state and local public health authorities to ensure a strong, effective, and timely planning, prevention, and response mechanisms to public health emergencies (including bioterrorism) while also respecting individual rights. Developed by the Centers in collaboration with a host of partners, MSEHPA has been used by state and local legislators and health officials nationwide as a guide for considering public health law reform in their states.

Legislative Status Update: Since its completion on December 21, 2001, the Centers has been tracking state legislative activity related to MSEHPA. As of July 15, 2006, the Act has been introduced in whole or part through 171 bills or resolutions in forty-four (44) states, the District of Columbia, and the Northern Mariannas Islands. Thirty-eight (38) states [AL, AK, AZ, CA, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, LA, ME, MD, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NC, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, and WY] and DC have passed a total of 66 bills or resolutions that include provisions from or closely related to the Act. The extent to which the Act’s provisions are incorporated into each state’s laws varies.

Lawrence O. Gostin, et al. The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act: Planning for and Response to Bioterrorism and Naturally Occurring Infectious Diseases, 288 JAMA 622 (2002)

Source: Farm Wars

Everyone out there must stand up for freedom and resist tyranny! It doesn’t matter how little you think you are we are all in this together. You are not alone, there is a large number of people out there just waiting to hear their neighbor speak out against “tyranny”. Be the first don’t wait for anyone else or it maybe to late. Start a group get involved, sitting on the sidelines will not get anything done. Speak out no matter how crazy things sound.

Which side do you want to be on the side that is prepared and nothing happens or the side that isn’t prepared and something does?

Remember this isn’t a left or right issue it’s a FREEDOM issue.

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Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney returned home today after 6 days being held by the government of Israel while attempting with 21 colleagues to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza on the vessel, the Spirit of Humanity.

“Don’t sign Miss Cynthia don’t sign!” So chanted a boisterous group of Palestinian teens and pre-teens in Beirut’s Shatila Refugee Camp demonstrating support for the Freegaza Humanity boat abductees on the 4th of July.

The students understood that those illegally arrested while in International waters had been offered a “get out of Jail Free” pass if they confessed in writing to violating Israel’s territorial waters.

The Spirit of Humanity boat, trying to bring emergency humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, was the topic of a lively discussion during a Sabra Shatila Foundation summer school civics lesson on “International law and the Question of Palestine”. The students were interested in the plight of some of their relatives and countryman in Palestine and the continuing siege of Gaza. Some had just finished their Baccalaureate exams and were wondering how they could continue their education given the severe impediments the government of Lebanon places on Palestinian civil rights, and their post exam relief seemed to energize them for the discussion.

A couple of the students had met Cynthia during her recent visits to Lebanon. When they learned that as a Congresswoman, she had introduced articles of impeachment against Bush, was a consistent anti-war voter during her twelve years in Congress, and that no member in Congress had achieved a more consistent, principled, voting record of issues of civil and human rights, including Palestinian rights, they really connected with the subject of the Freegaza aid boat, the Spirit of Humanity and her travails. “Those supporters of Palestine should not accept a false confession and should stay in Jail if necessary. They are patriots” was a commonly expressed sentiment.

The students understood that in refusing to sign the Israeli government prepared “acknowledgement/confession” the Freegaza group acted consistent with International Law. They learned that territorial waters, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it. They learned from media reports that in any case the Humanity was in International waters and that consequently Israel had no right to molest it.

The class adjourned sharing a general consensus that the Spirit of Humanity, enjoyed and will continue to enjoy on every subsequent humanitarian voyage, these freedoms as well as other internationally lawful uses of the sea within contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones, and on the high seas. Needless to report, were it possible for them, the whole class would like to be on the next Freegaza boat.

Special UN Rapportteur, Richard Falk, condemned from Geneva Israel’s seizure of the Freegaza boat, Humanity, carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip “unlawful” and said its blockade of the territory constituted a “continuing crime against humanity”. Falk said the move was part of Israel’s “cruel blockade of the entire Palestinia n population of Gaza” in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against “an occupied people”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a Report this this week in which it claimed that Israel was also halting entry to Gaza of building materials and spare parts needed to repair damage from its 22-day invasion late last December.

Israel unsuccessfully sought (since no one apparently signed) to avoid international capability for its criminal conduct against the Humanity group by getting their victims to sign a statement agreeing that they violated Israeli territorial waters.

Continued at Pan African New wire

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The postwar humanitarian crisis in Gaza takes a turn for the worse with the Israeli Navy intercepting a relief ship headed toward the coastal strip.

A group of 21 activists sailing to Gaza said Tuesday that Israeli forces had threatened to gun down their boat unless they changed direction.

“There is a patrol boat around us and we were told that if we did not turn back they would open fire,” Reuters quoted Irish activist Derek Graham as saying.

“We are continuing our course to Gaza,” he added.

The Free Gaza Movement activists had left the Cypriot port of Larnaca earlier on Monday to deliver three tons of medical supplies, some tool kits and copper wiring to Gaza.

The activists onboard included an Irish Nobel peace laureate and a former US congresswoman.

Tel Aviv has tightened a blockade on Gaza, which is home to some 1.5 million people, since the democratically elected government of Hamas took power of the strip two years ago.

Israel’s consistent blockades have cost Palestinians dearly with unemployment and poverty rates in the territory being amongst the highest in the world.

According to the official statistics agency of the Palestinian Authority, a steady decline is to be expected in the economy of the West Bank and Gaza.

With more than six months after Israel’s three-week attack on the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are fighting to survive the acute shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Friday that Israel’s full-scale offensive on Gaza has taken a heavy toll on the territory’s agriculture sector and has heightened risks of food insecurity and undernourishment.

Source: PressTV

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Activists included Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney

A group of 21 peace activists sailing to Palestine were intercepted and arrested by Israeli authorities on Tuesday as they attempted to bring food and medical supplies to the war-torn city of Gaza. Israel said it plans to deport most of the people involved, including former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Mairead Maguire, a Nobel laureate.

The group insists they were not in Israeli waters. In a media advisory, the arrests were characterized as kidnapping.

“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us,” said McKinney in a press release issued by the Free Gaza Movement. “Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip. President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do.”

“Any organization or country that wishes to transfer humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip can legally do so via the established crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip with prior coordination,” the Israeli military told CNN.

The IDF said the boat was given warnings to avoid Palestinian waters, but it proceeded anyway. Two of the group’s humanitarian missions to Gaza were halted by the Israeli military in 2008, though five others have been successful, the activists said.

Huwaida Arraf, a chair of the Free Gaza Movement and co-coordinator for the humanitarian mission, condemned the intervention even before Israeli forces took him into custody.

“No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel,” he said in a release. “We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children’s toys. Our passengers include a Nobel peace prize laureate and a former U.S. congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters.”

Arraf called the intervention a “premeditated attack” and “a clear violation of international law.”

Israeli publication Y-Net reported that “immigration police arrived at Ashdod police and performed a search of the activists’ belongings. The detainees will then be transferred to the Immigration Administration in Holon. The police will take their fingerprints, and then send them to Ben Gurion Airport, where each one will face a hearing before the Interior Ministry before being deported.”

Mairead Maguire, who won the Nobel prize for her work in northern Ireland, is no stranger to confrontations with Israeli military. Following an international conference, she and other peace activists gathered in the West Bank village of Bilin, only to be confronted by IDF forces. Maguire was shot in the leg by a rubber bullet and her compatriots suffered tear gas inhalation.

On her Web site, Peace People, Maguire published a recent letter to President Barack Obama which describes her view of the Palestinian people’s plight.

“To visit Palestine is to walk with a people whose lives are being made unbearable by Israeli Policies of ethnic cleansing,” she wrote. “Each year when I visit I ask myself ‘how can the Palestinians bear so much suffering and still have hope?’ The Philosopher Karl Jung says ‘Go into your grief for there your soul will grow’. Being privileged to walk alongside the Palestinian people, one sees so much soul.”

She adds: “I appeal to you President Obama, to change USA Policies and stop supporting through military aid, etc, [Israel's] occupation of Palestine, and to move immediately to help lift the siege of Gaza and say to Israel ‘enough is enough.’ [...] Love and hope gives us all courage and belief that peace and freedom is possible.”

The full press release from the Free Gaza Movement follows.

####

[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] – Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. “President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”

According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released yesterday, the Palestinians living in Gaza are “trapped in despair.” Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel’s December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel’s disruption of medical supplies.

“The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of “Cast Lead”. Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone” said fellow passenger Mairead Maguire, winner of a Noble Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.

Just before being kidnapped by Israel, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator on this voyage, stated that: “No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children’s toys. Our passengers include a Nobel peace prize laureate and a former U.S. congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters.”

Arraf continued, “Israel’s deliberate and premeditated attack on our unarmed boat is a clear violation of international law and we demand our immediate and unconditional release.”
###

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Justice
tel: +972 2646 6666 or +972 2646 6340
fax: +972 2646 6357

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
tel: +972 2530 3111
fax: +972 2530 3367

CONTACT Mark Regev in the Prime Minister’s office at:
tel: +972 5 0620 3264 or +972 2670 5354
mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

CONTACT the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their assistance in establishing the wellbeing of the kidnapped human rights workers and help in securing their immediate release!

Red Cross Israel
tel: +972 3524 5286
fax: +972 3527 0370
tel_aviv.tel@icrc.org

Red Cross Switzerland:
tel: +41 22 730 3443
fax: +41 22 734 8280

Red Cross USA:
tel: +1 212 599 6021
fax: +1 212 599 6009
###

Kidnapped Passengers from the Spirit of Humanity include:

Continued At Raw Story

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A British man spoke publicly for the first time yesterday to accuse MI5 officers of forcing him to confess to masterminding the July 7 bombings.

Jamil Rahman claims UK security officers were behind his arrest in 2005 in Bangladesh.

He says he was beaten repeatedly by local officials who also threatened to rape him and his wife.

Mr Rahman, who is suing the Home Office, said a pair of MI5 officers who attended his torture and interrogation would leave the room while he was beaten.

He claims when he told the pair he had been tortured they merely answered: ‘They haven’t done a very good job on you.’

Mr Rahman told the BBC: ‘They were questioning me on the July 7 bombings, showing me pictures of the bombers.

‘They showed me maps, terrains … they asked me to draw things out and write names next to pictures.

‘They threatened my family. They go to me, “In the UK, gas leaks happen, if your family house had a gas leak and everyone got burnt, there’s no problems, we can do that easily”.’

He says he eventually made a false confession of involvement in the July 7 bomb plots.

The extraordinary allegations will add to pressure on UK ministers to come clean over the way Britain’s intelligence agencies have been allowed to gather evidence around the world in the eight years since the September 11 attacks.

Jamil Rahman, a former civil servant from south Wales, is a British citizen who moved to Bangladesh in 2005 and married a woman he met there. He returned to the UK last year.

He said: ‘It was all to do with the British. Even the Bengali intelligence officer told me that they didn’t know anything about me, that they were only doing this for the British.’

Mr Rahman, 31, says he was released after three weeks but re-arrested and mistreated repeatedly over the next two years.

He described how two men he believes were British agents would leave the room for ‘a break’ while he was beaten.

They often asked: ‘We’re not torturing you, are we?’ and recorded his confirmations that they were not, he alleges.

‘The first time they tried to be friendly, they came in trying to show they were my friends, calm and relaxed, nothing wrong.

‘I tried to demonstrate my innocence. I thought this is wrong, because they were British I might get some justice.’

He added: ‘They showed me hundreds of pictures. Black, white, Chinese, bearded non-bearded, woman, man, young and old. Every time, they came for a new session, same pictures with new ones.

‘The main thing they wanted me to be is a witness against another British man in Bangladesh. They pressured me so much to be a witness against this guy in court.

Mr Rahman denies being a terrorist, although he admits attending meetings in Britain of the radical Islamist group al-Muhajiroun – claiming he later rejected their extremist ideology.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We firmly reject any suggestion that we torture people or ask others to do so on our behalf.

‘Mr Rahman has made a lot of unsubstantiated allegations. They have not been evidenced in any court of law.’

Jamil Rahman is one of a number of former detainees who accuse the British Government colluded in their torture abroad.

His account echoes that of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed, who said he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco with MI5’s knowledge.

The 30-year-old Ethiopian says he was beaten and deprived of sleep to try to make him confess to an Al Qaeda ‘dirty bomb’ plot, and his treatment is now the subject of an unprecedented police investigation into MI5’s conduct.

Source: Daily Mail

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