Intelligence officials claim that releasing the Senate’s torture report will cost American lives.
This is simply an attempt at CYA … no different from the NSA’s claim that revealing the extent of its mass surveillance would hurt national security.
Trying to Cover Up the Crime
American law – and top government officials – have said that the type of torture the U.S. engaged in is a crime.
People speaking out against releasing the torture report are simply trying to cover up the crime …
Matthew Alexander – a former top Air Force interrogator who led the team that tracked down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – notes that government officials knew they are vulnerable for war crime prosecution:
They have, from the beginning, been trying to prevent an investigation into war crimes.
Why Releasing the Torture Report Will SAVE American Lives
Releasing the Senate torture report will actually save American lives.
Specifically, a top American counter-terrorism expert – former Chairman of the Department of International Studies at the National War College, number 2 counter-terror official at the State Department, and author of numerous books on terrorism (Terry Arnold) – told Washington’s Blog that prosecuting those who created the American torture program will REDUCE attacks against the U.S. and American troops.
How could this be? Well, top experts say that torture doesn’t produce any actionable intelligence … the only thing it produces is more terrorists.
Arnold explains that terrorists already know all about the torture. So it’s the American people – not the terrorists – who will be shocked by what’s in the torture report.
But publishing the report will demonstrate that America is actually backing away from its previous torture policy … which will have a huge impact on reducing terrorism. (Similarly, Arnold says that closing Guantanamo and releasing the majority of detainees who American government officials say are completely innocent would help reduce terrorism).
Similarly, Darrel Vandeveld – former prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions, and current Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve – wrote:
Torture is a crime and the United States engaged in it. Those are two indisputable facts…
The process of self-examination and accountability has been, and remains, the only way to move forward and regain our moral and legal grounding…
We have a Department of Justice for a reason, and now it’s up to Attorney General Holder, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, to do his job and appoint an independent prosecutor to follow the evidence where it may lead…
It is critical that we hold accountable those who authorized, those who legally sanctioned and those who implemented the torture policies of one of the darkest periods in our nation’s history. What is at stake is nothing less than our democracy.
General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top coalition commander in Iraq, called for a Truth Commission so we might fully understand the failure of the military and civilian command to honor the pledge of our constitution.
Sanchez . . .stressed that the outcome must embrace a variety of solutions, including prosecution.
Sanchez stated, “When the president made the declaration that the Geneva Conventions no longer apply, we unleashed the hounds of hell and eliminated all the foundations for the training, ethics and structure we had built into our soldiers and our leaders for how to conduct these kinds of operations.”
Sanchez stated many problems could be traced to loyalties to individuals and political parties.
Former President Jimmy Carter is also calling for a truth commission with the possibility of prosecution:
“[I] like to see is a complete examination of what did happen, the identification of any perpetrators of crimes against our own laws or against international law,” said Carter. “And then after all that’s done, decide whether or not there should be any prosecutions.”
So – while the folks involved in the torture program are trying to stay out of jail – the reality is that releasing the report will save American lives.
It's interesting that since their last major defeat at the hands of Hisbollah in 2006, Israel has never attempted another attack on Lebanon or Hisbollah. If you recall, Hisbollah destroyed one third of Israel's famous Merkava tanks. It turned them into mechanized crematoriums. The Israeli troops, the IDF, distinguished themselves by cutting and running from the battle en mass. One of the worst acts of cowardice by a standing army in modern times. They were chased back over the border with their tale between their legs. So now you tell us that the IDF Nancy boys with their puffy hats are going to take on Hisbollah...I don't think so!
Sweet dreams Ahmed or Igor,whatever the eff your name is.
Allah Akbar, motherfucker!
it's good to know you're not a fanatic
How is the IDF bombing weapons destined, they suspect, for Lebanon's Hellababa acting FOR ISIS? And the question that is never answered by Geo or anyone of his glory-hole brigade, is how would ISIS taking Syria be in Israel's interests? Never answered in the past or now.
FF: Give it a rest.
They don't have 'proof', they have allegation after insinuation after allegation after insinuation, etc, etc, etc...
But, they don't have reasoning, or they would answer you directly using facts.
It's the same with the Trooferz: they can never explain method - just endless allegations and insinuations of motive, some opportunity, but never method backed by evidence.
It's like arguing with ISIS.
Of course you are quite correct, but it seems wrong morally and intellectually to just let it pass unchallenged. That is the path to tyranny isn't it?
Yes.
You, however, have made your point.
Those that have eyes to see and ears to hear, know.
Here's a little history lesson:
Countries
I am very aware of US history of intervention in the Middle East...picking up right where the British and French left off. No one, including me posting here would likely attempt to refute our Empire machinations post WWII.
Looks like I offended at least three "neo-cons." Whoda thunk?
Sir, seriously, regardless of the above, it simply provides no meat to an argument that ISIS is in the Israeli security interests. The US, France, and the UK have often had diverging interests from the Israelis, and have acted upon those different interests.
Real simple - Israel is acting as a proxy for KSA - both achieve their goals: Israel looks tough on Hezbi by using the "S-300/400 strike excuse' and KSA gets a boost to their ISIS troops. What's not to understand?
I see the scenario as this:
Israel stirs up a lot of shit in Syria and other countries until the region blows up, then their American lap dogs get involved creating a full shit storm completely destabilizing the whole region. Israel then uses the chaos to come in and expand their borders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W85OnL4xtY
Interesting video V Putin & the "the order" - 20 min revealing campaign used to spread propaganda (lies) to "stir" up shit.
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/russia-demands-israeli-expl... Russia demands Israel explain itself. (article)
"Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the reported strikes. “We have a firm policy of preventing all possible transfers of sophisticated weapons to terrorist organizations,” Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio on Monday."Re: Sanctions promoted by Neocons
“It is hardly a secret that the goal of the sanctions is to create social and economic conditions to carry out a change of power in Russia”. and who further warned, “There will be no easy or fast way out of this.”
http://www.thetotalcollapse.com/
And as to why the Obama regime-led Western alliance is provoking Russia to war, one of the best explanations, perhaps, was articulated this past week by the former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, and current Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute,Doug Bandow, who warned:
“The principle danger to America comes from hubris, the conviction of U.S. elites that they have been anointed by God to run the world. And their assumption that the rest of the world wants to be run by them. As a result, Washington constantly foments hostility, generates chaos, exacerbates conflicts, attempts social engineering, and makes other nations’ battles its own.”
http://www.thetotalcollapse.com/
When did all this 'stirs up a lot of shit, then the American lap dogs creates full shit storm and Israel expanded its borders?' Waiting with palpable smirking, almost laughing anticipation.
Still waiting for the 7 stealth intellects to postulate a cogent couple of sentences...tic toc
Qui bono in Syria? ISIS, yes. Who loses? Hezbollah by Israeli calculation. Why does Israel consider ISIS a lesser threat? Wouldn't both ISIS and Hezbollah lose fighting each other? Why is ISIS preferable?
Does anyone still seriously believe that ISIS is not the CIA and Mossad in disguise?
An American, not US subject.
folks that want to martyr for allah are given their opportunity.
look what that guy who did the iraninan revolution that everyone assumes was real. he sent all his young believers diretly into the trenches without real arms, to get gassed and shot by the thousands. Didnt send them AROUND the iraqi forces, or have them live, nope. kiled them.
I look at that and other things and wonder if Khoemini the great madman was an actor.
I have photos of Armageddinjihad, the last ruler of iran, giving Masonic symbols with his hands, just like bush, putin, and all the rest. I suspect the global control is complete, and those that wear the medals, and then rebel, like khaddafi, are killed.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
To all virgins - you should not remain a virgin - if you remain a virgin till death you will have nothing but terrorists wating for you in 'heaven'.
That is all.
Excellent point!
What a two faced country the USA has turned out to be.
A good place not to visit, a person may get robbed or shot by the police and at the very least made to feel like a criminal by homeland security. Want to go on a nice winter vacation, there are lots of places that are cheaper, friendlier and safer than the USA.
This action alone dwarfs exponentially Israeli gov't actions since 1948.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/world/middleeast/egypt-sinai-peninsula...
CAIRO — With bulldozers and dynamite, the Egyptian Army on Wednesday began demolishing hundreds of houses, displacing thousands of people, along the border with Gaza in a panicked effort to establish a buffer zone that officials hope will stop the influx of militants and weapons across the frontier.
The demolitions, cutting through crowded neighborhoods in the border town of Rafah, began with orders to evacuate on Tuesday and were part of a sweeping security response by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to months of deadly militant attacks on Egyptian security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula, including the massacre of at least 31 soldiers last Friday.
Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE
Egypt Orders Evacuation Along Gaza Border to Thwart MilitantsOCT. 28, 2014
31 Egyptian Soldiers Are Killed as Militants Attack in SinaiOCT. 24, 2014
Open Source: Alaa Abd El Fattah, Dissident Blogger, Is Re-Arrested in EgyptOCT. 27, 2014
Open Source: Student Protests Continue in Egypt Despite CrackdownOCT. 14, 2014
That assault was the deadliest on the Egyptian military in years, and a blow to the government, which has claimed to be winning the battle against insurgents. The resort to a harsh counterinsurgency tactic — destroying as many as 800 houses and displacing up to 10,000 people to eliminate “terrorist hotbeds,” as Mr. Sisi’s spokesman put it — highlighted the difficulties the military has faced in breaking the militants as well as the anger that operations like Wednesday’s inevitably arouse.
Continue reading the main story
WEST BANK
Mediterranean
Sea
Jerusalem
GAZA
Rafah
ISRAEL
SINAI
EGYPT
50 MILES
“Our house in Rafah is more than 60 years old,” Hammam Alagha wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, detailing his family’s eviction in a series of widely shared posts. After an army officer told the family to evacuate — and Mr. Alagha said he refused — the officer “said tomorrow we will bomb it with everything in it.”
Mustafa Singer, a journalist based in Sinai who was near the border on Wednesday, said that while residents had met with officials in recent weeks to discuss compensation, the evacuation order on Tuesday — delivered over megaphones — took people by surprise.
The border clearing came as the authorities have signaled a growing determination to expand their security reach throughout Egypt, to counter militants, they say, but also to crush outbreaks of ordinary dissent, rights advocates say. It was also the latest instance of the government using the overwhelming force of its security apparatus to confront what it sees as a threat to Egypt’s existence, whether the growing strength of militants or the demonstrations by thousands of Islamists during the overthrow of the government of Mohamed Morsi.
Some of the recent measures, including a crackdown on university protests and a presidential decree issued Monday putting public facilities like power stations and roads under the protection of the military, were “confirmation of a conviction we have had for months,” said Gamal Eid, the head of the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information. “Egypt is solidifying the rule of the police and the military,” he said.
The decree, which was issued while Egypt does not have a sitting Parliament, stipulates that people who commit crimes against public utilities are subject to prosecution in military courts — a provision
It's clear now why you're here. You're a pro-Israel propagandist. We weren't even talking about home-demolitions. Guys, just ignore him - their type feed off trolling like this.
“All I can remember are the bits and pieces I saw of bodies, teeth, head, arms, insides, everything scattered and spread.”
---Ayman Haniyeh, a neighbor who witnessed an attack on the al-Hallaq family home in Gaza
Israeli forces displayed ‘callous indifference’ in deadly attacks on family homes in Gaza | Amnesty International | 5 November 2014
See Pix: A Palestinian child sits above the ruins of his ruined home, and looks at thousands of homes destroyed because of the war on Gaza
Israeli forces have killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks targeting houses full of families which in some cases have amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International has disclosed in a new report on the latest Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip.
Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes details eight cases where residential family homes in Gaza were attacked by Israeli forces without warning during Operation Protective Edge in July and August 2014, causing the deaths of at least 104 civilians including 62 children. The report reveals a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families.
“Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
“The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee.”
The report contains numerous accounts from survivors who describe the horror of frantically digging through the rubble and dust of their destroyed homes in search of the bodies of children and loved ones. …
In the single deadliest attack documented in the report, 36 members of four families including 18 children were killed when the three-storey al-Dali building, was struck...
The second deadliest attack … was outside the Abu Jame’ family home. The house was completely leveled killing 25 civilians including 19 children. …
At least 18,000 homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable during the conflict. More than 1,500 Palestinian civilians including 519 children were killed in Israeli attacks carried out during the latest Gaza conflict. Palestinian armed groups also committed war crimes, firing thousands of indiscriminate rockets into Israel killing 6 civilians including 1 child. …
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israeli-forces-displayed-callous-indifference-deadly-attacks-family-homes-gaza-2014-11-05
Anyone want to continue to ignore the numbers??
http://ifamericansknew.org/
So? What is your point. War has consequences. Go ask the 200,000 Syrians.
Yes, war has consequences, millions of them, from Libya to Iraq to Ukraine and, coming up if Netanyahu and AIPAC get their way, Iran. All financed by the Fed.
Alfredo Jalife-Rahme highlights the continuity between the 1982 Oded Yinon Plan and Moshe Ya’alon’s present-day strategy. While endorsing the vision of both plans, Israel continues to pursue its own balkanization agenda. Historically, Israel has always sought to dismember the countries surrounding her.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article186019.html
As Stalin used to say, ‘Death of one person is a tragedy; death of a million, just a statistic.’”
I think I get your original point: that the deaths in houses protecting dozens of children seem strategic, like they want to kill part of the next generation even though it is genocide.
Gaza gov't shouldn't have fired thousands of missiles into Israel. Too bad the Israelis aren't dealing with Gaza and Abu Mass like the Egyptians are, Assad and Hussein have in the past 40 years.
Your strategy advice to the Gazan government on how to fight a war doesn’t rise to the basic minimum military experts would have required, i.e., your advice to stand back, hold your hands up, and surrender.
The firings which you have incorrectly labeled “missiles” are small rockets, some less than 5 lbs. with the capacity to hit perhaps one room. And most of the rockets fall on vacant land and when one does appear headed for housing, Israel can provide a warning. Israel herself has been protected from rockets fired from Gaza by her Iron Dome defense system. The latter, funded in part by the United States to protect the Israelis but not the Palestinians, has been hailed as a "game-changer," acting as "an extraordinary homemade rocket swatter."
The Israelis can bomb and bulldoze with impunity, using the Iron Dome to intercept and destroy Hamas short-range rockets, artillery shells and mortars fired from distances of up to 45 miles, protecting her civilian areas in the path of such projectiles.
It also is being said that the Iron Dome “could also open up a lucrative export market for the Israeli economy.” Hey!
As for Gazans invading Israel through the tunnels, it is Israel that is invading Gaza via Operation Protective Edge. The tunnels are one of the few means the Palestinians have of getting out of their fenced-in concentration camp whereby if they get too close to the fence, Israeli women “Spot and Shoot” them with remote-controlled machine guns, mounted on watch-towers every few hundred meters along the electronic fence that surrounds Gaza.
As for using techniques like the Egyptians do with Gaza, the Israelis invented the starvation technique, building walls separating Gazans from their agricultural properties, shutting off their water and other critical supplies, blockading any kind of supplies coming in from the sea and backing up this blockade with missiles, gunships, and ground troops .
Ah, yes, how dare the Palestinians try to prevent these Israeli soldiers from killing and displacing their families via bullets and bombs and bulldozers as the Jews expand into what’s left of the Palestinians’ homeland. Don’t these Palestinians realize that every one of those “defensive soldiers” is a valuable life compared to the thousands of Palestinian “snakes” (as the Israelis call them) who are getting in the way of Greater Israel’s expansion?
"During Fiscal Year 2014, the U.S. is providing Israel with at least $8.5 million per day in military aid and $0 in military aid to the Palestinians."
Nope. No private interests there.
"Last year, Republican Congressman Ted Cruz opposed U.S. military intervention in Syria, saying the U.S. militaryshouldn’t be “Al Qaeda’s air force.”
I tend to discount any source that can't even correctly identify the 'player.' Congressman?
The bloodbath at The New Republic - more than 20 editors resigning after two were fired - is not the tragic end to "great historic liberal voice” as much as it is the clipping of the wings of one of Israel’s most radical supporters in the U.S. besides the U.S. Congress. Phil Weiss gives the lowdown not available from the mainstream media.
Or a Lew Rockwell calls it, “Decline and Fall.”
Chris Hughes brings down the curtain on neoconservative New Republic |Mondoweiss.net
Philip Weiss on December 5, 2014
The journalism world is up in arms today that Chris Hughes, the Facebook mogul who bought The New Republic magazine, had the temerity to fire editor Franklin Foer and literary editor Leon Wieseltier, beheadings that have led to the resignation of twenty-some editors and writers at the magazine. Here’s Lloyd Grove at the Daily Beast saying a great magazine is being demolished. Here’s Jonathan Chait, saying that Hughes is a nitwit who is undermining “an essential foundation of American progressive thought.” Gosh!
I’m not shedding any tears. So Leon Wieseltier is going to have to cut his hair and go out and suck up like the rest of us. He was a proponent of a feverish ideology, rightwing Zionism. He appeared on the main stage at AIPAC; the Israelis gave him a $1 million prize a year ago. The New Republic has for forty years been a bastion of the Israel lobby. During much of that time Marty Peretz was spouting bigoted comments about Arabs. As Larry Zuckerman reminds us:
“Most of those resigning from TNR tolerated Marty Peretz’s racism & Islamophobia but they can’t handle Chris Hughes?”
Scott McConnell writes to me:
“The TNR’s been a venerable and talent-full magazine serving up a noxious ideology (neocon foreign policy, swathed in ostensibly Democratic Party leaning social liberalism). TNR’s main goal has been to keep the Democratic Party in line behind Israel, and to support other forms of neo-liberal hawkishness, and that will become a bit more difficult.
“Didn’t Marty Peretz get a top Al Gore aide fired over Israel? [A speechwriter fired because he compared the Israeli secret police to the Gestapo once.]”
Now I admit my response is salted with schadenfreude. I’ve been blacklisted or fired from a number of places in the last great Jewish Zionist establishment because of my views on foreign policy, and no one (besides me) got on their high horse. Chait once called for my blacklisting at a J Street panel. Remember J Street?
Having watched as a college student when Marty Peretz took over the New Republic 40 years ago and some other group of writers was up in arms, this shift strikes me as generational. I can’t believe Chris Hughes cares one way or another about Israel. He’s an anodyne techie, to judge from his public statements. He’s from North Carolina. His husband cares a lot about marriage equality.
This is a landmark in the era of the Jewish establishment. It’s petering out in an elite generation of far greater diversity. The New Republic had been supported by one neocon after another, from Michael Steinhardt to Bruce Kovner to Roger Hertog. For years the magazine helped impose its litmus test within the mainstream media: You must be a Zionist to write about conflict; and it you’re not, then keep your mouth shut. Most everyone at that magazine supported the Iraq war, including Peter Beinart. Among those leaving now are many supporters of Israel’s wars, including Paul Berman, Michale Walzer, and Robert Kagan. An era is over, and the Israel lobby(whose influence the magazine sought to belittle [make seem unimportant]) is losing power; and that’s just fine.
P.S. John Judis has been the best thing about The New Republic for years, check out his latest essay on Teddy Roosevelt’s rationale for ethnically cleansing the Indians. Or his great reporting on Truman and the lobby. Judis is sure to do fine.
Update: I’m not the only one to see the New Republic’s changes in a Jewish light. Julia Joffe, an editor at the magazine, reports on Facebook that a large group is “sitting shiva for The New Republic.” Maybe Andrew Sullivan is holding a wake?
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/12/curtain-neoconservative-republic
I suppose governments don't need reporters anymore... I wonder if this is a planned COUP or final phase of takeover of MSM... all media.
"... beheadings that have led to the resignation of twenty-some editors and writers at the magazine..."
- Bullet Points from Federal Government serve as news now
- Automation, Computers, Holograms, Robots... we can cut Employees in favor of technology
I don’t know where this is headed, TV. I do know that Hughes is known as “The Kid Who Made Obama President.”
The New Republic on Sept. 17, 2014, announced that its newly appointed CEO, Guy Vidra, was formerly “General Manager of Yahoo News, the world’s largest news website, and former head of business development at The Washington Post,” signaling “a new focus and commitment to digital platforms for The New Republic.”
Here's the full statement:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119470/press-release-guy-vidra-general-manager-yahoo-news-tnr-ceo
Interesting that TNR would be called the “new” republic, when it’s done everything these past 100 years to keep American from being a republic.
I have a lot to learn: He is currently the publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic, co-founded Facebook with Harvard roommates Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin.
Amnesty International musters a one time feeble GeoWash hat tip to the real bulldozing, home destoyers in Gaza...btw without provocation.
27 November 2014
Egypt: End wave of home demolitions, forced evictions in Sinai amid media blackoutPalestinian men in Gaza look at a house destroyed by Egyptian security forces as they conducted an operation in the Egyptian city of Rafah near the border with southern Gaza Strip on November 2, 2014.
© SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images
“ ” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa Thu, 27/11/2014
The Egyptian authorities must halt the arbitrary demolition of hundreds of homes and mass forced evictions underway in Rafah, North Sinai in order to create a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International said amid signs that the operation may be expanded.
“The scale of the forced evictions has been astonishing; the Egyptian authorities have thrown more than 1,000 families out of their homes in just a matter of days, flouting international and national law. Shocking scenes have emerged of homes in Rafah being bulldozed, bombed, with entire buildings reduced to piles of rubble and families forcibly evicted,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
At least 800 homes have been destroyed with an estimated 1,165 families forcibly evicted from their homes since the Egyptian military began clearing the area days after a deadly attack on a military checkpoint in North Sinai that killed at least 33 soldiers on 24 October 2014, according to official statements.
The authorities have proceeded with the evictions completely ignoring key safeguards required under international law including consultation with residents, adequate prior notice, sufficient compensation for losses and granting alternative housing to those who cannot provide for themselves, rendering the evictions unlawful.
On the same day as the deadly attacks, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a state of emergency in North Sinai, between Al Arish and Rafah and imposed a curfew between 17:00 to 7:00 in the area. Anyone who breaks the curfew could face up to 15 years in prison.
Plans to extend the buffer zone by another 500 meters in width announced by Egyptian officials have raised fears that forced evictions could increase in the coming weeks.
“Plans for expanding the buffer zone must not include further forced evictions. The human rights of the residents in North Sinai cannot just be trampled on in the name of security,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
The home demolitions are being carried out in the context of increasing attacks by armed groups targeting the security forces in North Sinai. At least 238 members of the security forces have been killed there since 3 July 2013, according state media reports.
During the same period, the military have conducted several military operations in North Sinai targeting armed groups. According to state officials, ordinary residents were caught in the middle and killed in clashes between the army and the armed groups. Scores of suspected members of armed groups were also killed in the same period, according to military sources.
While the authorities have every right to secure the country’s borders and a duty to protect any individual on its territories, they must do so in a manner that upholds their obligations under international human rights law.
Residents told Amnesty International that many of those forcibly evicted by the operation had only received paltry compensation. According to the governor of North Sinai those evicted receive a 900EGP ($125) to help cover rent for three months until they can get full compensation. The governor also added that families will receive additional compensation for the loss of their houses ranging between 700 EGP /($ 97) and 1200 EGP / ($167) per square meter but residents told Amnesty International that this is far from enough to replace their homes.
Days after the checkpoint attack on 29 October, Egypt’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab issued a decree by law (no 1975/2014) to create a buffer zone and evacuate the area in Rafah. Article three of this law stipulates that anyone who refuses to leave their home is to be forcibly evicted, contravening both international law and the Egyptian constitution which strictly prohibits forced evictions.
Many residents told Amnesty International they received no official notification of their eviction and heard about the 48-hour ultimatum to leave their homes on the news.
“I was never notified about the eviction plans, I only heard about it on TV. Not a single official approached me or my family to inform us how to apply for compensation,” one resident told Amnesty International.
Another said: “I only knew that I had to leave my house when a bulldozer demolished the external fence of my house. A military officer then told me that I had to leave immediately as the house would be demolished the next day. The area around my house was swarming with armoured vehicles and tanks, there were also helicopters flying overhead”.
Residents also said they had witnessed their neighbours being forcibly evicted after the military threatened them using dogs.
“My neighbours refused to leave. I saw them arguing with military officers, then soldiers with dogs raided the house and the family had to flee. Who can say no to the military with their heavy weapons? Their house was later demolished with all the furniture and family stuff inside it,” one resident said.
“In their bid to wipe out the threat posed by armed groups in Sinai, Egypt’s authorities have entirely disregarded their duties towards residents in the area,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
Although residents have been living in the area for generations they expressed concerns that they will face difficulties obtaining the government compensation given they do not own the land and do not have official documents proving their ownership. Land in Sinai is considered state property and private ownership is prohibited.
Apart from the financial consequences the demolitions have had a deep psychological impact on residents. Following Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel, Rafah town was split into two parts. Many who live on the Egyptian side of Rafah have relatives on the Palestinian side and are now being forced to move far away from them.
Sinai fast evolving into ‘black hole’
A media blackout has also been imposed throughout North Sinai to block reporting of the demolitions and forced evictions or any other military operations.
Journalists told Amnesty International that it has been difficult to report on violations in Rafah due to the curfew in place which seriously hinders their freedom to move around.
“Even if you reach the residents they refuse to speak because they are terrified the army will persecute or ill-treat them,” one reporter told Amnesty International.
A new draft law prohibiting reporting news about the military is being reviewed by the State Council, pending approval by the cabinet. The law prohibits the publication of any news about the military or any army documents or statistics without prior written consent, effectively exempting them from media scrutiny.
Anyone found violating the law would face up to five years in prison. The law imposes even harsher penalties of up to 15 years in prison if the “crime” is committed during a war or while a state of emergency has been declared.
“This law would represent a serious blow to press freedom in Egypt. The media remains one of the few ways that residents can freely report injustice or abuses by the authorities. Sinai is fast evolving into a black hole where human rights violations are committed without fear of exposure,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
The Egyptian government has an appalling record of trying civilians before military courts including journalists covering Sinai. Ahmed Abu Deraa, a correspondent for Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, was arrested in September 2013, and Mohamed Sabry a freelance journalist was arrested in January 2013 while working on a story for the Reuters news agency. Both received six-month suspended prison sentences after military trials.
Under a new law passed last month key public properties are considered military institutions and any offences against these will be dealt with by military courts. The law will pave the way for mass military trials of civilians including peaceful protestors, university students and possibly journalists.
Background
Since July 2013 the military have conducted several operations against what the authorities describe as “militant” groups active in Sinai.
Attacks by armed groups targeting the security forces in North Sinai have increased in recent months with at least 238 security officers killed in Sinai since 3 July 2013, according to official statements.
The killing of at least 33 soldiers at the Qaram Al-Qawadis checkpoint in North Sinai on 24 October 2014 was the deadliest attack on the military since July 2013. The armed group Ansar Bait al-Maqdishas has claimed responsibility for this attack and other attacks targeting the military. At least 22 members of armed groups have been killed and 193 arrested in operations by Egypt’s security forces carried out following the attack according to a military spokesperson.
The North Sinai governor, Major General Abdel Fattah Harhour, stated in a TV interview on 21 November that around 1165 families living in the area have been evicted from 802 houses that were demolished in order to establish the buffer zone. He added an area 500 meters wide and 13,800 meters long (13.8 Km) extending west of Rafah was cleared. He mentioned the width of the area could be extended to 5 Km in order to destroy tunnels leading to Gaza that are 1750 meters long.
Forced evictions are defined by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the body overseeing the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which Egypt is a state party as “the permanent or temporary removal against their will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection. The committee, which reviewed the human rights record of Egypt last year, expressed concerns about widespread forced evictions in the country.
Look at all the muslim/CAIR posters...amazing snapshot of your indefensible positions regarding Israel. Sneering with extreme contempt. Hope your families and friends are in Gaza and Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq or a dozen other Arab/Muslim hell holes being terrorized every waking moment. I pray none are within the jurisdiction of Israel since none deserve the humane, opportunity filled lives they probably take advantage of while murdering Jews from the supermarket to the synagogue.
Israel will rule from Riyadh to Aleppo to Amman before all is said and done. :)
The return of Mubarak is significant in that it tells us all we need to know about the relationship of the Egyptian government to Israel. For it was Mubarak who single handedly kept the other Arab countries from being too critical of Israel. And through years of cooperation with the Mossad, he was able to establish the blockades that kept Palestine from receiving even the bare essentials of life.
The reason for the Mubarak/Israeli relationship, was so that Egypt could be supplied a steady stream of U.S. dollars much of which ended up in the Mubarak family estate.
And, now, Mubarak is back. And the U.S. is still providing the Egyptians billions of dollars and the green light to seal the border with Gaza.
The military coup which ousted Morsi and re-established the Israeli/Egyptian partnership was a Mossad operation from the very beginning.
____________________________
This is Mubarak’s Egypt; not Morsi’s. Or the Egyptian people's:
Egyptian media applauds Israel’s Gaza offensive
Latest update : 2014-07-21
Since the beginning of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, much of the Egyptian media has laid the blame squarely on the Islamist group Hamas, which controls the tiny Palestinian enclase.
Some journalists have even said that all Palestinians are to blame for their current plight.
Israel’s escalating attack on the Gaza Strip has triggered worldwide debate. Egypt is no exception.
But there is little of the traditional Arab solidarity towards Palestinians to be found in the Egyptian media.
Adel Nehaman, a columnist for the Egyptian daily El-Watan, said bluntly: "Sorry Gazans, I cannot support you until you rid yourselves of Hamas."
Azza Sami, a writer for government daily Al-Ahram, went so far as to congratulate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter: "Thank you Netanyahu, and God give us more men like you to destroy Hamas!"
Star presenter of the Al-Faraeen TV channel, Tawfik Okasha, an ardent supporter of Egypt’s military regime and known for his firm stance against the ousted Muslim Brotherhood, attacked the entire Palestinian population live on air.
“Gazans are not men,” he declared. “If they were men they would revolt against Hamas.”
His broadcast was even picked up by Israeli TV to demonstrate Egyptian support for Israel.
The hostility of these journalists is part and parcel of the movement that saw democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi removed from power in a military coup in 2013….
In 2013, a significant chunk of the Egyptian media called for the Muslim Brotherhood’s “liquidation”. That same sentiment is now applauding Israel’s efforts to disarm Hamas, originally the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch.
These Egyptian journalists link Hamas to ongoing violence in the Sinai Peninsula where in the last 12 months, armed Islamist groups have attacked Egyptian security forces on an almost daily basis. …
http://www.france24.com/en/20140720-egyptian-media-applauds-israel-gaza-offensive/
What efforts is the IDF making to "disarm" Hamas?
The basic strategy the Israeli’s use to disarm Hamas is to kill them, to assassinate their leaders, and to burn their leaders with their families in their houses. Also, as the accompanying video shows, they target structures where Hamas is believed to have been or as a general policy of striking at buildings containing Hamas operational centers or those from which military activities alleged are launched.
This video shows the bombing and collapsing of a 12-story building with 44 apartments.
Gaza Apartment Block Destroyed By ‘Silent’ Israeli Missile: Video Captures Entire Bombing Sequence
http://themillenniumreport.com/2014/08/gaza-apartment-block-destroyed-by-silent-israeli-missile-video-captures-entire-bombing-sequence/
Oh, thaaat. That's war isn't it?
Well at least Geo brings all the Left Handed, CAIR snooters together.
Riddle me this: Why does ISIS black flags read:
All! Jew!
Google ISIS black flag Images
GeoWash's alter ego...
kike.
that depends on what the meaning of Isis is..........