Snack Torture - Palestinians forced to eat Israeli Junk Food

Soldiers indicted on charges of abusing Palestinian prisoners

At the conclusion of an investigation lasting more than a year, the Military Advocate General has charged five soldiers from the Nahshon Battalion with three counts of aggravated assault.

Three of the soldiers have already been discharged from the army and one was transferred to another unit. Only one soldier remains in active duty in the battalion.

According to the indictment, the soldiers were responsible for transferring 13 Palestinian detainees from the Tulkarm Regional Brigade to an IDF military court in northern Israel in April 2006.

During the journey, the soldiers grabbed the prisoners by their hair, struck their chests and necks and demanded they repeat the number soldiers had previously assigned them with. When a prisoner would say the correct number, the soldiers would fall upon him in a beating frenzy.

The indictment also charges the soldiers with forced the prisoners to eat Bamba, an Israel snack food made of peanut butter. The soldiers reportedly ridiculed the prisoners while they ate. The soldiers also stopped along the way to buy French fries and force-fed them to the Palestinians. more

Martyr Mom

A friend of mine is an Ethiopian Jew. As a child, the first word she was taught, before "mommy" and "daddy," was "Jerusalem." Looks like Palestinians have that same kind of commitment.

Pres. Ronald Reagan & The "Afghan Freedom Fighters"

By the President of the United States of America, 21 March 1983

The tragedy of Afghanistan continues as the valiant and courageous Afghan freedom fighters [The Taliban] persevere in standing up against the brutal power of the Soviet invasion and occupation. The Afghan people are struggling to reclaim their freedom, which was taken from them when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December of 1979.

In this three-year period the Soviet Union has been unable to subjugate Afghanistan. The Soviet forces are pitted against an extraordinary people who, in their determination to preserve the character of their ancient land, have organized an effective and still spreading country-wide resistance. The resistance of the Afghan freedom fighters is an example to all the world of the invincibility of the ideals we in this country hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence. more

Blogged with Flock

Go Al Gore!

The media savvy climate gang has a convenient idea: simple numbers to shape climate concersations: 2, 445 and 25 - 40,

Steel strike of 1919 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Turns out that back in the old days Republicans loved illegal Mexican immigrants, and Negroes too!

Israel is World's Fourth Largest Arms Exporter - Defense/Middle East - Israel News - Arutz Sheva

OK, so maybe the IDF lost to Hassan Nasrallah and Hizbollah, maybe it's a major destination for the slave trade, the country may be committing war crimes in Gaza but Israel is still arms dealer to the planet.

What is treason?

My buddy Jay Friedheim, an admiralty attorney in Honolulu is not mentioned in this story but he made it happen. - a

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 — As the insurgency in Iraq escalated in the spring of 2004, American officials entrusted an Iraqi businessman with issuing weapons to Iraqi police cadets training to help quell the violence.

By all accounts, the businessman, Kassim al-Saffar, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, did well at distributing the Pentagon-supplied weapons from the Baghdad Police Academy armory he managed for a military contractor. But, co-workers say, he also turned the armory into his own private arms bazaar with the seeming approval of some American officials and executives, selling AK-47 assault rifles, Glock pistols and heavy machine guns to anyone with cash in hand — Iraqi militias, South African security guards and even American contractors. more

Pentagon doves behind the latest NIE?

Is this Washington or the Kremlin?

The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran was the final factor in a military equation that now appears to guarantee that there will be no war with Iran during the Bush administration. It meshes with the views of the operational types at the Pentagon, who have steadfastly resisted the march to war led by some Administration hawks. The anti-war group was composed of Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and Admiral William Fallon, who oversees the U.S. forces that would have had to wage that war. In recent months, all have pushed back privately and publicly, on the wisdom of going to war with Tehran. Indeed, the Pentagon's intelligence units were instrumental in forming the NIE's conclusions. more