(source: Ma'an News Agency)

All major Palestinian factions except Fatah have come out with statements condemning the return to peace talks signaled by a PLO Executive Committee decision to accept a US invitation on Friday.

Factions expected a statement from the Middle East Quartet to lay the foundations of peace talks, but the document -- released in parallel and in support of a US invitation to direct talks -- was not accepted by the US as a basis for negotiations.

"When the Palestinian negotiating team relies on the Quartet’s statement, they are deceiving the Palestinian public opinion ... neither Hamas nor the Palestinian people will abide by the outcome of these meaningless negotiations," a statement issued by Hamas from Gaza City said.

The US parameters for talks were scant, with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton saying there would be "no preconditions," and US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell later explaining that the Quartet document would have to be approved by the negotiations partners if it were to have any place in the talks.

By Ken O'Keefe

(source: wordpress.com)

Aloha Jane,

As you know Panorama aired ‘Death in the Med’ this week. Well Jane, I have been in the media game long enough to know that moral depravity and lack of integrity are qualities that are rewarded rather than discouraged in your field of work. With such experience it is impossible for me to take commitments from someone like yourself seriously, and that is why I recorded our conversation clandestinely, a conversation in which you confirmed the agreement that was made between the BBC and myself with yourself and Alys as BBC representatives. In that agreement it was clear that I would agree to the interview if only you included the fact that we let the commandos go. Knowing that was the agreement and anticipating that I was going to confirm it once more after the interview you said;

“Well its the point about we didn’t kill the commandos, we had them in… that will be in there don’t worry. (laughing) That’s, that is important for us because obviously they would say they felt their lives were in danger, to which the corollary is, well their lives could have been in danger but we let them go. I think that’s a very strong point.”

By Dr Firoz Osman

(source: Star Newspaper, Pg 9, 20/08/2010)

Unfortunately it was not simply a “case of human rights abuse”, as claimed by photojournalist Jodi Bieber in an interview with Shaun Smillie, on the Time cover picture of a disfigured Afghanistan woman (Star 13/08/10).

This publication was a deliberate ploy to shift the focus away from the devastating revelations of 90,000 documents by WikiLeaks, exposing American lies about bringing peace and democracy to Afghanistan, when in fact it has been running death squads.

Following the Dutch governments’ announcement to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, the warmongers developed a media strategy to deter other Nato allies from succumbing to domestic public pressure and retreat. Already 70% of Germans want their troops to leave as soon as possible, a country that has the third largest military presence in Afghanistan.

Contents:

1. Summary
2. Background
3. Action required
4. Sample letters

1. Summary

A cycle of violence has erupted again in India's troubled Kashmir valley
since 11th June 2010 with the shooting to death of a schoolboy by Indian troops. Until 29th June 2010, eleven Kashmiri youths have been killed by the heavily armed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The Indian authorities have imposed a curfew and deployed thousands of troops in Kashmir's main towns in an effort to restore order in the volatile Muslim-majority province, which is at the centre of a decades-old sovereignty dispute between India and neighbouring Pakistan.

2.  Background

The latest wave of trouble began on June 11, 2010 when a seventeen-year-old Kashmiri youth, Tufail Ahmad Mattoo died after he was hit by a teargas shell fired by the police during a routine post-Friday prayers protest in downtown in Srinagar. His death sparked angry clashes between stone-pelting youths and the heavily armed CRPF.

On June 19, Rafiq Ahmad Bangaroo, 27, who was beaten up by CRPF men near his residence in old Srinagar on June 12, died in hospital. The next day, mourners returning from Bangaroo's burial attacked a CRPF mobile bunker with stones. They were reciprocated with fire, killing Bangaroo's neighbour Javaid Ahmad Malla, 26, and wounding three others.

On June 25, Shakeel Ganai, 17, and Firdous Khan, 18, were killed by CRPF men in Sopore. On June 27, Bilal Ahmed Wani, 22, died following the firing in Sopore. On June 28, Tajamul Bashir, 20, and Tauqeer Rather, 9, were killed in Delina and Sopore.

On June 29, Ishtiyaq Ahmed, 15, Imtiyaz Ahmed Itoo, 17, and Shujaat-ul-Islam, 17, died in a CRPF firing in the southern town of Anantnag. This cycle of 11 killings in less than three weeks by the police and paramilitary forces across Kashmir is a gross violation of human rights conducted by the Indian government against the people of Kashmir. The chief minister, Omar Abdullah has resorted to imposing a curfew to curtail street protests from spreading further.

More information at: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266068

Read also: Kashmir: Act before foreign forces land in Srinagar by Zafarul-Islam Khan, Editor, The Milli Gazette at:  http://ihrc.org.uk/news/articles/9416-kashmir-act-before-foreign-forces-land-in-srinagar

3. Action required

The Media Review Network urges all decent, freedom loving and human rights activists to write to the following authorities and urge them to remind India of its human rights commitments and demand an end to the killings of Kashmiri civilians.

a) Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
 (Fax: 0091-11-230-19334, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

b) Shri P. Chidambaram, The Union Home Minister
(Fax: 0091-11-230-92979, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

c) Navanethem Pillay, High Commissioner,
The Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights
(Fax: nil,   e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

d) Baroness Catherine Ashton,
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
(Fax: nil,   e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it /
  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

e) Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, The Secretary General
Organisation of Islamic Conference
(Fax: +966-2651-2283, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

f)  Minister of Department of International Relations & Co-Operation South Africa, Ms Maite Nkoana Mashabane (Tel: +2712 351 002, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )

 ACT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!

Bibi Ayesha Laher
Media Liason
Media Review Network
Cell: 082 841 9105
Tell: 012 374 1635
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

"And what reason has you that you should not fight in the way of Allah and of the weak among the men and the women and the children, (of) those who say: Our Lord! Cause us to go forth from this town, whose people are oppressors, and give us from Thee a guardian and give us from Thee a helper.” (Holy Qur'an: Chapter 4, Verse 75)

By Eric Margolis: They Can’t Cage a Song

(source: www.ericmagolis.com)

At a time when the US is mired in two lost wars, running a $1.4 trillion deficit, and trapped in economic stagnation, a bitter but trivial public controversy over a Muslim social center in downtown New York seems absurd.

But that’s what we now have, and it’s an ugly harbinger of the oncoming wave of religious bigotry and xenophobia that will mark this fall’s elections.

We applaud two courageous men, President Barack Obama and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, for defending the Muslim center even at considerable political risk. As the president noted, choosing the downtown site may not have been wise, but it was the absolute right of its proponents, a right which we as Americans must defend at all costs.

Republicans, neocons and assorted racists are having a field day promoting hatred of Islam. They see it as a golden opportunity to revive charges that the president is a closet Muslim. Newt Gingrich recently kicked off his campaign for the presidency by issuing a disgusting jeremiad about the supposed dangers of Islam to the nation.

Now, the massed myrmidons of the hard right are wailing that the prayer center – which is actually interfaith – somehow violates the profound sanctity of the 9/11 "holy ground."