Israel – South Africa Crises Faces Deadline Israel's national airline El Al may be forced to ground all flights to South Africa on Sunday after South Africa accused Israel of violating international law by using armed Israeli intelligence agents with diplomatic passports to screen passengers boarding the El Al flights in South Africa. A diplomatic quarrel between the two countries broke out in September after "Carte Blanche", a South African investigative television program, alleged that the El Al's policy was to profile passengers based on race and religion and offered evidence that its security personnel were actually employed by the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. Using hidden cameras, detectives and testimony from a former South African El Al security officer disgruntled over the alleged non-payment of a bonus by El Al, the South African investigative program found evidence that the security personnel for El Al, a private company, had their guns licensed through the Israeli embassy and alleged that the officers were agents of Israel's secret service. The program explicitly accused the Israelis of using racist security policies and knowingly violating South African law. The program led to an outcry in South Africa, a country still recovering from the wounds of decades of racial persecution during the Apartheid era, and in November South Africa revoked the diplomatic immunity of all El Al staff operating in the country. A team of Israeli diplomats was dispatched to South Africa to try resolve the matter, but after months of negotiations the two countries do not seem to have come to an agreement on the status and operation of Israeli security personnel in the country. El Al has now announced that it will cancel all flights to South Africa if its security staff are not provided with diplomatic passports by the end of the month. Israeli President Shimon Peres is expected to raise the issue when he meets his South African counterpart President Jacob Zuma at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. El Al refused to comment on the content of the negotiations. "The Israeli Foreign Ministry is dealing with this and we are hoping that the matter will be solved," Anat Friedman, a spokesperson with El Al Israel Airlines told The Media Line. Andy David, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Israel would not waver on security. "In order for us to fly anywhere in the world there are some security preconditions that need to be fulfilled," he told The Media Line. "If they are not fulfilled then El Al cannot fly. With regards to South Africa, the two governments have been in touch and are trying to solve the matter, but if the necessary preconditions for the security of the El Al flight cannot be met then El Al will have to stop flying to South Africa." South African officials were also tight lipped on the status of the late-hour negotiations. "We cannot comment on discussions that are ongoing," Elizabeth Smith, Political and Trade Counsellor at the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv told The Media Line. "We prefer to keep these discussions on a bilateral basis and not to speak about the issue indirectly through the media." But a senior South African Foreign Affairs official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the issue centered around diplomatic immunity. "South Africa did not expel a diplomat or withdraw the diplomatic immunity of a diplomat," the official told The Media Line. "We withdrew diplomatic immunity for someone who was not a diplomat." "We are following our obligations under international law," they said. "The Vienna convention is an agreement among states to regulate who is entitled to diplomatic immunity and who is not. Security officers working outside of embassies are not entitled to diplomatic immunity." "Now the governments are trying to work out how they can best solve the problem in such a way that our adherence to international law is respected and our domestic legislation is respected," the official added, referring to South African legislation governing where armed security personnel can operate. Directives from the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, require Israeli airlines to provide their own security in foreign airports, an arrangement host countries have traditionally accepted. The head of an Israeli airline's security team in a particular country, a Shin Bet agent, is generally given a diplomatic passport so as to operate with diplomatic immunity. "Israel Security Agency agents probably operate wherever they perceive a threat," David J Bentley, an analyst with Big Pond Aviation told The Media Line. "Authorities around the world are generally just not quite sure how to handle the situation." El Al flies a Boeing 767-300 to Johannesburg three times a week, carrying between 1235 and 1400 passengers a week when at full capacity. El Al is the only airline that runs direct flights between Israel and South Africa. "With the World Cup coming up in South Africa this year and the world's media so focused on South Africa, South African authorities simply do not want any more attention on the country in a manner in which they are not in control of," Bentley said. "To have agents of another country operating in their territory, it's probably the worst time for things like this to happen." But Dr Virginia Tilley, a researcher at South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council, said the incident had caused much more embarrassment for Israel than South Africa. "To have put South Africa in a position of having its national law and national sovereignty violated by Israeli intelligence operations is a considerable embarrassment to the Israeli government," she told The Media Line. "Of course these things happen but they are not supposed to be publicly thrown in the face of the host country." "This was outrageous from the beginning," said Dr Tilley, who was featured on the Carte Blanche investigative program as one of the passengers El Al security agents had profiled. "In South Africa it is particularly not OK for anybody to be screening people based on ethnicity or race and giving them a hard time on that basis." "They are going way beyond what would be necessary for the security of the airplane," she said. "For example I was traveling to Israel, had a series of documents with me and they copied all of them and faxed them to Israel. That has nothing to do with the safety of an airplane." "They are conducting espionage under the guise of an airline," said Dr Tilley. "They can't operate a foreign intelligence gathering service in South Africa, interrogating South African citizens on South African soil. That's illegal." "Israel's argument is that they have unique security considerations and that as such they need unique accommodations from the host country," she said. "That argument begins to crumble when you don't inform the host country." "Nobody likes that," Dr Tilley said. "Most countries would find it quite irritating that the Shin Bet was operating on their soil without telling them, so this has very broad implications and could spread. Other countries will say 'Well if South Africa is not going to let you do illegal things on their soil then we're not going to let you do illegal things on our soil.'" The Carte Blanche investigative program had sent a Muslim man with a hidden camera to Johannesburg airport to meet a friend near the El Al check-in desk. While the man was not flying and did not approach the check in desk, he was thoroughly interrogated by men claiming to be airport security personnel. The men turned out to be employees of the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, with diplomatic passports and guns licensed through the Israeli embassy. "El Al does excellent security work, but they work above the law," Jonathan Garb, a former El Al security agent in South Africa told the program. "This here is secret service operating above the law here in South Africa… It's like the CIA, or the FBI, or MI5, but they're hiding behind the guise of the airline." "The crazy thing is that we are profiling people racially, ethnically, even on religious grounds," he said, pointing out that the Israeli profiling system meant that black passengers endured much harsher profiling than white passengers. "We pull the wool over everyone's eyes," Garb added. "We do exactly what we want. The local authorities do not know what we are doing." Mr Garb was employed by the Israeli airline as a security guard and profiler, trained in Israel and tasked with screening passengers attempting to board El Al's direct flight between Johannesburg and Tel Aviv. After 19 years with the airline, he was fired, allegedly after he filed a complaint with the South African Department of Labor over a financial bonus he claims he was entitled to. Source: AHN

Vieques, Puerto Rico (CNN) — Nearly 40 years ago, Hermogenes Marrero was a teenage U.S. Marine, stationed as a security guard on the tiny American island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico. Marrero says he’s been sick ever since. At age 57, the former Marine sergeant is nearly blind, needs an oxygen tank, has Lou Gehrig’s disease and crippling back problems, and sometimes needs a wheelchair. “I’d go out to the firing range, and sometimes I’d start bleeding automatically from my nose,” he said in an interview to air on Monday night’s “Campbell Brown.” “I said, ‘My God, why am I bleeding?’ So then I’d leave the range, and it stops. I come back, and maybe I’m vomiting now. I used to get diarrhea, pains in my stomach all the time. Headaches — I mean, tremendous headaches. My vision, I used to get blurry.”…

In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power.

The first is the projected deficit in the coming year, nearly 11 percent of the country’s entire economic output. That is not unprecedented: During the Civil War, World War I and World War II, the United States ran soaring deficits, but usually with the expectation that they would come back down once peace was restored and war spending abated.

But the second number, buried deeper in the budget’s projections, is the one that really commands attention: By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years. ...

For Mr. Obama and his successors, the effect of those projections is clear: Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors. Beyond that lies the possibility that the United States could begin to suffer the same disease that has afflicted Japan over the past decade. As debt grew more rapidly than income, that country’s influence around the world eroded.

Of the 24 former detainees interviewed for this story, 17 claim to have been abused at or en route to these sites. Doctors, government officials, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, a body tasked with investigating abuse claims, corroborate 12 of these claims. One of these former detainees is Noor Agha Sher Khan, who used to be a police officer in Gardez, a mud-caked town in the eastern part of the country. According to Sher Khan, U.S. forces detained him in a night raid in 2003 and brought him to a Field Detention Site at a nearby U.S. base. “They interrogated me the whole night,” he recalls, “but I had nothing to tell them.” Sher Khan worked for a police commander whom U.S. forces had detained on suspicion of having ties to the insurgency. He had occasionally acted as a driver for this commander, which made him suspicious in American eyes. The interrogators blindfolded him, taped his mouth shut, and chained him to the ceiling, he alleges. Occasionally they unleashed a dog, which repeatedly bit him. At one point, they removed the blindfold and forced him to kneel on a long wooden bar. “They tied my hands to a pulley [above] and pushed me back and forth as the bar rolled across my shins. I screamed and screamed.” They then pushed him to the ground and forced him to swallow 12 bottles worth of water. “Two people held my mouth open and they poured water down my throat until my stomach was full and I became unconscious. It was as if someone had inflated me.” he says. After he was roused from his torpor, he vomited the water uncontrollably. This continued for a number of days; sometimes he was hung upside down from the ceiling, and other times blindfolded for extended periods. Eventually, he was sent on to Bagram where the torture ceased. Four months later, he was quietly released, with a letter of apology from U.S. authorities for wrongfully imprisoning him.

The admission is contained in the Israeli response to the UN's Goldstone report, which concluded both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes. Both officers have retained their ranks, according to reports. The Israeli army denies breaking the rules of engagement over the use of white phosphorus. During the 22-day conflict last year, media pictures showed incendiary shells raining down on a UN compound. The officers were named in Israeli media reports as Gaza Division Commander Brig Gen Eyal Eisenberg and Givati Brigade Commander Col Ilan Malka. "Several artillery shells were fired in violation of the rules of engagement prohibiting use of such artillery near populated areas," the Israeli response to the Goldstone report says. The officers were charged with "exceeding their authority" in ordering the use of the weapons in the attack. An Israeli Defence Force spokesman said that the reprimand would be noted on their records and would be considered if they apply for promotion in future. Brig Gen Eisenberg is still in command of Israel's Gaza division, and Col Malka has been moved to the West Bank under the same rank, according to the Reuters news agency.

The 71-page report, "Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza," provides witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus munitions had on civilians and civilian property in Gaza. Human Rights Watch researchers in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school. The report also presents ballistics evidence, photographs, and satellite imagery, as well as documents from the Israeli military and government. Militaries use white phosphorus primarily to obscure their operations on the ground by creating thick smoke. It can also be used as an incendiary weapon. "In Gaza, the Israeli military didn't just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. "It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died." The report documents a pattern or policy of white phosphorus use that Human Rights Watch says must have required the approval of senior military officers. "For the needless civilian deaths caused by white phosphorus, senior commanders should be held to account," Abrahams said.

Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources….The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry. Read more.

The issue is not should there be two states– sure– but should those two states be on the same piece of land. Certainly the Palestinians have Gaza, but they don’t seem to be content… The Israelis have always made accommodations for people who aren’t Jewish….[Though they must set limits on the number of] people who dilute the reality of this being a Jewish state, I understand that… Israel is a refuge for Jewish people, and it is an unapologetically-chartered Jewish state… Over this last year, this [Obama] administration has seemingly put all the pressure on the Israelis, none on the Palestinians.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner defended Abbas, urging the envoy to recognize the risk to the Palestinian leader of returning to talks without international guarantees.

First we see the police cars driving up to Maon, blue lights flashing. They sit there, waiting. I’m hoping they just came by to have a look and won’t come at us, especially since we’ve now opened up a substantial gap between the herd and the outer perimeter of the settlement. But of course the hope is quickly dashed. A large posse of soldiers and cops is soon marching toward us over the rocks. They reach Zvi and the other Um Zaituna flock first. Even at a distance, I can see them performing the remorseless stages of their beloved ritual:  there is a piece of paper being waved at Zvi and the shepherds, clearly the signed order declaring this little patch of desert a Closed Military Zone; the order is examined, photographed, there are the always Quixotic protests, followed by threats from the soldiers and, after a few minutes, a gradual withdrawal of our people eastwards, deeper into the desert. Maybe, I say to myself, the soldiers won’t bother Jamil and his Ta’ayush protectors. No such luck. Having heroically driven the Um Zaituna flock down toward the wadi, the soldiers and policemen pick their way over the rocks toward us. “You are now in a Closed Military Zone. You have fifteen minutes to get out of here.” “And just where are we supposed to go?” “Down into the wadi, past that curve in the hills.” The soldier points vaguely in an easterly direction. He’s also unrolled the map for our benefit, with a poorly defined area outlined in yellow marker. “And why are you doing this?” “I work for the Brigade Commander, ask him.” “I’ll be glad to ask him, but he doesn’t want to talk to me.” “You now have 14 minutes.” Some of the soldiers who enforced a flagrantly illegal order that day in South Hebron Hills. “You know what you are doing is illegal,” we say, “the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the Army cannot declare a Closed Military Zone arbitrarily, and it is expressly forbidden to do so if this means denying Palestinian shepherds and farmers access to their lands.” “Doesn’t interest me.” “And you know that the Army’s own legal adviser in the Territories backed up the Supreme Court’s ruling with a directive issued to all soldiers serving here.” “Twelve minutes.” “So why are you here? Taking orders, as usual, from the settlers?” Zvi has joined us, and he’s wonderfully eloquent at such moments.

The Goldstone report asserts that the Bader flour mill “was hit by an airstrike, possibly by an F-16.” The Israeli investigators say they have photographic proof that this is false, that the mill was accidentally hit by artillery in the course of a firefight with Hamas militiamen. The dispute is significant since the United Nations report asserts that “the destruction of the mill was carried out for the purpose of denying sustenance to the civilian population,” an explicit war crime.

The UN mine action team, which handles ordnance disposal in Gaza, has told the Guardian that the remains of a 500-pound Mk82 aircraft-dropped bomb were found in the ruins of the mill last January. Photographs of the front half of the bomb have been obtained by the Guardian. This evidence directly contradicts the finding of the Israeli report, which challenged allegations that the building was deliberately targeted and specifically stated there was no evidence of an air strike. Goldstone, however, used the account of the air strike as a sign that Israel’s attack on the mill was not mere collateral damage, but precisely targeted and a possible war crime.

In a speech at a conference not long ago, an Israeli diplomat serving in a European capital touted Israel’s hoary PR line, distinguishing between "the only democracy in the Middle East" and its autocratic Arab neighbors. "We share common values," the Israeli told the Europeans. To his surprise, a member of the audience stood up and replied to him: "What common values? We have nothing in common with you."

Berlusconi told a welcoming ceremony at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office that his dream is to see Israel become a member of the European Union.

“There’s a lot of pressure [in Israel], there’s no other place quite like it, quite so powerful. Its not just the Jewish Americans who care, Israel is considered the birthplace for four billion people and three major religions, There’s absolutely no way to make everyone happy because everyone has a different view and they’re hoping you choose to pick theirs,” he said. “The way to address this is by first not being a fool when you are talking to political radicals, look at what happened to Daniel Pearl, you have to think about how far your’re going to follow a story before it becomes dangerous but you also can’t have a strong ideology because then you’re going out [ to cover a story] and you’re constantly trying to prove what you believe, it better to approach it with a ‘what’s going to happen?’ mindset ‘ How is humanity going to fix itself today?’ and let that lead you to your writing.”

In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power.

The first is the projected deficit in the coming year, nearly 11 percent of the country’s entire economic output. That is not unprecedented: During the Civil War, World War I and World War II, the United States ran soaring deficits, but usually with the expectation that they would come back down once peace was restored and war spending abated.

But the second number, buried deeper in the budget’s projections, is the one that really commands attention: By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years. ...

For Mr. Obama and his successors, the effect of those projections is clear: Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors. Beyond that lies the possibility that the United States could begin to suffer the same disease that has afflicted Japan over the past decade. As debt grew more rapidly than income, that country’s influence around the world eroded.

Because the ultimate aim -- the only aim, really -- of the militarists' policy toward Iran is regime change. They don't care about "national security" or the "threat" from Iran's non-existent nuclear arsenal; they know that there is no threat whatsoever that Iran will attack Israel -- or even more ludicrously, the United States -- even if Tehran did have nukes. They don't care about the suffering of the Iranian people under a draconian, repressive and corrupt regime. They are not worried about Iran's "sponsorship of terrorism," for, as we've seen, the militarists thrive on -- when they are not actively fomenting -- the fear and anguish caused by terrorism. This fear is the grease that drives the ever-expanding war machine and 'justifies' its own ever-increasing draconian powers and corruption.

No, in the end, the sole aim of the militarist policy is to overthrow Iran's current political system and replace it with a regime that will bow to the hegemony of the United States and its regional deputy, Israel. There is no essential difference in aim or method between today's policy and that of 1953. (Except that the regional deputy in those days was Britain, not Israel.) What they want is compliance, access to resources and another strategic stronghold in the heart of the oil lands -- precisely what they wanted, and got, with the installation of the Shah and his corruption-ridden police state more than a half-century ago.

They play the long game, our militarists. For example, they agitated openly -- and  plotted covertly -- for the invasion of Iraq for almost 10 years before they finally got their way. They have worked for 30 years now to restore a client regime in Iran, and today, with the relentless bipartisan demonizing of the Iranians -- and the "mushroom cloud" fearmongering over a non-existent nuclear weapons program -- they are as close as they have ever been to their goal.

‘San Patricio' (the Spanish name for St. Patrick) tells the nearly forgotten story of the brave San Patricio battalion - a downtrodden group of Irish immigrant conscripts who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the Mexican side against the invading Yankees in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

Although the members of the San Patricio Battalion were reviled as traitors and deserters in the U.S., Chieftains' founder and frontman Paddy Moloney says, "the men of the San Patricio Battalion are remembered by generations of Mexicans to this day as heroes who fought bravely against an unjust and thinly veiled war of aggression." ‘San Patricio' brings their story to life through heart-stirring ballads and effervescent dance songs from both countries, including traditional "sones" that the San Patricios might have heard while in Mexico, and Irish airs and reels that evoke the homeland they left behind. ....

‘San Patricio' showcases a brilliant roster of Irish, Mexican and American guest artists including Linda Ronstadt, actor Liam Neeson, Los Tigres del Norte, legendary 92-year-old Mexican ranchero singer Chavela Vargas, Van Dyke Parks, and Lila Downs, among many others. It will be released March 9 on Fantasy Records/Concord Music Group.

I thought Blair would have prepared a closing statement that would express, if not regret or apology, at least sorrow for the young British men and women in uniform who had lost their lives. There was, surely, a way for a communicator as gifted as Blair to do that without giving ground on the justness, as he still sees it, of the war. And yet, even when Sir John Chilcot asked him one last time if he had anything to add, Blair did not pay tribute to the dead – British or Iraqi. He simply said "no".

On the other side of the argument there were fewer interruptions than there might have been, fewer silly stunts, and actually fewer demonstrators than one might have expected. Though passions are still strong, it may be that a lot of the poison and pain is ebbing. In that sense, today was probably cathartic.

The spectacle of official indulgence of a man many here and abroad regard as responsible for a devastating war crime has been sickening. John Chilcot said at one point that the lessons of occupation had been "expensive, but very necessary". Millions of Iraqis who have actually paid that price take a very different view.