14 February - Sheeple Power ?

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What You Need to Know About the Muslim Brotherhood

Here's the basics on the group that has Glenn Beck going batshit. 

The group's chief international organizer and best-known official was Said Ramadan, the son-in-law of Hassan al-Banna. Ramadan had come to the attention of both the CIA and MI-6, the British intelligence service. In researching my book, Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, I came across an unusual photograph that showed Ramadan with President Eisenhower in the Oval Office. By then, or soon after, Ramadan had likely been recruited as a CIA agent. Wall Street Journal reporter Ian Johnson has since documented the close ties between Ramadan and various Western intelligence services in his book, A Mosque in Munich. In a recent article in the New York Review of Books, Johnson writes: "By the end of the decade, the CIA was overtly backing Ramadan.

From its early days, the Brotherhood was financed generously by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which appreciated its ultra-conservative politics and its virulent hatred of Arab communists.

By the 1990s, despite the off-again, on-again repression by Mubarak's regime, the Brotherhood had completed what many observers say was a transformation. Step by step, its leadership renounced its violent past, engaged in politics, and tried to reinvent itself as a collection of community organizers who operated clinics and food banks, building a network of Islamic banks and companies. Writing last week in Foreign Affairs, Carrie Rosefsky Wickham noted: "Although the Brotherhood entered the political system in order to change it, it ended up being changed by the system." In the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won 88 seats—20 percent of the Parliament—and probably could have won even more had it run more candidates.

Former CIA analyst Daniel Byman

"Most Egyptians are not members of the Brotherhood, but the group probably represents a healthy plurality of the country, and its strength goes beyond its popularity," writes Byman. "The Brotherhood is highly organized and has street power, enabling it to out-organize or intimidate its weak potential rivals. In parts of the Middle East where relatively free elections have been held, such as Iraq, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip, this mix of popularity and superior organization has served Islamist parties well."

Prominent Egyptian Blogger Released from Secret Military Detention

Middle East nations scramble to contain unrest

Governments step up political concessions, dole out benefits or prepare the riot police in attempts to keep order after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, which showed people that strongmen may not be needed to protect against sectarian violence or Islamic extremism.

"I think what the Egyptian and the Tunisian people have shown is that we have to take responsibility, and not simply be victims," Lamis Andoni, a Palestinian American journalist and analyst in Jordan, said in an interview.

"The old 'wisdom' of past revolutionaries that liberation from foreign domination precedes the struggle for democracy has fallen," she wrote in an opinion piece for the Al Jazeera channel.

In Bahrain, where a Sunni Muslim ruling family governs a Shiite Muslim majority, the government recently offered 1,000 dinars (about $2,650) to each family as a means of offsetting economic complaints. But Monday has been declared a "Day of Rage" by protesters, who are demanding the release of political prisoners, an end of torture, and reform of the judicial system.

Support for fast-tracked bio-cremation bill dissolves under scientific scrutiny, but a revival is brewing

"Spiritual Fitness" is Christian, Says Professed Co-Author of Army Leadership Manual 

 "The military has turned away from a values system based on reason and
experience alone. We are instead pursuing a values system that's ultimate
source of right and wrong is defined by religious, primarily Christian,
principles. This method enables our military to have moral absolutes." -
Army Chaplain [then] Lt. Col. Ron Huggler

From Opit's LinkFest! 13 February - Weekly digest for Talk To Action

  A combat soldier being forced to
pick hairs out of a latrine because he wouldn't pray? Another being
told he's responsible if any of his buddies die? An Iraqi child
post-IED given a tract that shows dead Iraqis going to hell and Americans
(aka Christians) going to heaven? Some folks have accused the
Military Religious Freedom Foundation
[http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/%5D of making this stuff up.
Military officials insist that each event was the isolated actions of
individual soldiers and lacked official sanction.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/2/8/22257/63244

Post Revolution News on the Middle East

Middle East rulers make concessions
Moves seen as bid to appease people after mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt toppled long-serving presidents.

UN report slams Israel's treatment of pregnant migrant workers
Israeli policy requires that these women leave the country within three months after giving birth or, alternatively, send their children abroad if they wish to retain their work visas. ...concern about the Interior Ministry's policy of nullifying work permits of foreign workers who marry or are in a relationship ...enforce existing labor laws vis-a-vis migrant workers, including those pertaining to health insurance and safety. The committee also urged Israel to allow migrant workers access to legal counseling and permission to negotiate with their employers and choose whether to live in their homes or not.

Israeli commander refuses to allow murder victim funeral

Husam Rweidi, 24, was stabbed to death Friday by a mob of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem's city center.
The victim's cousin Firas Baydoun said Israeli authorities stipulated that his burial must take place at midnight, and that a maximum of 10 mourners could attend the funeral.

"Settler Marathon" to Pass Through Hebron for 1st Time

It’s important to understand that the settlements are a national project, initiated and funded by Israeli government agencies, and not just the work of some rightwing ultra-religious extremists, like so many would like to believe. Even Israelis who claim to oppose the settlements are in practice part of the colonization of the West Bank.

Take, for example, the Hebron 10KM Run, due to take place tomorrow (Friday). Unlike the situation in other settlements, Jews in Hebron live in the heart of a Palestinian city, guarded around the clock by hundreds of soldiers. The settlers’ presence in the heart of Hebron has been a source of continued violence, including the murder of 29 Palestinians by Dr. Baruch Goldstein at the Cave of Patriarchs in February 1994.

In previous years the run was confined to Jewish settlements in the Hebron area. But the 3rd Hebron Run will pass, for the first time, inside Hebron itself, which but for the few guarded Jewish neighborhoods, is an Arab city. This Jews-only sports event will be another symbol of the ethnic segregation in the West Bank.

 January 2011 night raid in Nabi Saleh. The videos were taken during a ‘mapping operation’ conducted by the Israeli army. The operation was to photograph and catalogue all the male children in the village. There is no violence, just violation.


Appeal on behalf of 'Bedouins' in Israel


On Monday January 17, 2011, representatives of the State of Israel, accompanied by a large police force, destroyed the Bedouin village El-Arakib for the 10th time. They then proceeded to clear away the rubble in preparation for the planting of a forest by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) on the village land! That same day the police arrested 10 people at the site, residents of the village and human rights activists who protested against the state's reprehensible act.

All the Bedouin tribes living on their lands in the area of El-Arakib were evacuated by the state in the early 1950s. They were not evacuated in the heat of battle in 1948, but by a political decision! The authorities notified the Bedouin that the army needed the area for military maneuvers, and promised that they would be allowed to return to their lands in six months. They broke their promise and instead, in 1953, passed the Land Acquisition Law which allowed the state to take over the Bedouin lands – a clear case of land embezzlement by means of legislation!
In 1965 the Knesset passed the Planning and Building Law which, among other things, prohibited building in the Sayag area. In one stroke this legislation turned all the Bedouin villages in the area into unrecognized villages which were prohibited from building! The very government that had uprooted the Bedouins from their lands and homes and transferred them to another area, now declared that they were trespassers in this area, and as such were forbidden to build homes and to receive water, electricity and services from the state!

Palestinian chief negotiator’s resignation signals futility of PA
Erekat claims he left because he had to assume responsibility for the fact that the leaked Palestine Papers came out of his offices. His leaving underscores that a resolution has been depressingly unattainable – that he had an impossible job, a truly Kafkaesque experience. As his aides told Al Jazeera, when asked about his successor: “there’s no point. Why would we have a chief negotiator if there are no negotiations?’”


After reading this line, I thought to myself, “Why have a Palestinian Authority at all if there is no chance for negotiations?”
The PLO has become a shell of itself, a mechanism existing almost solely for the purpose of holding (endless and fruitless) negotiations – and not a national leadership that represents its people with a vision, which it seemed to become in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, its legitimacy and continued existence rests entirely on its ability to achieve a viable Palestinian state through negotiations with Israel. As such, it is between a rock and a hard place, its fate having been placed entirely in Israel’s hands – and the result is unraveling before our eyes.

Hamas lawmaker sentenced without charge, trial
An Israeli military court sentenced on Sunday Hamas lawmaker Mohammad Jamal An-Natsha to six months of administrative detention.


An-Natsha, 53, was sentenced without trial and without charge at the Ofer military court after spending two weeks in the Etzion detention center. He was given the maximum term for administrative detention.

Palestinian cabinet to resign in wake of Mideast turmoil


Is it time to move on to the One-State Solution?

Mikhael Manekin

Co-founder of Breaking the Silence, an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers working to raise awareness about the daily reality in the Occupied Territories

The answer is no. This question presupposes some factors: That the construct of two real states was on the table in recent years and that it failed. That today, a one state solution is practically more reasonable. That the Occupation and other issues pertaining to the conflict (historical justice etc.) are in the same category of problems. I disagree with all points.

Complete Palestinian sovereignty has never been offered. There is much less political will for one state — self determination makes most sense in a two state framework. Lastly, prolonged military Occupation is a unilateral action, morally untenable, regardless of solutions to the conflict.
Breaking the Silence (non-governmental organization) - Wikipedia ...
Breaking The Silence (BtS) is an Israeli Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) established by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and veterans who collect and provide ...


France The Latest Country To Approve Internet Censorship
The excuse is pretty much the same as Russia's: focus on child pornography first, but leave out the fact that the same rules can be used to censor any content the government doesn't like.


Internet censorship in Australia

Double jeopardy: a look at the death penalty in Asia

Double jeopardy is a five-part series focusing on the case of the Hsichih Three in Taiwan, which helped put the death penalty back up for debate in Asia.

Majorities in Asian countries support the death penalty, as is the case in the United States. But several high-profile cases have given people pause. In Japan last year, DNA evidence proved the innocence of a man who had been jailed for 17 years for murder. There are doubts, too, on the guilt of the country’s longest-serving death row inmate.

In Taiwan, the case of the "Hsichih Three" is cited by rights groups as a disturbing example of how police and the courts can get it wrong.
Once hours away from the execution chamber, the three men were found innocent last November in the grisly double murder of a couple in 1991. The only evidence against them were confessions they later recanted, saying they were obtained through torture.
"The case of the Hsichih Trio has raised public awareness of the weaknesses of the criminal justice system and begun to raise the death penalty as a question for public debate," said a report by the International Federation for Human Rights.
Taiwan, for all its problems, is considered to be in the vanguard of human rights in Asia — and an example to its giant neighbor across the Taiwan Strait. While Taiwan is moving fitfully toward scrapping the death penalty, China executes thousands per year behind a shroud of secrecy.
 

Related articles

• Washington's Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood (nybooks.com)
• Stupidity, Intelligence, and Egypt (spectator.org)
• Tariq Ramadan: Democratic Turkey Is the Template for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood (huffingtonpost.com)
• America's new to-do list starts with Muslim Brotherhood - Globe and Mail (news.google.com)
• Who will fill the vacuum? (newstatesman.com)
• William Hague could be right. So could Netanyahu. But they shouldn't be arguing in public (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
• Whitewashing the Brotherhood (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
• Muslim Brotherhood's key role in Egypt (cnn.com)
• World Net Daily: Egypt Fears Obama Is A Manchurian President (alligatorfarm.wordpress.com)