Flotilla Furthermore

Israeli commandoes illegally assaulted a similar flotilla in international waters on May 31 of last year, killing nine people on board one of the vessels, including Furkan Dogan, a 19-year old U.S. citizen. Scores of others, including a number of Americans, were brutally beaten and more than a dozen others were shot but survived their wounds. According to a UN investigation, based on eyewitness testimony and analysis by a forensic pathologist and ballistic expert, Dogan was initially shot while filming the assault and then murdered while lying face down with a bullet shot at close range in the back of the head. The United States was the only one of the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council to vote against the adoption of the report.

[...]

[...] 329 out of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed a letter that referred to Israel’s attack that killed Dogan and the others as an act of “self-defense” which they "strongly support." A Senate letter – signed by 87 out of 100 senators — went on record "fully" supporting what it called "Israel’s right to self-defense," claiming that the effort to relieve critical shortages of food and medicine in the besieged Gaza Strip was simply part of a "clever tactical and diplomatic ploy" by "Israel’s opponents" to "challenge its international standing."

But not everyone in Congress believes assaulting and killing human rights activists on the high seas is legitimate. Last week, on June 24, six members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary Clinton requesting that she “do everything in her power to work with the Israeli government to ensure the safety of the U.S. citizens on board.” As of this writing, they have not received a response.

[...]

At a press conference on June 24, [...] Clinton criticized the flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Campaign by saying it would "provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves."

Clinton did not explain why a country had “the right to defend themselves” against ships which are clearly no threat. Not only have organizers of the flotilla gone to great steps to ensure there are no weapons on board, the only cargo bound for Gaza on the U.S. ship are letters of solidarity to the Palestinians in that besieged enclave who have suffered under devastating Israeli bombardments, a crippling blockade, and an oppressive Islamist government. Nor did Clinton explain why the State Department suddenly considers the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the port of Gaza to be “Israeli waters.”

[...]

Though the flotilla organizers have made clear that the U.S. boat is only carrying letters of support for the people of Gaza, the State Department has also threatened participants with “fines and incarceration” if they attempt to provide “material support or other resources to or for the benefit of a designated foreign terrorist organization, such as Hamas.”

[...]

Passengers of the U.S. boat, christened The Audacity of Hope, include celebrated novelist Alice Walker, holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, veteran foreign service officer and retired lieutenant colonel Ann Wright, Israeli-American linguistics professor Hagit Borer, and prominent peace and human rights activists like Medea Benjamin, Robert Naiman, Steve Fake, and Kathy Kelly.

Stephen Zunes

I’d like to think that at least all of them are sticking it out. But it does alter my attitude toward those who bailed - if the cargo is merely letters of support, it wasn't much support to begin with.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

True Activism

Some journalists and activists on board an Italian-Dutch ship,the Stefano Chiarini , which also plans to take part in the flotilla, decided to leave on Saturday, while others were considering plans to protest against the Greek decision.

"Morale is low, really low. It is hard when plans keep changing all the time," Ewa Jasiewicz, a co-ordinator with the Free Gaza movement on board the boat, told Al Jazeera.

Some of the activists have been on the ship, which is docked at a port on the Greek island of Corfu, for over a week and are now planning to abandon the group to "attend to their daily lives", according to Khaled Turaani, a leading activist on the boat.

  alJazeera

Yes, when they signed up, they thought it was going to be exciting and fun. And, you know, they had two weeks' vacation. They don't want to spend it ALL on a ship in dock.

"It is not out of lack of commitment. They need to return to pressing issues related to their work," he said.

"This is not defeat. If every single activist would leave this morning, I believe the Freedom Flotilla has already served its purpose; namely, to expose the reality of the blockade on Gaza."

And here I thought it was to get much needed relief to besieged Palestinians. Excuse me, sir, but the reality of the blockade on Gaza has been long exposed. Israel might even say overexposed.

Lack of commitment is exactly what it is. I myself would not be able to afford to - and maybe wouldn't even want to - devote myself to any cause. I just don't think they should be calling these abandoners activists.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Same Old Tune

We have no idea how this could have happened.

An Exxon Mobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River in Montana ruptured Friday night and leaked for about a half-hour.

The New York Times reported that the town of Lauren, downstream from the rupture, had to be evacuated because officials feared a possible explosion.

Exxon said it had no information on the cause of the incident, which originated from a 12-inch pipeline that runs from Silver Tip to refineries in Billings.

Raw Story

It was mysterious, and no one could have foreseen that running an oil pipeline under water might have certain risks and possible negative consequences.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Flotilla Captain Jailed

Captain John Klusmer was arrested when the US boat Audacity of Hope -- the flagship in a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists -- attempted to leave Greek waters on Friday after Athens banned all Gaza-bound ships from setting sail.

Klusmer was charged with felony and ordered to appear in court on Tuesday. The US Boat to Gaza organisation said he was being held in jail in "shocking conditions" and as far as it was aware, had not yet received consular assistance.

New York lawyer Richard Levy -- a passenger on the boat who has visited Klusmer in jail in a port town near Athens -- told enraged US activists that "he had no bed or toilet in his cell, and is receiving no food or water".

"We've offered to pay his bail," said passenger Robert Naiman, from the Washington-based Just Foreign Policy organisation. "But we have had no indication at all that he will be allowed out of jail before Tuesday."

The US embassy in Athens was not available for comment.

  Raw Story

The US embassy is “not available for comment.” It would be difficult to come out and say that they are on board and cooperating with the Greek (read Israeli) government to “discourage” activity seeking to aid Palestine.

[O]nly four of the initial 10 boats -- two French, one Spanish and one Canadian -- were in the running Sunday.

Organisers said three of the boats planned to set sail Monday morning, despite the Greek ban which is in place "until futher notice". Activists said they were "resigned" to being intercepted by the coastguard.

The Smart Just Keeps on Coming

Hacker group LulzSec, or Lulz Security, barreled past Arizona law enforcement's cyber-security for a third time this week, posting more information in its latest "Chinga La Migra" info-dump.

  Raw Story

So Arizona’s cyber security needs to get with the program. Three times in one week by BabyHarckers, Inc.

But wait! Lulz had said it was closing shop after tickling the CIA giant awake. Who is this Langley defying Lone Lulz Ranger? Big balls. Tiny pea brain. But, whoopee! He hacked the Arizona PD!

"For the third knockout blow against Arizona law enforcement, we decided to get destructive," the statement reads. "We're defacing eight AZ Fraternal Order of Police websites and releasing a master list of over 1200 officer's usernames, passwords, and email addresses. Additionally we are leaking hundreds of private FOP documents and
several more mail spools belonging to FOP presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, a police chief, and the FOP Labor Council executive directory and webmaster whose insecure web development skills was responsible for this whole mess."

Blame the victim. Kinda like the cops do?

Knockout blow. I’m sure the Arizona PD has been disabled. Defacing websites! Leaking documents! Releasing usernames/passwords and email addresses? The Arizona police won’t know how to change their passwords?

To quote (or am I paraphrasing?) Albert Einstein: There are two things that are infinite – the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.

The group said that again, they had found racist email chains, and then asked for public assistance in sifting through the emails of the Arizona police officers.

"The list proved to be too great, and now we are seeking community assistance in going through everybody's inbox to retrieve and expose their secrets. Go forth and bring mayhem to the lives of these corrupt officers, and tell us what you find," the group wrote.

Uh-oh. Sting?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Don't Mess With Texas*

The Obama administration took the unusual step Friday of asking the Supreme Court to stop Texas from executing a Mexican citizen convicted of raping and killing a 16-year-old girl.

The administration said the court should delay the planned July 7 execution of Humberto Leal for up to six months to give Congress time to consider legislation that would directly affect Leal's case.

  Olympian

First of all, let me get this out of the way….July 7? Why aren’t we sending this guy up on July 4?

Now, then…Texas should postpone carrying out its law while Congress works on possible Federal interference legislation? Ha! Try that with Connecticut or Rhode Island. Federal laws to Texans are akin to flies in July.

Isn’t it precious that Obama thinks Congress should be afforded the chance to weigh in on a Texas murder case when he isn’t willing to let them have any say on him dropping bombs on Libya?

Legislation pending in the Senate would allow federal courts to review cases of condemned foreign nationals to determine if the lack of consular help made a significant difference in the outcome of their cases.

So this is a common enough occurrence – refusing consular consultation for foreign nationals accused of crimes - that Congress needs to consider a law for it.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled that states can't be forced to comply with the provisions of treaties without some intervening federal legislation.

I didn’t know that. That sounds like a blank check for Texas. A loophole Congress ought to get to right away before Rick Perry finds out he won’t be going to the oval office in 2012.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

*That is indeed the unofficial Texas motto - but official department of transportation motto - you can see it on signs everywhere if you travel our well-appointed roads. We do indeed take our highways seriously, if not our education.

Good on Wikileaks

WikiLeaks announced on Friday evening that it and service provider Datacell intend to sue Visa and MasterCard in Europe "for engaging in an unlawful, U.S. influenced, financial blockade."

  Raw Story

There will undoubtedly be U.S. influenced pressure on the court.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Waiting for God

Commentators on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have long compared the long wait for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine to Waiting for Godot. But the meaning of the waiting could not be more different.

For Beckett, the waitings constitute a rumination on the meaninglessness of human existence despite all our attempts to fabricate semblances of order and purpose. But the protagonists of Godot are at least free to construct a meaningful narrative for their lives, if they can muster the will. They have the freedom to embrace choice in the context of the larger meaninglessness of life; indeed, life's innate purposelessness opens the very possibility of creating a different future than the one seemingly before you.

But if the Israelis have their way, the endless wait in Gaza, and the cccupied territories more broadly, suggests a very different and more pernicious meaning: We own you. We determine what you can or cannot do, where you can and cannot live and go, who can and cannot be part of your lives. You in fact have no freedom save what we give to you; there is no point to your waiting.

alJazeera

Hope Dashed So Quickly

A boat carrying dozens of US activists seeking to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has been towed back to port by a Greek coast guard after setting sail from a port in Greece.

The boat, dubbed The Audacity of Hope, is one of nine vessels carrying several hundred activists who say they want to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory. The boat left the port of Perama on Friday.Joseph Dana, a journalist for the Nation magazine on board the boat told Al Jazeera that the ship left the port of Perama and sailed for an hour after which it was intercepted by a Greek coast guard ship that demanded it return to the port.

[...]

The Greek embassy in Tel Aviv put out a statement confirming that the Greek coast guard has enforced a decision by the Civil Defence to prevent all flotilla vessels from leaving Greek ports.

[...]

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said in a speech to graduating army cadets on Thursday: "I would like to praise the many leaders throughout the world who worked against the 'provocation flotilla,' led by US and European leaders, [the] UN secretary general and my friend the Greek prime minister."

  alJazeera

Yeah, the Audacious US activists probably should have set sail from a country that isn’t in dire need of US support. Maybe they didn’t think this through.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Looney-Toons

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has delivered a telephone address through loudspeakers to thousands of supporters gathered in Tripoli's Green Square, warning the NATO-led alliance to stop its war support or face "catastrophe".

[...]

"We advise you to retreat before you face a catastrophe... If we decide to, we are able to move to Europe like locusts, like bees," Gaddafi said.

  alJazeera

Okay, that’s it. They can take him away. Because, you know what? He doesn’t even dress that cool any more.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Unbelievable

Massachusetts officials have closed a busy public swimming pool after a woman's dead body went unnoticed in the water for two days as people continued to swim, the Boston Globe reported Friday.

The permit for the state-run swimming pool expired six months ago, and a city inspector who examined the site on Tuesday -- just hours before the body surfaced -- did not see the remains because the water was so murky, the newspaper reported.

[...]

The water may have become murky because the body had begun to decompose, the Globe reported.

[...]

Joseph went to the pool with two other adults and six children, a neighbor told the Globe.

A 9-year-old boy that went down the slide just before Joseph tried to alert lifeguards but was ignored, according to Veronica Reis, a friend of the victim.

The little boy was trying to pull her back up, but he couldn't," she said, according to the Globe. "She was too heavy, and she was too slippery from the water."

  Raw Story

And so the two other adults and all six children didn’t say another word about it? They just went home?

There has just got to be more to this story.

Marie Joseph, the woman whose body was found at the bottom of a public swimming pool in Fall River, Mass., on Tuesday night after going unnoticed for two days, was not reported missing because friends and loved ones thought she'd gone home and wanted to be alone.

Candela Matta was at the 12-feet-deep Vietnam Veterans Swimming Pool with the 36-year-old Joseph and a group of people Sunday. Matta told The Associated Press that some friends even waited for Joseph at the pool and a nearby park until Sunday evening.

Her boyfriend, who told the AP that Joseph knew how to swim, said he thought she wanted to be by herself after she did not answer or return his phone calls.

  ABC News

And what about the boy who tried to pull her out? What the hell did he think?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

There Goes Toursim - Part 2

Updated information about the seige of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.