Palestina/Izrael:
Brazil recognizes Palestinian state
Brazil priznao palestinsku državu (3. prosinac 2010.)
Brazil je priznao državu Palestinu u granicama iz 1967, odnosno na području koje obuhvaća Zapadnu obalu, uključujući Istočni Jeruzalem, i Pojas Gaze. Brazilsko ministarstvo vanjskih poslova izjavilo je da je priznanje odgovor na zahtjev za priznanjem koji je brazilskom predsjedniku Luli da Silvi prošli mjesec uputio palestinski predsjednik Abbas.
Voices From the Occupation: Belal L. (16), Shot whilst collecting building material
Izraelska je vojska 4. prosinca 2010. 600 metara od granice s Izraelom 16-godišnjeg palestinskog dječaka iz Beit Lahiye u sjevernoj Gazi bojevim streljivom ranila u lijevu nogu. Palestinska nevladina organizacija za zaštitu prava djeteta DCI-Palestine od ožujka 2010. je dokumentirala 17 slučajeva djece koju je izraelska vojska vatrenim oružjem ranila dok su u blizini granice Pojasa Gaze s Izraelom skupljala šljunak.
Coalition of Women for Peace: "All-Out War: Israel Against Democracy"
Izvještaj koalicije izraelskih ženskih mirovnih udruga Coalition of Women for Peace o represiji i napadima izraelskih vlasti i raznih desničarskih organizacija na demokratske vrijednosti, ljudska prava i građanske slobode palestinskih građana Izraela, te aktivista izraelskih mirovnih i udruga za ljudska prava u protekle dvije godine. Izvještaj navodi primjere sve učestalijih napada na oporbu i civilno društvo, te optužuje vlasti da represijom, zastrašivanjem i silom žele ušutkati kritičare i opoziciju. U izvještaju se opisuje otvoreno antidemokratsko ozračje koje vlada u sadašnjem sastavu izraelskog Knesseta (brojni prijedlozi zakona čiji je cilj uništenje oporbe i uvjetovanje građanskih sloboda zakletvom "lojalnosti", te brojni napadi na arapske zastupnike u Knessetu), napadi koje protiv civilnog društva (naročito organizacija koje se bore protiv okupacije i kršenja ljudskih prava na okupiranim palestinskim područjima i u Izraelu) orkestriraju izraelske ekstremističke desničarske organizacije koje su povezane s pojedincima i institucijama izraelskog establišmenta i mainstream medija. Izvještaj također sadrži nekoliko specifičnih slučajeva represije nad građanima Izraela u protekle 2 godine, te progona novinara i političkih čelnika pod izlikom nacionalne sigurnosti.
Ostalo:
Two NATO soldiers, two Afghans killed in suicide bombing (Roundup)
Two NATO soldiers and two civilians were killed and 18 others were injured on Sunday in suicide bombing on an army base in south-eastern Afghanistan, officials said. ... 'According to initial information, two civilians were killed and 13 other civilians and three foreign troops were injured,' Samoon said. The nationality of two further injured was not known, he added. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement that two of its service-members were also killed in the attack. It did not reveal the nationalities of the deceased. Most of the troops deployed to the eastern region are from the United States. An Afghan official, who did not want to be named, said that the three injured foreign troops were Americans. ... The bombing came a week after a rogue Afghan policeman turned his weapons on American trainers in eastern province of Nangarhar, killing six of them. ... Separately, one more ISAF soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the military said in a separate statement, without disclosing his nationality. More than 670 foreign troops have been killed in Afghan war so far in 2010, the deadliest year for NATO forces since the outer of Taliban regime in late 2001, according to ICasualties.org, an independent website that tracks military fatalities in Afghanistan. Around 100,000 US soldiers and more than 40,000 troops from other NATO and non-NATO countries are currently based in Afghanistan.
WikiLeaks cables: CIA drew up UN spying wishlist for diplomats
One of the most embarrassing revelations to emerge from US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblowers' website WikiLeaks has been that US diplomats were asked to gather intelligence on Ban, other senior UN staff, security council members and other foreign diplomats – a possible violation of international law. US state department spokesman PJ Crowley, in interviews since the release, has tried to deflect criticism by repeatedly hinting that although the cables were signed by secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, they originated with another agency. But he refused to identify it. The Guardian has learned that the intelligence shopping list is drawn up annually by the manager of Humint (human intelligence), a post created by the Bush administration in 2005 in a push to better co-ordinate intelligence after 9/11. Humint is part of the CIA, which deals with overseas spying overseas and is one of at least 12 US intelligence agencies. ... Biographic reporting is defined in the cables as including "credit card account numbers, frequent flyer account numbers" as well as "compendia of contact information". New cables released tonight reveal that US diplomats at the embassy in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, were ordered to obtain dates, times and telephone numbers of calls received and placed by foreign diplomats from China, Iran and the Latin American socialist states of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia. ... Washington also wanted the foreign diplomats' internet user account details and passwords, and the same depth of information for some local government and military leaders and "criminal entities or their surrogates", according to a US cable sent in 2008. New cables released tonight also reveal that Washington has called for diplomats in Romania, Hungary and Slovenia to provide "biometric" information on "current and emerging leaders and advisers" as well as information about "corruption" and information about leaders' health and "vulnerability". Clinton continued to face awkward questions about an intelligence directive which went out under her name in 2009 aimed at the UN leadership, which was revealed in a separate "national human intelligence collection directive". It called for the collection of "biometric" data on permanent security council representatives, and passwords and personal encryption keys used by top UN officials – in possible contravention on international law. ... A leading expert on UN law today said the proposed activity in the directive breached two international treaties and could lead to the US being censured by the UN general assembly or even, in extreme circumstances, prosecution at the international criminal court. The targeting of diplomats from North Korea and the permanent representatives of the security council from China, Russia, France and the UK leaves the US government exposed to action from any of those countries. Dapo Akande, lecturer in international law at Oxford University, said: "Obtaining passwords and information on communications systems violates the 1947 headquarters agreement between the US and UN and the general convention on the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. "The only reason they can be asking for this information is to break into the communication systems or monitor them in some way."
2010-12-04: Reporters Sans Frontières statement on WikiLeaks
Reporters Without Borders condemns the blocking, cyber-attacks and political pressure being directed at cablegate.wikileaks.org, the website dedicated to the US diplomatic cables. The organization is also concerned by some of the extreme comments made by American authorities concerning WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. ... This is the first time we have seen an attempt at the international community level to censor a website dedicated to the principle of transparency. We are shocked to find countries such as France and the United States suddenly bringing their policies on freedom of expression into line with those of China. We point out that in France and the United States, it is up to the courts, not politicians, to decide whether or not a website should be closed. ... Reporters Without Borders can only condemn this determination to hound Assange and reiterates its conviction that WikiLeaks has a right under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment to publish these documents and is even playing a useful role by making them available to journalists and the greater public. We stress that any restriction on the freedom to disseminate this body of documents will affect the entire press, which has given detailed coverage to the information made available by WikiLeaks, with five leading international newspapers actively cooperating in preparing it for publication.
No safe haven for displaced Iraqis
More than seven years after the United States and United Kingdom-led invasion of Iraq, millions of displaced Iraqis have nowhere to go. For the overwhelming majority of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), displacement is not a one-off trauma. Rather, it is a continuous state of flight for most uprooted Iraqis, who the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates to number 1,785,212 refugees and 1,552,003 IDPs (both figures as of January 2010). ... Emerging in 2003, the Iraqi refugee crisis has become one of the world's largest, second in number only to that of Palestinian refugees. Speaking to The Electronic Intifada, Al-Bayaty added that Iraq has been a socioeconomic entity for 4,000 years, and never, until now, had emigration been a mass phenomenon. "Even in the tragic contemporary history of Iraq, there was no migration movement. Iraqis remained despite wars and genocidal sanctions. It is only when a state-sponsored sectarian war was imposed on them -- with roaming militias and death squads killing on the basis of your name and sending death threats to individual families -- that hundreds of thousands fled to neighboring countries, thinking it would be temporary," said Al-Bayaty.
Glenn Greenwald Calls Julian Assange's Arrest "Pure Authoritarianism"
Greenwald says: "Whatever you think of WikiLeaks, they have not been charged with a crime, let alone indicted or convicted. Yet look what has happened to them. They have been removed from Internet … their funds have been frozen … media figures and politicians have called for their assassination and to be labeled a terrorist organization. What is really going on here is a war over control of the Internet, and whether or not the Internet can actually serve its ultimate purpose—which is to allow citizens to band together and democratize the checks on the world's most powerful factions."
Since When Does Interpol Care About Sexual Assault?
Tell it to hundreds of women in US jails and immigration detention centers — who charge that they can't get justice against accused rapists — or women in the US military (two of out three of whom allege they've experienced assault.) In Haiti hundreds of unprosecuted cases of rape in refugee camps could use some of Interpol's attention. To come back to earth… It seems we only care about women's bodies when there's a political point to be proved. Feminist lawyers had to fight for years for the Criminal Court to take rape in Bosnia and Congo seriously. Feminist journalists wrote for years about the treatment of women under the Taliban, but it wasn't until they needed to sell a war that US politicians cared–and invaded. Years later, Assange's organization ever-so-inconveniently leaked thousands of Afghan war logs and diplomatic cables about that war, and women's bodies are again the pretext for action.
