In early July, hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral of Kamal Shirkhani in Lavasan, a small town northeast of Tehran.
Archives for August 2014
Proposition 1: How to Swindle the Middle Class
By Cathy Stripe Lester On August 5, Michigan taxpayers will be asked to vote on Proposition 1, which is being presented in commercials as a way to “help small businesses and create 15,000 new jobs … without raising taxes!” If that sounds like a conjuring trick, it is – smoke’n’mirrors, my friends. And if you […]
Do you Think your Smartphone Location Data is Private? The Police Don’t
By Hanni Fakhoury via EFF The Fourth Amendment protects us from “unreasonable” government searches of our persons, houses, papers and effects. How courts should determine what is and isn’t reasonable in our increasingly digital world is the subject of a new amicus brief we filed today in San Francisco federal court. At issue is historical […]
“Mr. Netanyahu is Engaged in the Liquidation of an Entire Nation” – Powerful Palestinian Statement from West Bank
BBC: Spokesman for Fatah, Dr Husam Zomlot tells the BBC News that Israeli PM Netanyahu is guilty of ‘ liquidation of an entire nation’. ‘We haven’t got any rockets in West Bank yet Israel kills everyday’ – BBC News
UN on Gaza: Health System Collapse, 25% Displaced, 5% w/ Clean Water, Epidemic Threat, Generally Mad Max
By United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Occupied Palestinian Territory: Gaza Emergency Situation Report Highlights • The Rafah area was subject to the heaviest shelling and fighting recorded since the start of the emergency, resulting in dozens of fatalities; many of the bodies could not yet be recovered or identified. • The […]
“Dead Children Names Too Threatening For Israel” – Something being Covered Up (Young Turks)
The Young Turks: “”The Israeli Broadcasting Authority has banned a radio advertisement from a human rights organisation which listed the names of some of the scores of children killed in Gaza since the conflict began 17 days ago. B’Tselem’s appeal against the decision was rejected on Wednesday. It intends to petition Israel’s supreme court on […]
Boycott of Israel Spreads in European Civil Society over Gaza War, Could Cost $5 bn/ yr
By Juan Cole The ill-considered and remarkably brutal Gaza war likely will give further impetus to the Boycott, Sanction and Divestment movement by Western civil society to pressure Israel on its illegal actions toward the Palestinians. A thoroughgoing such European set of sanctions could cost Israel as much as $5 bn a year and more. […]
Gaza: Khuzaa district Flattened, Evidence of Israeli Atrocities
Channel 4 News: “WARNING – this report contains graphic images some viewers may find distressing. Paul Mason reports on the end of the proposed 72-hour ceasefire and violent attacks on Gaza which followed.” Channel 4 News: “The harrowing effects of the broken Gaza ceasefire” The leveling of the entire neighborhood of Khuzaa and the many […]
Obama steps up to call Bush-era CIA Torture “Torture,” Despite Legal Implications
CNN points out that President Obama’s forthright condemnation of Bush administration-era CIA torture could cause legal problems for Agency employees, and that the Congressional report he was talking about avoided that diction. Obama doesn’t very often any more speak his mind, but in this case he clearly felt strongly enough about the betrayal of constitutional […]