U.S. Christian organizations back Lebanon operation

“This was certainly an unprovoked attack and Israel has every right to go in and pound them,” said Ray Sanders, executive director of Christian Friends of Israel. “It needs to be made very clear that what they [Hezbollah] have done is an act of injustice and Israel has every right to defend herself.”

Posted by: b | Jul 14 2006 11:40 utc | 4

Salon: U.S. accused of kidnappings in Iraq

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has until 5 p.m. Friday to hand over a raft of documents to Congress that might shed new light on detainee abuse in Iraq. The documents could substantiate little-known allegations that U.S. forces have tried to break terror suspects by kidnapping and mistreating their family members.
It now appears that kidnapping, scarcely covered by the media, and absent in the major military investigations of detainee abuse, may have been systematically employed by U.S. troops. Salon has obtained Army documents that show several cases where U.S. forces abducted terror suspects’ families. After he was thrown in prison, Cpl. Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader at Abu Ghraib, told investigators the military routinely kidnapped family members to force suspects to turn themselves in.
A House subcommittee led by Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays took the unusual step last month of issuing Rumsfeld a subpoena for the documents after months of stonewalling by the Pentagon. Shays had requested the documents in a March 7 letter. “There was no response” to the letter, a frustrated Shays told Salon. “We are not going to back off this.”

Posted by: b | Jul 14 2006 13:05 utc | 6

The Jews experimented with turning the other cheek and got rather unpleasant results, if you recall. The stupid reliance on brute force that charcterizes Israeli government is probably suicidal, but it is not surprising.

Posted by: citizen k | Jul 14 2006 13:49 utc | 8

npr via prwatch: Pentagon’s Fine Line: War Machine, P.R. Machine

Morning Edition, July 13, 2006 · The U.S. military doesn’t do all its public relations work overseas — it’s also investing in grass-roots efforts here at home.
The Pentagon’s “America Supports You” program employs Pentagon staff and private PR contractors to coordinate activities that support the armed forces. “Freedom Walk” marches, letter-writing campaigns, even supplements in kids’ Weekly Reader, are all paid for by the Pentagon itself.
One recent effort is a campaign to get people at major league baseball games to “text-message” their support to the troops on their cell phones… even though those messages aren’t actually sent to the troops.

what’s surprising here is that this is being covered in a state propaganda channel like npr.

Posted by: b real | Jul 14 2006 14:51 utc | 10

The ACLU of Oregon has filed suit against the U.S. Secret Service, the
Oregon State Police, the Jackson County Sheriff and the Jacksonville
Police Department for violating the constitutional rights of anti-Bush protesters in October 2004 during a Bush visit to Jacksonville, OR. The ACLU media releast quotes David Fidanque, the Executive Director:
“Despite the fact that both pro and anti-Bush demonstrators were
within the same approximate distance to where the president was
eating dinner, the Secret Service—and local police—chose to
discriminate against those opposed to the President,”
and
“There was no security threat to the president and no justification for using force
against peaceful demonstrators who were exercising their
constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.”
Full text of the legal filing is available here.

Posted by: conchita | Jul 14 2006 15:36 utc | 12

@beq et al…
what’s surprising here is that this is being covered in a state propaganda channel like npr.
With regards to NPR, and in particular all the proactive and indirect propaganda and propagenda… the thing that just galls me to no end, makes me see red and spit acid, is that they have methodically and systematically maneuvered and tweaked the system in such a way as to have the American tax payer foot the bill, i.e. pay for their own enslavement and subjugation. Think about that for a moment.
Oh, how clever they think they are, and sad thing here is they are. And to add insult to injury they laugh at the humilitation. Because there is no, repeat no critical thinking in the masses and they know it. God I loath these people.
From top to bottom of the ladder, greed is aroused without knowing where to find ultimate foothold. Nothing can calm it, since its goal is far beyond all it can attain. Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned.
~ Emile Durkheim

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 14 2006 16:16 utc | 14

@ b real
I heard the Pentagon progaganda piece on NPR, and wondered again why I keep listening to them. I wasn’t surprised–the tone of the report was less about exposing the Pentagon tactics than “aw shucks, we know text-messaging the troops is silly, but see, some propaganda is _nice_ propaganda.”
The bit about asking baseball fans to send text-messages to the troops struck me as a good way to get one more list of “good amurkans.”
@Conchita
Oregon has had its share of republican stupidity:

President Bush taught three Oregon schoolteachers a new lesson in irony – or tragedy – Thursday night when his campaign removed them from a Bush speech and threatened them with arrest simply for wearing t-shirts that said “Protect Our Civil Liberties,” the Democratic Party of Oregon reported.
The women were ticketed to the event, admitted into the event, and were then approached by event officials before the president’s speech. They were asked to leave and to turn over their tickets – two of the three tickets were seized, but the third was saved when one of the teachers put it underneath an article of clothing…
…he women said they did not intend to protest. “I wanted to see if I would be able to make a statement that I feel is important, but not offensive, in a rally for my president,” said Janet Voorhies, 48, a teacher in training.
“We chose this phrase specifically because we didn’t think it would be offensive or degrading or obscene,” said Tania Tong, 34, a special education teacher.
Thursday’s event in Oregon sets a new bar for a Bush/Cheney campaign that has taken extraordinary measures to screen the opinions of those who attend Bush and Cheney speeches. For months, the Bush/Cheney campaign has limited event access to those willing to volunteer in Bush/Cheney campaign offices. In recent weeks, the Bush/Cheney campaign has gone so far as to have those who voice dissenting viewpoints at their events arrested and charged as criminals.

Posted by: catlady | Jul 14 2006 16:48 utc | 16

Addendum: and it gets even better…
We Interrupt Your Communication Systems With This Important Announcement. “The government will soon be sending warnings of national emergencies on wireless phones, Web sites and hand-held computers.”
Heck, Nixon wanted a special device to turn on your TV and wake you up if he had something important to say. View the Emergency Broadcast papers wherein “The FCC was preparing broadcast stations for all-out atomic warfare in which millions of people might have been killed and the telephone system would be used only for high-priority messages.”
What a mind fuck…now you will have a self-administered propagenda tool button willingly carried by you which will tell you when to panic appropriately. Not to mention the chip in these technological devices –even if you turn them off–which will enable them to track, monitor, govern and trace where you are in space/time. By gps aerial satellite and wireless means.
I have never seem, the likes of what is happenening, I can not articulate it in the way it needs, but I am sure there is an sociological variable –be it metaphorical or w/analogous structures– in that an abuse victim will , –once the abuse has anchored in the personality– continues on where the victim will willingly carry out and self-administer their own mortification like a wind -up toy. e.g. Pavlov’s Dog.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 14 2006 16:58 utc | 18

Unca, all the talk of the rising influence of the Prot. Fundies notwithstanding, it is the Catholic Fundies of Opus Dei who have seized control of SCOTUS – god knows what else. Self-mortification is part of their practice.

Posted by: jj | Jul 14 2006 17:45 utc | 20

@ 21

Posted by: beq | Jul 14 2006 17:52 utc | 22

In appreciation in and in the mist of the full brunt of the undertow*…

It took so long to remember just what happened.
I was so young and vestal then,
you know it hurt me,
but I’m breathing so I guess I’m still alive
even if signs seem to tell me otherwise.
I’ve got my hands bound,
my head down, my eyes closed,
and my throat wide open.
Do unto others what has been done to you
I’m treading water,
I need to sleep a while.
My lamb and martyr, you look so precious.
Won’t you come a bit closer,
close enough so I can smell you.
I need you to feel this,
I can’t stand to burn too long.
Released in this sodomy.
For one sweet moment I am whole.
Do unto you now what has been done to me.
You’re breathing so I guess you’re still alive
even if signs seem to tell me otherwise.
Won’t you come just a bit closer,
close enough so I can smell you.
I need you to feel this.
I need this to make me whole.
There’s release in this sodomy.
For I am your witness that
blood and flesh can be trusted.
And only this one holy medium brings me piece of mind.
Got your hands bound, your head down,
your eyes closed.
You look so precious now.
(Show me something
Thought I could make it end
Thought I could wash the stains away
Thought I could break the circle if I
Slipped right into your skin
So sweet was your surrender
We have become one
I have become my terror
And you my precious lamb and martyr.)
I have found some kind of temporary sanity in this
shit blood and cum on my hands.
I’ve come round full circle.
My lamb and martyr, this will be over soon.
You look so precious.

~Lyrics to Prison Sex, off the album* “undertow”, by Tool.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 14 2006 18:59 utc | 24

I have often wondered if Rumsfeld wasn’t into the Cilice. It would explain his standing at his desk during 10 to 14 hrs in a work day no?
—
Ahhh, b real you speak of what I suspect is our next Presidential candidate. President Giuliani. Has a ring to it no? He knows where the bodies are buried.
And in the blackmail politics of well, politics, he has a chance.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 14 2006 19:20 utc | 26

From a recent NewsMax article:
The U.S. National Guard Bureau chief Friday dismissed suggestions the United States was militarizing its border with Mexico by sending thousands of soldiers and airmen to help secure the porous frontier.
“We’re not putting 6,000 armed national guardsmen on the border as a show of force,” said U.S. Lt. Gen. Steven Blum.
“This is not a military operation. We are in support of a homeland security operation or a customs and border protection operation,” he said.
So if it ain’t a military operation, why are we using soldiers and not policemen, customs officials or Border Patrol guards? I always understood that the natilnal Guard was to be called up for riots, natural disasters, crises and/or emergencies.
I guess the border situation fits into several of the above-mentioned categories.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 14 2006 20:32 utc | 28

I trust Bernard will pull the spam at#29 which some creep has probably posted to ‘000s of blogs.
Note to MoA posters. Leave the j-freak out of headers.
If there is one thing the world doesn’t need it is yet another superstition to mislead the gullible.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 14 2006 21:54 utc | 30

since when have hezbollah possessed unmanned drones & watching cable here almost continously – there seems a curious silence on the matter of the burning ship

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 14 2006 23:05 utc | 32

r-giap-
the news here (from CNN, but also from the Lebanese blogger Uncle $cam linked to earlier) is that the HB leader came on the news to say that Israel would suffer for blowing up their headquarters, and shortly after that a rocket hit the Israeli ship.
TV here says the ship was limping back to port. On the blog, rumors say the ship sunk. don’t know which is true.
Laura Rozen at War and Piece has an interesting interview that claims HB didn’t mean to hit Haifa.
When Hezbollah attacked Haifa Thursday, first Hezbollah said, “We didn’t do it.” Then they said, “We didn’t target Haifa.” No one picked up on it. Here’s what they meant to say: “We understand hitting Haifia is a major escalation, and we didn’t mean to do that.”…
Olmert responded, “You get Haifa, we’ll take down Beirut,” and he went after Beirut. So far as I can tell, since then, Haifa has been off limits.
the interviewee also says that things should calm down after the next few days of tit or tat, but we’ll see. even if they do, the calm could allow U.S. troops to move to Cyprus, for instance, and give Israel the time to organize troops to go after HB…which is what I’ve read, also, that Israel will go after HB totally. so who knows.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 14 2006 23:58 utc | 34

syria has just announced its support for hezbollah – fauxreal – it looks like it is going to get hotter before it gets colder
evidently there is a robert fisk front cover on the independent – hope someone can appropriate a word or two

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 15 2006 0:39 utc | 36

another interpretation – justin raimando

Posted by: r’giap | Jul 15 2006 0:55 utc | 38

15 July, 2006
The Independent
Is Damascus the Key?
Beirut Waits
By ROBERT FISK
It’s about Syria. That was the frightening message delivered by Damascus yesterday when it allowed its Hizbollah allies to cross the UN Blue Line in southern Lebanon, kill three Israeli soldiers, capture two others and demand the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.
Within hours, a country that had begun to believe in peace–without a single Syrian soldier left on its soil–found itself once more at war.
Israel held the powerless Lebanese government responsible–as if the sectarian and divided cabinet in Beirut can control Hizbollah. That is Syria’s message. Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s affable Prime Minister, may have thought he was running the country but it is President Bashar Assad in Damascus who can still bring life or death to a land that lost 150,000 lives in 15 years of civil conflict.
And there is one certain bet that Syria will rely on; that despite all Israel’s threats of inflicting “pain” on Lebanon, this war will run out of control until–as has so often happened in the past–Israel itself calls for a ceasefire and releases prisoners. Then the international big-hitters will arrive and make their way to the real Lebanese capital Damascus, not Beirut–and appeal for help.
That is probably the plan. But will it work? Israel has threatened Lebanon’s newly installed infrastructure and Hizbollah has threatened Israel with further conflict. And therein lies the problem; to get at Hizbollah, Israel must send its soldiers into Lebanon–and then it will lose more soldiers.
Indeed when a single Merkava tank crossed the border into Lebanon yesterday morning, it struck a Hizbollah mine, which killed three more Israelis.
Certainly Hizbollah’s attack broke the United Nations rules in southern Lebanon–a “violent breach” of the Blue Line, it was called by Geir Pedersen, the senior UN official in the country–and was bound to unleash the air force, tanks and gunboats of Israel on to this frail, dangerous country. Many Lebanese in Beirut were outraged when gangs of Hizbollah supporters drove through the streets of the capital with party flags to “celebrate” the attack on the border.
Christian members of the Lebanese government were voicing increasing frustration at the Shia Muslim militia’s actions–which only proved how powerless the Beirut administration is.
By nightfall, Israel’s air raids had begun to spread across the country–the first civilians to die were killed when an aircraft bombed a small road bridge at Qasmiyeh–but would they go even further and include a target in Syria? This would be the gravest escalation so far and would have US as well as UN diplomats appealing for that familiar, tired quality–“restraint”.
con’t http://www.countercurrents.org/leb-fisk150406.htm

Posted by: crone | Jul 15 2006 2:28 utc | 40

Vatican condemns Israel for attacks on Lebanon
Vatican Slams Israel
As an aside…
Sometimes self-appointed intellectuals need to open their minds, and look at the good and not the evil.
Comparing basic Catholic and/or Christian principles to the ideas held by some so-called catholic members of SCOTUS or those who practice self -mortification, self mutilation, self torture and who knows what else that has been implied here is crazy. One link even placed Mother thersa with these ‘self-torture’ loving types. Basic teaching is that the body is sacred and not to be abused. Same with the mind… nor is there any evil in having pleasure.

Posted by: Rick Happ | Jul 15 2006 5:07 utc | 42

okay, so fu shalom.
and jj, this does need a thread. Th opening post was interesting. the only good opening paragraph said,
“On the horizon appears a confrontation so contentious, any clash of civilizations will have to wait its turn. On one side, a manuscript by an unknown author titled: The Final Freedoms, against all the gravitas religious tradition can bring to bear.”
That’s a good Clash Of Civlizations paragraph. The gravitas of religious tradition, and in the other corner, “The Final Freedoms.”
It’s been called code and it means a lot more to the learned than me. FU too.
My other thought is that love is the answer, you gotta let it, you gotta let it flow. John and Yoko’s answer to Viet Nam. Yes it’s surrender, you gotta let, let it go.

Posted by: jonku | Jul 15 2006 10:08 utc | 44

$cam :
I think that video was produced by the telco/cable industry that wants to be relieved of any requirements to bring you sources of information, such as Moon Of Alabama, that it can’t extort a premium from.
The preferred idea is to keep service on an IP “dialtone” basis.
All the good stuff they tout will happen anyway. They just want to be made gatekeepers and toll collectors on what is now a freeway.
They will undoubtedly offer to run their “new, improved” internet through the NSA’s offices in return for the legal wherewithal to hold up content producers for whatever the market will bear.
Off this topic, I followed your link to the “new, improved” Israeli weapons in use in Palestine and posted same in a comment on Juan Cole’s site. I hope he lets it through.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Jul 16 2006 12:54 utc | 46

b, the following may be of interest as we recently had the honor of having
Larry Johnsen vist Moon: Important information about Larry Johnsen’s post

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 17 2006 4:19 utc | 48