Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

On 29 February last year the BBC's website reported deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatening a "holocaust" on Gaza. Headlined "Israel warns of Gaza 'holocaust'" the story would undergo nine revisions in the next twelve hours. Before the day was over the headline would read "Gaza militants 'risking disaster.'" (The story has since been revised again with an exculpatory note added soft-pedaling Vilnai's comments). An Israeli official threatening "holocaust" may be unpalatable to those who routinely invoke its specter to deflect criticism from the state's criminal behavior. With the "holocaust" reference redacted, the new headline shifted culpability neatly into the hands of "Gaza militants" instead.

One could argue that the BBC's radical alteration of the story reflects its susceptibility to the kind of inordinate pressure the Israel lobby's well-oiled flak machine is notorious for. However, as will be demonstrated in subsequent examples, this story is exceptional only insofar as it reported accurately in the first place something that could bear negatively on Israel's image. The norm is reflexive self-censorship.

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At least 30 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials have said. A number of children were among those who died when the al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp was hit, doctors at nearby hospitals said. Israel said its soldiers had come under fire from militants inside the school. Earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned of a "full-blown humanitarian crisis" in Gaza. MSNBC: Israel Bombs Two U.N. Gaza Schools - 35 Dead. Toll Rises.

At least 10 IOF soldiers were killed and 30 others were wounded, Monday night, when Qassam fighters lured them in a trap. Qassam sources told PIC correspondent that the fighters managed to lure a group of infantry elite soldiers into a booby-trapped building in the northern Gaza Strip, detonated the explosives planted in the building and clashed with the soldiers until helicopters arrived and bombed the area around the building to evacuate the dead and injured soldiers. PressTV: Hamas shows video of shot down drone.

The body of one of three Palestinian siblings from the al-Samoni family, killed by an Israeli tank shell, laid in the mortuary of Al Shifa hospital. Seven members from the al-Samoni family were killed including the mother, three children and a baby, when an Israeli shell struck their house, south of Gaza City. The death toll of Palestinians passed 500 since the Israeli assault began.

Norways sovereign wealth fund is one of the biggest investors world wide managing around 300 billion US $. This is my English translation of Robert Gjerde reportage in Aftenposten 6/1/09 (A conservative newspaper). The Norwegian minister of Finance yesterday asked the ethical council of the government pension fund to examine if the fund has invested in Israeli companies or other companies related to Israel occupation of Palestinian territories.

US court: Government can withhold names of detainees allegedly abused at Guantanamo. A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the government can keep secret the identities of detainees who claim they've been abused at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed a lower court judge's ruling regarding eight files containing records documenting allegations of detainee abuse by military personnel, as well as documents containing reports of allegations of detainee-against-detainee abuse. The misconduct alleged to have been carried out by military personnel included spraying detainees with water hoses, striking them, using pepper spray against them and splashing them with cleaning products.

An airline passenger forced to cover his T-shirt because it displayed Arabic script has been awarded 240,000 dollars in compensation, campaigners said Monday. Raed Jarrar received the pay out on Friday from two US Transportation Security Authority officials and from JetBlue Airways following the August 2006 incident at New York's JFK Airport, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced. "The outcome of this case is a victory for free speech and a blow to the discriminatory practice of racial profiling," said Aden Fine, a lawyer with ACLU. Jarrar, a US resident, was apprehended as he waited to board a JetBlue flight from New York to Oakland, California, and told to remove his shirt, which had written on it in Arabic: "We will not be silent."

A Palestinian woman and her four children were killed in a recent Israeli air strike in Gaza, and more Palestinian civilians are being killed by the hour as the Israeli Army continues its air strikes and ground offensive against the residents of Gaza. At least 577 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed and more than 2,700 wounded. Medical sources in Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, reported that an Israeli missile struck a Palestinian home in Al Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City killing a woman and her children. URUKNET: In Pictures: the slaughter of Gazan children Victims of the Israeli occupation forces in the tenth day of their attacks on Gaza Strip - January 5, 2009 Al Arab: Gaza's worsening nightmare.

[Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population.]

The toll of Palestinians killed and wounded continues to rise rapidly as Israel intensifies its combined air and ground assault on the largely defenseless and starved Gaza Strip. While Israel conducts a campaign of killing and collective punishment against the civilian population, the United States continues to block all diplomatic initiatives aimed at imposing a cease-fire. Since Israeli troops, tanks and artillery crossed the border into Gaza Saturday night, at least 64 more Palestinian civilians have been killed, bringing the total in the 11-day war to more than 530. The number of wounded is in the thousands.

Israeli forces, enjoying total control of the air and advanced weaponry, are reportedly facing resistance from Hamas fighters, who are equipped only with primitive mortars and small arms. Israel has confirmed the death of one solider and the wounding of thirty others. Despite the Israeli ground assault and ongoing bombardment of homes, government buildings, mosques, fire stations, universities and ambulances, some 40 rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel on Sunday. The ground offensive has cut power supplies and exacerbated an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis. PIB: APRES LE MASSACRE DE CANA EN 2006 , LE MASSACRE COURAGEUX A DISTANCE DES ENFANTS DE GAZA DECEMBRE 2008/JANVIER 2009 (Israeli atrocities. Photos.) PressTV: Unconventional weapons used against Gazans.

Several European countries have had their deliveries of gas through Ukraine cut off, a situation which the EU describes as "unacceptable". Gazprom says Ukraine's energy company has shut off a number of pipelines. Meanwhile, the head of Naftogaz has announced he is ready to resume negotiations.

Police state: Police stripping woman completely naked and she was the one how call for help...KTVU report / YT: Bart Police shooting in Oakland KTVU report.

Wednesday, 5. November, 2008: A four-month ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was in jeopardy today after Israeli troops killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid into the territory. Hamas responded by firing a wave of rockets into southern Israel, although no one was injured. The violence represented the most serious break in a ceasefire agreed in mid-June, yet both sides suggested they wanted to return to atmosphere of calm.

A friend of mine had to go through such an irritating experience with the facebook administration; according to Ibrahim Mughrabi, facebook has deleted content on his personal profile related to the “Zionist attacks on Gaza”. He says he’s been contacted by the administration and warned that he’d be suspended from posting stuff on facebook if he continues to do so! So much for free speech and equal rights for everyone in this world.

Model Liskula Cohen has filed a lawsuit against Google in a bid to unmask the blogger who called her a 'skank' and an 'old hag' on a Web site meant to ruin her image. The Vogue model, who has posed for Giorgio Armani and Versace, wants to force Google to reveal who defamed her on the blog 'Skanks in NYC' as the 'No.1 skanky superstar'. Antiwar: Model wants Google to identify anonymous commenter who bashed her on web site: Liskula Cohen, in her filing in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said the commentary on her hygiene and sexual habits on the site was defamatory, malicious and false.

These sites will keep you best updated on the contextual reality being concealed by the corporate-state media.

Earlier this morning, three Qassam rockets exploded in open areas in the western Negev in Israel. We go to the region to speak with Neve Gordon, chair of the Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and the author of Israel’s Occupation. [includes rush transcript] Sabbah: Gaza Massacre Slideshow: This is what Israel and CNN don't want you to see…

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Leon Panetta, who was White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, to lead the CIA, Democratic officials said on Monday. The choice of Panetta for Central Intelligence Agency director was one of the last major nominations for the incoming Obama administration, which takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20. Outside of his stint in the White House, where he served between 1994 and 1997, Panetta has relatively little experience in national security matters.

Stalin was not the only person to carry out historical revisionism. This ‘negationism’ also happened in Japan. Germany’s holocaust denial was a shocker. Iraq has been the new focus for “deceptive semantics.”

Afghanistan is also getting its fair share of revisionism. A CRS Report for Congress , written by Kenneth Katzman and dated 27 August 2003, airbrushed the history of wars in Afghanistan. “Afghanistan is a fragile state attempting, with substantial U.S. help, to stabilize after more than 22 years of warfare including a US-led war, that brought the current government to power.” The report continues “Afghan citizens are enjoying new personal freedoms that were forbidden under the Taliban.” A read of all the Index on Afghanistan research articles will show this to be false.

Obama has blamed Afghanistan and Pakistan, as being the ‘source’ of terrorism. He is wrong. This myopic AIPAC view, this disinformation ,needs immediate correction. Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories for 41 YEARS (some authorities say 51). This occupation is the ‘source’ of world terrorism. Now Obama has adopted Bush’s delusion of “progress”. The reality is Genocide .

We have heard the Palestinian side of the story, as you can see from the images below: [...]. Now, let's see the other side of the story, shall we? The carnage, the destruction, the annihilation, the pain, and the horror caused by qassam rockets: [...].

The truth about israel is that it is a terrorist occupying state in palestine. Palestinians have every right to fight against occupation. Creative-I: The obscenity that is the state of Israel. + The Invasion of Gaza: “Operation Cast Lead”, Part of a Broader Israeli Military-Strategic Agenda. AntiWar: Rationalizing Gaza: How they do it.

The bloodied children are clearly civilians; men killed as they launch rockets are undisputedly not. But what about the 40 or so young Hamas police recruits on parade who died in the first wave of Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza? -Some very few of the civilians carry a gun as a means of legitimate self-defense against the war criminals attacking them. 99% of people in Gaza carry no weapon at all. For all intents & purposes, ALL OF THEM ARE CIVILIANS. To even raise this question, like the BBC here does, is a sneaky attempt to justify the Israeli war crimes. Redress: Speak out against the slaughter in Gaza.

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon. The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded. Pacific Free Press: War Crime du Jour: Israel Deploys White Phosphorus Shells. PressTV: White phosphorus added to Israeli fire.

The territory has been cut in three, with the northern town of Beit Hanoun surrounded and clashes also reported in Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt. Gaza city, with a population of 400,000, is surrounded after an armoured force took over the abandoned Jewish settlement of Netzarim. This gives Israel control of the main north-south road. At least 63 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli tank shells or missiles since the start of the ground offensive Saturday. The real death toll, however, may be far higher, as emergency medical personnel are not able to reach the areas where fighting is taking place. The total official death toll since Israeli began bombarding Gaza and its 1.5 million people has risen to at least 512, with 87 of those killed children. WSWS: VIDEO: London demonstrators protest Israeli assault on Gaza.

Pacifici explains that the Italian Jewish community agreed with the Israeli ambassador on keeping a "low profile"at this time. "I can assure you - writes Pacifici - that the decision to send medicine to Palestinian and Israeli children was taken only for media purposes, and was only used for our struggle which will start on Monday in the media to support Israel". Pacifici announces that on January 10th there will be a "mega-event" with 1,500 personalities chosen together with the Israeli ambassador in order to "explain Israel's reasons and its right to make this war". Pacifici explains that the Roman Jewish community did not spend "even one Euro" for the medicine, which was donated by "an international Jewish organization" and guarantees that "in any case not one piece of medicine will get to Gaza unless it has been authorized by the Government of Israel".

[Video is from a previous Israeli atrocity] At least 24 Palestinians have been killed in a fresh series of Israeli tank shelling in the Gaza Strip since early Monday morning, medical sources said. Haytha Dababish, a doctor working with Shifa hospital in Gaza, said most of the casualties are civilians, including women and children. He said the deaths include 13 from a family in Zaytoun neighborhood, a densely populated area in eastern Gaza City, when Israeli tanks bombarded their house. Seven others from another family were killed in a refugee camp in western Gaza, he said, adding four others were killed by tank shelling in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip. Since the launch of Israeli Cast Lead Operation in the besieged Gaza Strip on Dec. 27, 531 people in the enclave have been killed and more than 2,500 others injured, according to Dababish. Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigade of Hamas said in a leaflet that its militants are confronting Israeli tanks by bombs and rocket propelled grenade. The movement also claimed responsibility for rockets firing to southern Israel on Monday morning. Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening, launching ground invasion against the coastal enclave following eight days of intensive air strikes, targeting buildings including mosques, houses and Hamas security installations.

The Israeli military incursion into Gaza has reportedly forced thousands of children to flee their homes in the impoverished region. Save the Children said in its latest report that Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 520 Gazans and wounded 2,500 more, has compelled more that 13,000 Palestinian civilians, mostly children, to leave their homes.

"Gaza, with a population of 1.51 million, is one of the most densely populated strips of land in the world and many hundreds of homes are being hit by the airstrikes, causing fear and anxiety amongst the thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire," said the group's spokesman, Dominic Nutt. In a recent development, an Israeli tank shell killed four children in their home in eastern Gaza City, medical officials have confirmed.

I was recently banned from Digg. Again. This time according to the email it is permanent. Here is their email informing me of their decision.

Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battled in Gaza on Monday amid tank, artillery and air strikes, as Israel pressed on with its assault on Hamas and world leaders stepped up efforts to end the conflict. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive in Israel for talks on how to end one of its deadliest offensives in Gaza in decades, which has killed more than 515 Palestinians, dozens of them children. Israeli infantry units backed by tanks and helicopters took up positions around Gaza City after effectively cutting the coastal strip into two by taking control of the main roads leading into the capital, witnesses said. The troops exchanged fire with Hamas militants, fighting against the deepest Israeli thrust into Gaza since it unilaterally withdrew from the coastal territory more than three years ago. Israel's daily incursions prove that the (deleted) statement about having withdrawn is a blatant lie. Al Jazeera: Civilian deaths mount in Gaza war.

Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago. Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close. Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards. The data is being reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.

The new US embassy in Baghdad is due to be officially opened, with a dedication service led by Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Security will be tight at the ceremony in the Iraqi capital for one of the biggest and most expensive embassies the US has ever built. On 1 January, the US officially handed over responsibility for security in the fortified Green Zone to Iraqi forces.

As the clock ticks down to Barack Obama's inauguration, the US president-elect has kept silent on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its latest deadly turn in the Gaza Strip. Obama transition officials have ventured little more than saying their boss is "monitoring" the situation in Gaza, where at least 460 people have been killed in eight days of air raids before a ground offensive began Saturday. In the same period, Gaza militant rockets have killed four Israelis and wounded several dozen people.

The Czechs suffered when the Soviets invaded in 1968. Some traitors welcomed the invasion. Is the Czech Republic a shitty little country and has it brought shame on Europe? At present there is a Czech presidency of the European Union. This Czech presidency has said that Israel's actions in slaughtering women and children in Gaza are "defensive, not offensive".

Israeli ground forces backed by air and naval power moved into the Gaza Strip on Sunday, bisecting the northern and southern sections and targeting areas from which Hamas fighters are launching rockets, according to witnesses and Israeli military officials. One Israeli soldier was killed in "a heavy exchange of fire" involving mortars and guns during a battle close to the Jabalya refugee camp, a Hamas stronghold. Another Israeli soldier was severely wounded in the same incident, which unfolded around 1 p.m. Sunday, an Israeli military spokesman said. PressTV: 'Israeli helicopter, tank destroyed'. AllVoices: Israel pushes farther into Gaza: One Israeli soldier was killed in "a heavy exchange of fire" involving mortars and guns during a battle close to the Jabalya refugee camp, a Hamas stronghold. Another Israeli soldier was severely wounded in the same incident, which unfolded around 1 p.m. Sunday, an Israeli military spokesman said. It was Israel's first fatality in the ground invasion, which began Saturday night and followed a week-long air assault on Gaza. Five other Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded Sunday afternoon, and 30 other troops had been wounded overnight, including an officer and a soldier who received severe injuries. The Israeli military said "dozens of Hamas" fighters had been hit since the ground offensive began. Times Online: Israel splits Gaza in three as soldiers battle Hamas.

UN General Assembly chief Miguel d'Escoto has criticized the Security Council for its inability to curb Israel's "monstrosity" in Gaza. D'escoto criticized the UN Security Council for not showing enough tenacity in ending Gazans suffering in the wake of the weeklong Israeli offensive in the coastal strip. "I think it's a monstrosity; there's no other way to name it," D'escoto said Saturday when asked about the Israeli incursion on Gaza.

Medics tell Press TV they have found traces of depleted uranium in some Gazan residents wounded in Israel's ground offensive into the strip. Norwegian medics told Press TV correspondent Akram al-Sattari that some of the victims who have been wounded since Israel began its attacks on the Gaza Strip on December 27 have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies.

In the Bloodiest Week since the Beginning of the Israeli Occupation, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Launch a Wide Scale Offensive on the Gaza Strip Killing and Wounding Hundreds of Palestinians. PCHR: IOF Offensive on the Gaza Strip Continues for the 8th Consecutive Day.

The truth is that far from being the poor victim it likes to portray itself as, Israel is in fact the most aggressive and belligerent nation in the region, having invaded pretty much everyone it shares a border with. The following maps show what Israel has actually done.

The corporate American media says terrorists are dying, but in this video ordinary men, women, and children are killed by Israeli bombs. PressTV: Israel has reportedly claimed the lives of more Palestinian civilians by shelling a heavily populated shopping center in the Gaza Strip.

Zionist propagandists (like the comment-disabling cowards at IDFnadesk channel on YouTube) are losing the Internet news war. We know the truth because the freedom of the press on the Internet -- such as citizen journalism -- overcome the noisy one-sided, pro-Israel propaganda machine imposed by the Zionized Western media. URUKNET: Video: Israel bombs a civilian market in Gaza (WARNING: GRAPHIC): Israel just bombed a large civilian street market in Gaza. This video has been removed due to "terms of use violation". The Zionist war criminals evidently have You Tube on board. Pakistan Daily: YouTube Partners with MOSSAD. Sabbah: YouTube Partners with MOSSAD - ADL.

Israeli tanks and infantry entered Gaza after nightfall Saturday, launching a ground offensive that the military said would be a "lengthy operation" in a widening war on Gaza's Hamas rulers the Palestinians. Reuters: Israel hits [the people of] Gaza from land, sea and air.

More than three thousand Moslem demonstrators rallied in front of the US consulate general in Medan, North Sumatra, on Saturday condemning the Israeli military aggression in Palestine. The demonstrators who mostly consisted of members of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) gathered in the compound of the Grand Mosque on Jalan Diponegoro before marching to the US consulate at the Uniland Building on Jalan MT Haryono. On their way to the consulate, they shouted slogans condemning the Israeli aggression which since December 27 had killed more than 400 Palestinians and injured thousand others in the Gaza Strip. BBC: UK protests over Gaza air strikes (Video). Deutsche Welle: Thousands of Europeans protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza. Reuters: Thousands protest Gaza offensive.

At a time when the USA is supporting Israel's actions in Palestine, we should remember that the USA and UK supported Pol Pot and his murderous Khmer Rouge. The Kmer Rouge killed off around one quarter of Cambodia's population. Vietnam was pro-Russia. Pol Pot was not pro-Russia. The USA and UK supported Pol Pot. In 1970, Cambodia's head of state Prince Sihanouk was toppled by pro-American forces. In the early 1970s, the USA was bombing sections of Cambodia as part of its Vietnam War. This helped win recruits for Pol Pot. Pol Pot ran the government of Cambodia from 1975 until 1979, although he was influential before 1975. In 1972, the Vietnamese intervened in Cambodia against Pol pot's group. "Washington took immediate steps to preserve the Khmer Rouge as a guerrilla movement," according to Jack Colhoun in Covert Action Quarterly magazine, Summer 1990. (US supports Pol Pot)

What might be the connections between CIA-Mossad mind control and politicians like Tony Blair? Professor Denys Turner, a theology professor at Yale, is a former member of Opus Dei which is said to be about sadomasochism and fascist mind control. In 2006, his daughter Ruth Turner was arrested and quizzed by UK police in the UK's cash-for-honours row. This row involved Tony Blair's Jewish friend Lord Levy. Ruth Turner now runs Tony Blair's Faith Foundation, which is active at Yale. "Blair’s foundation is the culmination of his life as a double agent." Blair, his 'sexy' Catholic aide... and new HQ near her Opus Dei father's office.

Saturday marks one year since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. The former prime minister was killed in a suicide bomb attack after an election rally near the capital, Islamabad. To her supporters, Bhutto's presence and guidance came to symbolise the quest for freedom and equality. Benazir Bhutto’s last speech was so spirited and full of hope that, a year later, her death has still leaves many feeling empty. The small Pakistani community in Moscow is marking the first anniversary of Bhutto's assassination with prayers and speeches. At a ceremony they praised her courage and vision, two qualities that, according to Pakistani Ambassador Mohammad Khalid Khattak, cost Bhutto her life. "Terrorists hate everyone, you don't have to do anything to be hated by them, if you disagree with them they hate you," said Khattak. A year after Bhutto's death, security still remains one of the most pressing issues in Pakistan. Metal detectors are a permanent fixture in the family mausoleum, as are the rose petals on Benazir’s tomb.

Is the United States going to put dictatorship into effect under the guise of the anti-terrorist struggle? What may trigger another major transformation in 2009? The answer is obvious: another 9/11 in the USA. Terrible and bloody events are in store for the world in the beginning of 2009. Most likely, the world will witness a reality show with a nuclear blast, which will be used as a reason for the US administration to change the world order again and leave the new Great Depression behind. There is every reason to believe that the Russian Federation may suffer as a result of this possible initiative too. Joe Biden made a sensational statement on October 19, 2008. He said that Barack Obama would have to undergo an ordeal during the first six months of his stay in the White House. It will be the time of a very serious international crisis, when Obama would have to make tough and possibly unpopular decisions both in home and foreign politics.

Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and other top Bush officials could soon face legal jeopardy. The United States, like many countries, has a bad habit of committing wartime excesses and an even worse record of accounting for them afterward. But a remarkable string of recent events suggests that may finally be changing—and that top Bush administration officials could soon face legal jeopardy for prisoner abuse committed under their watch in the war on terror. In early December, in a highly unusual move, a federal court in New York agreed to rehear a lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft brought by a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar. (Arar was a victim of the administration's extraordinary rendition program: he was seized by U.S. officials in 2002 while in transit through Kennedy Airport and deported to Syria, where he was tortured.) Then, on Dec. 15, the Supreme Court revived a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld by four Guantánamo detainees alleging abuse there—a reminder that the court, unlike the White House, will extend Constitutional protections to foreigners at Gitmo. Finally, in the same week the Senate Armed Service Committee, led by Carl Levin and John McCain, released a blistering report specifically blaming key administration figures for prisoner mistreatment and interrogation techniques that broke the law. The bipartisan report reads like a brief for the prosecution—calling, for example, Rumsfeld's behavior a "direct cause" of abuse.

Where'd the bailout money go? $350 billion later, banks won't say how they're spending it. It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it. "We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to." The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest? None of the banks provided specific answers.

The US economy shrank in the third quarter, official data confirmed Tuesday, as the IMF's top economist warned of a second Great Depression offering no respite from relentless gloom ahead of Christmas. The abrupt 0.5 percent contraction of gross domestic product (GDP) in the world's largest economy was seen as marking the start of a steep downturn for the United States after GDP growth of 2.8 percent in the second quarter. Stocks on Wall Street rose in early trading, however, as the contraction had been expected and was unrevised from a previous estimate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.54 percent and the Nasdaq rose 0.60 percent.

George S. Patton, America's greatest combat general of the Second World War, was assassinated after the conflict with the connivance of US leaders, according to a new book. The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives. The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home. But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General "Wild Bill" Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname "Old Blood and Guts".

By Remi Kanazi

At the Gaza rally in NYC yesterday. "The poem is entitled: To Exist is To Resist. Many people within the cultural realm are getting together to see what they can do to educate, inspire, and keep people engaged via artistic mediums."