NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel

Details

Written by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill

Published: 11 September 2013 11 September 2013

• Secret deal places no legal limits on use of data by Israelis
• Only official US government communications protected
• Agency insists it complies with rules governing privacy
• Read the NSA and Israel's 'memorandum of understanding'

Read more on the Guardian

The Flawed Case for US Intervention in Syria

Details

Written by Gilbert Schramm Gilbert Schramm

Published: 08 September 2013 08 September 2013

This is a response to a Facebook post by someone who posed a question about US attacks on the Syrian regime. Her question was based on a recent op-ed piece by Nicolas Kristof (The Right Questions on Syria, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/opinion/kristof-the-right-questions-on-syria.html?src=mb&_r=0). The question he raised was basically this, “How can “you” (meaning those opposed to US military action in Syria) really be for peace and do nothing about Syria’s use of chemical weapons?” That question is rather easily answered.

Non-intervention is in the greater service of peace because the options available to the US are 1.) not likely to improve the situation in Syria, eliminate chemical weapons, or reduce deaths there from any cause and 2.) They do not even meet the lowest standard that any intervention that claims to be humanitarian should meet, i.e. that such intervention should at least do no greater harm than exists under current circumstances. This simple notion is the essence of the Hippocratic oath. Perhaps that is the basic standard that should be applied in these situations.

In fact, US intervention (as currently envisaged) is predicated on the notion that “Assad must go.” In other words, regime change. The words “as currently envisaged” should retain our attention. It is a commonplace of military history that the best of plans rarely survives its initial contact with the enemy--or with the real world.

I usually like Kristof’s work; he has often been a principled voice for peace and human rights, but he falls down badly in this piece. His argument is riddled with nonsense.

Read more: The Flawed Case for US Intervention in Syria

Amnesty: Accountability needed for killings in Israeli raid on West Bank refugee camp

Details

Written by Amnesty International Amnesty International

Published: 28 August 2013 28 August 2013

27 August 2013

Accountability needed for killings in Israeli raid on West Bank refugee camp


Protests were held in the West Bank amid the funerals of the three Palestinians killed on Monday. © Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images

Evidence strongly suggests that three men who were shot dead with live ammunition during an arrest raid on a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Monday were unlawfully killed by Israeli forces, Amnesty International said today.  

Another 19 people, including six children, were injured by live ammunition fired during the raid on Qalandia refugee camp, the highest number of casualties in a single Israeli operation in the West Bank this year. Five of those wounded, including three children, had injuries to the upper body.

“The intentional lethal use of firearms – such as firing live ammunition at individuals’ upper bodies – is only permissible if strictly unavoidable to protect life,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“The loss of life and high number of casualties in this incident raise serious questions as to whether heavily armoured Israeli troops acted according to international standards.”

Rubin ‘Abd al-Rahman Zayed, a 34-year-old employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was among those killed when he was shot in the chest by Israeli troops from a military vehicle as it was exiting the camp after the raid.

Read more: Amnesty: Accountability needed for killings in Israeli raid on West Bank refugee camp

SOUTH HEBRON HILLS URGENT ACTION: Ask U.S. Secretary of State Kerry to heed Israeli jurists' and writers' petitions against forced evacuation of people in Firing Zone 918

Details

Written by Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT)

Published: 13 August 2013 13 August 2013

3 August 2013

SOUTH HEBRON HILLS URGENT ACTION:  Ask U.S. Secretary of State Kerry to heed Israeli jurists' and writers' petitions against forced evacuation of people in Firing Zone 918

To sign the petition and obtain more information, click here.

On 2 September 2013, the Israeli High Court will rule on whether more than 1,000 Palestinians, including 452 children may remain on land in the South Hebron Hills where their families have lived for many generations.  The Israeli military wants to force the villagers off their land so they can use the land for live fire training,  which is in absolute contravention of international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49, and the Hague Regulations, Articles 46 and 52.  For further background see the following expert legal opinions: 

Expert Opinion by Prof. Michael Bothe on The Limits of the right of expropriation (requisition) and of movement restrictions in occupied territory (Firing Zones)

Christian Peacemaker Teams has had a relationship with villagers in this area since the late 1990s, including a seven year period when it had a team in the village of At-Tuwani.  It is asking its constituents to express their support for petitions sponsored by prominent Israeli writers and legal advocates--available on CPT’s Palestine team’s website--who are speaking out on behalf of the residents of the region. The petition CPT is asking its consituents to sign adjures U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is trying to foster new peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, to demand that the Israeli military cease its ongoing live fire training in the South Hebron Hills  and stop trying to expel the more than 1,000 Palestinian shepherd families from their villages.

To sign the petition and obtain more information, click here.