Firing Rockets into Israel -- STUPID!

[Need it be pointed out that there has been nothing more self-defeating than the erratic firing of rockets into Israel which have given Israel the justification for massive rocketing bomb attacks in return -- both in Gaza and in the recent Lebanese fiasco which virtually destroyed that poor country. Ed Kent]

...................................

Qassam hits elderly couple's home

Date: Sat Jun 30, 2007 2:26 am ((PDT))

Ynetnews
Qassam hits elderly couple's home

by Tovah Dadon
Published: 06.30.07, 08:14 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3419145,00.html

Palestinians in Gaza fired two Qassam rockets into the western Negev late Friday, one of which hit the home of an elderly couple.

The rocket slammed through the roof of the house, then ricocheted into the yard of the neighboring home, where it exploded.

No one was wounded, but the rocket caused severe damage to both houses.

A second rocket landed on the premises of the Kal-Katif factory and damaged a storage container.

The al-Quds Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Yoav Peled, security officer for the Shaar Hanegev regional council, told Ynet it was a miracle no one was hurt.

"The Qassam accelerated when it hit the concrete roof of the elderly couple's home. They were awake when it hit and luckily weren't hurt. Due to the acceleration, the rocket continued on into the neighbors' yard, where it exploded and shattered all the house's windows," Peled said.

The couple spent the night at a guest house on the kibbutz where they live, due to the severe damage to their house. They did not need any medical treatment and did not suffer shock.

Alon Schuster, head of the Shaar Hanegev regional council, said, "The Islamic Jihad launched the rocket to tell the prime minister (Ehud Olmert) that time and statistics weren't in his favor. Instead of telling Gaza perimeter residents that there's no such thing as 100 percent security, Olmert should do what he personally promised me and the other council heads – and shield the houses right away."

"It's scandalous. The program has been dragging for six months, and now we hear that it may even be cancelled. I demand of the new defense minister (Ehud Barak) that he join our demands and bring up the matter his Sunday at the cabinet meeting. There are people here whose lives need to be protected," he declared.
--
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Pakistan Is the Greater Nuclear Threat!

[As today's report (below) in the NY Times indicates, there is a major threat to Pervez Musharraf's control of forces at work in Pakistan. Assassination attempts on his life have been made and failed in the not distant past. If he were to be displaced, who knows who would gain control of Pakistan's nuclear weapon supply? The Taliban? Pakistan's principal nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, is notorious for having spread nuclear weapons information far and wide (to Iran, Korea, Libya, et al?): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Qadeer_Khan

With our distractions in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a bit absurd for Cheney to be directing our fleet for readiness to attack Iran. Such an attack would merely further the unification of Islamic extremists against us over there. In passing it does look as though Cheney has been more or less running the Bush administration behind the scenes, sending presidential orders to Bush to sign. He has stood on an aircraft carrier over there recently offshore from Iran directing military threats publicly against the Iranians. One hopes that Bush will either break loose from his malignant influence or that the Republicans will be driven out out of office in time to avert utter chaos of a most grave WMD character. Let us hope for peace rather than wars that could escalate to apocalyptic dimensions! Ed Kent]

.................................

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/world/asia/30pakistan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Taliban Spreading, Pakistani President Is Warned
Tariq Mahmood/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By JANE PERLEZ and ISMAIL KHAN
Published: June 30, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 28 — The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was warned this month that Islamic militants and Taliban fighters were rapidly spreading beyond the country’s lawless tribal areas and that without “swift and decisive action,” the growing militancy could engulf the rest of the country.

[snip]
--
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--
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American Racism Unleashed -- Again!

The Roberts court attack on voluntary school desegregation undermining Brown vs. the Board of Education and the Senate's sabotage of a fair immigration reform bill yesterday bring into the open the growing right wing appeal to racism directed against the gains of African Americans and Latinos/as in this country with the affirmative efforts of the civil rights era initiated half a century ago. I suspect what is at work here is an appeal to jealousy on the part of Caucasians at the gains made by some of the members of these groups that are manifested in our media. What, of course, is not noted is that these gains are those of only a minority of these minorities who largely still face the undercurrents of our racist national culture.
How many minority kids now have no realistic futures beyond prison and homelessness or bare survival in this the wealthiest nation in the world? Unhappily far too many. Our prison population is growing by leaps and bounds. And America is the only nation that largely funds basic education out of local property taxes and, thus, the
educational opportunities for most minority group members are stunted by their local schools that are de facto segregated. In New York there is a vast difference between the quality of public school education in the Bronx where most students do not make it out of high school and near by Bronxville where the public schools are possibly the best in NY. Living in the city itself a few may be fortunate enough to make it into our few super schools. But most are consigned to minimal educational opportunity by the place where they live -- unless they can afford the $20,000 or so private school tuitions that will offer children realistic access to colleges and good futures.

And so it goes in Amerika. The minorities are under attack again -- by our Supreme Court and those bought legislators who represent mainly corporate interests. Shame, America. You have betrayed that good lady who used to welcome new comers to our shores: "Give us your tired . . . ."
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Blair unfit for peace-making

[I have to agree with Khalid here. Blair destroyed his integrity going Bush and with that all credibility. He had best retire and stop cluttering the media with silly and inefficacious attempts to redeem his soul. The last straw is a Bush administration advisory that Blair would be supervised by Condi Rice and only permitted to work on the technical details of putting in place an appropriate Palestinian government. What a send off! And what hubris! Ed Kent]

................................

Blair unfit for peace-making



By Khalid Amayreh in East Jerusalem

28 June, 2007



There is no doubt that Tony Blair, who has just been appointed by the Quartet (US, EU, Russia and UN) as Peace Envoy to the Middle East is utterly unfit for the job. The man is simply too deceitful and too dishonest and too unethical to be a genuine peacemaker.



Last week, renowned British Journalist Robert Fisk wrote the following about Blair:



"I remain overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his hands is really contemplating being 'our' Middle East envoy."



Fisk simply told the truth about the former British Prime Minister, now entrusted with the formidable and nearly impossible task of getting Israel to end its 40-year-old Nazi-like occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip and allow the Palestinians to have a viable state that would live in peace beside Israel.



Blair's legacy as British Prime Minister and world leader is undoubtedly dark and ugly. The man was instrumental in getting the uncultured, ignoramus George Bush to invade, occupy and destroy Iraq, resulting in the decimation of the Arab country and annihilation of hundreds of thousands its citizens.



To justify the Anglo-American crusade against Iraq, Blair resorted to every conceivable cheap tactic, from brash, brazen lying to the British people to concocting wild tales about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and "imminent" onslaught on western civilization.



And when it became crystal clear that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, Blair didn't have the guts to say "sorry, I erred."



With regard to the Palestinians, for whom this pathological liar we are told will try to create a state, Blair seemed to have been quite faithful to the Balfourian traditions whereby Palestinians are viewed as children of a lesser God whose land, lives and rights can be totally ignored.



In 2006, Blair ostensibly welcomed the idea of Palestinian legislative elections. However, when the elections were held and the Islamic group Hamas emerged victorious, Blair suddenly lost his balance and joined Israel and the Jewish-controlled Bush Administration in boycotting, blockading and isolating the new Palestinian government.



Blair enthusiastically supported the extremely callous siege on Palestinians, including the seizure by Israel of Palestinian customs revenues, which impoverished and starved millions of innocent men, women and children for no guilt they committed apart from exercising their democratic freedoms.



This was the behavior of a man who constantly preached to the peoples of the Middle East about the virtues of democracy and human rights, while in reality doing every thing possible to undermine and undo the outcome of democratic and transparent elections, closely monitored by observers from around the world, including former US President Jimmy Carter.



With his spasmodic reaction to the outcome of Palestinian elections, Blair, in concert with Bush, harrowed to impose the so-called "quartet conditions" on Hamas, including recognizing Israel, accepting outstanding agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and renouncing armed resistance against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.



However, when Palestinian leaders demanded reciprocity from Israel, e.g. an Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Blair remained silent.



Indeed, an honest broker, a true peacemaker would have readily accepted the fair concept of mutuality and reciprocity, including mutual recognition, mutual cessation of violence and mutual acceptance of all outstanding UN resolutions, including 242 and 338.



The fact that Blair never came close to demanding Israeli reciprocity in contentious sphere, like ending or even suspending Israel's mass terror against the Palestinians, testifies to the man's wanton hypocrisy and bias toward Israel.



In truth, Blair has never shown any meaningful opposition to Israel's unmitigated theft of Palestinian land as well as the construction of numerous Jewish-only settlements and transfer of hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens onto the occupied territories.



Last year, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Lebanon, destroying much of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure and dropping millions of cluster bomblets throughout the virtually defenseless country, Blair refused to support an early ceasefire, apparently in order to allow Israel to murder and maim more Lebanese civilians, which it did.



Undoubtedly, this manifestly criminal conduct, which only complemented the criminality of George Bush and Ehud Olmert, makes him utterly unfit for peace mediation between the world's last practitioners of occupation and apartheid on the one hand and their helpless, tormented victims, the Palestinian people, on the other. True peace mediation, after all, requires honesty and impartiality, neither of which Blair possesses.



To make a long story short, it is a foregone conclusion that Blair won't have the moral honesty, let alone the courage, to call the spade a spade whenever it is in Israel's hands.



Blair won't tell his equally deceitful colleague, Mr. Olmert, that Israel is an occupying power and that the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip are occupied territories pursuant international law. He won't tell Olmert that each and every Jewish settlement build on occupied Arab land since 1967 is illegal and must be dismantled. He won't tell Olmert that the "Separation war" is illegal and must be brought down and that the entire apartheid system being adopted throughout Palestine is immoral, illegal and incompatible with international law. He won't tell Olmert that Palestinian refugees uprooted from their homes and towns must be allowed to return and reclaim their property.



Needless to say, if Blair can't be expected to say what ought to be said, it will be futile to give him the benefit of the doubt.



Finally, it is really lamentable that such a perpetual, pathological liar is entrusted with the sublime task of bringing peace to the Middle East. The task of making peace is simply too paramount to be entrusted to criminals and liars, no matter how much they are celebrated in Washington and Tel Aviv.



Perhaps the most appropriate thing one could say in this regard is that Blair's appointment as Middle East peace envoy reflects the immense moral decay engulfing our world. Surely, this is a very bad omen for the future of humanity.

(end)
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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What to Expect from Prime Minister Brown?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Brown

He has not shown his hand on a number of issues outside his previous responsibilities for the British economy which has done well under his guidance. I suspect that the change in Foreign Secretary may also signal a change in British policies -- particularly in the Middle East that are thoroughly unpopular with the electorate. Hopefully Britain will stop playing empire games -- that went out for Britain in the 20th century (I recall the shock of some of my Uppingham classmates of 1951-2 who had been planning on colonial administrator jobs when I remet some of them at Oxford in 1957-8 in the face of the widespread abandonment of the colonies by then -- Britain was in an exhausted military/financial state and in no position to maintain colonies increasingly restless under its domination. I mention this as it looks as though the U.S. is somewhat in that position now -- with Latin America slipping away and its Middle East adventures in chaos.

Without Tony Me Too to back him up, Bush should find himself in increasing trouble maintaining his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Should make a difference as to how Brown chooses to disentangle himself from Blair's Bush fiasco. I don't expect that Blair will cut much ice in his new role in the Middle East. He is not loved, let alone trusted by Muslims there for good reason.

Perhaps I should add that my Scots ancestors are most likely cheering from their present locations -- above or below. Yeah, University of Edinburgh. Bring on the Haggis!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Iraq Getting It Together with Iran?

[Unhappily there is a good deal of sense to what Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is telling Iraq's visiting president here. I haven't seen this visit reported in our media, incidentally. It is covered by the BBC and others: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4457568.stm Ed Kent]

P.S. There is CNN coverage:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/28/iraq.iran/index.html

And it looks as though Iran, Syria, and Iraq are getting it together -- imagine the Cheney contingent are climbing the wall at this. Wonder what Condi will do. Perhaps the Republican move to get our troops out has something to do with this shift of alliances?

........................................

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7F2F3247-70CC-48EC-A0BF-54112BE0433B.htm

Iran says US source of Iraq crisis
Talabani met both Khamenei, Iran's spiritual leader , and Ahmadinejad, the country's president [AFP]

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, has told Jalal Talabani, the visiting Iraqi president, that the United States is the main source of insecurity in Iraq.

"The main elements of insecurity in Iraq which are behind the current atrocities are the US and the Zionist regime intelligence services and some accompanying nations," Khamenei was quoted as saying by local media.

These insecurities "will harm the US itself since a few years ago it armed a group in Afghanistan and they witnessed its repercussions," he said on Tuesday, referring implicitly to Al-Qaeda.

"The nations of the region have this ability to stand against the big powers and if these nations decide they can do anything, including making the US kneel," he warned.

Talabani also met his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who promised that Iran was ready to provide for Iraq's "welfare and progress."

Talabani, who was last in Iran in November, is expected to visit ailing Iraqi Shia politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who is in Iran for cancer treatment.

"During Mr.Talabani's visit, the issue of continuing talks with the United States will be discussed," Mehdi Mostafavi, Iranian deputy foreign minister, was quoted by state news agency IRNA as telling reporters earlier.

"Also the issue of abduction of five Iranian diplomats kidnapped by the American forces will be discussed," he added.

US-Iran ties

The United States severed relations with Iran in 1980 after Islamic revolutionary students took over its embassy in Tehran.

The two countries held their highest-level public contacts in 27 years on May 28, with Tehran calling for US troops to be pulled out of Iraq and Washington accusing Iran of stoking the insurgency.

Relations have been chilled further by the detention in Iraq by US forces of at least five Iranian officials who Tehran insists are diplomats.

US forces in Iraq have frequently accused Iran of stoking the violence in the war-torn country by arming and training militias, allegations denied by Tehran.

Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said earlier this month that Baghdad was working to set up a second meeting between Iranian and US officials soon to prevent the arch-foes from using Iraq as a "battleground to settle scores."
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Review: Irshad Manji, The Trouble with Islam Today

I happened to catch a C-Span interview this morning with Irshad Manji:

http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/

who has done a book, The Trouble with Islam Today, which recommends a number of reforms (supported with texts from the Koran) in more humane directions, particularly Islam's treatment of women. She is a sparky and attractive young woman, columnist for the NY Times, who was addressing the Librarians convention in tank top and jeans -- not the stereotype of Muslim dress. She, as Rushdie, has received death threats, but her book is being widely read in English, Urdu, and Farsi (Persian -- although banned in Iran). It can be downloaded at her website above.

I first became directly conscious of the abuses of Muslim women at a human rights conference several decades back when a professional woman was making a passionate plea on behalf of fellow Muslim women. She used the example that Muslim husbands could abruptly divorce their wives simply by saying three times, "I divorce you." Two Egyptians sitting near me had been giggling through her talk and one of them burst out loudly at that point, "Two times will do it!"

I started my teaching career in women's colleges during the women's revolution in the 1960s and I have been particularly concerned with women's rights since then, having seen the before and after. Until then women were largely banned from the 'male' professions except in auxiliary roles -- from law, medicine, and even philosophy!

It is good to see the revolution beginning to percolate on behalf of women in the the Muslim communities -- Ms. Manji is a Canadian by birth -- perhaps the expansion of contacts in non-Muslim countries and through the internet are opening doors among the younger generation even in such closed nations as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

I don't think it is my observation alone that women tend to be more compassionate than men. The more women are offered respect and opportunities for literacy, the more impact they will have on the children they are raising (one of Manji's many observations).

Her book, she says, is written in a conversational tone and should be available to teens as well as adults. I recommend it to all of us who need to have a fuller understanding of Islam as it can be at its best.
--
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--
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Whitmen Dodges and Weaves -- Blames Sickened Pile Workers!

[Yesterday I watched the testimony of Christie Whitman, former EPA head when somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 workers on the "pile" -- former World Trade Center site -- were destroying their health with asbestos and many other dangerous chemicals which they were by necessity forced to inhale during the course of doing their jobs.

Whitman, Giuliani, and the Bush administration look to be the villains in this piece. They were more concerned to get our economy up and running at minimal financial cost than with the health of those working on the pile, passing by, living near. Sparing full details which are emerging, Whitman's and the Bush administration's edited public announcements distorted the facts that the area was extremely dangerous to health.

The teams brought in -- many as volunteers from far states -- were told to wear respirators to protect their lungs. But this stuff was unworkable. It quickly clogged with moisture and the guys were faced with the alternative of quitting work or breathing in the junk -- much of it such as freon from the many tanks of poisons burning in the basements of the buildings which was mixed with the debris and even spreading through the area subways and neighborhoods. I was commuting to Brooklyn then and for several months at each trip cringed at the stench as we passed through the nearby stations -- of burning bodies and other airborne debris.

I became particularly aware of this nightmare -- only now getting sufficient attention with a Democratic Congress -- through the reports of one of our Brooklyn students to a class last spring (2006) who had been a heavy vehicle operator, himself, now lung damaged. Kojo Davis was well informed about the hazards, the fact that many of the workers were not even paid their full wages when sub contractors stiffed them despite the fact that the four major contractors working for the city on the project were fully compensated. Kojo detailed for us the additional poisons, the 12 hour shifts men were obliged to undertake, the deprivation even of Workmen's Compensation until a Deputy Mayor, Rudy Washington, himself sickened complained and persuaded the state legislature to extend its filing deadlines beyond a one year cutoff.

A big question now is where the blame primarily belongs. Whitman and her crew are dodging -- "We posted the hazards on a website." -- presumably to be read by the workers nightly? However, it was the takeover Mayor Giuliani who ran the show to get it done fast and at minimum expense. Kojo showed us an ugly letter he sent out to the workers with a first sentence thanking them for their help and the rest of a two page letter threatening legal retaliation should any try to profit from their experiences. Word of their ill health was presumably suppressed until the Mount Sinai study (privately funded) established that about 80% of those doing the work had lost lung functions and were showing symptoms of further and possible deadly harm.

One of the good things about my post WW2 generation of college students was that we took pride in doing blue collar jobs during our summers and school breaks. We knew that such work was dangerous and prematurely damaged bodies. We did not feel the social class distances that a Whitman manifests with her snide attack -- dumping responsibility on guys who did not wear the NONFUNCTIONAL equipment provided to them!

This situation is a national disgrace. If we cannot punish those responsible for it, at least we can give proper support to those so horrendously injured. Many are reported to be suffering PTSD as they learn that they may no longer go on working with damaged bodies and foreshortened lives. We spent billions to support the families of those who died 9/11. At least we can do the same for the responders destined go on suffering the consequences of greedy indifference by those in charge of the clean up.

....................

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/nyregion/26whitman.html

Christie Whitman faced tough questioning Monday by a Congressional panel.

By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: June 26, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 25 — Testifying at a Congressional hearing on Monday about the government’s environmental response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, Christie Whitman staunchly defended her statements assuring the public that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe in the days immediately after the attack.

“Our government has knowingly exposed thousands of American citizens unnecessarily to deadly hazardous materials,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler.

Facing some of her toughest Congressional critics, Mrs. Whitman, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, repeatedly denied the critics’ assertions that there had been a deliberate attempt to play down health risks or that the White House had improperly influenced statements she made in the weeks after 9/11.

She said that she was addressing residents of Lower Manhattan — not workers at ground zero — when she said a week after the attack that the air was safe to breathe. She said that the agency issued strong and repeated warnings to workers on the debris pile to wear protective equipment, but that her agency had no ability or authority to enforce that requirement.

“It’s utterly false then for E.P.A. critics to assert that I or others at the agency set about to mislead New Yorkers and rescue workers,” Mrs. Whitman said during her opening statement before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The hearing room was packed with recovery workers and Manhattan residents who said they had waited years for Mrs. Whitman to answer questions about the environmental and health issues related to the disaster.

“Every statement I made was based on what experts, who had a great deal of experience in these things, conveyed to me,” she said.

But her assertions did not deflect harsh questions or criticisms about the federal response from the Democrats in the room.

“Our government has knowingly exposed thousands of American citizens unnecessarily to deadly hazardous materials,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the subcommittee and a Manhattan Democrat whose district includes ground zero. “And because it has never admitted the truth, Americans remain at grave risk to this day.”

Mrs. Whitman initially refused to testify before the subcommittee because she said she was not qualified to discuss legal issues. After checking with her lawyers, she agreed to appear. She also is named in at least three pending lawsuits brought against the agency by city residents and workers.

The hearing carried a political overtone because the lingering health issues have raised questions about Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s handling of worker safety at ground zero, now that he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. But at the hearing Mrs. Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, did not direct blame at the Giuliani administration for the failure to require that all workers at the site wear respirators.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Review: Hot House - Documentary on Palestinians Imprisoned in Israeli Jails (HBO Wednesday)

[I happened to catch an npr interview with the Israeli producer of this film which examines face to face a cross-section of the 9-10,000 Palestinians now imprisoned in Israeli jails -- many with multiple life sentences, including Marwan Barghouti, whom many see as the natural political leader of the Palestinians towards peaceful conciliation with the Israelis.

The film's director, Shimon Dotan, now resides in the U.S. which he suggests gives him a certain psychic distance from the Israeli/Palestinian conflicts. According to his report the bulk of those imprisoned -- some only following formal trial procedures -- are the natural political leadership of the Palestinians, particularly Barghouti. Some only are would be or complicit with suicide bombers. The Israelis have announced that several hundred of these prisoners may be released -- but probably not Barghouti whom most Palestinians would wish to see assume his natural leadership role -- perhaps another Nelson Mandela in the making?

Personally I hope for eventual truth and reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians. I am personally in touch with people on both sides of the Green Line who share this hope. As any who enters this world knows, one is likely to be accused of anti-Semitism in the face of any criticisms of the Israeli treatment of their captive Palestinian populations -- both in and out of their prisons.

In fairness conditions for the prisoners, themselves, are comfortable. They may choose their fellow prisoners -- Fatah v. Hamas. They have TVs. decent food, and can take extension courses at Israeli universities (not Palestinian ones which many would prefer). Of necessity they learn Hebrew and, thus, would constitute natural bridge figures between the two communities -- were they allowed to circulate outside their various prison walls.

The HBO presentation will probably be repeated and the film may be shown elsewhere. It has already appeared on Israeli and Palestinian TV.
Such an anomaly of a world in which we are living in which nations occupy others and then place those occupied in jails! The U.S. has done the same (Gitmo and Abu Graib) with far less decency and with brutal torture and rendering to hidden deaths here there and elsewhere. Perhaps we might learn from the Israelis? And both the Israelis and we might learn from the rest of the civilized world?

See it, if you can:

Hot House on HBO

"This documentary takes a timely and disturbing look at how Israeli prisons have become the breeding ground for the next generation of Palestinian leaders -- as well as the birthplace of future terrorist threats. Premieres Wednesday, June 27 at 6:30pm."

The following summary is taken from Human Rights Watch. Ed Kent]

................................

http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/hrw07/hothouse.html

Hot House
Series: 2007 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival [Jun. 15 – 28, 2007]
Director: Shimon Dotan, Country: Israel, Release: 2006, Runtime: 89

About 9,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails on “security” charges. Shot inside the Ber Sheba, Ashkelon, Hadarim, and Megiddo prisons, Hot House is a unique, probing documentary feature that explores the emergence of a Palestinian national leadership within Israeli prisons. The film offers a rare look at the experiences, motivations and mindsets of a number of key inmates––men and women, from Fatah and Hamas, serving multiple life sentences––and the remarkable degree to which they influence the political process in the outside world. Hot House provides a unique opportunity to observe events of historic proportions at their nascent beginnings while shattering the two-dimensional stereotypes and the often polarizing commentary presented by the mainstream media on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An HBO Documentary film. Winner of the Special Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2007. Presented in association with Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y and The Frontline Club
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Abbas to demand release of Barghouti

[The release of Marwan Barghouti:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marwan_Barghouti

the natural pragmatic and charismatic Palestinian leader, would probably be the smartest move that Israel could make on behalf of peace and sanity there. Will it do so? Ed Kent]

............................

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1182409630474&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Jun. 25, 2007 0:32 | Updated Jun. 25, 2007 15:32
Abbas to demand release of Barghouti
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
RAMALLAH


Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is expected to demand the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails during Monday's summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, PA officials said.

The officials also said Abbas would call for supplying the Fatah-controlled security forces with more weapons to thwart attempts by Hamas to try to take over the West Bank.

"We want thousands of rifles, hundreds of armored vehicles and a lot of ammunition," one PA official told The Jerusalem Post. "We also want Jordan and Egypt to help train our forces in the West Bank."

# PM: Helping the PA is 'risky, but necessary'

Another official said that Abbas and his aides would ask Israel to release senior Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti and hundreds of Fatah prisoners to enhance Fatah's status. "We will also ask Israel to remove most of the checkpoints in the West Bank and to increase the number of Palestinians who are permitted to work in Israel," he said. "These measures are needed to boost Fatah's standing in the West Bank and to prevent Hamas from establishing bases of support there."

He said Abbas would also ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to instruct the IDF to stop pursuing Fatah gunmen and to refrain from raiding Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank.

The official said Abbas would also seek backing for the deployment of an international force in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas, who met on Sunday in Amman with Jordan's King Abdullah, reiterated his refusal to refusal to talk to Hamas, which he accused of staging a "coup" in the Gaza Strip. He called for a "political horizon in the forthcoming stage that falls in conformity with the relevant UN resolutions and US President George W. Bush's vision" for creating an independent Palestinian state.

Asked whether Abbas expected Olmert to extend anything to him during the summit, Abbas said, "We have received promises from US and Israeli parties, but the important thing is to find these promises honored on the ground."

The Jordanian monarch released a royal court statement which read, "The king underscored the importance of seizing this opportunity for producing a clearly defined vision along with a timetable for relaunching the negotiation process."

Abdullah also urged Arab countries and the world community to extend support to "efforts under way for resuming the peace process," which he said should lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that lives in peace with Israel.

In addition, Abdullah said that today's summit "should discuss possible means for supporting the Palestinian people and lifting the siege" imposed on the Palestinians after Hamas came to power in 2006.

In his first pubic speech since Hamas took control over the Gaza Strip, deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas warned the Arab states and the Palestinians against pinning high hopes on Monday's summit in Sharm e-Sheikh.

"Summits with the Americans and Israelis won't restore the rights of the Palestinians," Haniyeh said. "These rights will be restored only through resistance and perseverance."

Haniyeh's remarks came as a top PA security official in Ramallah accused Iran of backing Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh accused Israel of meddling in Palestinian internal affairs by tightening its siege on the Gaza Strip and pouring millions of dollars and weapons on Fatah in the West Bank.

He said Hamas's decision to take over the Gaza Strip came after the movement had come under pressure and attack in the past 18 months.

Haniyeh said, "We have no problem with Fatah, but with a certain group inside Fatah that was working with foreign parties against Hamas," he said. He also called on Abbas to distribute the tax revenues that Israel is about to transfer to the government of Salaam Fayad to all Palestinians.

Haniyeh denied allegations that Hamas had planned to assassinate Abbas. He said that the booby-trapped underground tunnels that were discovered in the Gaza Strip were only supposed to be used against Israel.

Fatah officials here scoffed at Haniyeh's remarks, saying he was now trying to provide a political cover for the military coup that Hamas staged in the Gaza Strip.

"The man is a liar," said Fahmi Za'rour, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank. "The day will come when he will face a criminal tribunal for his crimes."

Tawfik Tirawi, head of the PA General Intelligence Service, accused Iran of supporting Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip. He told reporters that Hamas members had traveled to Iran and other Islamic countries where they underwent military training.

He denied charges by Hamas that the PA security forces had been collaborating with Israel. He said Hamas members in the West Bank have been stockpiling weapons ahead of a possible confrontation with Fatah.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Dennis Ross, Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World (Just published)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ross

I happened to catch a recent interview of Dennis Ross, Middle East adviser to both G.H.W. Bush and Clinton, on his just published book. His analysis of things there makes great sense -- particularly our need to use the carrot as well as the stick to achieve our goals. His breakdown of the situation in Iran and how to cope with it was most instructive.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Saving President Abbas [or the Kiss of Death?]

[So far as I can determine, all the wiser minds see the present U.S./Israeli policy of favoring Abbas -- with a half billion dollars of support from the withheld Palestinian funds -- will be a disaster for all. Needless to say we should expect the usual corruption to abound -- which will surely outrage Palestinians trapped in both their cages. There was a chance to engage Hamas in the political process. Is that now lost for good? What a nightmare! Ed Kent]

.........................................

Uri Avnery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery
23.6.07

Saving President Abbas

EHUD OLMERT is the opposite of Midas, King of Phrygia. Everything the king touched turned into gold, according to Greek legend. Everything Olmert touches turns into lead. And that is no legend.

Now he is touching Mahmoud Abbas. He lauds him to high heaven. He promises to "strengthen" him. He is about to meet him.

If I might offer some advice to Abbas, I would call out to him: Run! Run for your precious life! One touch of Olmert's hand will seal your fate!


CAN ABBAS be saved? I don't know. Some of my Palestinian friends are in despair.

They grew up in Fatah, and Fatah is their home. They are secularists. They are nationalists. They definitely do not want a fanatical Islamic regime in their homeland.

But in the present conflict, their heart is with Hamas. Their mind is split. And that is not surprising.

They hear the words of President Bush, of Olmert and of the whole babbling choir of Israeli politicians and pundits. And they draw the inescapable conclusion: the Americans and the Israelis are working hard to turn Abbas into an agent of the occupation and the Fatah movement into a militia of the occupier.

Every word now emanating from Washington and Jerusalem confirms this suspicion. Every word widens the gap between the Palestinian street and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The new "Emergency Government" in Ramallah is headed by a person who received 2% of the votes at the last elections, when the list of Abbas himself was soundly beaten by Hamas, not only in Gaza but in the West Bank, too.

No "easing the restrictions" and no "economic steps" will help. Not the return of the Palestinian tax money that was embezzled by the Israeli government. Not the flow of European and American aid. As early as 80 years ago, Vladimir Jabotinsky, the most extreme Zionist, made fun of the Zionist leaders who tried to buy off the Palestinian people by offering economic inducements. A people cannot be bought.


IF ABBAS can be saved at all, it is in one way only: by the immediate start of rapid and practical negotiations for achieving a peace settlement, with the declared aim of setting up a Palestinian state in all the occupied territories, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Nothing less.

But that is exactly what the government of Israel is not prepared to do. Not Olmert. Not Tzipi Livni. Not Ehud Barak.

If they had been ready to do this, they or their predecessors would have done so long ago. Barak could have arranged it with Yasser Arafat at Camp David. Ariel Sharon could have agreed it with Abbas, after Abbas was elected president with a huge majority. Olmert could have settled it with Abbas after Sharon left the scene. He could have done it with the unity Government that was set up under Saudi auspices.

They didn't. Not because they were fools and not because they were weak. They did not do it simply because their aim was the exact opposite: annexation of a large part of the West Bank and the enlargement of the settlements. That's why they did everything to weaken Abbas, who was designated by the Americans as the "partner for peace". In the eyes of Sharon and his successors, Abbas was more dangerous than Hamas, which was defined by the Americans as a "terrorist organization".


IT IS impossible to understand the latest developments without going back to the "separation plan".

This week, some sensational disclosures were published in Israel. They confirm the suspicions that we had from the start: that the "separation" was nothing but a ploy, part of a program with a hidden agenda.

Sharon had a master plan with three main elements: (a) turning the Gaza Strip into a separate and isolated entity, led by Hamas, (b) turning the West Bank into an archipelago of isolated cantons led by Fatah, and (c) leaving both territories under the domination of the Israeli military.

This would explain Sharon's insistence on a "unilateral" withdrawal. On the face of it, it seems illogical. Why not speak in advance with the Palestinian Authority? Why not ensure the orderly transfer of power to Mahmoud Abbas? Why not transfer to the Authority all the settlements intact, with their buildings and greenhouses? Why not open wide all the border crossings? Indeed, why not enable the Palestinians to open the Gaza airport and build the Gaza sea port?

If the aim had been to achieve a peace settlement, all this would have happened. But since the complete opposite was done, it can be assumed that Sharon wanted things to work out roughly as they did: the collapse of the Authority in Gaza, the take-over of the Strip by Hamas, the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

For this end, he cut Gaza off from any land, sea and air contact with the world, kept the border passages closed almost continuously and turned Gaza into the "largest prison in the world". The supply of food, medicines, water and electricity is completely dependent on the goodwill of Israel, as is the operation of the border crossing to Egypt (with the help of a European monitoring unit controlled by the Israeli army), all imports and exports, and even the registration of inhabitants.


IT MUST be clear: this is not a new policy. The cutting off of the Gaza strip from the West Bank has for many years been a military and political objective of Israeli governments.

Article IV of the 1993 Oslo Declaration of Principles states unequivocally: "The two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit, whose integrity will be preserved during the interim period." Without this, Arafat would not have accepted the agreement.

Later on, Shimon Peres invented the slogan "Gaza First". The Palestinians adamantly refused. In the end, the Israeli government gave in and in 1994 signed the "Agreement Concerning the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area". The foothold thus given to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank was to ensure the unity of the two territories.

In the same agreement, Israel undertook to open a "safe passage" between the Strip and the West Bank. And not only one, but four, which were marked on a map appended to the agreement. Immediately afterwards, road signs with the Arab inscription "to Gaza" were set up along West Bank roads.

But during the 13 years that have passed since then, the passage has not been opened even for one day. When Ehud Barak settled his frame in the Prime Minister's chair, he fantasized about building the world's longest bridge between the Gaza strip and the West Bank (about 40 km). Like many others of Barak's brilliant flashes, this one died before birth and the passage remained hermetically closed.

The Israeli government has undertaken again and again to fulfill this commitment, and recently gave Condoleezza Rice personally a specific and detailed pledge. Nothing happened.

Why? Why did our government take the risk of a manifest, clear-cut, unambiguous and continuous violation of such an important obligation? Why did they go so far as to spit in the eye of a friend like the good Condoleezza?

There is only one possible answer: the cutting off of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank is a major strategic aim of the government and the army, an important step in the historic effort to break the Palestinian resistance to occupation and annexation.

This week, it seemed that this aim had been achieved.

The official operation to "strengthen" Abbas is a part of this design. In Jerusalem, some feel that their dreams are coming true: the West Bank separated from the Gaza strip, divided into several enclaves cut off from each other and from the world, much like the Bantustans in South Africa in bygone times. Ramallah as the capital of Palestine, designed to make the Palestinians forget about Jerusalem. Abbas receiving arms and reinforcements in order to destroy Hamas in the West Bank. The Israeli army dominating the areas between the towns, and operating at will in the towns, too. The settlements growing without hindrance, the Jordan valley completely cut off from the rest of the West Bank, the Wall continuing to extend and gobble up more Palestinian land, and the Government's promise to dismantle the settlement "outposts" remaining a long forgotten joke.

President Bush is satisfied with "the spread of democracy" in the Palestinian areas, and the US military subsidy to Israel is growing from year to year.


FROM THE point of view of Olmert, that is an ideal situation. Will it hold?

The answer is an unqualified NO!

Like all the actions of Bush and Olmert, as well as of their predecessors, it is based on contempt for the Arabs. This contempt has proven itself many times as a recipe for disaster.

The Israeli media, which have turned themselves into propaganda organs for Mahmoud Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan, are already gleefully describing how the hungry inhabitants of Gaza will look with green envy at the well-fed, flourishing inhabitants of the West Bank. They are going to rebel against the Hamas leadership, so that a Quisling in the service of Israel can be installed there. The people in the West Bank, growing fat on European and American aid money, will be happy to be rid of Gaza and its troubles.

That is pure fantasy. It is much more probable that the anger of the Gaza people will turn against the Israeli prison wardens who are starving them. And the people of the West Bank will not forsake their compatriots languishing in Gaza.

No Palestinian will agree to the separation of Gaza from the West Bank. A party that agreed to that would be shunned by the Palestinian public, and a leadership that accepted such a situation would be eliminated.

Israeli policy is torn between two conflicting desires: on the one side, to prevent the events in the Gaza Strip repeating themselves in the West Bank, where a Hamas takeover would be immensely more dangerous, and on the other side, to prevent Abbas from succeeding to such an extent that the Americans would oblige Olmert to negotiate seriously with him. As usual, the government is holding the stick by its two ends.

At present, all Olmert's actions are endangering Abbas. His embrace is a bear's embrace, and his kiss is the kiss of death.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Permanent Occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan? Stupid!

Periodically General David Petraeus, our surge general, notes that it ordinarily takes up to 10 years to subdue insurgencies. Pretty obviously he and the neocons have no intention to depart Iraq. We are at the moment laying out half a billion dollars to build a colossus embassy in the middle of Baghdad with 21 buildings to house thousands of employees. Permanent occupation under a compliant Iraqi government is obviously the name of this game. Such has been the U.S. approach to nations that can provide us with valuable resources since long before the Cold War -- check out our invasions of Latin American and other nations during the past several centuries.

A small catch here is that we do not have sufficient military personnel to staff the hundreds of military bases that we have scattered around the globe. How long will it be before someone at The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace or other right wing think tank type suggests that we offer green card status to undocumented immigrants who sign up for a decade or so of military service -- America's very own mercenary army?

A second larger catch is that we are sacrificing the economic interests of the next generation or two by bankrupting the nation with massive military outlays for which we cannot pay without stinting our own infrastructure and basis services -- medicine, education, affordable housing, and all the things necessary to sustain such down to sewers, water supplies, safe bridges, and homeland security.

I am relieved that I no longer have to enter a totally unguarded subway station in Brooklyn evenings and travel through an equally vulnerable tunnel under the East River to make my way home to Manhattan. It is only a matter of time before those angered by our wide-spread invasions and occupations find the wherewithal to strike back. There will be no counter threat to deter them as was the case of a nuclear attack during the Cold War, as we will have no idea from whence our enemies are coming. Would it work to have attacked Saudi Arabia because 15 of the 19 9/11 suiciders came from that country? Which of our cities will receive its first nuclear bomb -- via a shipping crate? Such are still scattered about the former Soviet Republics. And Dr. Khan of Pakistan is a fund of information on how to build new ones.

My officer's training back when taught us the primary truth that military minds are always mentally fighting past wars with their outdated tactics and, thus, losing the present ones for which they are unprepared.

Occupying resistant peoples -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine -- is not the way to go. Such worked up through the 20th. century, but now merely sponsors recruitment efforts of embittered terrorists determined either to get rid of us or to make us pay for our depredations. Our killings of innocents are even scaring the bejesus out of our chosen occupation pols. See Karsai's complaints.

General Petraeus is sadly out of touch and still living in the century past where he received his training:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus

Only a jerk as president would follow his military lead.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Our Big Media Lies

It is not always clear as to whether the oft repeated misrepresentations by our media are deliberate lies or rather simply marks of bad educations and laziness as the same falsehoods are passed around and repeated over and over again.

Let's look at some of the most basic ones this summer season:

1) We hear over and over again that our problems with Iran began with the religious revolution in 1979 that caught out Carter and dumped Reagan on us. In fact in 1979 we were seeing a COUNTER revolution against the evil Shah who had been installed by American and British oil interests -- displacing the democratic government of Mossadeq in 1953:

http://cryptome.org/cia-iran-all.htm

One would expect an occasional reference to the suffering of the Iranian people brought about by our coup installing the Shah. Certainly there are enough surviving Iranians to remember that event and to pass on details of it to the present generation. Why is this kept a deep dark secret from Americans? It might help explain why we are resented and what we have to make up for -- and to talk of regime change? They scarcely want another corrupt one of our making!

2) We are busily killing off 'al Qaeda' in Iraq. Apart from the fact that most either locate bin Laden somewhere in the wilds of Pakistan or see al Qaeda as just another diffuse bumper sticker cover for resistance movements in general, this label strikes one as both propagandistic and horrendously misleading if we are trying to make peace with the resistance movement in Iraq. Were I a Sunni, I would be making tracks out of there which I gather about a million or more, including 40% of the professionals, have already done before the Shiites go full force in extracting their revenge against their traditional Sunni enemies.

3) And then there are the 'bad' states. If one recollects at this time last year Syria was the root of all evil, sponsoring and funding Hezbollah in Lebanon, sending weapons towards Iraq, etc., etc. This was a bit improbable in that nothing would ultimately be more threatening to a Sunni nation than dominant Shiite neighbors on the march. But wait, now it is Iran that is the source of evil weapons scattered around to harass us. Maybe so, but from all reports Iran is having its own economic problems and most likely does not feature having to absorb yet more refugees from its beleaguered neighboring states. Besides its population is quite young and by all reports simply dreams of living the good life such as that they see glimpses of on the Internet.

4) And then there are Pakistan and Afghanistan. Each of these nations is made up of 5 separate tribal groups -- Musharraf came from India and is not a member of any of these clubs. But the dominant one that spans both nations is the Pashtuns. Now would not one expect these folks to be united against an occupying Western coalition? Poor Karzai is pleading with us to stop killing off civilians with our misdirected air strikes from on high. In that part of the world, if you harm a relative of mine, I am obligated to take out a dozen or so of yours -- and so it goes.

Still soft voices only occasionally slip through the mass media drum beats of misleading and missing critical information. Will we ever learn? Probably not, as it may already be too late to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Iraq is the world's second most disrupted nation. Afghanistan is eighth. Fourteen of our good and decent men died this past two days. For what? Take heed!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Bush Vetoes Life Saving Medical Research -- Again!

The bankruptcy of the Bush mentality and administration is nowhere more manifest than in his second veto of federal support for embryonic stem cell research. The Republicans have now pretty well matched the Nazi record for disinformation -- repeating lies until the public is conned into believing them. How many Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein launched the attack of 9/11 -- actually carried out by 15 (of 19 participants) Saudis -- supposedly Bush oil friends and our allies?

This stem cell veto is the pits. The embryonic cells in question are frozen ones left over from fertility efforts that are to be destroyed, if not used for better purposes (G-d routinely discards more than 50% of such which do not manage to attach themselves to a uterus). No one recommends finding hosts in which to implant them. The obvious use is to solve some of the major medical ailments afflicting people at all ages and particularly as we grow older -- Alzheimer's, diabetes, etc.

Any who heard Bush pontificating at his press conference (from notes) will be aware how distorted his presentation was. It is immoral to use embryos to save lives that will otherwise be discarded in the garbage? This guy is our archetypal American gangster -- launching illegal wars, killing off strangers across the globe as well as our own military (another 14 this past two days). His sideline things are nothing short of mind-bending.

I suppose stem cell research will become just another big joke item at his next press conference. I dread the damage that he will continue to do during his remaining days in office -- a nuclear attack on Iran, perhaps? A war on China, Russia, Pakistan? He is our Decider-in-Chief. To hell with our Constitution and international law.
Ed Kent]

....................................

Bush Vetoes Bill Removing Stem Cell Limits
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
The move effectively pushed the debate surrounding the
research into the 2008 presidential campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/washington/21stem.html?th&emc=th

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/washington/21stem.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

..................
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Grim News Today

The news reports today are depressing:

1) The U.S. and Israel are going all out to support al Fatah and to freeze out Hamas. However, Daniel Levy in an early morning interview maintains that such simply will not work. Rather we must somehow reel in Hamas if peace is to be achieved. Levy is one of the most perceptive commentators on such things:

http://www.newamerica.net/people/daniel_levy

2) The U.S. has mounted yet another attack on an alleged al Qaeda-dominated city in Iraq -- ten thousand U.S. troops on the move and the death toll already mounting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6766217.stm

Yesterday apparently well over 100 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad.
One assumes that the death toll of our troops will be reported with a time delay.

3) An Afghan governmental minister is begging for help in suppressing the drug trade which is corrupting local governments across Afghanistan -- how else is one to make a living? And the death toll is rising there, too. Such things get to me, as I have had students recently from virtually all of these places.

4) Seymour Hersch reports that we have moved our renditions for prisoners to Mauritania, taken over by a military coup supported by the U.S. two years back. Yes, they have just had an election, but see Hersch's comments either in his New Yorker article or in one of his interviews (e.g. Amy Goodman repeat tonight on CUNY TV (75) at 6;30). Hersch maintains that we are continuing on with torture and assassinations.

As a child of WW2 I never would have imagined that our country could sink so low.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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QUESTIONING THE ADMISSIONS ASSUMPTIONS

QUESTIONING THE ADMISSIONS ASSUMPTIONS
New study sees high school grades as a far better predictor
than SAT scores, but notes large gap in ability to predict
anything.
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/19/admit

[My own experiences in this domain began in a school where my English teacher was chair of the verbal section of the SATs and my math teacher a member of the math committee. Each gave us a short course in taking the exams. We did well. My English teacher's honors class scored about a half dozen in the top 10 scores nationally. Later I profited greatly from this training. I participated in a practice GRE test in our sophomore college year (that much closer to the old stuff for which we had been crammed). We all did well -- generally in the top 1-2%. Such was most helpful with graduate school applications. The bottom line here is that one can be prepped for such exams -- and what an injustice to those who are not! Dewey had it right -- we all have our own particular types of genius. But his rat studies replacement at Columbia, Edward Thorndike, steered us into the testing maze:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike

Good for rats, but not for humans.

Ed Kent
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Lose/Lose -- LOST IT!

It is hard to imagine how presumably well educated people could have made such an horrendous mess of the Middle East. Bush may have been a dummy at Yale, but some of his advisors must have been around to fill him in a bit on the history of democracy. It did not take a reading of DeTocqueville's Democracy in America or John Stuart Mill to learn that "tyranny of the majority" is not infrequently a worse hazard than outright authoritarian tyranny!

The U.S. is still struggling against the evils of slavery; native Americans are still recovering from our "manifest destiny" genocide (I grew up as a child with "the only good Indian is a dead one."). Women are doing better since the feminist revolution in the 1960s, but have a way to go to achieve equal rights and pay for equal work -- and to stave off the "right to life" women killers who would have them die rather than have an abortion resulting from rape, incest, or a threat to their health. Yes, the Vatican just condemned perhaps our leading global human rights organization, Amnesty International, for defending this elementary human right:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2102583,00.html

I was startled but not surprised. The present ex-Hitler youth Pope, Ratzinger, spent several decades scheming his way into his present role through sponsoring sycophantic right wing appointments to the Cardinalate while John Paul was busy with higher things:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI

And its attacks on gays?

It is sad to see a potential force for good in the world self-destructing in the face of such nonsense. Good men and women -- its leading theologians, priests, nuns, and lay people have been departing this institution which in the U.S. is hard-pressed even to recruit replacements for its aging clergy or to recover economically from its sexual assaults on innocents.

But apart from the lose/lose disempowerment of Roman Catholicism, the abject failures of our U.S. actions in the Middle East are totally mind-bending. Our major (non-democratic) allies there -- Egypt, Pakistan for the moment, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others live in mortal fear of democracy moving in and instituting Islamic radicalism -- as nearly happened a while back in Algeria or where the Turks also fear a comparable 'democratic' overthrow of its secular/military regime. And Hamas?!

Needless to say the greatest challenge to democracy is to keep those elected from turning around and murdering their opponents. This is happening in African states such as Zimbabwe, most of the oil producing states where corrupt elites steal and run -- as in Iraq with our instigation (See 60 Minutes exposé last night.). This year's insurgents and terrorists may well become next year's democratic majority -- caveat! And g-d help the Gazans!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
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Prison Prep in Our NYC Schools

[Posting in part from the African Americans in Higher Education list below. Not a few of my own students at Brooklyn College reported comparable brutal treatment -- being singled out on the streets as young African American men by our NYPD. I well remember years ago a kid being shot and killed by a cop who was then -- while on paid leave -- working out for a fee a deal for a friend to reduce his debts to his bookie. Things are a bit better than that now, but it is still extremely dangerous to be a young African American here. Far too many are headed into our massive prison population -- 2.1 million with 6 million more ex-cons barred from most forms of employment.

For the record we imprison 1/4 of those globally with only 1/20 of the world's population. During my teaching career things have gotten marginally better for young black men -- but a majority are still unemployed in NYC now which tells the never
ending tale of race and racism in America. Incidentally, most NYC cops are decent guys. They are horribly underpaid and, thus, understaffed. I no longer hear of them openly taking bribes as we witnessed when we were living in Harlem as graduate students. But I grieve for the younger generation which is trapped in our racist culture. I once watcheded a tipsy elderly African American being brutally beaten by a gang of happy transit cops in a Brooklyn subway station -- the sergeant in charge was himself African American. A little gang with which I worked back when died violently except for 3 who escaped to better things -- one homeless, a second a hero cop, and a third alive and well on Long Island. I guess this is still about the odds for survival for a young African American guy today. Ed Kent]

..................................


What Kind of System Does This to Its Youth?
===========================================

by Linda Flores


“They’re treating us like criminals, like we’re animals.”

-- Student at Curtis High School, Staten Island, New York City

“Sometimes the classroom feels like a jail cell.”

-- Jane Min, Flushing High School, Queens, New York City

Imagine if schools were places where youth were treated like the precious people they are--where their creativity, their curiosity, and their critical thinking were valued and encouraged. Imagine if, in school and out of school, the youth were challenged and unleashed and they were called upon to discuss and debate everything from Shakespeare to religion, from the state of the planet to how society-–including their own schools-–should be run. Imagine if the rebellious spirit and questioning of the youth were not only not squashed and corralled--imagine if it were valued as a crucial part of revolutionizing society.

But in this society, we can only imagine this. And for way too many youth, the experience is exactly the opposite. Schools are ringed with fences and metal detectors. Instead of the sounds of debate and lively discussion over string theory or globalization, the hallways ring with echoes of cops, Glocks at their hips, screaming to the youth to "Get the fuck back in line!"

When youth come to school, instead of knowing they are coming to a safe place where they will learn and be learned from, they live with fear: will they be frisked and humiliated in front of everyone for no real reason? Will they be arrested if they wander out of the metal detector line? Will they make it home at the end of the day, or will they be taken to jail for swearing or getting into a fight?

An important report, “Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools,” was released by the New York Civil Liberties Union in March 2007 (available at:

http://www.nyclu.org/pdfs/criminalizing_the_classroom_report.pdf

It covers the experience of youth in New York City, but it provides an all-too-rare glimpse at the experience of youth all over this country, particularly Black and Latino youth--the harassment, degradation, brutalization, and criminalization that they are forced to endure when they come to school. The report is drawn from interviews with parents, teachers, school administrators and staff, and, importantly, surveys from 1,000 youth in New York City schools.

In New York City, the public schools have been policed by the NYPD since 1998. In the 2005-2006 school year, there were a total of 4,625 cops (200 of them armed) patrolling the schools as so-called “School Safety Agents (SSAs).” The NYCLU report points out that if the NYPD’s School Safety Division were its own police force, it would be the 10th largest in the country--larger than the entire police force in Washington, D.C., Detroit, or Boston.

Cops Like School Prison Guards

Under the school “safety” program, any junior high and high school in the New York public school system is subject to “roving metal detectors.” What this has meant is cops coming into schools unannounced, setting up a military-style task force. In an approach very similar to what U.S. soldiers do in Iraq, the cops swarm in, take over the school's cafeteria or gym, and turn the school into a police zone, snaked with lines of students waiting to pass through the metal detectors.

Students are forced to wait for hours in line as their bags are searched and their cell phones (prohibited in the school district) or cameras (not prohibited) are confiscated. And 21 percent of the city's junior high and high schools now have metal detectors permanently installed. At Wadleigh Secondary School in Manhattan, one student who found a “roving” metal detector at his school called his mother to come pick up his phone before it was confiscated--and was then arrested when he tried to explain why he wasn't waiting in line.

These cops in the schools act like, and basically function as, prison guards: barking orders, pushing and shoving students, deciding arbitrarily what is and is not allowed on any given day. Students' bags are searched, and everything from house keys to spare change is confiscated. The cops decide what they will and won't let students bring in to schools. For example, some students who had permission to carry cell phones had them taken. Some students had their iPods confiscated and never returned. And at an aviation magnet high school, students had their engineering supplies taken for supposedly being “weapons.”

Cops have confiscated students' food and then eaten it. Students are routinely yelled at and cursed at, and have reported being physically shoved through the metal detectors or shoved against the wall to be frisked regardless of whether they set off the metal detectors. At one school, the cops taunted one student who was wearing a nice coat, accusing him of stealing it. When one cop found a blank CD in a student's backpack he said, “Is that rap? That's probably why you're being searched.” In one eight-month period more than 17,000 items were taken from students in the “roving” metal detector program--70 percent of them were cell phones, and 29 percent were iPods and similar items. Not one gun was found.

The NYCLU report detailed numerous instances where the cops actively terrorized and brutalized students. At one school, cops chased students who tried to avoid the checkpoints, screaming, “Round them up!” At Samuel Tilden High School in Brooklyn, a 17-year-old student named Biko Edwards was walking toward his chemistry class when a vice principal stopped him. When Biko protested not being allowed to go to class, the vice principal called in a cop. The report describes what happened next:

“Officer Rivera then grabbed Biko and slammed him against a brick door divider, lacerating Biko’s face and causing him to bleed. Officer Rivera then sprayed Mace at Biko’s eyes and face, causing Biko’s eyes to burn. Rather than treat the student, Officer Rivera then called for back-up on his radio, and proceeded to handcuff Biko… [He]was taken to a hospital where he spent approximately two hours being treated for his wounds, and spending most of his time in the hospital handcuffed to a chair… He faces five criminal charges.”

And what happens to young women in these schools--are they places where young women are treated as human beings with value and intelligence, and not as a collection of body parts? Are the schools themselves a place where young women and men are encouraged to debate the oppression of women, and called upon to solve it? No--the schools are places where women are harassed and groped by the armed enforcers of the state themselves. One student reported that “the police like to put their hands on kids without reason.” And 27 percent of students surveyed reported that officers touched or treated them in a way that made them feel uncomfortable. Young women whose underwire bras set off the metal detectors reported they were forced to lift up their shirts, supposedly to prove they weren't carrying any weapons, or to unzip or unbuckle their pants supposedly to prove they weren't concealing cell phones. Young women have been searched by male officers, and the report says, “students and teachers alike complain that male SSAs subject girls to inappropriate behavior, including flirting and sexual attention.” At one high school, cops were heard making remarks about a young woman's body. At another school, a gay student was humiliated every day as male cops would flip coins to see who had to search him.

[snip]
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Excluding Minorities from CUNY -- Again!

[I have to share Bill Crain's concern here that African Americans -- particularly males -- are once again being excluded from CUNY. As background many years ago (1963), I worked briefly as an aide to J. Raymond Jones, the "Harlem Fox," NYC's most powerful behind the scenes politician, to achieve "open enrollment" for those then largely excluded from admission. Fortunately for the politics of opening the university, not only minorities, but also blue collar workers -- particularly Irish and Italian -- were also being excluded by high admission standards which to put things bluntly favored Jewish students who in turn were excluded from such as the Ivies and Seven Sisters colleges -- this I knew first hand as I had editorialized against it at Yale and fought it at Vassar as a member of the scholarship committee there where I started my teaching after working with Ray who had formed a coalition with Kenneth R. Clark, noted CCNY psychologist:

http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/kenneth_mamie_clark.html

and principle union leaders. I was Ray's liaison to various of these. And this experience was what drew me to CUNY for the bulk of my teaching career.

What we seem to be seeing now from the reports here and there, is a diminishing number of African American admits to CUNY and particularly men. Those better educated in the British systems of the Caribbean are doing better. Our public schools are about as bad as ever in educating minority students. Even those who do not drop out have not acquired the English language breadth that a middle class family offers and are not getting the equivalent in their schools. We are seeing a widening gap between those minority group members who have made it -- good news -- and the vast majority left behind -- often without even a high school diploma! Crime is on the rise.

Our CUNY honchos have boasted of raising standards. And we do a reasonably good job of educating our students. But NYC families are sophisticated and increasing numbers of them are taking advantage of our honors programs which will leave both students and families in far better financial shape and still offer admission to our leading law, medical, and graduate schools and the leading national fellowship awards -- my college, Brooklyn, has been doing better than Columbia in that department! But those at the bottom of the heap are once again being excluded and, thus, discarded!

Bill Crain is a caring psychologist and active in his college and our university governance. He knows whereof he speaks and his concerns are mine as well, as I leave the academic world for full time blogging and political activity. My concerns are reflected in the groups that I have initiated listing in order of formation in my signature below.
Ed Kent]

P.S. A small footnote to Bill's #3. When I last looked 60 credits were required for acceptance into our NYPD -- John Jay dropping the community college option obviously removes the most reasonable source for those credits. We are having trouble enrolling new police, given the miserable starting pay scales which are near the poverty level.

...................................

On Thursday, June 7, I testified at the City Council's Higher Education
Committee hearing on diversity. The committee's chair, Charles Barron, ran the
hearing.

I raised four points of concern.

1. Between 1999 and 2005, City College suffered an 11-point drop in the percentage of Black undergraduates. Hunter and Baruch also experience sharp declines. Overall, the total enrollment of students of African descent at the senior colleges was pretty flat during this period, while the enrollment of the other ethnic groups increased. I speculated that one factor is the imposition of skills tests. These tests are not good predictors of success at CUNY but they disproportionately reject Black and Latino students from our senior colleges. I speculated that Latino enrollment would have dropped as well, except for the huge increase in the city's Latino population.

2. John Jay, a comprehensive college, is eliminating its Associate Degree program. This change will essentially remove a community college from the CUNY system. Moreover, it will eliminate the smooth transition to bachelor's degree programs that the comprehensive college provides. I asked the committee to see how many students of color will be affected.

3. CCNY and CUNY are shifting IRADAC (the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean) from its CCNY site to the Graduate Center. CCNY already has had its Black Studies Department demoted to a program. Now it's losing this center. What message will be sent to African American students at CCNY, located in Harlem, about the value the college places on their history and traditions?

4. CUNY will soon raise the cutoff score on the Compass math skills test
from 27 to 30 for both pre-algebra and algebra. The hope is to improve math performances in college. But to achieve this goal, what is really needed is a series of new math courses that generate student motivation and move students forward step-by-step. Higher cutoffs will primarily mean more students will be rejected from bachelor's degree programs. And if history is a guide, those rejected will disproportionately be African American and Latino. Opportunities for the disenfranchised keep shriveling up.

At the hearing there also were excellent reports on the Black Male
Initiative and centers for Dominican and Puerto Rican studies.

Bill Crain
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Banned by the CUNY Faculty Senate!

We have a CUNY (City University of NY) faculty group -- narrowly based, as it is elected out of our colleges by our faculty governing groups there. Most people have better things to do, so that the quality of those elected varies considerably. This group tends to complain loudly about things, but ironically over the years has banned a number of us from posting to its list on the basis that we have introduced issues not relevant to CUNY. Needless to say the definition as to what is or is not relevant to CUNY (e.g. the vast military costs that are diverting funds from higher education and other basic domestic services) is quite vague and arbitrary. Hunting for a better dentist is ok, but beware voicing a particular political concern.

I am bemused to see that the Senate list is now locked in mortal combat over the justices or injustices of the Israeli occupation -- the guise here is whether to support the boycott of Israeli scholars (I do not, as many Israeli scholars are as concerned to do justice there as are we here).

Needless to say this little group with its bannings is violating both free speech rights and academic freedom. It has precisely done to members of the CUNY family what those of them protesting the Israel boycott are attacking! And so it goes in narrowed academic circles. Shame CUNY Senate banners! You are hypocrites. Ed Kent

P.S. I started several of the lists below to focus attention on matters that should be of concern to all academics as well as to accommodate persons banned. And there are some decent people in the CUNY Senate, but they are outnumbered by timid ones bent on censoring others.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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