External articles > Middle East

External articles filtered for: "Middle East"

Most recent publication date first.

The following compilation of articles from external sources is presented in the hope that they will be useful but Clarion is not responsible for their content.

Latest NATO Arms From US Found in Daesh Depot in Al Mayadin - Syrian General

Sputnik, 24 October 2017

First paragraph:

The largest Daesh storehouse captured by the Syrian armed forces in the city of Al Mayadin, in the east of Syria, contained the latest examples of NATO weapons from the United States, Belgium and the United Kingdom, Brigadier General of the Syrian Arab Army Hasan Suheil told reporters.

Full article on sputniknews.com

This refugee squat represents the best and worst of humanity

Molly Crabapple, Guardian, 23 June 2017
The derelict City Plaza hotel in Athens was taken over by activists in 2016. Since then, it has housed refugees without a cent of government funding
Full article on theguardian.com

British training for Uzbek military

Private Eye, 10 June 2005, number 1134, page 6

First paragraph:

WHILE foreign secretary Jack Straw rushed to condemn Uzbekistan's army for shooting dead civilians in Andijan, no one bothered to suspend the British army's training programme for the very same Uzbek soldiers.
Full article

Refusenik Israeli pilots under fire

BBC, Thursday, 25 September, 2003

"The pilots' rebellion is an earthquake with a potential for disaster, whose magnitude is difficult to assess at present," he told Yediot Aharonot. "If this storm does not go way quickly, it could drag with it other parts of the army and not only the air force."

Full article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3140032.stm

British academic publisher boycotts Bar-Ilan University

Relly Sa'ar, Ha'aretz English Edition

The British academic publisher St. Jerome Publishing has informed Bar-Ilan University that it will no longer sell books and periodicials to the school due to Israel's activities in the territories.

This article was at the following url but at August 2017 is no longer. Also it does not appear to be archived on archive.org

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=223357&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden'

Martin Bright, home affairs editor Sunday November 10, 2002 The Observer

British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.

Full article http://www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,837319,00.html

Meet the new Zionists

Matthew Engel Monday October 28, 2002 The Guardian

You might think these Christian activists represent the furthest shores of American politico-religious wackiness. The politicians don't think so. This conference began with a videotaped benediction straight from the Oval office. Some of the most influential republicans in Congress addressed the gathering including - not once, but twice - Tom DeLay, who is hot favourite to take over as majority leader of the House of Representatives after the midterm elections on November 5, thus becoming arguably the most powerful man on Capitol Hill.

Full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,820528,00.html

Prosecute Sharon for war crimes, Israeli women say

Robert Fisk, Independent, 24 September 2002

The women's letter, which was sent via the United States, has amazed the Lebanese lawyer representing the survivors of the massacre, for which Mr Sharon was held "personally responsible'' by an Israeli inquiry. "It is a wonderful gesture,'' Chibli Mallat said yesterday. "It is a wonderful message to receive in these very dangerous and violent times.''

Full article from news.independent.co.uk archived on archive.org

IDF kills 9-year-old in El Bireh

Arnon Reguler, Ha'aretz, 20 September 2002

Nine-year-old Abdel Salam Sumerin was killed yesterday when Israel Defense Forces troops used live fire to disperse a crowd of school children challenging the army's attempt to impose a curfew on the El Amari refugee camp, in El Bireh.

In August 2017 this article seems to have disappeared into the Orwellian memory hole. It was was at the following url.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=210531&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

The Men From JINSA and CSP

THEY WANT NOT JUST A US INVASION OF IRAQ BUT 'TOTAL WAR' AGAINST ARAB REGIMES. Jason Vest, The Nation, 2 September 2002, page 16

On no issue is the JINSA/CSP hard line more evident than in its relentless campaign for war--not just with Iraq, but "total war," as Michael Ledeen, one of the most influential JINSAns in Washington, put it last year. For this crew, "regime change" by any means necessary in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority is an urgent imperative. Anyone who dissents--be it Colin Powell's State Department, the CIA or career military officers--is committing heresy against articles of faith that effectively hold there is no difference between US and Israeli national security interests, and that the only way to assure continued safety and prosperity for both countries is through hegemony in the Middle East--a hegemony achieved with the traditional cold war recipe of feints, force, clientism and covert action.

Full article on thenation.com

Israeli dart shells kill family of Palestinians

Phil Reeves, The Independent, 30 August 2002

Salah al-Hajeen was one of at least six people blown up by a shell packed with some 3,000 inch-long arrows fired by an Israeli tank into a fruit-pickers' encampment in the orchards of Gaza.

Full article from news.independent.co.uk archived on archive.com

US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy

Brian Whitaker, The Guardian, August 19, 2002

In real life too, Mr Perle is not fighting his battle single-handed. Around him there is a cosy and cleverly-constructed network of Middle East "experts" who share his neo-conservative outlook and who pop up as talking heads on US television, in newspapers, books, testimonies to congressional committees, and at lunchtime gatherings in Washington.

The network centres on research institutes - thinktanks that attempt to influence government policy and are funded by tax-deductible gifts from unidentified donors.

Full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,777100,00.html

Veterans warn of Gulf War syndrome risk

Brendan Nicholson, The Sunday Age, Melbourne, 18 August 2002

The chairman of the steering committee of the Australian Gulf War Veterans Association, David Watts, told The Sunday Age he did not want to see other young service personnel suffer.

"I think it's very irresponsible of the government to start talking about sending people over for another go when they haven't really looked after the people who went in the first place," Mr Watts said.

Full article http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/17/1029114031047.html

Robert Fisk: Be very afraid - Bush Productions is preparing to go into action

They are setting up the Arab world. We are being prepared for an epic supported by Hollywood and a plot of lies

Robert Fisk, Independent, 17 August 2002

It's not difficult to see what's going on. It's not just al-Qa'ida who are the "enemy". It's Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia. Bush Productions are setting up the Arab world. We are being prepared for a wide-screen epic, a spectacle supported by Hollywood fiction and a plot of lies.

Full article from www.independent.co.uk archived on archive.org

Selective Memri

Brian Whitaker investigates whether the 'independent' media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems

Guardian, August 12, 2002

The reason for Memri's air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon.

Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

Full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,773258,00.html

UK selling arms to India

Richard Norton-Taylor Guardian Tuesday 20 June 2002

The government approved arms sales to India and Pakistan throughout the Kashmir crisis, at a time when ministers were warning about the dispute spreading beyond the region and telling British citizens to leave the area immediately.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4444471,00.html

Revealed: How a British firm sells planes to India and trains fighter pilots for Pakistan

BRIAN BRADY WESTMINSTER EDITOR Scotland on Sunday 2 June 2002

BAe Systems is hoping to sell military jet trainers worth £1bn to India, in addition to the fighter bombers it has already provided to the country.

And while BAe has been negotiating with India for the sale of more jets, it has been training elite Pakistani pilots and fighter operations controllers at a specialist training college in Wales.

A Scotland on Sunday investigation has also revealed that AMS has clinched an £8.5m deal to provide the Pakistani Navy with a battlefield radar system.

Full article from news.scotsman.com archived on archive.org

"I made them a stadium in the middle of the camp"

Tsadok Yeheskeli, Yediot Aharonot, May 31, 2002

"For three days, I just destroyed and destroyed. The whole area. Any house that they fired from came down. And to knock it down, I tore down some more. They were warned by loudspeaker to get out of the house before I come, but I gave no one a chance. I didn't wait. I didn't give one blow, and wait for them to come out. I would just ram the house with full power, to bring it down as fast as possible. I wanted to get to the other houses. To get as many as possible. Others may have restrained themselves, or so they say. Who are they kidding? Anyone who was there, and saw our soldiers in the houses, would understand they were in a death trap. I thought about saving them. I didn't give a damn about the Palestinians, but I didn't just ruin with no reason. It was all under orders.

Full article from www.thememoryhole.org archived on archive.org

Washington is pushing India and Pakistan to the brink of war

by Michel Chossudovsky Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), globalresearch.ca , 23 May 2002
India and Pakistan are currently at the brink of war.

Presented by the media as a conflict regarding the status of Kashmir, the role of US foreign policy in feeding this conflict is invariably overlooked. Since the end of the Cold War, Washington has deliberately contributed --through covert intelligence operations-- to fuelling the Indo-Pakistan conflict. In the wake of September 11, amidst new terrorist attacks and ethnic riots in India, conditions have developed which favour the outbreak of war between the two countries.

Full article http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO205C.html

BAe Systems mentioned in Private Eye

Private Eye 3-16 May 2002, page 3

International development secretary Clare Short's suggestion that BAE Systems' £28m sale of a military air traffic system to Tanzania might be corrupt has put her even more at odds with her cabinet colleagues.

Just one measure of the esteem in which Tony Blair's government holds Labour party donor BAE Systems is the latest new year's honours list. The company's government affairs director Peter McLoughlin and regional marketing director Brian Tucker were both presented with OBE's - a timely reward for their firm's success in striking the Tanzanian deal.

Private Eye website: http://www.private-eye.co.uk/

WWIII is coming, 'I'm sure,' high-level Sharon aide says

Arizona Daily Star; Tucson, Ariz.; Apr 27, 2002; Stephanie Innes;

Abstract from http://www.azstarnet.com/ (you can find it for example by searching for "Gissin" in the archive) :

[Ra'anan Gissin], 53, is in Tucson this weekend as part of a 12-day tour of the United States to promote the purchase of Israel Bonds. The bonds are part of a program that began in 1951 in which securities are sold to individuals and corporations to finance economic growth in Israel.

Mohyeddin Abdulaziz, 54, a Tucson resident and Palestinian who grew up ...

Full article on archive.org, archived from rense.com

[YeshGvul] 5 conscripts jailed for refusal

From cherryk@zahav.net.il Fri Apr 26 16:23:49 2002
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 22:46:55 +0200
From: peretz kidron <cherryk@zahav.net.il>
To: YeshGvul@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [YeshGvul] 5 conscripts jailed for refusal
The imprisonment of these five is most significant ! They are not the first young (18-20) conscripts to refuse duties in the campaign of repression. Others have done so in the past. But their 3-year service places them under much stricter discipline than reservists called in for a few weeks, and few have the maturity and self-confidence to face up to the ordeal they can expect from their superiors until their discharge. The spread of the refusal movement to the conscript units marks a notable breakthrough.
Full article

[YeshGvul] new call-up, more jailed refuseniks - סרבנים נוספים בכלא

From ofern@cs.huji.ac.il Sat Apr 20 22:20:51 2002
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 14:16:45 +0000
From: ofer neiman
To: yeshgvul@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [YeshGvul] new call-up, more jailed refuseniks - סרבנים נוספים בכלא
Another batch of emergency call-up orders for Sharon's war against the Palestinians has gone out, and with it a new batch of jailed refuseniks ^ײ three since Monday (and probably some more tomorrow). These are the latest who have said NO! to the occupation:
Full article y20apr.html

Robert Fisk: Fear and learning in America

Independent 17 April 2002
And for the first time in more than a decade of lecturing in the United States, I was shocked. Not by the passivity of Americans - the all-accepting, patriotic notion that the President knows best - nor by the dangerous self-absorption of the United States since 11 September and the constant, all-consuming fear of criticising Israel. What shocked me was the extraordinary new American refusal to go along with the official line, the growing, angry awareness among Americans that they were being lied to and deceived.
Full article from www.independent.co.uk archived on archive.org

US, other countries seek end to violence along Israel's border with Lebanon

The News Internet Edition, ISSN 1563-9479 Thursday 11 April 2002

(Updated at 1120 PST)
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush's administration is taking part in a diplomatic effort to prevent Israel's border with Lebanon from becoming a second front in the Middle East conflict, said sources on Thursday.

State Department officials highlighted the US concern as Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon staged one of the biggest attacks in two years, firing rockets and mortars into Israeli territory.

Such attacks have been frequent since Israel began attacks against Palestinian militias.

Full article from jang.com.pk archived on archive.org

Angry streets

Rasha Saad Al-Ahram Weekly Online 11 - 17 April 2002 Issue No.581

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have protested daily on the streets since Israeli troops attacked Palestinian towns and laid siege to President Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound on 29 March.

Daily demonstrations have erupted in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Large turnouts were reported in Libya and Iraq. But the largest were in Morocco and Sudan where marching crowds swelled to a million each. Marches, a rare occurrence in the conservative Gulf states, were also reported in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. Arab officials joined in more than one demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Full article on weekly.ahram.org.eg

Students in Middle East protest

Cambridge Evening News, Wednesday 10 April 2002
Two members of CamSAW - Cambridge Students Against the War - are trapped in the besieged town of Bethlehem, where they are acting as a human shield trying to protect a Palestinian refugee camp.
Full article from www.cambridge-news.co.uk archived on archive.com

World Bank to West Bank

George Monbiot Guardian Tuesday 9 April 2002
Since the army's offensive in the West Bank began, hundreds of Israeli peace campaigners and foreign activists have been seeking to put themselves in its way.At great personal risk, members of the International Solidarity Movement have sought to protect civilians by making hostages of themselves. It is a display of extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice.
Full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4390071,00.html

Cairo acts

Al-Ahram Weekly Online 4 -10 April 2002 Issue No.580
The level of diplomatic "channels" that Cairo will leave open with Tel Aviv was left unclear, raising questions about the possibility of downgrading Israel's diplomatic mission in Cairo. The decision does imply, however, that Egypt's economic, agricultural and tourism ties with Israel will be frozen -- a step that meets part of the demands voiced by demonstrators across the country, who want Israel's embassy in Cairo shut down.
Full article on weekly.ahram.org.eg

[YeshGvul] Seder, 3 refuseniks, tear gas

From cherryk@zahav.net.il Tue Apr 09 17:43:50 2002
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 23:41:03 +0200
From: peretz kidron <cherryk@zahav.net.il>
To: YeshGvul@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [YeshGvul] Seder, 3 refuseniks, tear gas
Defying unseasonable rain, hundreds of Israeli peace supporters, reinforced by a strong delegation of internationals, clambered a hill overlooking Military Prison 6 at Athlit, to hold a Freedom Seder in honour of the jailed refuseniks (there were 18 when we started, up to 21 when the ceremony ended !) Above all, we were there to celebrate the fact that there are now OVER A THOUSAND REFUSENIKS !
Full article

Don't always trust what they tell you in the war on terror

Raymond Whitaker and James Palmer Independent 31 March 2002
Downing Street said al-Qa'ida was using chemical weapons: it was wrong. The Pentagon said Saddam Hussein was to blame for the anthrax attacks on the US: it was wrong.

Full article from news.independent.co.uk archived on archive.org

[YeshGvul] 2 naval refuseniks + 1

Ram Rahat - Peretz Kidron 20:16:48 +0200 25 March 2002 Yesh Gvul email list YeshGvul@yahoogroups.com

Two reserve officers of the Israeli navy have been jailed for refusing service in the occupied territories.

Capt. (res.) Shahar Tzur (30), formerly of the missile boat section, was jailed for 28 days. Tzur is married, a resident of Haifa and a student of architecture at the Technion. He is a signatory of the "Courage to Refuse" declaration.

Full article

Democracy for sale

Greg Palast, 23 March 2002

This page is an edited transcript of a talk given by Greg Palast at the Think Twice Conference in Cambridge, on 23 March 2002.

[Clarion: recommended reading. It includes information additional to that in his book of the same name. The topics are: The Florida list, Barrick and Bush, The Bin Laden connection, The Necessity Test, Argentina and The World Bank, The World Bank's biggest loan, Step 3½ the IMF riot]

Full article from www.think-twice.org.uk archived on archive.org

A spectacular miscarriage

Judit Neurink Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 March 2002 Issue No.578

Arab legal experts in Camp Zeist were incensed by the verdict. Whilst Libyan lawyers spoke of a trial that is politically motivated, Saber Ammar of the Arab Lawyers' Union criticised "the influence of politicians and the press on the judges." Chairman Bechir Essid of the Tunisian Bar Association said he was disillusioned with the Western judicial system. "How can you sentence someone without any proof? This is abuse of justice.,' he said.'

The United Nations' observer, Hans Kchler, an Austrian professor of Jurisprudence, was alarmed by the decision. He described the appeal as "a rather spectacular miscarriage of justice." He was lost as to how a unanimous decision was reached "in the light of some of the analysis presented and questions asked by the judges."

Full article on weekly.ahram.org.eg

The soldiers who refuse to fight

The Scotsman Mon 4 Mar 2002
Earlier this year, a group of some 50 enlisted men and officers signed a petition proclaiming their refusal to serve in the occupied territories, saying they were given orders that served no security purpose, and boldly stating that "we shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people".
Full article from news.scotsman.com archived on archive.org

I Was There When The Americans Bombed

Dr. Suhail Shafi, March 2002
The night before the Americans bombed was, for me and so many others in the coastal Libyan capital city, a night like so many others, at least to start of with.I was the younger child of an Indian couple, who were both physicians, both employed in Libya for over a decade.
Full article wasthere.html

DEPLETED URANIUM IN BUNKER BOMBS

America's big dirty secret

by ROBERT JAMES PARSONS Le Monde Diplomatique, March 2002
"The immediate concern for medical professionals and employees of aid organisations remains the threat of extensive depleted uranium (DU) contamination in Afghanistan." This is one of the conclusions of a 130-page report, Mystery Metal Nightmare in Afghanistan? (1), by Dai Williams, an independent researcher and occupational psychologist. It is the result of more than a year of research into DU and its effects on those exposed to it.
Full article http://MondeDiplo.com/2002/03/03uranium

An Antiwar Movement Grows in Israel

Neve Gordon, The Nation, 25 February 2002
A few months after the 1967 war, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a professor at Hebrew University and a leading Israeli intellectual--who was also an observant Jew--stated that Israel must immediately withdraw from the occupied territories. He argued that the occupation was unjust and would inevitably lead to the oppression and subjugation of the Palestinians, and to the corruption if not destruction of Israeli society. Until his death in the mid-1990s, he continued to criticize the occupation, using piercing, prophetic language to condemn the immorality of Israeli policies. For years, Leibowitz also averred that if 500 reservist soldiers would simultaneously refuse to serve in the territories, the occupation would end.
Full article from www.thenation.com archived on archive.org

POLICE INVESTIGATE NEW ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER OVER WAR CRIMES

Chris McGreal and Brian Whitaker, Sydney Morning Herald, 11/2/02

Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, named as Israeli Defence Minister by the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is under investigation by British police for alleged war crimes in the occupied territories.

Full article http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/01/1036027036796.html [Clarion: Its interesting to compare the headline that the Guardian chose to use -see article below]

Sharon puts hardliner in defence post

Chris McGreal in Jerusalem and Brian Whitaker in London Friday November 1, 2002 The Guardian

Gen Mofaz was in Britain this week on a speaking tour but cut short his visit on Wednesday as the Israeli government collapsed and the director of public prosecutions asked Scotland Yard to investigate war crimes allegations.

Full article http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,823885,00.html

Letter from Israel

Private Eye, 30 November to 13 December 2001, page 15

Take the bombing of American targets. Our chaps bombed the US cultural centres in Cairo and Alexandria as early as 1954, planning to let Abdul Nasser's new Egyptian government take the blame. Unfortunately the scam went wrong and our defence minister Pinhas Lavon had to resign, though the director-general of his ministry, Shimon Peres, managed to hang on. Today he is Ariel Sharon's foreign minister.

Full article:
e/fake_attack_pe_30nov2001.html

World pressure to see Israeli soldiers tried

Simon Freeman, The Times, 28 February 1988

FOUR Israeli soldiers who were filmed systematically beating up two young Palestinians in the West Bank town of Nablus are facing courts-martial and possible prison terms of up to six years. The incident has provoked horror and outrage in countries where it has been shown on television, although yesterday Israeli government ministers and officials were trying to minimise its impact.

Full article:
e/beatings_times_28feb1988.html

Princess executed for eloping

The Observer, 22 January 1978, page 1

The Observer reports that a Saudi Arabian prince had his granddaughter shot dead in front of her husband who was then beheaded, after she married someone her family did not want her to marry.

Also interesting are the the final five paragraphs of apologetics on behalf of the rulers of Saudi Arabia that the Observer appended to what otherwise appears to be a factual report.

Full article:
press_cuttings/saudi_obs_22jan1978.html

'HONOURED KILLERS' REBUKE

Daily Telegraph, 28 June 1975

BRITAIN has rebuked the Israeli Government over its honouring of the two gunmen who murdered Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister in the Middle East, in 1944.

Full article moyne28jun1975.html

Fury over honoured killers

Paul Callan, Daily Mirror, 27 June 1975

WHILE Israelis are honouring the Stern Gang killers (Eliahu Hakim and Eliahu Bet-Zuri) at least one man, Maj. Andrew Hughes Onslow, is angered - particularly by the tribute paid by a UN Guard of Honour when the killers' remains were handed over by the Egyptians on Tuesday.

Full article moyne27jun1975.html