Breaking News
“Israeli, Syrian representatives reach secret understandings”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/813817.html
Will we still be talking/hinting about Syria as part of the Axis of Evil?
“In a series of secret meetings in Europe between September 2004 and July 2006, Syrians and Israelis formulated understandings for a peace agreement between Israel and Syria.
The main points of the understandings are as follows:
# An agreement of principles will be signed between the two countries, and following the fulfillment of all commitments, a peace agreement will be signed.
# As part of the agreement on principles, Israel will withdraw from the Golan Heights to the lines of 4 June, 1967. The timetable for the withdrawal remained open: Syria demanded the pullout be carried out over a five-year period, while Israel asked for the withdrawal to be spread out over 15 years.
# At the buffer zone, along Lake Kinneret, a park will be set up for joint use by Israelis and Syrians. The park will cover a significant portion of the Golan Heights. Israelis will be free to access the park and their presence will not be dependent on Syrian approval.
# Israel will retain control over the use of the waters of the Jordan River and Lake Kinneret.
# The border area will be demilitarized along a 1:4 ratio (in terms of territory) in Israel’s favor.
# According to the terms, Syria will also agree to end its support for Hezbollah and Hamas and will distance itself from Iran.”
Bush and company are saying Iraq-War opponents need to offer a coherent alternative plan or stay quiet.
Give alternative Iraq plan, Bush dares critics
Lest Mr. Bush has forgotten, let me remind him that there was a great big bi-partisan report offering an alternative and a list of suggestions.
I don’t recall an increase of troops in that plan.
So Bush + Team, please review the plan right here!
A small excerpt on this topic.
Sustained increases in U.S. troop levels would not solve the fundamental cause of violence in
Iraq, which is the absence of national reconciliation. A senior American general told us that adding U.S. troops might temporarily help limit violence in a highly localized area. However, past experience indicates that the violence would simply rekindle as soon as U.S. forces are moved to another area. As another American general told us, if the Iraqi government does not
make political progress, all the troops in the world will not provide security. Meanwhile, Americas military capacity is stretched thin: we do not have the troops or equipment to make a substantial, sustained increase in our troop presence. Increased deployments to Iraq would also necessarily hamper our ability to provide adequate resources for our efforts in Afghanistan or respond to crises around the world.
I lost 11 members of my family in less than one year
Abbas Dawood, IRIN
4 January 2007
I’m 29-years-old. I’ve been handicapped since 18 January, 2006, when I lost my leg in an explosion while I was working as a waiter in a Baghdad restaurant.
On the same day I lost my brother Muhammad, who was working with me at the restaurant. He was only 19-years-old and didn’t survive his injuries.
In March of last year, I lost my mother, Suheiya, and my father Dawood. They were killed inside our home. A militia member asked them to leave the neighbourhood but they refused because they were too old. They were shown no mercy and were brutally shot dead.
I’m still a bachelor because my fiancee broke up with me last September after I became handicapped.
In addition to all this, I lost my only uncle, Abu Omar, his wife, and their four children, while they were trying to flee the country to Syria. Insurgents stopped them, accused my uncle of being a traitor and shot dead the entire family.
But, life must go on and we find other ways to survive. I’m still a bachelor because my fiancee broke up with me last September after I became handicapped. Since the death of my parents I have been living with my sister Sahar and her husband, but the latest tragedy occurred two weeks ago.
Sahar and her husband were driving to work when their car exploded. Both died instantly. She had 90 percent burns and her husband’s body was found in pieces.
I don’t have anyone now. Neighbours are trying to help me find a place to live because the house was rented and I don’t have money to pay for it, and all my relatives have been killed or are abroad.
Thousands of Iraqis are suffering like me. Lives are being lost due to sectarian violence. The government this week said that 12,000 people died last year but it is a lie because for sure the number is much higher. And if they don’t take urgent action, this year could be the worst for Iraqis.
I’m now an adult orphan, with no one to turn to for help. The sectarian violence is everywhere and I cannot move alone anymore. I hope someone can help me to survive because I would rather die and join my dead family members than go begging for food in the streets.
This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Some time ago, I debated a particularly hard-headed group of atheists who seemed to think that Islamic traditionalist writings which discuss slavery were meant for the graveyard. I offered the idea that traditionalist interpretations on how to deal with poverty and the subclasses far outweigh ‘democratic alternatives’.
What is funny about certain forms of idealists is that they don’t even know they are idealists. Atheists such as these believe in an idealic vision where the weak are simply eliminated by the virtue of human goodness.
It’s not happening:
Two hundred years after the abolition of the slave trade by the UK Parliament in 1807, there are more slaves in the world than ever before; some estimate as many as 27 million.* It is easier and cheaper to buy and sell humans today than it was at the height of the transatlantic slave trade; in the 1800s, slaves were precious commodities, now they can be traded for just a few British pounds. Slavery may be forgotten, but it is not yet gone.
TurbanTip to Seekers Digest:
OpenDemocracy – Slavery in the 21st Century
March 2007 marks the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade. openDemocracy presents the first of a series of five photo-essays documenting contemporary forms of slavery around the world.
“A $79.95 Opportunity to Breeze Through Security” – NY Times
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’d rather take a whack up the side of the head with a sack of cobblestones than wait in a long line to be treated badly when my turn comes. “
Saad’s blog entry on the subject is great.
http://sadp.blogspot.com/2005/09/for-sale-security-of-american-people.html
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
