Johannesburg - Two escaped prisoners died following a shoot-out with police in Mthatha, Eastern Cape police said on Sunday.
Superintendent Mike Fatyela said Mabhuti Ntozini, 24, was shot and died on the scene while his seriously wounded accomplice died in hospital on Saturday.
“There was a shooting between the suspects and the police as they were trying to hijack a police vehicle on Friday,” said Fatyela.
Fatyela said Ntozini and six others had escaped from the Wellington Prison in August and was believed to have been part of a syndicate. “This is a syndicate. Most of them hide in Johannesburg, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal,” Fatyela said. (news24, Oct 7th)

The differences are all too often only semantic and political. I recall being told my the managing board of a centre that deals with victims of violence in Cape Town, that there were “no victims of violence in Mannenberg on the Cape Flats”. Mannenberg is a place the board at that time referred to as “a bourgeois neighbourhood”. It was not politically expedient for the board to back a project based in that area at that particular time (pre-1996) (Ruth Picker’s paper about victim’s perspectives). This was before the box of gangsterism and violence had truly been busted open by the community. It was a pressure cooker that no-one wanted to touch. After the cooker was opened, of course it became imperative to get on th bus or get left behind. One saw a plethora of projects in such communities in the following years. Times change and labels change along with the times. If it serves one’s interests to de-politicise an issue, then that is the way it remains. For economic reasons, the zionist media and authorities in Azania today try hard to keep these incidents in the box of “crime and gang-related” incidents. Of course, they are afraid what might happen once the box is opened and people start to genuinely analyse the situation.

Allow me to prove my point by re-editing the report quoted above:

Johannesburg - Two insurgents have been eliminated by the police in Mthatha, Eastern Cape police said on Sunday.
Superintendent Mac Fatye said Mabhuti Ntozini, 24, was shot and died on the scene while the second terrorist died in a hospital on Saturday.
“The insurgents opened fire on the police in what police believe was an attempt to hijack a police vehicle on Friday,” said Fatye.
Fatye said Ntozini and six others had escaped from the Wellington Prison in August and was believed to have been part of an al-Qaeda
cell which “operates from secret locations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal,” Fatye said. (newsHQ197, Oct 7th)

How would the public respond to such an inflammatory spin? Apart from the phantom “data base” mentioned (integral to any respectable international reporter’s repertoire of creative tools), the rest of the story (save the name changes) remains accurate.

Related Pages:
Low intensity war - ANC (Jeff Marishane’s paper presented to the TRC, 1992)
Low intensity conflict

An interesting analysis of Ahmadinejad’s statements at a July press conference held in Tehran, appears on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) webpage of July 17th 2007.

The Iranian President’s Thought-Provoking Press Conference was the topic of the viewpoint column titled: Clear & Unambiguous Message for World Peace, written by Iranian columnist S. Nawabzadeh that appeared in the viewpoint section of the English-language daily Kayhan International on Sunday, January 15.

Nawabzadeh argued in her analysis of the conference, that if the UN and IAEA chiefs ever called for inspections of USA nuclear facilities, they would be jailed because:

the proper cognizance of the One and Only Creator is conspicuously absent in the spiritually bankrupt political corridors of Europe and North America, which having plunged masses in their own societies in the pursuit of material pleasures, worship with gay abandon the myth of the holocaust at the alter of Zionism by committing mind-boggling crimes against humanity through lies, deceit, wars, occupation, secret torture centres, and the blood-curdling psychological, physical and sexual abuse of hapless detainees in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram etc.

Let us examine what this means. First of all, these are the statements not of president Ahmadinejad, but the columnist. She is writing in typical poetic and oriental Persian style and directing her comments to the Tehrani audience. Iranians live within a society where inquiry and debate is encouraged and where such a statement does not meet with immediate arrest. The use of the word “myth” here is no doubt understood in such a society in its full meaning, not simply as meaning “false”, but rather as something having some truth, yet having been exagerated over the course of time, and is now applied to over inappropriate contexts and without the necessary reason and logic being applied. Stated differently, this use of the word “myth” refers here to the consequences arising from this historical truth, the holocaust. Far from questioning the reality of the events of the holocaust itself, such an open historical critique allows for a genuine appreciation of the holocaust and would go a long way toward allowing us to learn from the sad lesson of the holocaust. Such an open and honest endeavor will bring honour to the memory of those who died at the hands of the nazzis, instead of committing the same crimes again and bringing DISHONOUR to the dead. Those who want us to misinterpret Ahmadinejad’s statements also hope that we misinterpret history itself and that we fail to see their wanton abuse of the deaths of those at the hands of the racist nazzi regime, to their own selfish ends. Such people would have us ignore also their own part in this crime of the second world war.

The truth is that the holocaust was allowed by the imperialists and racists who profited from WWII, and after the war, the same warmongers have led a campaign of heroically false proportions, which has led to crimes in the present day. These crimes are taking place far away from the original crimes of the holocaust. Indeed, because of the crimes against the Palestinian people and against the Iranian people (including in these crimes the wars by proxy and the crippling sanctions championed by the zionist criminals), the holocaust has assumed the nature of a “myth” due to these criminals and their abusive actions. If someone continues to beat you on the head, kill your loved ones, and capture your children because of something that happened thousands of miles away and which was done by people who have nothing at all to do with you, would you not begin to see that as a “myth”?

Nawabzadeh’s choice of words then, and Ahmadinejad’s words in 2005, were uttered within an Iranian cultural and historical context. When we do listen to anyone, we need to do it carefully and honestly. Instead of seeking reasons to beat the Iranians, we should take full cognizance,

a mafia like clique in control of a few technologically advanced western countries is trying, gangland style, to browbeat the entire globe into submission to its domineering policies. … peace [is not] possible without justice and spirituality, nor do international conventions hold any value when they are applied selectively and discriminately – whether it is the denial of birthrights to the Palestinians on whose lands a non-entity called Israel has been implanted, or whether it is the bid to deprive Iran of its inalienable right to master the nuclear fuel cycle. ..[more]

1. Lewdness, violence and breaking the boundaries of chastity and decency threaten the Family and social coherance.
2. Some global powers are a power unto themselves. Human rights violated by secret trials and breaches of privacy and by prosecuting scientists.
3. Invasion of states and then use conditions created as a pretext for continued occupation. Palestine and Iraq mentioned as a prime example of this strategy employing depravation and coercion and propaganda and threats.
4. Aggressions against indigenous powers and their values. Singled out monotheistic cultures that are ridiculed and profaned in order to question the existence of God and to promote blind consumerism in its stead.
5. Global poverty and depravation. Tragic situation dominating economic international
6. Ignoring human values including honesty purity and trust. Proporgate instead mistrust.
7. Violations of international laws. Contravention of charters and treaties.
8. Escalation of threats and the arms race.
9. There are few protections by International forums

The Roots and Causes of these challenges

1. The outcome of the world war sixty years ago. Some pwers still regard themselves as the victors and the others as the vanquished. Regretably, the UN Security Council is ineffectual. Perpetrators are also the Judges and Jury in international affairs.
2. Disregard of morals, divine values, teachings of prophets, and the rule of the incompetant. Human dignity is no longer respected by impious powers. Disregard of ethics and the rule of the selfish.

Solution
For enduring stability and security. A forum of nations should be established for promoting justice and democracy based on monotheism, and affection of nations

Nuclear Issue
Iran has been deprived and prevented in attempts to prevent Iran from gaining access to the energy cycle and its scientific progress. Iran has sufferred illegal threats and sanctions. Nevertheless, Iran has progressed. The nuclear [political] issue of Iran has now closed and has turned into an ordinary IAEA matter.

Thanks and Invitations to Peace
Thanks to the nations who have supported Iran for standing by the international law. Iran is willing to offer its help to all nations, under educational programs. A statement and an invitation to arrogant powers to return from the path of following satan and to return to compassion to others an respect for human dignity, or else they will be punished as other arrogant nations before them.

Declaration
The end of the era of darkness, materialism and selfishness is overdue. A new age of compassion, dignity, and justice is the key to unity and constructive interaction. This is the promise of God, therefore it will become reality.

Press Conference

Q: In the light of the US Congress and pending French decisions concerning further sanctions against Iran, is the Nuclear Issue closed as a political issue?
A: The extended sanctions do not surprise us, but as far as we are concerned, the issue on a legal question, it is now an IAEA matter. In my opinion, my time here was not hard.

Q: Concerning academic freedoms, why is there so little academic freedom in Iran?
A: Open debate between Iranian president and students in Iran is common place. The academics mentioned in American media are still active in Iran and are not especially limited or restricted. For some legal issues common to all societies, some persons may appear before our independent judicial process in Iran.

Q: Concerning the president’s comments about the IAEA as the only relevant agency, what about the Security Council
A: The sanctions by some global powers are completely illegal and their power is projected on others via the Security Council and by their veto rights within the Security Council. What is right for us to do is to cooperate with the IAEA and to resist.

Q: Nuclear facility in Syria attacked by Israel. What would Iran do if it were attacked
A: Next question please.

Q: What is Iran doing to curb climate change
A: We can reduce the consumption of fuel. All countries must commit to uphold the necessary standards to reduce harm to the environment.

Q: Iran’s neighbours are concerned and the US has claimed that there is an Iranian military dissident, apparently a former defense minister who has evidence as to secret nuclear experiments in Iran.
A: These are propaganda games that are obsolete. We don;t have a defense minister who has left our country and neither are our neighbours concerned about the nuclear issue. The controversy is fabricated and illegal, even according to the IAEA report.

Q: Do you recognise Israel?
A: A usurpative illegal regime and the solution is based on humane concerns. We insist that the Palestinian nation must participate in a referendum to decide on their own fate. Palestinians, whether Muslims, Jewish or Christians, should decide without interference from others. As to the continued existence of Israel, let me ask how the Soviet Union is no more today? The people themselves voted the Union out of existence.

Q: Concerning Iraq
A: Iran and Iraq have a long history of cooperation. Those others who have made mistakes are seeking to blame others for their own failures. The solution is to respect Iraqis and to engage that nation with respect.

Q: Concerning Columbia University and the long line of support for your comments at the General Assembly
A: The debate at the University meeting speaks for itself. The meeting was welcomed widely by students. We must all practice the capacity to listen to things we do not like.

Related Site:
United Nations Media Archive - General Assembly
United Nations Media Archive - Press Conference
Azanian Pulse - The Rogue state of Israel

(1) The president of Iran says the holocaust is a myth, (2) Israel should be destroyed, and his country (3) [Iran] should be allowed to build nuclear weapons.

Associated Press, Sept 22nd

And these are just the opening lines of this report which is published on the ABC website. When reports like these are set in circulation by AP, one has to conclude that there is a methodical effort to lie to the public. After all, this reporter is as informed as I am that:
1) President Ahmadenijad was speaking for an examination of the real facts behind the holocaust, and begging the hypothetical i.e. he said “if the holocaust happened in Europe, why should Palestinians have to pay the price for crimes that took place in Europe”. If that is saying that the holocaust is a myth, then Europe must be a mythical place. Quite simply, he never questioned whether it happened, only the real circumstances around it and what followed the holocaust i.e. the occupation of Palestine.
2) The call is for the regime in Jerusalem to be removed from the page of history i.e. to see this call in it’s context is to understand that it means to expose Israel’s crimes and to replace it with a democratic and representative regime that abides by international laws. Iranians call for death to the evil that drives the barbaric regime of Israel. It is the same as saying, “death to terrorism” or calling for a “war on terrorism”. Hence, Iran’s president wishes to lay a wreath at the WTC ground zero site. Allowing him to do this will go a long way to show the world a true face of Islamic leaders. Unfortunately, he will not be allowed to do this.
3) As to nuclear weapons: Iran is OPPOSED TO NUCLEAR WEAPONS. The CIA found no evidence to suggest any different [2006 report by French Agency]. It is a co-signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (where the U.S.A. has not significantly reduced it’s arsenal having declared itself a nuclear nation, and Israel openly expands hers while refusing to sign the NPT). Iran is suspected by the same people who suspected Saddam of not having destroyed the WMD they sold to him previously. These suspicions have to be seen in light of the fact that Iran has the right to develop nuclear power capabilities according to these international agreements.

US agencies will raise these trumped-up charges of Iran’s breach of NPT: Report by ISIS. The charges can be summarized by the term “failures to report legal uses of uranium”.

In a 2004 Persian Journal Article the head of a UK-based Institute, argued that the USA would have liked Iran to pull out of the NPT. He also argues that there is no real evidence that Iran has in fact breached the NPT.

In August 2007, Iran accepted many measures to rectify the uneasy tension that obtained over the past seven years regarding her nuclear program [IAEA Info Circ, 27th Aug 2007]

IRIB July 22nd 2007 - disarm Israel to safeguard Palestine [read]

President Ahmadinejad UN address (2006)

Nahr el-Bared: more than 30 000 flee, 370 killed (including 55 civilians) in a three month battle, to expel 285 trouble makers (perhaps 200 still at large), and sadly, infrastructural and humanitarian damage untold. What loot was recovered? Apart from short lived political wins on the side of the Lebanese government and the USA, no hard information about those who funded Fatah al-islam has emerged, and the security threat inside the refugee camps and the wider Lebanese territory remains more ominous than before. It had been the most severe fighting since the civil war ended 17 years before. Scouring this story a few weeks ago, searching for the ominous Syrian-Hezbollah-Iranian hands, I came up with zip.

Remembering that the US-backed Lebanese government is seriously battling to gain respect from a Lebanese population that sees Hezbollah (Lebanese resistance) as national heroes since they expelled Israeli terrorists in 2006; it seems quaint that, at the end of this saga, after having tried to finger the “hidden hands”, PM Siniora and his generals came up exonerating all previously blamed “ghosts”, and arrived at the old US-favorite phantom, al-Qaeda. I have yet to find even a single comment from the Lebanese resistance concerning this operation. Is that a sign of an unwillingness to cause disunity perhaps? Good statesmanship on the part of the Hezbollah leadership? Or quite simply, an unwillingness to get involved in fueling sectarian animosities? The army failed to respond to the real enemy last year, being told to cowardly “stand-down”. This left Hezbollah as the only force able to protect the Lebanese people. Wisely, the resistance (Hezbollah) steers clear of military actions in response to this sort of internal problem. The Palestinian refugee camps are a social and political problem, one which the resistance is constantly involved in through its social programs wherever it is allowed access. It seems obvious to any honest researcher, that the Syrians and Iranians are the obvious external humanitarian hands involved here, the Lebanese government having failed largely to respond to the crisis for the past three or more decades. A humanitarian and security vacuum to the south has obvious implications for their own security, and so they are justified in getting involved even at a military level. We must remember that Israel remains an overt nuclear threat to all but her drone states in the region.

Let’s look at the obvious hands in the military story. The modus operanda: use a shotgun to control your own mosquito problem. Sound familiar? Those who enjoy American TV serials will be familiar with the “good cop, bad cop” routine. This one is the same. Let me help you with the dots: Three million dead (and counting) and a lot of oil as loot, to avenge 2 500 (in what increasingly seems to be, by your own hand). This operation saw “US military hardware sent in by the plane-load” (this from the moderate source, Al-Jazeera - video news report). The end result, intensified sectarian divisions, a more malleable population: more desperate than before and open to political suggestion; more instability, under cover of which one can continue to justify a presence. Its all quite brilliant, but it has been done before. It has the marks of the empire all over it. But that’s just the observations of one nutcase, having absolutely no idea about the history nor any previous military nor professional political involvement anywhere. I had so little knowledge prior to doing this modest research that I hadn’t even heard about the Israeli Invasions of 1983, a massacre that seems to have some parallels to the present situation. For those who have as little idea as I did prior to davidvanwyk’s comments on another post, here is one useful article to get you started: Global Exchange: The Palestinian Diaspora

As this post I did on Sept 5th concludes, there is yet another hand, concealed only by its starkly obvious nature. This hand (really one of the fingers of two or more hands) is responsible for the very existence of the refugees in the first place. It’s only a matter of time before we are told to stop talking about “refugees” and refer to them as “illegal militants”.

Find relevant videos ALTERNATIVE MEDIA PAGE:

Lebanese Government ejects Fatah al-Islam from Nahr el-Bared Refugee Camp (The Beginning of Wisdom, Sept 5th, 2007):

After a three month campaign, the Lebanese army claimed on September 3rd, to have ejected most of the members of a group calling itself Fatah al-Islam, from the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp located in the North of Lebanon. The leader of the group, Shaker al-Absi is reportedly among the dead. The conflict has many antecedents, and there are many theories as to the origins and financing of the armed faction known as Fatah al-Islam. The recent military campaign has some support within Lebanon, as well as many critics who say that the military exercise has done little to solve a broader socio-economic and regional problem. Under a 1969 agreement, security and other services inside the camps are supposed to be controlled by the Palestinian refugees themselves. A narrow evaluation at this stage of the military exercise seems to have a broader political implication, coming as it does in a month when presidential elections in Lebanon are expected to be held. The Army and General Michel Suleiman’s popularity have soured, according to a report by Liz Sly, Foreign Correspondent for the Chicago Tribune [more].

The refugee camp has a long history of conflict, since it’s inception by the Red Cross in 1949. A fifty year old mother is living proof of the complexity and sadness of the refugee crisis in the region:

Younis is no stranger to new places. Her family was forced to flee its home in Palestine when Israel was created in 1948. She was later chased from the Tel Zaatar refugee camp near Beirut when Lebanese Christian militiamen overran it in 1976 during Lebanon’s civil war. In 1982, she fled again after Christian militiamen massacred Palestinian civilians in the Sabra refugee camp during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Younis said she was forced to flee Nahr el-Bared a month into the fighting after her house was hit by shellfire. The family moved in with friends, but then fled the camp altogether when their house was also hit.

“This is the fourth time we have been displaced from our home,” she said, her voice cracking with sadness.

Report by The Associated Press, From the Beddawi Camp, Lebanon

[International Herald Tribune, New York Times]
Rami G. Khouri reporting for the Jordan Times:

This is the latest analytical challenge to those in the Middle East and abroad who spend their time trying to understand the political, social, and religious currents that flow through this region and drive its politics and public opinion. It is vitally important not to get this one wrong, given the high stakes involved. When faced with understanding other such challenges in recent decades, many Arabs and foreign colleagues alike have tended to focus on the surface manifestations and analytical superficialities of such phenomena–whether mainstream Arab nationalism, tribalism, and non-violent, or more marginal and deviant drug-, militia-, warlord- and gang-based cultures.

Full article - Iran Daily

There seem to be three main theories concerning the Fatah al-Islam group.

* The US State Department has promoted the idea that al-Absi and Fatah al-Islam is backed by Syria and aims destabilise the region from within the refugee camps. One wonders however, why a Syrian backed group was led by a former detainee of Syria, and why the al-Absi ejected a pro-Syrian group that had controlled the Nahr el-Bared camp prior to November 2006.
* The second dominant theory, one which is supported by the Lebanese military, is that this is an independent group, inspired by the al Qaeda movement.
* A third theory held by pro-Syrian opposition groups is that the Lebanese government allies, including the Saudis, initially funded the Sunni militant group to counter the influence of the Shi’ite Hezbollah movement.

Frankly speaking, those who have experience connecting dots, will see the similarity between the second and third theories.

The Palestinians refugee camps remain a terrible place for anyone to live. Their future and their living conditions remain unchanged, despite all of this. Even more threatening is that the camps remain a hot spot for all manner of groups, with suspicious financiers and questionable aims. The mysterious American created al Qaeda spectre being the chief label among them. Each and every mysterious group require little local support, and few seem to have more than a few hundred men and women in their ranks. The frightening reality is that all of these so called Jihad Groups have the potential to cause an international flurry of theories and a lot of bloodshed. The most dangerous spectre of all, is the prospect that the Americans will use any such conflict generated by her own inventions as she did in Iraq and Afghanistan. As it is, she is now searching frantically for another arrow to aim at Syria and Iran and another claim as she continues to build a case for war against the Islamic Republic and her allies.

Sadly the year 1948 seems to have been forgotten as the myopic analysts ignore the most obvious of all.

Related Sites:

Syria Times (Teshreen English releases)

“I wish to be a soldier and never let anyone touch my country”
Abdulla Karim

Quoting Forbes, Alive in Baghdad Blog posted the following:

“Amnesty International released a statement suggesting that, some Iraqi refugee families have even resorted to forcing their daughters into prostitution to help the family survive. Child prostitution and trafficking of Iraqi children is said to be growing, Amnesty said.”

This Video is available for download at Alive in Baghdad Video Archive: Child Refugees from Iraq Desperate in Syria - July 30th 2007
[Alive in Baghdad - Video Archive: 07/07/30]

Reiterating a call for a national unity government to help resolve Lebanon’s months-long political deadlock, Nasrallah said “Lebanon can only overcome its crisis with cooperation and unity.”

“Lebanon cannot be divided, both practically and objectively. And we do not seek to control the government, or control the state,” he said in a speech broadcast on huge screens before thousands of people in the eastern city of Baalbek.

“We are looking for a united and unified country which will protect Lebanon at a time … the American administration is seeking to plant discords.”

“The American policy in Lebanon is pushing a Lebanese party to monopolize powers…and what is the result? More crises,” he said.

Nasrallah said “Our campaign is peaceful, civilian and civilized.”

“Weapons destroy the country and burn everybody. We have the power but using force inside the country is not in Lebanon’s interest. These arms are for the defense of Lebanon, and not to destroy Lebanon.”

Nasrallah noted that the arms of the Resistance were not militia weapons to be used against other Lebanese factions.

Concerning America’s arms sales to Arab countries and Zionist reigme, Nasrallah said “America is bringing billions of dollars worth of arms to ignite wars in this region.”

“The American administration is working on instigating sectarian strife and civil wars in Palestine, Iraq, the (Persian) Gulf and _ between the countries of this region.”

Nasrallah also noted that the Zionist regime failed in the operational and intelligence aspects during the Second Lebanon War.

“During the July war, Baalbek turned into a front due to the landing of troops by the Zionist regime’s army. There were places in which large forces landed, and we do not deny this, but those landings failed. “They (the Zionists) thought that those actio ns would stop Hezbollah’s secretary-general and the organization’s senior officials,” Nasrallah added.

Source
IRIB

Related:
Middle-east Links

Nasrallah gives a Unity Speech, praising the soldiers who successfully pushed the invading terrorists out of Lebanon. Nasrallah Speech: Victory Over Israeli Terror (2006)