Realitista

B'Tselem: More than 50% of Palestinians killed in Israel's last Gaza operation were civilians - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper

More than one-third of the Palestinian civilians killed during Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip last November were under the age of 18, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said in a report released this week.

The B’Tselem based its findings on Operation Pillar of Defense on statements issued by the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security service, and on an internal investigation.

The IDF killed 167 Palestinians during the operation, at least 87 of them non-combatants, according to the data presented in the B’Tselem report.

Thirty-one of these non-combatant civilians, or 35 percent, were minors. Of these minors, 20 were under the age of 12, according to B’Tselem.

Iraq records huge rise in birth defects

I’m sure all the liberation was worth it though.

High rates of miscarriage, toxic levels of lead and mercury contamination and spiralling numbers of birth defects ranging from congenital heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs have been recorded. Even more disturbingly, they appear to be occurring at an increasing rate in children born in Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.

There is “compelling evidence” to link the increased numbers of defects and miscarriages to military assaults, says Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report and an environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Similar defects have been found among children born in Basra after British troops invaded, according to the new research.

Former CIA Chief: Obama's War on Terror Same as Bush's, But With More Killing

“And so, we’ve seen all of these continuities between two very different human beings, President Bush and President Obama. We are at war, targeted killings have continued, in fact, if you look at the statistics, targeted killings have increased under Obama.” He said that was the case because, in one differing path between the two presidents,

Obama in 2009 closed CIA “black sites” and ratcheted down on torturing detainees. But instead of capturing so-called “enemy combatants,” President Obama kills them instead, Hayden said. “We have made it so politically dangerous and so legally difficult that we don’t capture anyone anymore,” Hayden said. “We take another option, we kill them.”

Obama’s kill list has even included American citizens.

Influential economist says Wall Street's full of 'crooks'

Corruption, insider trading and criminal behavior are rampant on a vast scale on Wall Street today as financiers and Washington play the same greedy games that brought us to the brink five years ago,

And it will be that way until we stop voting for the Republicans and Democrats who enable it.

CISPA gained 36 new co-sponsors on the same day that IBM flew in 200 executives to lobby Congress on the bill

Selling out our private internet data to the highest bidder. Thanks Republicans and Democrats.

On Monday, the same day that IBM flew nearly 200 executives to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress in support of CISPA, 36 members of the House signed onto the bill as new co-sponsors. Prior to Monday, CISPA had only 2 co-sponsors since being introduced in February.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration issued a veto threat against the bill in its current form citing privacy concerns.

Data: MapLight analysis of reported contributions to the 36 new CISPA co-sponsors and the entire House from interest groups supporting and opposing CISPA.

• New co-sponsors have received 38 times as much money ($7,626,081) from interests supporting CISPA than from interests opposing ($200,362).

• Members of the House in total have received 16 times as much money ($67,665,694) from interests supporting CISPA than from interests opposing ($4,164,596).

Comprehensive List of the Conservative, Corporatist, and Authoritarian policies President Obama has enacted

Obama extends Patriot Act without reform - [1]

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-05-27/news/29610822_1_terrorist-groups-law-enforcement-secret-intelligence-surveillance

Signs NDAA 2011 (and 2012, and 2013) - [2]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/02/president-obama-signed-the-national-defense-authorization-act-now-what/[2] Appeals the Federal Court decision that “indefinite detention” is unconstitutional - [3]

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/ndaa-hedges-v-obama-did-bill-of-rights.html

Double-taps a 16-year-old American-born US citizen living in Yemen, weeks after the boy’s father was killed. Administration’s rationale? He “should have [had] a far more responsible father”[4] - [4]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/anwar-al-awlakis-family-speaks-out-against-his-sons-deaths/2011/10/17/gIQA8kFssL_story.html

Continues to approve drone strikes that kill thousands of innocent civilians including women and children in Pakistan, Yemen, and other countries that do not want the US intervening; meanwhile, according to the Brookings Institute’s Daniel Byman[6] , we are killing 10 civilians for every one mid- to high- level Al Qaeda/Taliban operative. This is particularly disturbing, since now any military-aged male in a strike zone is now officially considered an enemy combatant - [5]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/7361630/One-in-three-killed-by-US-drones-in-Pakistan-is-a-civilian-report-claims.html

Protects Bush’s war crimes as State Secrets - [6] [7] [8]

http://www.salon.com/2010/09/08/obama_138/ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush http://washingtonindependent.com/33985/in-torture-cases-obama-toes-bush-line

Waives sections of a law meant to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers in Africa in order to deepen military relationship with countries that have poor human rights records -[9]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/26/why_is_obama_easing_restrictions_on_child_soldiers

Appoints Monsanto, GMO company with multiple unsafe practice violations, lobbyist to head the FDA - [10]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/monsanto-petition-tells-obama-cease-fda-ties-to-monsanto/2012/01/30/gIQAA9dZcQ_blog.html

DOJ raids marijuana dispensaries that are now legal pursuant state law - [11]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=685_1342311527

Obama protects AG Holder from Congressional “Fast and Furious” gun walking investigations - [12]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/white-house-invokes-executive-privilege-on-fast-and-furious-documents/

Brings no criminal charges against bank executives that misused bailouts - [13]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/no-crime-no-punishment.html

Engages in a war on whistleblowers - [14]

http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/31/the-obama-administrations-war-on-whistleblowers/

Grants immunity to CIA torturers - [15]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/31/obama-justice-department-immunity-bush-cia-torturer

Quadruples Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program - [16]

http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/new-justice-department-documents-show-huge-increase

Allows innocent man to die at gitmo - [17]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suzanne-nossel/the-death-of-guantanamo_b_1878375.html

Increases Drug War budget - [18]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/the-national-drug-control-budget-fy-2013-funding-highlights

Supports intrusive TSA pat-downs and body scans - [19]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/20/obama.tsa/index.html

Says it’s legal to track individuals by pinpointing their cellphone without warrant - [20]

http://www.businessinsider.com/government-says-its-to-track-cell-phones-2012-10

Renews FISA and NSA’s unregulated spying and banking of all wireless communication - [21] [22]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/us/01nsa.html http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/whistleblower_the_nsa_is_lying_us

Appeals SCOTUS ruling that warrantless installation of tracking devices on cars is unconstitutional - [23]

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/11591-obama-admin-argues-no-warrant-required-for-gps-tracking-of-citizens

DOJ overzealously prosecutes [read: persecutes] activist Aaron Swartz, ultimately leading to his suicide in the face of trumped-up charges brought forth to silence his movement for open information - [24]

http://rt.com/usa/secret-service-accused-of-misconduct-in-aaron-swartz-case-020/

Obama nominates JP Morgan defense lawyer to head the SEC, the regulatory agency in charge of keeping Wall Street in line - [25]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/choice-of-mary-jo-white-to-head-sec-puts-fox-in-charge-of-hen-house-20130125

Picks Goldman Sachs partner Bruce Heyman—who, along with his wife, raised $1 million for Obama—as an ambassador to Canada - [26]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/04/03/pol-us-ambassador-to-canada-obama.html

The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions

This will probably piss some people off, but until I see the same outpouring for the children we kill overseas and the rescuers we kill who come to help them as I do for tragedies in the USA, I will post stuff like this. Americans lives are not worth more than those that Americans kill overseas.

The widespread compassion for yesterday’s victims and the intense anger over the attacks was obviously authentic and thus good to witness. But it was really hard not to find oneself wishing that just a fraction of that compassion and anger be devoted to attacks that the US perpetrates rather than suffers. These are exactly the kinds of horrific, civilian-slaughtering attacks that the US has been bringing to countries in the Muslim world over and over and over again for the last decade, with very little attention paid. My Guardian colleague Gary Younge put this best on Twitter this morning:

Juan Cole this morning makes a similar point about violence elsewhere. Indeed, just yesterday in Iraq, at least 42 people were killed and more than 250 injured by a series of car bombs, the enduring result of the US invasion and destruction of that country. Somehow the deep compassion and anger felt in the US when it is attacked never translates to understanding the effects of our own aggression against others.

One particularly illustrative example I happened to see yesterday was a re-tweet from Washington Examiner columnist David Freddoso, proclaiming: Idea of secondary bombs designed to kill the first responders is just sick. How does anyone become that evil?”

I don’t disagree with that sentiment. But I’d bet a good amount of money that the person saying it - and the vast majority of other Americans - have no clue that targeting rescuers with “double-tap” attacks is precisely what the US now does with its drone program and other forms of militarism. If most Americans knew their government and military were doing this, would they react the same way as they did to yesterday’s Boston attack: “Idea of secondary bombs designed to kill the first responders is just sick. How does anyone become that evil?” That’s highly doubtful, and that’s the point.

There’s nothing wrong per se with paying more attention to tragedy and violence that happens relatively nearby and in familiar places. Whether wrong or not, it’s probably human nature, or at least human instinct, to do that, and that happens all over the world. I’m not criticizing that. But one wishes that the empathy for victims and outrage over the ending of innocent human life that instantly arises when the US is targeted by this sort of violence would at least translate into similar concern when the US is perpetrating it, as it so often does (far, far more often than it is targeted by such violence).

Update: BBC Will Play Clip Of 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead' which critics of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pushed up the British charts this week after the Iron Lady's death.

“BBC Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper has said that a ‘four or five’ second clip of the Wizard of Oz song at the center of an anti-Margaret Thatcher campaign will be played on the Official Chart Show. Sales of ‘Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead’ have soared since the former Prime Minister’s death on Monday, aged 87.

“Mr. Cooper called the decision ‘a difficult compromise’ and said he was ‘stuck between a rock and a hard-place.’ “

Infographic: Who are the casualties of America's drone strikes?

How many children is it okay for the US government to kill? Is 175 too many? Personally I think 1 is too many.

Obama has committed a Sandy Hook and a Columbine massacre every single year of the drone campaign. Nobel Peace Prizes are cheap these days.

The United States has killed more than 3,000 people in Pakistan with drone strikes. Breaking down who died and when into a clear and useful way can be tricky. Pitch Interactive, which has worked with Popular Science in the past, and its latest on drone casualties provides a straightforward look at a relatively murky war. At least, as clear a portrait as one can get from a contested area with biased witnesses, reporters, and governments all trying to shape the debate. By email, I asked Wesley Grubbs of Pitch Interactive about the data.

Popular Science: Victims are categorized as children, civilians, “high-profile,” and “other.” Did you consider breaking up the “other,” and if so, was that a problem of unclear information? Or was it something else, like wanting to avoid assuming a clear answer when the data isn’t so much unclear as politically contested?

Grubbs: The “Other” category is really a very grey zone. The Obama administration would call these people “military combatants” because they are of-age males. However, many people in this category are actually civilians. It’s just that many of the bodies are beyond recognition or there are conflicting reports on the ground about who they are. It’s never clear exactly who they are or what threat they pose. The high-profile targets, however, are the people who [we] know have direct affiliations with the Taliban or Al Qaeda. However, say a military combatant’s house was hit and his neighbor’s house was also hit in the strike, the neighbor would be automatically termed as a military combatant if he was male. Because of this, we did not want to call these people military combatant and there is not enough data to break these men out further.

Popular Science: More than 75 percent of the victims fall into the “other” category. That means you’re working with a data set three-fourths of which is unclear. Is it challenging to make a visualization for something so unknown?

Grubbs: It’s not necessarily unclear. People simply call them something different. …Our goal was to help bring light to this uncertainty. These are people who are accused of being something without any representation before they are eliminated. Is this something we want to support? And if they are military combatants, are they even a threat to America? The CIA is not disclosing any information to support their decisions in who to target and this is something people should understand.

The visualization does an excellent job conveying the sheer scale of collateral damage from strikes used to kill only a few high-value targets, and uses information on those high-value targets from the reputable New America Foundation. The real challenge of covering and analyzing the United States’ drone war over Pakistan is getting the sourcing right, and disentangling fact from a series of disparate interests trying to manipulate truth, as Christine Fair, a Georgetown professor who has long questioned Pakistan’s official account of the drone war, suggests.

Some skepticism over any answer claiming to be conclusive about drone strikes is warranted. That healthy skepticism of sources shouldn’t detract from the simple utility of Pitch Interactive’s visualization. Instead, for me at least, it prompted another late night at home checking facts.