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making us safer .....


‘US citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.

A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court.

Administration officials, who declined to comment on the draft, said the proposal was still under discussion and no final decisions had been made.

Senior officials are expected to discuss a final proposal before the Senate Armed Services Committee next Wednesday

According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all "enemy combatants" until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute."

Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda.’

Bush Submits New Terror Detainee Bill

killings at the morgue

From the New York Times
Relentless Sectarian Violence in Baghdad Stalks Its Victims Even at the [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/world/middleeast/30morgue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin|Morgues]
By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: July 30, 2006

BAGHDAD, July 29 — As violence in the Iraqi capital continues to rise, the task of tracking down missing people here has become a grim ordeal. Iraq’s anemic investigative agencies have been ill-equipped to keep up with soaring crime, so for families seeking information, the morgues have often provided the only certainty.
Now, even the morgues have become a source of danger, at least for Sunni Arabs. In recent months, Shiite militias have been staking out Baghdad’s central morgue in particular, and the authorities have received dozens of reports of kidnappings and killings of Sunni Arabs there.
Many Sunnis now refuse to go there to look for missing family members and are forced to take extraordinary measures to recover a relative’s body, including sending Shiite friends in their stead

Killing fields

From Al Jazeera
Annan dismay at [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E2369149-71D3-4553-8AB6-C68F814E94AA.htm|UN inertia]
Monday 31 July 2006, 0:28 Makka Time, 21:28 GMT

Kofi Annan has condemned an Israeli air strike that killed more than 60 Lebanese and reiterated his previous calls for an immediate ceasefire.

The UN secretary-general spoke on Sunday at an emergency meeting of the Security Council that he convened after the Israeli air strike in Qana.
"I am deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities were not heeded," Annan said.
"I repeat this call once again from this chamber and I appeal to the council to do likewise.
"Action is needed now before many more children, women and men become casualties of a conflict over which they have no control."

To the people wherever

Letter in the Sydney Morning Herald (31/07/06)

To the Lebanese people: You harbour a private army that has no respect for your neighbour's borders and that hides behind your women and children. Too many of you support the mischief that they do and now you pay the price. They are not interested in the advancement of Lebanon but march to the drum of hate for the sake of a hidden agenda. Peace is a two-way process.

Doug Wormald Gloucester

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An opinionated response on Your Democracy Website

To the Israeli people: You harbour a governmental army that has no respect for your neighbour's borders/welfare and that hides behind the odious "right" to wage pre-emptive war. Too many of you support the mischief that they do and now you kill women and children in revenge and payback. Your government is not interested in the advancement of Lebanon/Palestine but march to the drum of hate for the sake of a hidden agenda —that of a greater Israel grabbing and holding onto lands that are not yours. Peace is a two-way process.

Gustashian Krakovitch Leonisky

Another Opinionated Response

 

To the Governments of the United States, Great Britain and Australia: Your unwavering support of Israel in it's suppression and killing of the people of Palestine, and the unjustified attack on Iraq, the massacre of over 250,000 civilians in Iraq, and the torture and rape and murder of Iraqi women and children is the DIRECT cause of the current crises in Lebanon.  STOP!! Stop the madness NOW!!!!

Katherine Alexandra Juestel

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman