NucNews August 13, 2006
-------- NUCLEAR
-------- britain
Revealed: nuclear security rules broken 39 times in past year
By Rob Edwards Environment Editor
13 August 2006 UK Herald
http://www.sundayherald.com/57240
THE British nuclear industry has reported 39 lapses in security against terrorism in the past year, including laptop thefts, internet misuse, a power cut and lightning strikes.
The failings are revealed in a report from the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS), the government watch dog responsible for ensuring nuclear power stations and radioactive waste facilities are protected from terrorist attacks.
The revelations have disturbed experts and environmentalists, who are calling for security to be tightened. The OCNS has itself warned of “complacency” on leaks of sensitive nuclear information.
According to the OCNS report, eight breaches in information security were reported in the year to March 31. They included “the theft of laptops from parked vehicles” and “inappropriate transmission of restricted information over the internet”, the report said.
“Assessments suggest that no major damage had occurred, but the fact that they continue to happen reinforces the enduring need to combat complacency. The information security inspector continues to work closely with security managers within the industry to raise the standard of personal security awareness.”
OCNS also expressed concern about “additional security challenges” posed by the growing use of wireless computer networks and portable e-mail devices like the Blackberry. “OCNS has devoted considerable effort working with the industry and central security authorities to minimise the security risks,” it said.
Nuclear plant operators reported a further 26 breaches of site security to OCNS last year. They included “a failure of mains power at a control room”, “lightning causing alarm faults” and “spoil being placed too close to a perimeter fence”.
Five security lapses in nuclear transports were reported, though they were described as “minor”. In total, OCNS oversaw 2100 movements of nuclear materials during the year.
Overall, OCNS director Roger Brunt nevertheless concluded that civil nuclear security was satisfactory. “I am satisfied that the security of nuclear material has not been prejudiced,” he said.
But this hasn’t reassured everyone. “As the threat from terrorism continues to grow, these incidents are disturbing,” said Friends of the Earth Scotland’s chief executive, Duncan McLaren.
“They may appear trivial to some, but if they are not acted upon the nuclear industry is literally leaving the door open for those who might wish to deliberately do mischief, or worse.”
Pete Roche, a nuclear consultant based in Edinburgh, questioned whether “dangerous nuclear technology” was compatible with an open and democratic society. “Isn’t it time we stopped exacerbating the problems we have already created for ourselves by planning even more reactors and potential terrorist targets?” he said.
The risks of nuclear terrorism have also been highlighted in a new study on the security of industrial radioactive sources in Iran. More than 80 sources of material capable of being made into “dirty bombs” were discovered to be outwith regulatory control or vulnerable to theft.
Outside hospitals and the nuclear industry, radiation is used in some 500 factories and universities across Iran to measure and test materials. Scientists from the Iranian Nuclear Regulatory Authority sampled 48 of them to check how well the sources were looked after.
In the latest issue of Radiation Protection Dosimetry, the researchers reported 39 lost or abandoned sources at five sites. They said a further 49 radio active sources were vulnerable to theft or damage.
According to Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear security consultant with the Oxford Research Group, there was a real risk of radioactive sources being stolen and combined with conventional explosives to make a “dirty bomb”.
“It’s absolutely amazing that this hasn’t been done already,” he told the Sunday Herald. “I’m surprised that those who plotted the latest airline attack didn’t go for dirty bombs. It would have been easier for them to get away with.”
-------- canada
Stephen Harper irresponsibly supports US-Israeli aggression in Lebanon
Conservative Minority Government in Canada undermines hopes for peace
by Brenda Thompson
Sunday 13. Aug 2006 The Canadian
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2006/08/08/01221.html
Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights .
By insisting that Hezbollah disarm first, while saying nothing about Israeli troops moving deeper into Southern Lebanon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is allowing the invader to dictate the terms of a ceasefire, which can only lead to more violence in the Middle East. Respected Canadian, Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calls the Israeli aggression "A possible war crime," in violation of international humanitarian and criminal law. Ms. Arbour indicates further that "Canadians would never agree to the needless slaughter of Lebanese civilians or the persecution of Palestinian people by Israel, and yet that is exactly what our [unrepresentative] government appears to want.
Two democratic elections were held in Lebanon and Palestine. Hezbollah won 35 seats and Hamas, a majority government. Both parties enjoy popular support, not just because they stand up to Israel, but for providing food, medicine, education and social services. Unfortunately this was not the kind of democracy the U.S., Israel and Canada among others, had in mind. They declared them "terrorists" and refused to recognize their legitimacy as representatives of the electorate. To add insult to injury, Israel imposed an embargo on the Palestinian people witholding $50 million in taxes and custom duties, while the U.S., EU, Canada and Norway cut funding to the Hamas led government, amounting to a total of $1Billion in annual aid. As a result of this embargo, the World bank predicts that the poverty rate in Gaza and the West bank will exceed 67% by the end of 2006.
According to the Mandela Institute for Human Rights, Israeli prisons continue to hold 10,073 Palestinian prisoners including political representatives, women and children. Many are abused, tortured, held without sentence and deprived of necessary medical care.
Double standards abound. We are constantly reminded of the 2004 UN resolution on Lebanon, calling for Hezbollah (with no air force or navy), to disarm, while the 1967 and 1973 Security Council resolutions for Israel to vacate Arab occupied lands on the West Bank to allow for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes, is ignored. In the meantime, Israel has no plans to end construction of a 670 km wall which infringes on Palestinan land in the West Bank, despite the International Court of Justice ruling that it is only legal to build the barrier inside Israel.
With the help of $5 billion U.S. annual funding, Israel has been able to build the fourth largest army in the world. Their unlimited weaponry, includes nuclear arms however, unlike Iran, they refuse to sign on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NNT) which would subject Israel to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. In their attacks on the Palestinians they have violated the U.S.. Arms Export Control Act with the use of internationally prohibited weapons such as vacuum bombs and white phosporous.
In Southern Lebanon there are approximately 400,000 landmines planted by the Israeli Defence Forces during an occupation that ended in 2000 but they refuse to provide a map to the UN. The current bombing of southern Lebanon has destroyed the Beirut airport, displaced 500,000 people and left over 700 men, women and children dead. The Israeli forces are now using weapons containing illegal, depleted uranium, an extremely toxic substance, according to Dr. Doug Rokke, advisor to the U.S. Senate and the Centers for Desease Control. Sunday's bombing of Qana has horrified surrounding Middle Eastern countries and deepened their hostility towards the U.S. Syria' s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari accused Washington of being complicit in an "Israeli holocaust".
Despite agreeing to a 48 hour halt after the Qana massacre, Israel has resumed air strikes into Southern Lebanon. They have broadened their ground offensive claiming to ready the territory for a multinational force. The interpretation from Lebanon's neighbour Syria, seems much more plausible.
"The U.S. and Israel want to impose their solutions at gunpoint, as part of their wider plan to reshape the region and turn Lebanon into an Israeli protectorate. They want to make separate deals, but Syria has always been for a comprehensive peace agreement."
Mohamed Agha, editor in chief of state run Syria Times:
The US continues to accuse Syria and Iran of backing Hezbollah, while ignoring their own military support for Israel's plan to set new borders, unilaterally, if necessary. The unacceptable aggression and occupation by Israel needs to be stopped. The Canadian Action Party (CAP) has been the only registered federal political party to take a stand against the Israel's belligerent attack of Lebanon. Connie Fogal is the leader of CAP indicates that "a Canadian Action Party government would do everything in our power to bring permanent peace to the Middle East. A fair and just settlement must be reached for both sides." Hezbollah cannot reasonably be expected to lay down their arms, until Israel and the U.S. recognize that the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and Lebanese civilians is a prolonged act of terror, precipitating the need for Hezbollah and Hamas. Ms. Fogal further indicated that "We would work to eliminate U.S. power mongering within the UN by making sure that if the U.S. continues to supply weapons to Israel they must relinquish their veto power over the UN Security Council. A Canadian Action Party government would work tirelessly until the Security Council has fair and equal representation from other countries in the Middle East."
If Canadians, together with all the people of the world, desire peace we must direct our elected officials to embrace a balanced approach towards all countries. It is imperative that international laws be enforced fairly, equally and without prejudice toward all countries, or peace will continue to elude the Middle East and other parts of the world.
-------- depleted uranium
Soldiers Sue Army Over Mysterious Illness
Posted on Aug 13, 2006
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20060813_soldiers_sue_army_over_mysterious_illness/
A number of American troops from the same unit in Iraq recently discovered they were all suffering from a mysterious set of illnesses. Though their doctors couldn’t determine the source of the sickness, the soldiers came to believe their exposure to depleted uranium munitions was to blame, and decided to sue the U.S. Army.
Wired News:
Reed believes depleted uranium has contaminated him and his life. He now walks point in a vitriolic war over the Pentagon’s arsenal of it—thousands of shells and hundreds of tanks coated with the metal that is radioactive, chemically toxic, and nearly twice as dense as lead.
A shell coated with depleted uranium pierces a tank like a hot knife through butter, exploding on impact into a charring inferno. As tank armor, it repels artillery assaults. It also leaves behind a fine radioactive dust with a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
Depleted uranium is the garbage left from producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and energy plants. It is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium. The United States has an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of it, sitting in hazardous waste storage sites across the country. Meaning it is plentiful and cheap as well as highly effective.
See:
U.S. Soldiers Are Sick of It
Associated Press Aug, 12, 2006
http://wired.com/news/wireservice/1,71585-0.html
See Also
* Thar's Uranium in Them Thar Hills
http://wired.com/news/business/0,68422-0.html
* Troops Learn to Not Offend
http://wired.com/news/culture/0,70576-0.html
* U.S. Uranium Stock in Peril
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,62052-0.html
* GIs Shoot Footage for New War Doc
http://wired.com/news/culture/0,70749-0.html
* Uranium Pebbles May Light the Way
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,61088-0.html
* Thorium Fuels Safer Reactor Hopes
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,68045-0.html
-------- japan
Hibakusha Lebanon Solidarity Statement
From: John Steinbach
Date: Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:22 am
Message of Solidarity from the Japanese Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors)
We, as A-bomb survivors and unconditional opponents of war, would like to express our message of solidarity with all people rising up against the wave of air raids and invasions by Israel against Lebanon.
The Israeli attacks on Lebanon have already taken a heavy toll of lives among women and children. Such acts of retaliation trigger a cycle of retribution, leading only to a never-ending massacre. Israel is reportedly aimed at uprooting Hezbollah, but history has proven that force and arms can never bring a group who is fighting for justice to their knees. Furthermore, a war in the twenty-first century might develop into a nuclear war, resulting in the destruction of the human race.
Sixty-one years ago, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with their three hundred thousand inhabitants, were devastated by just two atomic bombs the United States dropped; some two hundred thousand people were killed instantly. Radiation, or so-called “deadly rays,” silently poisoned the survivors, claiming many lives by cancer. Even today, more than six decades after the bombing, the victims and their families continue to suffer from bomb-related aftereffects.
The inclination to settle conflicts through arms will ultimately cause the use of nuclear weapons, leading to the devastation of humankind. All faiths and people, as well as the countries that spawned them, will cease to exist.
At present, the United States is developing more “usable” nuclear weapons in the hopes of removing the barrier between conventional and nuclear armaments. The United States is not the only country involved; it is common sense in international politics that Israel possesses its own nuclear weapons as well. If Israel continues on its present course, it may one day resort to using these weapons.
We demand that the United States discontinue its aid to Israel and press Israel to stop its assault without delay.
Furthermore, we demand that Israel stop attacking Lebanon immediately and work hard toward creating peaceful co-prosperity with the Palestinians.
We Hibakusha are crying from the bottom of our hearts:
“No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis, No More War!”
August 6, 2006 (The day of remembrance of the atomic victims in Hiroshima)
Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations
-------- korea
North Korea Demands US Troops Pull Out Of South
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Aug 13, 2006
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/North_Korea_Demands_US_Troops_Pull_Out_Of_South_999.html
North Korea urged South Korea Sunday to push for the withdrawal of US troops and said the military presence could bring disaster. The communist state's Minju Joson newspaper said the South would "not be free from any misfortune and disasters" arising from the US military presence which dates back to the 1950-1953 Korean War.
"The South Korean authorities should take a step to force the US troops to withdraw from South Korea as demanded by the people," Minju Joson said.
The United States is reducing its forces in South Korea from 37,000 to 25,000, with 2008 set as the deadline for the troop cut, and wants to be able to redeploy them outside the country in time of need.
South Korea is pushing to secure wartime control over its troops which are currently under a US-led combined command.
US troops are stationed in the South to help its 650,000-strong army face up to North Korea's 1.2 million-strong army.
Rodong Sinmun, newspaper of the North's communist party newspaper, repeated Sunday that US "imperialists" were preparing an invasion by stepping up propaganda and military drills.
"They are engrossed in a vicious anti-DPRK (North Korea) smear campaign based on sheer lies. ... It is an operation to be carried out by them prior to invading it by force of arms," Rodong said.
"These reckless moves against the DPRK have created such a tense situation on the Korean Peninsula that a war may break out there any moment."
The United States has flatly denied planning to go to war against North Korea despite a long-running standoff over its nuclear and missile development programs.
-------- MILITARY
-------- israel / palestine
Huge Israeli offensive launched
Despite UN agreement on ceasefire, 30,000 troops are now operating inside Lebanon
By Donald Macintyre in Metulla
Published: 13 August 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1218886.ece
Israel was in the midst of an expanded air and ground military campaign inside Lebanon yesterday despite international agreement on a UN resolution calling for an "immediate" halt to a month of hostilities by both sides.
In the largest operation of its kind since the Yom Kippur war in 1973, the Israelis used up to 50 helicopters to land hundreds of troops deep inside southern Lebanon before dawn as part of the intensified ground offensive ordered by the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, hours before Friday's UN vote.
With the Israeli cabinet due to vote today on Mr Olmert's recommendation to accept the terms of the ceasefire package endorsed by the UN Security Council, Lebanese officials indicated that at least 20 people had been killed in a series of Israeli air and missile attacks. Eleven Israeli soldiers were killed including two accidentally run over by an Israeli tank and in a separate incident casualties were feared after a helicopter was shot down by Hizbollah guerrillas over southern Lebanon.
With Tony Blair facing a rising tide of criticism of his Middle East policy, it was announced yesterday that the Prime Minister will visit Israel and Palestine after he returns from his three-week holiday.
Yesterday, as Israel sought to maximise its military impact against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon before the ceasefire takes effect, Dan Halutz, Israel's military chief of staff, indicated that its operations could continue until the promised combined multinational and Lebanese force is deployed. Some 30,000 Israeli troops are now operating inside southern Lebanon. The most lethal single Israeli missile strike yesterday was on the southern Lebanon village of Rachaf , where 15 died, while Israeli bombs hit power plants in Sidon and Tyre.
In northern Lebanon, Israeli aircraft bombed the road to the Arida border post, the last open official crossing point into Syria for humanitarian convoys and civilians fleeing the country. Witnesses said the attack had left the main road impassable but that drivers were trying to negotiate their way through nearby ruts and ditches.
The military said forces had reached the Litani river though without specifying at which point and said that its forces had killed 40 Hizbollah guerrillas during the day. Another 50 Israeli soldiers were injured, several seriously, in a continued campaign which military sources suggested was largely directed at eliminating sites used to launch more than 3,500 rockets into northern Israel since the conflict began. Three civilians were slightly injured yesterday when, after a morning lull, Hizbollah launched around 30 more rockets into northern Israel.
The Hizbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, made it clear that he would accept the combined UN and Lebanese army force embodied in the ceasefire terms, and declared in an address that while Hizbollah ministers would express " reservations" about articles in the deal they found unjust, "we will not be an obstacle to any government decision that it finds appropriate" . He warned, however, that continued resistance to the current Israeli offensive was "our natural right". Mr Nasrallah was speaking shortly before the Lebanese Cabinet formally endorsed the ceasefire deal while duly registering the "reservations" of its two Hizbollah members.
General Halutz said the armoured and infantry ground force had "tripled" in size, and the IDF would "continue operating against Hizbollah until there is a decision on the ceasefire, and even more until there is found a mechanism that would implement the decision, like an alternative force" .
Even allowing for the IDF's natural desire to demonstrate that it was ready to fight on and that the politicians should take any responsibility for halting the war, General Halutz's remarks on Israeli television before the Hizbollah reaction appeared to presage several tense days in which fighting could yet threaten the fragile ceasefire process.
The chief of staff's declaration, however, appeared to put him at odds with that of unnamed officials in the Prime Minister's office who were quoted as saying that the ceasefire would begin at 7am tomorrow.
There was speculation that Mr Olmert, already expected to face right-wing charges that he ended the war too early, could yet feel obliged to grant the army time to provide the international force with what one official described as "cleaner territory" over which to assume control when it is finally deployed. But Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said she expected hostilities to end "some time" tomorrow.
Alvaro De Soto, the UN peace envoy to the Middle East, indicated yesterday that he hoped the new force would start deploying within seven to 10 days. Despite the UN resolution's emphasis on an "immediate cessation of hostilities", the small print allows potential leeway for operations to continue for several days if Mr Olmert judges it politically or militarily necessary. The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is entrusted by the resolution with the task of arranging the ceasefire's mechanics, and Israel is precluded from "offensive" ground operations implying that it can still conduct "defensive" ones, particularly in the event of Hizbollah attacks.
Israeli officials also argued that the terms of the resolution would allow it to act militarily against any attempts by Hizbollah to import weapons until such time as an international-Lebanese monitoring group is in place. The officials said the toughening of the resolution's wording on Hizbollah's arms had been one of Israel's negotiating achievements before the UN vote and after Mr Olmert had authorised the ground campaign.
But Mr Olmert's decision on Friday to combine acceptance of the UN ceasefire vote with authorisation of a large-scale invasion also appeared to reflect the conflicting pressures from left and right on his conduct of the war. Mr Olmert had been receiving a welter of advice on his next step after a month in which 41 Israeli civilians and 83 Israeli soldiers had been killed without tangible success in halting Hizbollah's attacks.
The debate was reflected in columns by two Israeli commentators in the liberal daily Haaretz on Friday. Uzi Benziman wrote: "The diplomatic solution, in spite of its limitations and the bitter pills to be swallowed, is preferable to expanding the war, since a new military move would not change the outcome of the armed conflict." By contrast, Ari Shavit called on Mr Olmert to resign if he "runs away from the war he started" and declared: "You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and then say 'Oops, I made a mistake'."
-------- mideast
Lebanon: How many times 1948?
ANJALI KAMAT, Sunday, Aug 13, 2006 The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/08/13/stories/2006081300240100.htm
In October 2005, Lebanon saw demonstrations and heady hopes for a new future. Where are those hopes now?
New generation of refugees: Israeli air strikes and ground attacks have left many Lebanese homeless.
I VISITED Lebanon twice this past year; first in October 2005 and then, more recently, in May 2006. During my first trip, the country was consumed by speculations over possible revelations in the first report from the UN inquiry into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri. It had been eight long months of explosions and mourning — but also of million-strong demonstrations and heady hopes for a new future. The day the report was released, Beirut was practically under curfew. Driving along the former "green line," which had divided the city into the predominantly Christian East and Muslim West during the civil war, Beirut's empty streets seemed stalked by fear, uncertainty, and an aggressive mix of memorialising and amnesia.
As my gracious Armenian friend proudly showed me around her beautiful city, we walked through the reconstructed alleys of central Beirut and followed Hariri's last footsteps — oddly memorialised in Hollywood-style silver footprints — past rows of sunny cafes and overpriced air-conditioned boutiques.
Stark contrast
This area, rebuilt under Hariri, was in stark contrast to the bombed-out buildings that still haunt much of the city. These remnants of the civil war, every remaining surface pockmarked with dozens of bullet holes, stood like defiant reminders of the unspeakable horrors of the war years — and of the lingering poverty and disquiet — that the Lebanese seemed so determined to forget.
Every inch of wall space across the city was covered with glossy pictures of both the "martyrs of the Independence Intifada," the vocal opponents of Syrian influence in Lebanon who had been assassinated in the preceding months, as well as a motley crew of controversial political figures: including former Christian warlords Samir Geagea and Michel Aoun and Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Any remaining space was prominently occupied by English and Arabic stickers demanding "The Truth," in reference to the Hariri-family led campaign to uncover the motives behind the assassinations between February and October 2005 that claimed over two dozen lives.
Next to Hariri himself, the most popular poster was of the charismatic Samir Kassir, a Palestinian-Lebanese leader of the Democratic Left movement and a prominent intellectual who played an active role in the popular and multi-confessional uprising in March and April demanding government accountability and an end to Syrian presence in Lebanon.
He was killed by a car bomb outside his home in the plush Christian neighbourhood of Achrafieh on June 2, 2005. Critical of both repressive Syrian power in Lebanon as well as the brutality of American imperialism, he had become a hero of sorts for the secular, democratic left across the Arab world. On seeing his pictures, my fellow traveller, an outspoken Yemeni feminist, immediately ripped one of them off the wall to take back home with her.
* * *
When I returned half a year later, the UN investigation, though still ongoing, had slipped off the front pages, and the urgency created by the assassinations and the "independence uprising" seemed to have cooled off.
The political class was in the midst of a "national dialogue" and politicians from the left and right, anti- and pro-Syrian, religious and secular, Druze, Maronite, Orthodox, Sunni, and Shiite, many of them once sworn enemies, were all talking to each other.
The rest of the country, it seemed, was trying very hard to put the previous year behind them and concentrate on the World Cup and the summer ahead. Beyond the immediate importance of one's allegiance to three most popular teams, Brazil, Italy, or Germany, people I talked to were planning holidays, weddings, conferences, art shows, film festivals, concerts, and their futures.
I too was content to let politics and history slide as I enjoyed the breathtaking beauty of the Lebanese coastline and hillsides and feasted on the finest seafood in the picturesque old port towns of Jbeil and Saida. But ambling through the bustling alleys of the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra in search of a kuffiyeh — that chequered symbol of Palestine solidarity — even as I entertained fantasies of moving to Beirut, I woke back up to history. It was here, and in the neighbouring camp of Shatila, that in September 1982 the Lebanese Phalangist militias, under the watchful eyes of Ariel Sharon, massacred over 1,500 Palestinians — a people whom, in Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish's words, "the waves of forgetfulness had cast upon the shores of Beirut."
* * *
Today, a little over two months since my last visit to Lebanon, the country has been plunged into chaos and in an ironic twist, Palestinians in Sabra, Shatila, and elsewhere — Lebanon's "unwelcome guests" — have opened their camps to shelter a new generation of refugees.
One month of Israeli air strikes, now combined with ground attacks, has meant daily massacres, one million refugees, shattered infrastructure, fears about the possible use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions, and a 15,000-tonne oil spill along Lebanon's coastline that former Greenpeace campaigner Wael Hmaidan describes as the "biggest environmental catastrophe in the history of the country."
One of the most outrageous acts of Israeli aggression on Lebanon was the indiscriminate bombing of an apartment building in Qana on July 30, that crushed some 60 civilians to death, over half of them children. They died, under the rubble of a building they had sought refuge in, when it collapsed after two air strikes in the middle of the night.
Symbolic weight
Qana carries a heavy symbolic weight in Lebanon: ten years ago, this mountain village, where Jesus was supposed to have once made water into wine, was shelled by Israel, during its "Operation Grapes of Wrath," killing 106 civilians— again, more than half of them children — seeking refuge at a UN shelter.
In the despairing words of Beiruti artist Mazen Kerbaj: "2,000 years ago, in Qana, Jesus transformed water into wine; today in Qana, the Israeli Air Force transformed children into ashes; today in Beirut, I am unable to transform this page into a drawing."
My Armenian friend asked me if Americans would still support expedited deliveries of bombs to Israel if the US media had shown them the horrifying images from Qana of dozens of dead children being exhumed from the rubble. Like Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent on July 31, she imagined that you had to have a "heart of stone to not feel the outrage that those of us watching this experienced." I'm not sure how to convey my cynical sense that for Americans, and to some extent people all over the world, weary of daily tragedies in their inboxes and morning papers, what is happening in Lebanon, as with Afghanistan, Gaza, Iraq, and Sudan, will soon become quite "normal" — perhaps even rationalised as part of the endless "cycle of violence" in a "naturally" turbulent region, or worse, a necessary cost of the "war on terror."
Powerful statement
Two weeks into the start of the Israeli assault, 70 Lebanese writers, artists, journalists, academics, and filmmakers, circulated a powerful statement against U.S.-supported Israeli impunity and the normalisation of state terror. Building on a growing international campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions, they called for marginalising Israel — along the lines of movements against apartheid South Africa — through "boycotting Israeli products and Israeli academic and scientific institutions that do not condemn the Israeli aggression against Lebanon."
But even as people in Lebanon and around the world register their protest, I can't shake Palestinian artist Emily Jacir's unsettling words: "Is this all fodder for entertainment? Something for people to write about, make art about, make films about, cry about, complain about, shout about, and then go home and live while the bombs drop and entire countries are destroyed? How many generations have to live through these Israeli horrors? Watching the generation of my parents having to re-live all this yet again ... how many times 1948?"
-------- ACTIVISTS
Largely Muslim crowd rallies to protest Mideast violence
8/13/2006 Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-08-12-mideast-protest_x.htm
Photo: Demonstrators protest in front of the White House following a peace march Saturday in Washington, D.C.
http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2006/08/12/protest.jpg
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people gathered across from the White House on Saturday, even though the president was out of town, to condemn U.S. and Israeli policies in the Middle East.
Speakers in Lafayette Park energized the mostly Muslim crowd with chants and speeches condemning Israeli involvement in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, U.S. support for Israel and U.S. involvement in Iraq.
"Occupation is a crime," the crowd chanted, equating the situations in the three areas. But they also called for peace and justice for all.
"We all stand united against the violence and the killing in the holy land," said Esam Omesh, president of the Muslim American Society, a co-sponsor of the demonstration, along with the American-Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee and the National Council of Arab Americans.
"There is no difference between Muslim life, Christian life or Jewish life," said Omesh.
In San Francisco, about 2,000 people marched in support of Lebanese and Palestinians and against the Israel military action.
"The occupiers are being seen as the victims, and I'm really ashamed of what is going on in the Middle East," said Alicia Jrapko, a member of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, which organized the rally.
"End the occupation now!" one demonstrator's sign read, a call for Israel to leave historically Palestinian lands.
Several hundred counter-demonstrators gathered to show their support of Israel, waving American and Israeli flags. "Hezbollah out of Lebanon!" a protester's sign said.
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark drew cheers from the Washington crowd when he called for President Bush's impeachment.
"We've made more enemies during the presidency of George Bush than in the rest of our history combined," Clark said.
Rahat Husain, 24, of Columbia, Md., said he did not have much hope that the Bush administration would change its policies because of the demonstration, but said it could raise Americans' awareness and create compassion for Lebanese citizens.
Hassan Rida, 26, traveled from Farmington Hills, Mich., with his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan Mokbel, who was vacationing in southern Lebanon when the current crisis started and had to escape through Syria. He and friends Nehme Mhanna, 24, and Mona Alaouie, 24, from Dearborn, Mich., said they wanted to show support for the Lebanese and educate Americans about the situation.
"There's always two sides of the story," Rida said.
Habib Ghanim, 55, of Silver Spring, Md., said he voted for Bush, but would probably vote democratic in the next election, because he is disappointed and wants to "stop the fighting on all sides."
The family friendly crowd was filled with Muslims, but also contained many non-Muslims, including a handful of orthodox Jews. Yeshaye Rosenverg, 23, traveled form Monsey, N.Y., to "show the support for the Lebanese and Palestine people and to make clear that it's not a Jewish fight between Arabs and Jews."
A law enforcement official on the scene estimated that there were about 5,000 people attending the rally and subsequent march through the streets of Washington, which was sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation and the National Council of Arab Americans.
----
Peace protest backfires; store owners feel targeted
By Claudia Reed/TWN Staff Writer
Sunday, August 13, 2006 Willits News
http://www.willitsnews.com/community/ci_4156723
Louis Rohlicek, a participant in the International Shadows Project on Hiroshima Day, traces his wife Sally Rohlicek in colored chalk on a Willits sidewalk. The tracings commemorate the faint shadows left when the heat of the 1945 atomic blast vaporized Hiroshima residents within 300 meters of ground zero. (The Willits News)
Sidewalk messages intended as an antiwar memorial of the August 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima had unintended consequences in the city of Willits.
"I feel like this is a personal attack," said Linda Dudley, co-owner of the new Buttercup Children's Boutique on West Mendocino Avenue.
Holding her own baby in her arms, Dudley pointed to an arrangement of dead-body sidewalk chalk outlines with messages about dead babies arranged to lead directly to the door of her store.
She was angry that her customers, mostly new mothers, would be forced to step over the words "Babies Dead" on their way into the store.
"I'm sorry anybody took it personally," said Louis Rohlicek, one of seven or eight local participants in the International Shadows Project. "It had no personal impulse behind it."
The Shadows Project website explains:
"When the atomic bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people within 300 meters of the hypocenters were instantly vaporized by the intense heat, leaving nothing behind but faint "shadows" on nearby walls, pavement, and other stone and concrete surfaces that weren't vaporized with them. Survivors traced these shadows with chalk, and the tracings have become a symbol for state terrorism and nuclear annihilation."
Accordingly, on the morning of August 6, Willits activists took turns lying on the sidewalk and tracing one another in colored chalk to help preserve the memory of those who were vaporized and to send the message that nuclear war is barbaric. Writing surrounding the chalk bodies reported 70,000 people died instantly in the single Hiroshima blast while another 60,000 died days, weeks, or years later from radiation sickness and related cancers.
Dudley confessed she doesn't know much about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Would the chalk protest make her want to learn more?
"Look at this!" she answered, pointing again to the outlines of bodies, one of them headless. "It just makes me mad at people."
Dudley said she would have had no objection to literature on the subject dropped through the mail slot or, better still, delivered by hand in broad daylight.
"They could have brought it in and talked to us," she said, "but don't vandalize in front of our store."
One piece of literature, a fact sheet on Hiroshima and the Iraq war combined with a call to action, was taped to the wall at the edge of the window displaying colorful children's clothing and toys. So was a card announcing the August 11 talk by peace activist Medea Benjamin at Willits Methodist Church, an event sponsored by the organization Code Pink.
"This is not (the work of) Code Pink," said organizer Melinda Clark, called to the scene of the graffiti protest. "This is highly inappropriate. It's absolutely the wrong target. Public protest is a good idea, but it has to be thoughtfully done."
Debbie Shultz, owner of Nu Image Hair Design located next door agreed:
"I believe in peace, but I don't believe in this! I don't want this in front of women who just had babies. If they want to protest, why don't they do this in Congress? Protest someone who has something to do with it."
"It was very unfortunate," agreed Rohlicek, who helped wash the chalk off the sidewalk in front of Buttercup Children's Boutique when he heard about the distress it was causing.
He said the message about mega-death from nuclear weapons should be upsetting, especially when their use is again being discussed, but should not appear to target an innocent person.
Councilman Ron Orenstein, who was getting his hair cut at Nu Image when Dudley discovered the chalk message, pointed out choosing the wrong target can distort what's being said:
"It's important to get the message out, but do it in a way that doesn't kill the message."
On the Main Street side of the block, Chris Harper, co-owner of The Book Juggler, accepted the chalk messages in the store's wide entryway with a shrug of the shoulders:
"This happens every year. It doesn't bother me at all."
One of the largest chalk talks, appearing in front of the empty Willits Country Mall, said there were two atomic bombs in the world at the end of World War II and there are now about 30,000. It also charged depleted uranium in weapons used in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq poisoned the air and soil for months or years to come.
The impact of the atomic bomb blasts on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki lasted for decades and may still be causing disease and early death. Many who survived the direct hit developed cancer-like conditions within days and/or actual cancers years later. Many who were children at the time suffered impaired growth. There is still dispute over whether radiation-caused genetic defects have been passed on to future generations.
The story of the immediate and short-term effect of the blast is told in nightmarish detail in the Pulitzer Prize winning book Hiroshima by John Hersey. The book, which appeared in magazine form on the first anniversary of the bombing, can be requested through the Willits library inter-library system or ordered through local book stores.