Radio Station Cries 'Enough' -- Won't Quote From Certain News Stories Relying on Unnamed Officials

By Greg Mitchell

 

Editor and Publisher    Thursday, February 15, 2007 

 

NEW YORK After the latest widely-publicized stories in national newspapers about weapons from Iran allegedly killing Americans in Iraq -- based completely on unnamed sources -- at least one smaller news outlet has had enough of it.

 

The news director of the public radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has directed his staff to "ignore national stories quoting unnamed sources." He also called on other news outlets to join this policy.

 

Bill Dupuy sent the following to his news staff.
*

 

Effectively immediately and until further notice, it is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any wire service or nationally published story about Iran, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia or any other foreign power that quotes an "unnamed" U.S. official.

 

What we have suspected and talked about at length before is now becoming clear. "High administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity," "Usually reliable Washington sources," and others of the like were behind the publicity that added credibility to the need to go to war against Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

Our news department covers local news. But, like local newspapers and others, we occassionally are taken in by national stories that we have no way to verify.

 

This is a small news department with a small reach. We cannot research these stories ourselves. But we can take steps not to compromise our integrity. We should not dutifully parrot whatever comes out of Washington, on the
wire or by whatever means, no matter how intriguing and urgent it sounds, when the source is unnamed.

 

I am also calling on our colleagues in other local news departments -- broadcast and print -- to take the same professional approach.

 

Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is editor.

 

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003545357

Over 10,400 Palestinians Languishing in Israeli Jails

Mohammed Mar'i,

 

Arab News   Thursday, 15, February, 2007

 

RAMALLAH, West Bank, 15 February 2007 — The family of Palestinian prisoner Ismail Al-Jamal of West Bank refugee camp of Balata has appealed in a letter to international human rights organizations, especially the International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs to pressure Israel occupation forces for the release of their son.

 

The family said that Jamal, who has been sentenced to 10 and half years in jails, suffers from thrombosis and sclerosis of the arteries, after being shot by Israeli forces, during his arrest on Jan. 30, 2004.

 

Yahya Al-Jamal, brother of Ismail, said that his brother's health is deteriorating since the Israeli prisoners' authority refused his treatment, despite his increasing suffering and his need of an urgent medical operation.

 

The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs revealed in its report on Tuesday that around 10,400 Palestinians, including women and children, are living in inhuman conditions in 30 Israeli jails.

 

The MPA said that most of prisoners suffer various physical and psychological diseases as a result of the inhuman circumstances and unhealthy conditions.

 

The MPA report added that 118 female prisoners and 330 children are still under detention in Israeli jails facing daily Israeli torture and hardships.

 

MPA mentioned that hundreds of children have grown to more than 18 years old inside prisons. It affirmed that at least 1,000 prisoners suffer from chronic diseases like pain of cartilage, cardiac diseases, diabetes and rheumatism, including 150 prisoners in critical cases as a result of cancer, paralysis and kidney failure.

 

The report stated that the Israeli forces have arrested 600 women and 6,000 children during Al-Aqsa Intifada, which erupted in September 2000. It mentioned that 553 prisoners have been detained before Al-Aqsa Intifada, including 367 who have been detained before the Oslo Accord in 1993.

 

In a recent development concerning the prisoners exchange deal, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees, Abu Mujahid, announced that the new Egyptian offer to release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, would be conducted in three stages. He said "the man (Shalit) will be transported to Egypt before being handed over to Israel when the three stages are completed."

 

Abu Mujahid said that the factions that captured Shalit had formed a joint intelligence body to deal with the case. He added that the factions adopted an antiquated system for contact between the faction leaders, which cannot be traced by the Israeli intelligence.

 

He refused to reveal this technique of communication but confirmed that "Shalit is now in good health and treated in a humanitarian way; he is not tortured." He also confirmed that the factions "will keep him until Israel complies with our demands."

 

Abu Mujahid denied that Shalit was being held at the Islamic University in Gaza, stating that the resistance cannot "hold him in such an open space, where anybody can enter and survey the area."

 

He clarified that the Egyptian offer comprises "three stages, through which he (Shalit) is going to be sent to Egypt and they will hand him over to Israel, but only after the three stages are completed."

 

Abu Mujahid said that the factions have not yet confirmed their response to the offer but that the reply "will be made, after we hear the Israeli response."

 

He blamed the Israeli government for the failure of all the four previous offers and he said, "We prefer not to disclose the details of the offer and not to speak about it, as this may jeopardize the deal." He said the Egyptians are playing an important role in the issue and have put in a lot of effort to arrange the exchange.

 

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=92175&d=15&m=2&y=2007&pix=world.jpg&category=World

Saudi prince to build hotel in Tel Aviv

Ma'an -    15 / 02 / 2007  Time:  09:25   

 

Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is in negotiations to build an eight-storey, 150-room hotel on Tel Aviv's coastline, the Israeli newspaper 'Yedioth Ahranoth' reported in its online edition.

 

The Israeli paper says that two architects have already started working on the project. One is Bin Talal's private architect, who had worked with him on oriental hotels across the world, Basel al-Beiti. The other is former Tel Aviv Chief City Engineer, Yisrael Gudovich.

 

The planned project is a joint venture with the Abulafya family in Tel Aviv, the paper says.

 

Bin Talal is the nephew of the late Saudi King Faisal. He is considered to be extremely wealthy (the paper suggests he is worth $26.4 billion) with an empire that includes holdings in banks, financing and investment firms, hi-tech and communications companies, leading hotels in the United States, Europe and the Arab world, and tourist sites.

 

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=19556

Arab law student denied entry to Sharon Mall

By Fadi Eyadat

 

Haaretz   Wed., February 14, 2007

Four law students at the Netanya College were refused entry at the city's Sharon Mall on Tuesday because the security guards identified them as being non-Jewish.

 

The students were asked to leave after one of them could not produce an identity card, even though his colleagues did present theirs. As they were ordered to leave, a guard sarcastically told them: "Now you have something to do your clerkship about."

The four students said they went to the mall on Tuesday morning, and at the parking lot opened their car trunk for inspection. The guard asked to see identity cards.

 

"This is the first time that I have been asked to show an identity card at the mall," said Sami Khoury. One of the four, a resident of Haifa, did not have his identity card with him, and consequently the guard prevented them from entering the mall.

 

Mall secuirty guard, Meir Twito, arrived and explained that because they are members of "minorities," they had to show an identity card.

 

"I told Twito that this is racism, and that we are being checked because we are Arabs, and he told us to complain - and that 'now you have something to do your clerkship about,'" Khoury said.

 

The chief of security at the mall, Uri Peled, said that "the matter was being investigated."

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/826170.html

Rashid lawyer claims govt is hiding information

Pretoria, South Africa

 

Mail & Guardian   14 February 2007 06:30

 

Deported Pakistani Khalid Rashid's lawyer on Wednesday claimed he had new information suggesting the South African government is hiding information about the man's whereabouts.

 

Attorney Zehir Omar, acting for Rashid's family, this week filed an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court, requesting a full bench of the court, headed by Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, to accept an affidavit containing the "new facts" before making a final decision in an application about the legality of Rashid's arrest and deportation.

 

Omar said Rashid's arrest and deportation is a disguised extradition and amounts to a crime against humanity.

 

The court was supposed to have delivered judgement on Wednesday, but will now hear further legal argument on Thursday afternoon.

 

In papers filed in the court this week, Rashid's lawyers said that in December last year they received a document compiled by Amnesty International, which suggests that Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula knew more about Rashid's whereabouts.

 

The document contains minutes of the November 2006 meeting of the United Nations's Committee against Torture, held in Geneva.

 

According to this document, Nqakula had responded to questions about Rashid's whereabouts by saying that "Mr Rashid had been visited in Pakistan, inter alia, by officials from the minister of safety and security. To his knowledge, Mr Rashid was still in Pakistan".

 

Rashid's lawyers thereafter demanded information on who had visited Rashid, when they did so and the reasons for the "continued concealment" of Rashid's whereabouts. They claim they are still waiting for an answer.

 

Immigrating officer Joe Swartland in court papers not only denied claims that Rashid had "disappeared", but said suggestions that the conduct of home affairs amounts to a crime against humanity is "defamatory".

 

"Officials of the government of Pakistan have provided more than ample proof of their receipt of Mr Rashid in Pakistan. Notwithstanding sufficient evidence having been provided in this regard, the applicant persists in his refusal to accept statements made by the officials of the government of Pakistan," he said.

 

He said the so-called minutes that Omar now tried to place before the court amount to nothing more than hearsay and were therefore denied. -- Sapa

 

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=299074

Britain shamed over CIA flights

 

Richard Norton-Taylor

The Guardian   Thursday February 15, 2007

 

The European parliament yesterday accused EU governments including Britain, Germany and Italy of turning a blind eye to CIA flights taking terror suspects to countries where they might be tortured.

 

A report that was adopted by 382 votes to 256, with 74 abstentions, criticises Britain for cooperating with the CIA in sending three UK residents on rendition fights.

 

It expresses "outrage" at a legal opinion from Michael Wood, former legal adviser to the Foreign Office, who said "receiving or possessing" information extracted under torture did not in itself breach international conventions "in so far as there is no direct participation in the torture".

 

Claude Moraes, the lone Labour MEP on the committee that drew up the report, said that although there was only circumstantial evidence of British collusion in the CIA practice the European Parliament had "set a line in the sand". He added: "It was a red flag for the future."

 

Amnesty International's UK campaigns director, Tim Hancock, said the British government should allow an independent investigation. "There is already serious concern at the possible complicity of UK officials in the rendition of two UK residents, Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna, from Gambia to Guantanamo Bay," he said. Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on rendition, said countries involved must "come clean on what they know, and fast".

Video : This is War

"Do it in the name of God"

 

They have created a wasteland and call it Democracy. ...

 

Dare we look on our victims?

 

 - Warning -

 

This video should only be viewed by mature audience

 

Video 7 Minutes

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17069.htm