The cost of the War On Terror

The cost of the War On Terror

    10:03 AM   No comments

The war in Ukraine cannot be seen just as the war in Ukraine; precedent setting has consequences. The reluctance in Muslim majority countries to condemn the armed conflict in Ukraine can be explained by the illegal invasion of Iraq and the recklessness of western governments with the blood and property of Muslims.

About twenty years since the launch of the War on Terror, which practically was a war on Muslims, and the effect of the military campaign is yet to be fully felt and the facts about this war on terror is yet to be revealed. But some information is now emerging.

The Washington Post reported on a new report by researchers that the number of victims of the US "war on terrorism" after September 11, 2001 is estimated to be around 4.6 million.

The referenced study is likely to be a low count since it estimates only the deaths caused directly by activities the US government labels as part of the War on Terror. However, the War on terror has had far destabilizing effect on the entire region and perhaps the world. In fact, even the war in Ukraine can be attributed to the war on terror. In fact, many of the groups designated as terror groups are in Ukraine now.

It is difficult to calculate the minimum number of deaths associated with the war on terrorism in the conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, because the consequences are "so extensive and complex" that they ultimately cannot be quantified.

 According to estimates, the death toll ranges from 4.5 to 4.6 million people, from 3.6 to 3.7 million of whom died for "indirect reasons" caused by the deterioration of economic, environmental, psychological conditions and health conditions. But it says nothing about NATO’s war in Libya, Syria, and Yemen.

Report: During the Nakba, Ben-Gurion ordered that Palestinian wells be poisoned to prevent Palestinians from returning home

Report: During the Nakba, Ben-Gurion ordered that Palestinian wells be poisoned to prevent Palestinians from returning home

    6:31 AM   No comments

Haaretz newspaper revealed that during the Nakba, Ben-Gurion ordered that Palestinian wells be poisoned to prevent people from return. Wells in Acre, Gaza, Beersheba, Jericho, Galilee, Bedouin, & Jerusalem were poisoned. Zionist gangs spread germs that caused typhus and dysentery. The paper revealed the existence of documents that officially confirm that Israel poisoned Palestinian water wells in Acre and Gaza in 1948.

The paper reported in its Friday edition the discovery of official documents proving Israel’s poisoning of Palestinian water wells in 1948, in which prominent and well-known Israeli figures participated.

The disturbing story behind them was recently uncovered by historian Benny Morris and historian and Israel Prize laureate Benjamin Z. Kedar, following extensive archival research, the paper said.

This operation was partially exposed decades ago when rumors and oral testimonies were reported in newspapers and books about an attempt in 1948 by Israeli forces to poison wells in Acre and Gaza, contaminating drinking water with bacteria. However, only now, in Morris and Kedar’s research, has the “smoking gun” been revealed in the form of official documentation, according to Haaretz. The newly unearthed documents show that this operation was much broader in scope than earlier believed, and that other top military and political figures besides David Ben-Gurion were involved.

“We uncovered a lot of new information. We deciphered how the operation developed through its various stages; we discovered who authorized, organized, and controlled the operation; and how it was carried out in different areas,” Morris says. “We have a much fuller picture now, and one that is based in part on army documentation,” Kedar adds.

The pair recently published an article in the journal Middle Eastern Studies titled “‘Cast Thy Bread’: Israeli Biological Warfare during the 1948 War.” “Cast Thy Bread” was the operation’s code name. Naturally, most of the material related to the episode is censored, but when Morris searched through the Israeli army archives for any mention of the operation by name, he was surprised to discover numerous documents. Morris writes in the article that the censor apparently was not aware of what the code name referred to.

On April 1, 1948, David Ben-Gurion wrote in his journal about “the development of science and speeding up its application in warfare”. A month and a half later, he wrote about “biological materials” that were purchased for $2,000, the paper said.

It pointed out that now it became clear the extent of the link between what Ben-Gurion wrote and Israel’s purchase of biological materials, which appear to be a specific powder or liquid used to poison Palestinian well water.

The new documents revealed that these operations were supervised by well-known Israeli figures, led by: David Ben-Gurion, former defense minister Moshe Dayan, and former Israeli president Ephraim Katzir, among others.

The operation began in April 1948, when fears of an invasion by Arab armies were mounting. The plan was to poison wells in abandoned Arab villages as well as in Jewish locales that were due to be evacuated by new Israeli state. The idea was to prevent Arabs from returning to their villages and from settling in Jewish locales that would fall into their hands.

The documents show that Ben-Gurion was at the top of the pyramid. Below him was Yigal Yadin, who oversaw the military side of the operation. The operation was commanded by Yohanan Ratner. Initially, the top man in the field for the group was Dayan, who went on to become the Israeli army chief of staff and defense minister. The documents indicate that Dayan served as the smuggler who conveyed the bacteria from the science corps to different points throughout the country.

Photos published for the first time; atrocious methods of torture in Guantanamo

Photos published for the first time; atrocious methods of torture in Guantanamo

    2:23 PM   No comments

Although many years have passed since the establishment of the Guantanamo prison, amid the international and human rights criticisms that surrounded this prison located in Guantanamo Bay in the far southeast of Cuba, the mystery still surrounds many of the methods of torture that were practiced behind its closed cells.

However, a detainee there, called "Abu Zubaydah", presented for the first time dozens of drawings that he wrote with her hand about the methods of torture he was subjected to in this American detention camp, as part of what was known as the CIA torture program after September 11.

And those drawings, which numbered 40 live now, constituted the most comprehensive and detailed account of the brutal methods he was subjected to at the hands of the CIA, between 2002 and 2006, according to what was reported by the British newspaper, The Guardian.

 

It also prompted the United Nations to demand his release, stressing that these methods are inconsistent with all international laws.

 
Rape and drowning

The pictures that Abu Zubayda wrote and later sent to one of his lawyers, Professor Mark Denbeaux, showed horrific acts of violence, sexual and racial insults, and prolonged psychological terror to which the detainees were subjected.

 

The aforementioned lawyer, along with his students at the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall Law School, collected Zubayda's photos and testimonies in a comprehensive report on torture in this notorious prison and other secret intelligence detention centers.

 

Denbeaux said: "Abu Zubayda is the first victim of the American torture program, after it was approved by the US Department of Justice based on facts that the CIA knew were wrong," as he put it.

 

It is noteworthy that Abu Zubayda, 52, was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, then he was transferred between several secret intelligence locations, whether in Poland or Lithuania, and others, until he landed in Guantanamo in 2006, where he has been detained since then without Prosecution or proof of his involvement in any crime.

coffin

His meticulously drawn images showed masked agents physically threatening him with rape.

 It also showed other violent methods of torture and force-feeding, as well as holding the detainee in a coffin-like place and dousing it with water, or placing headphones on his ears and raising the volume to the maximum extent that a human mind can bear.

 It showed how the man in his fifties was tied with iron chains naked in front of his interrogators, some of whom were female, in order to humiliate him.

 He was also subjected to simulated drowning 83 times.

 About that experience, he wrote to his lawyer, "I was terrified of drowning all day."

 According to the 2014 Senate report summary, at least 119 individuals have fallen victim to this horrific program at Guantanamo.