Benamar Benatta, believed to be the last remaining domestic detainee from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was released yesterday after negotiations involving Canada, the United States and his attorneys ended his captivity at nearly five years.

Benatta crossed the border from the United States to Canada, where he will be allowed to resume the bid for political asylum that resulted in his detention shortly before the terrorist attacks.

The Algerian air force lieutenant spent more than 58 months behind bars even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001 that he had no connection to terrorism.

He was among more than 1,200 mainly Muslim men who were arrested after the attacks and held under tight security while authorities scoured their backgrounds for links to terrorist groups. It is believed that Benatta was the last to be released, though it is difficult to be certain because of the secrecy that surrounded some of the cases.

“This is the result of an individual being labeled a terrorist and the government treating him as such,” Benatta’s attorney Catherine Amirfar said yesterday. “He was fully cleared by the FBI of any connection to terrorism . . . but the label stuck, so a man with no previous criminal record was detained for a visa overstay.”

Benatta came to the United States in 2000 for military training and then overstayed a six-month visa. He arrived at the Peace Bridge near Buffalo seeking political asylum in Canada on Sept. 5, 2001. Officials there detained him while investigating his claim. Benatta’s background — an Algerian Muslim and an avionics technician without proper immigration papers — prompted Canada to turn him over to the United States after the terrorist attacks. He was placed in solitary confinement in a New York City jail.
washingtonpost.com

Fears of war in the Horn of Africa grew sharply yesterday after Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia to “protect” its neighbour’s fragile government against an advancing Islamist militia.
Dozens of Ethiopian military trucks and armoured vehicles were seen closing in on Baidoa, the seat of Somalia’s interim government, which has no army of its own. Journalists reported seeing hundreds of Ethiopian troops patrolling the town yesterday.

The move appeared to be a direct challenge to the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, which controls the capital Mogadishu and much of the south. On Wednesday, its fighters advanced to the town of Buurhabaka, 40 miles from Baidoa. The military movements came as both sides stepped up their verbal battle.
guardian.co.uk

Hundreds of thousands of people were warned to flee from southern Lebanon today as Israeli military officers indicated that final preparations were being made for a ground invasion.
Israeli planes dropped leaflets telling residents to clear the zone after officials met to decide how big a force to send in, according to senior military officials.

They said Israel would not stop its offensive until Hizbullah was forced behind the Litani river, 20 miles north of the border – creating a new buffer zone in a region that saw Israeli occupation between 1982 and 2000. Reservists in northern Israel were ordered to report for duty later today.
guardian.co.uk

US weapons, know-how fuel Israel’s military
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israel’s latest military operations reflect a fighting machine bolstered by U.S. weaponry, jet fuel and technology transfers — and more is on its way.

From 1971 through 2005, U.S. aid to Israel has averaged more than $2 billion a year, two-thirds of which has been military assistance, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

U.S. military grants to Israel totaled $2.28 billion in fiscal 2006 ending September 30, according to a new tally in the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs, a nonpartisan magazine.

The U.S.-supplied arsenal includes F-16 Falcon fighters built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.-built F-15 Eagle fighters and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.

Deliveries of Israel’s latest order of 102 F-16Is — a special variant built at a reported cost of $4.2 billion — are to be completed by the end of 2008.

Israeli Professor in Haifa Blasts “Reckless” Assault on Lebanon
ILLAN PAPPE: Well, today was a relative quiet day. There were several sirens, but no rockets fell, unlike tomorrow. But I’m aware that what we are going through pales in comparison to what goes on on the other side of the border, where a large number of civilians have been killed.

And I think I can talk also as a spokesperson for the Israeli Committee Against the War, that the citizens of Haifa, Palestinians and Jews alike, there are quite a large number of them who ask probably the same questions that Ralph Nader asked before. Why doesn’t our government accept the offer of the United Nations to an immediate ceasefire and the beginning of diplomatic negotiations? And why does the United States, in the most immoral position I have ever recalled since the end of the second World War, tells us and the poor citizens of Lebanon that it doesn’t mind the mutual killing of citizens, so that the military operation could go on, where it knows that it has the power to stop today the shelling of both Israelis and Lebanese and to start maybe a more fruitful negotiations, not only over the questions of the prisoners of war, but maybe even over the question of the comprehensive solution.

AMY GOODMAN: How important is the U.S. stance, Professor Pappe?

ILLAN PAPPE: Immensely so. I think that, first of all, it has the power, like it never had before, to stop an escalation, which has already claimed the lives of many innocent people. So that’s a very powerful position. Secondly, it’s the only superpower in the area and in the world, and that’s a very great responsibility. And thirdly, without the U.S. support, the aggressive Israeli policies, not only towards Lebanon, but also towards the Gaza Strip and towards the Occupied Territories, would have changed dramatically. So I would say that in fact the Middle East conflict continues, very much because — not only because, but primarily because — of the American position.

UN sees possible Mideast war crimes
Expressing grave concern at the killing and maiming of civilians in the region, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said international humanitarian law was clear on the need to protect non-combatants.

“This obligation is also expressed in international criminal law, which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity,” she said in a statement.

“The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control,” she said without pointing the finger at anyone in particular.

I’m nobody. Are you nobody too?

15 killed in Israel incursions in Gaza, West Bank
MAGHAZI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AFP) – Fifteen Palestinians were killed as Israeli troops moved into a Gaza refugee camp and a West Bank town, pushing a campaign to rescue a teenage soldier and stop rocket fire into a fourth week.

Preoccupied With Fighting, Israelis Put Aside Plans to Withdraw Settlers From West Bank
HAIFA, Israel, July 19 With daily rocket fire coming from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, two places from which Israel has withdrawn in recent years, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert can expect greater resistance in pursuing any plan to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, some Israeli analysts and citizens said.

In March, a solid majority of Israelis voted for Mr. Olmert’s Kadima movement and other parties that supported some sort of Israeli pullback in the West Bank. It appeared that the issue would define Israeli politics over the next couple of years.

But with Palestinian attacks out of Gaza and the Hezbollah assault from Lebanon, the West Bank question has been pushed aside for now, and it could be a much harder sell for Mr. Olmert when he revisits it.

‘The West Bank disengagement plan may not be clinically dead, but it is in a prolonged state of suspended animation,’ said Mark Heller, a political analyst at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Too busy.

July 19 (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc.’s Mexican unit urged Mexico City authorities to keep supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from hampering business after some 150 protesters blocked access to the bank’s branch and offices downtown today.

Protesters obstructed an entire block in the city’s colonial center, where the Mexican unit of Citigroup, known as Banamex, has two buildings, according to bank spokesman Jose Ortiz- Izquierdo. The blockade, which lasted from 7:45 a.m. local time (8:45 a.m. New York time) to 12:30 p.m., prevented customers and 700 of 800 employees from entering, he said.

“We called the police, they sent two buses with 30 officials in each, and they didn’t do anything,” Ortiz-Izquierdo said in a telephone interview from Mexico City.
bloomberg.com

As Mexico Awaits JudgesÍ Ruling The Writing Is On The Wall And In The Streets
…At this point, 16 days after the election, it is difficult to imagine how Calderon could govern Mexico if the TRIFE denies a recount and accepts the IFE numbers. A Calderon presidency would inherit a country divided in half geographically between north and south. Both the PAN and the PRD won 16 states a piece although AMLO’s turf contains 54 per cent of the population and most of Mexico’s 70 million poor ? an angry majority that will refuse to accept the legitimacy of a Calderon presidency for the next six years. Faced with a similar situation after he stole the 1988 election from leftist Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, Carlos Salinas had to call out the army.

While hitchhiking across Paraguay a few years ago, I met welcoming farmers who let me camp in their backyards. I eventually arrived in Ciudad del Este, known for its black markets and loose borders. Now the city and farmers I met are caught in the crossfire of the US military’s “war on terror.”

On May 26, 2005, the Paraguayan Senate allowed US troops to train their Paraguayan counterparts until December 2006, when the Paraguayan Senate can vote to extend the troops’ stay. The United States had threatened to cut off millions in aid to the country if Paraguay did not grant the troops entry. In July 2005 hundreds of US soldiers arrived with planes, weapons and ammunition. Washington’s funding for counterterrorism efforts in Paraguay soon doubled, and protests against the military presence hit the streets.

Some activists, military analysts and politicians in the region believe the operations could be part of a plan to overthrow the left-leaning government of Evo Morales in neighboring Bolivia and take control of the area’s vast gas and water reserves. Human rights reports from Paraguay suggest the US military presence is, at the very least, heightening tensions in the country.
upsidedownworld.org

Ecuadorians March for Justice in Quito
Twelve buses carrying hundreds of people from Ecuador’s Intag region arrived in Quito on July 12 for a two-day gathering and march to celebrate “life, dignity, rights and the defense of nature” and to unequivocally express their opposition to Canada’s Ascendant Copper Corporation.

U.S. to Build Military Base in Honduras
The AP has reported that the U.S. plans to help Honduras build a military base in the northeast part of the country near the Nicaraguan border to help combat drug trafficking.

“It’s a zone where there is conflict and problems, therefore we need to have greater presence,” said Gen. Romeo Vasquez, the head of the joint chiefs of staff of the armed forces who took classes at the School of the Americas.

The base will house aircraft, a fuel supplying system, and U.S. soldiers, if needed.

The U.S. State Department describes Honduras as being a close Washington ally since the 1980’s when that country’s government “supported U.S. policy opposing a revolutionary Marxist government in Nicaragua and an active leftist insurgency in El Salvador.” Coincidentally, Nicaragua has an upcoming election featuring Sandanista candidate Daniel Ortega, one of the men and women who helped bring the “revolutionary Marxist government” to Nicaragua by overthrowing the U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship.

The State Department also notes that Honduras was one of the first countries to sign a bilateral agreement exempting U.S. government and miltary peronnel (past and present) from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and other crimes against humanity

One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for control over knowledge.

By that standard, the members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as the folks most terrified of history in the United States when last month they took bold action to become the first state to outlaw historical interpretation in public schools. In other words, Florida has officially replaced the study of history with the imposition of dogma and effectively outlawed critical thinking.

Although U.S. students are typically taught a sanitized version of history in which the inherent superiority and benevolence of the United States is rarely challenged, the social and political changes unleashed in the 1960s have opened up some space for a more honest accounting of our past. But even these few small steps taken by some teachers toward collective critical self-reflection are too much for many Americans to bear.

So, as part of an education bill signed into law by Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida has declared that ‘American history shall be viewed as factual, not as constructed.’ That factual history, the law states, shall be viewed as ‘knowable, teachable and testable.’

Florida’s lawmakers are not only prescribing a specific view of U.S. history that must be taught (my favorite among the specific commands in the law is the one about instructing students on ‘the nature and importance of free enterprise to the United States economy’), but are trying to legislate out of existence any ideas to the contrary. They are not just saying that their history is the best history, but that it is beyond interpretation. In fact, the law attempts to suppress discussion of the very idea that history is interpretation.
counterpunch.org

…Bill and Melinda Gates, with an air of slight embarrassment, sat on a low wooden bench in the middle of the dark room, surreally reminiscent of nervous interviewees on a breakfast TV sofa. Before their arrival, Nkosepaca, the 60-year-old head of the family, had hauled himself across the floor and into a makeshift wheelchair at one end of the bench. He lost both legs above the knee when he fell off a crowded train a couple of years ago, and the stumps were tied up with filthy rags. Gates, whose personal wealth exceeds $40bn (£22bn), sat next to him, hands in his lap, eyes lowered below his baseball cap and feet wedged behind one of the chair’s wheels, which might once have belonged to a bicycle.

How were they to make conversation? Bill and Melinda Gates, whose charitable foundation takes as its premise that all lives have equal value, struggled to connect. They were there to talk about tuberculosis, because the foundation is putting millions into research to replace the ancient and inadequate BCG vaccine and find new drugs to shorten the six-month treatment time. Nkosepaca has had TB four times, infected by different strains of the bacterium – something which it later appeared had fascinated Bill Gates, who was to raise it with scientists again and again, asking what the implications were for a vaccine.

But faced with the man, he was silent and it was his wife Melinda who tried politely to engage Nkosepaca about his health, and who lit up with real warmth as she caught the eye of a wild-haired, fidgety granddaughter or a big-eyed baby. When his turn came to ask a question, Gates, looking less than comfortable, resorted to numbers.

“How many people live here?” he asked in that staccato voice that carries all the feeling of a computer chip, followed by: “How long have you had electricity?” (The answer was six years.)

The Gateses were on their first tour in South Africa since Bill announced he would step aside from Microsoft (although only reducing his involvement, he says) in 2008 and the billionaire financier Warren Buffet announced he would give the $30bn foundation most of his fortune – effectively doubling it in size.

The family had no idea of the vast wealth at Gates’s disposal. “Do you know who he is?” I asked them. They shook their heads. “Or why he has come?” No clue. But as most destitute Africans reasonably do, faced with a white, well-fed foreigner, Nkosepaca asked him for help. “He asks if anybody can help us because the money we’re getting is too little to sustain a family,” translated a young man from the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at Stellenbosch University, which had arranged the visit. Later, one of the daughters spoke up. “I just want to know whether you can help our father,” said 25-year-old Kutala quietly in English from the back of the room.

“We came for a visit,” answered Melinda. “We certainly will do something to help your family because you have been so hospitable today.”
guardian.co.uk

Uncharcteristically, I’m speechless…

Fear and loathing on DC’s streets as summer crimewave reaches the elite
Widening gap between rich and poor blamed for rise in violence, with 14 murders in two weeks.

…Twelve of the 14 murder victims so far this month were African-American males, shot dead in poor areas of the city rarely visited by tourists. The other two were an African-American woman and Alan Senitt, the Jewish activist.

Senitt, 27, had his throat slashed as he walked a female friend home from the cinema in the early hours of July 9. His friend was sexually assaulted. The Briton had been planning to spend the summer working for a Democratic presidential hopeful, the former governor of Virginia Mark Warner.

There was nothing to suggest it would be unsafe to walk his friend home. Georgetown, with its genteel rows of houses, tucked-away mansions and smart shops, is one of the richest neighbourhoods in Washington.

…In a city that is 60% black, African-American students have the lowest performance levels in the country; overall 37% of Washingtonians cannot read well enough to fill out a job application.

Probe: Black Chicago Suspects Tortured
Years ago, black suspects accused Chicago police of extracting confessions through torture: beatings, electric shocks, games of mock Russian roulette, and throwing typewriter covers over their heads to make them gasp for air.

On Wednesday, prosecutors appointed to look into the allegations from the 1970s and 1980s said they found evidence that some of the allegations were true – but that the cases are too old or too weak to prosecute.

Incumbent Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was forced into a three-week runoff campaign after drawing less than 50 percent of the vote in her first re-election bid since her scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer.
wxia.com

Diebold Machines Rip Off McKinney Votes

…”In the morning we woke up to find that 10 people in the village had been killed. The authorities told us that if we could leave we should get out. So we got in the car and left. As we were leaving, they bombed the road in front of us.” There were 10 people in the van with Fatima: all were wounded. “No ambulance could get through. Everyone who could has left Srifa, but the dead bodies are still in the houses.”

The attack destroyed 15 houses, killed at least 17, and wounded at least 30. It happened on a day in which 63 people were killed in the bloodiest day of the Middle East conflict so far.

Srifa sits on a hillside overlooking a coastal plain that leads down to a sandy bay which ends with the white cliffs of Naqora and the border with Israel. It was a local beauty spot, where tourists came to see turtles lay their eggs. But it is also in the Hizbullah heartland from which rockets been fired into Israel.
guardian.co.uk

Tariq Ali: A Protracted Colonial War
With US support, Israel is hoping to isolate and topple Syria by holding sway over Lebanon.

In his last interview – after the 1967 six-day war – the historian Isaac Deutscher, whose next-of-kin had died in the Nazi camps and whose surviving relations lived in Israel, said: “To justify or condone Israel’s wars against the Arabs is to render Israel a very bad service indeed and harm its own long-term interest.” Comparing Israel to Prussia, he issued a sombre warning: “The Germans have summed up their own experience in the bitter phrase ‘Man kann sich totseigen!’ ‘You can triumph yourself to death’.”

…There are 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli gulags. That is why Israeli soldiers are captured. Prisoner exchanges have occurred as a result. To blame Syria and Iran for Israel’s latest offensive is frivolous. Until the question of Palestine is resolved and Iraq’s occupation ended, there will be no peace in the region. A “UN” force to deter Hizbullah, but not Israel, is a nonsensical notion.

Arming of Hezbollah Reveals U.S. and Israeli Blind Spots
WASHINGTON, July 18 „ The power and sophistication of the missile and rocket arsenal that Hezbollah has used in recent days has caught the United States and Israel off guard, and officials in both countries are just now learning the extent to which the militant group has succeeded in getting weapons from Iran and Syria.

While the Bush administration has stated that cracking down on weapons proliferation is one of its top priorities, the arming of Hezbollah shows the blind spots of American and other Western intelligence services in assessing the threat, officials from across those governments said.

Yeah sure.

Congress Is Giving Israel Vote of Confidence
Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are rushing to offer unalloyed support for Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah fighters, reflecting a bipartisan desire to not only defend a key U.S. ally but also solidify long-term backing of Jewish voters and political donors in the United States, according to officials and strategists in both parties.

With Israel intensifying its air and artillery attacks on Lebanon and warning of a protracted war, the Senate yesterday unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution endorsing Israel’s military campaign and condemning Hezbollah and its two backers, Iran and Syria. A few hours earlier, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) delivered his most strident defense of Israel since the conflict erupted a week ago. The House is expected to pass a similarly pro-Israel resolution today.

Venezuela slams US for veto of Israel resolution

President Bush continued his disastrous world tour by completely freaking out German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a surprise neck massage during the middle of a briefing.

Chancellor Merkel was speaking with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and didn’t notice Bush’s sneak attack from the rear. He managed to get both hands on her neck and shoulders before she pretty much freaked out. Bush then sauntered off, with an innocent look on his face. Needless to say, the German press is having a field day with headlines screaming “Bush: Liebes-Attacke auf Merkel!”
netscape.com

Will Germany Declare War On Iran?
For the first time since German reunification Germany is truly a world player again. With one of the largest militaries in Europe with about 76,200 air force personnel, 221,000 armed forces personnel, 230,600 army personnel, 26,700 navy personnel, 2,300 tanks, and some of the most advanced aircraft in the world in the modern German Luftwaffe Germany is truly “loaded for bear”.

Chancellor Angela Merkel likened hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler in April of 2006, saying the world must act now to stop him before his country developed a nuclear bomb. “We want, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program further,” Merkel told top policymakers from around the world in a speech to the annual Munich security conference. Referring to the rise of Hitler in the 1930s, Merkel added: “Now we see that there were times when we could have acted differently. For that reason Germany is obliged … to make clear (to Iran) what is permissible and what isn’t.” “Iran has blatantly crossed the red line,” Merkel said. “I say it as German chancellor. A president that questions Israel’s right to exist, a president that denies the Holocaust, cannot expect to receive any tolerance from Germany.”