Human Rights

NOVANEWS Demonstrate ‘Targeted Killings’ Adhere to International Law Members of the Abida tribe point to a drone aircraft flying over Wadi Abida, Yemen on October 13, 2010. © 2010 Reuters RELATED MATERIALS: Q & A: US Targeted Killings and International Law Letter to President Obama: Targeted Killings by the US Government CIA drone strikes have become an almost daily occurrence around the world, but little is known about who is killed and under what circumstances. So long as the US resists public accountability for CIA drone strikes, the agency should not be conducting targeted killings. James Ross, legal and policy director (Washington, DC) – The US government should transfer Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) command of aerial drone strikes to the arm...

NOVANEWS Convictions for Exercising Freedom of Speech, Assembly Should Be Voided RELATED MATERIALS: Bahrain: Release People Jailed for Speaking Out MORE COVERAGE: More Human Rights Watch reporting on Bahrain (New York) – The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, in its recommendation to review convictions of people for exercising their basic rights, intended that the government should free them and void their convictions, Human Rights Watch said today. Sir Nigel Rodley, one of the commissioners and a former UN special rapporteur on torture, told Human Rights Watch that the commissioners, in calling on authorities to review convictions and commute sentences of persons charged for attempting to exercise their basic political rights, intended that they be relea...

NOVANEWS by Stephen Lendman   Post-9/11, Mehanna is one of hundreds of Muslim Americans victimized, vilified, and persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, prominence, activism, and at times charity. On October 21, 2009, an FBI press release said: “A Sudbury, Mass. man was charged today in federal court with conspiracy to provide support to terrorists.” Maliciously and spuriously, Mehanna was accused of “conspir(ing) with Ahmad Abousamra and others to provide material support and resources for use in carrying out a conspiracy to kill, kidnap, main or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country and extraterritorial homicide of a US national.” Despite no evidence whatever proving it, “Mehanna and co-conspirators (were accused of having) discussed their desire to participate in ...

Dear Friends,   There are many days when I wish that I hadn’t opened the newspaper.  But today’s item takes the cake!!! If there is one organization that is commendable beyond doubt it is the Parents Circle—an organization of bereaved families on both sides of the line: Palestinian and Israeli!  But the present government wants all Palestinians to be enemies—as if the pain of loss on the Israeli side is stronger than the pain on the Palestinian side. He accuses the organization of supporting terrorism!  Well if that can be said for the Palestinian side, it also holds for the Israeli side!  Not only many Israeli colonists (so-called ‘settlers’—settling someone else’s land) are violent and have caused injury and death, but so also Israel’s soldiers.   The difference is that Israeli ‘ter...

NOVANEWS by Anthony Hall   Mrs. Shami Chakrabarti, The Leveson Inquiry into Media Ethics Court 73 Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London WC2 A2LL   Dear Mrs. Chakrabarti; Lord Justice Brian Henry Leveson has been charged to investigate the collaboration between police and media agencies I am taking this step to intervene in the work of the Leveson Inquiry on the advice of my friend and colleague, human-rights lawyer Paul Warburton. As I understand it, Mr. Warburton’s contribution to the work of Lord Justice Leveson and his staff flows consistently from the former’s longstanding complaint about a very serious and ongoing instance of disinformation and fraud perpetrated for over a decade by the BBC and many other media venues whose credibility has quite properly been tarnished by revel...

 NOVANEWS by crescentandcross The lawyer for the murderer of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky blames marriage patterns among hassidim for his client's horrifying crime. In a desperate attempt to prove to the court of public opinion that his client is clinically insane the attorney for the murderer of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky told reporters on Wednesday that "inbreeding" was the root cause of the brutal slaying. Howard Greenberg, a lawyer representing Levi Aron, the accused murderer of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, told reporters outside of Brooklyn Supreme Court after a brief hearing on Wednesday, December 21st, that "inbreeding" led his client to brutally murder of the Borough Park boy in July. Atty. Howard Greenberg described his client, Levi Aron, as a diagnosed schizophrenic who...

NOVANEWS   Zio-Nazi Settlers attacked a Palestinian choir bus returning from a carol concert in Nablus on Saturday evening. The singers, from Bethlehem Bible college, said five men attacked them on a quiet road outside of the northern West Bank city. “A rock smashed through the window, and glass shattered everywhere inside,” chorister Saleem Anfous, adding that none of the 25 carol singers was injured. “We kept driving and starting singing to cheer ourselves up and encourage the choir members,” he said. “Tomorrow we will continue our carol tour of the West Bank in Jenin, using the same road, and we are afraid. But we are trying to convince the families that God will protect us.” Hardline Nazi settlers have torched mosques near Ramallah, Jerusalem and Salfit since last Wednesday...

NOVANEWS    QALANDIA CHECKPOINT DECEMBER NAZI HUMANITARIAN GATE... www.machomwatch.org

NOVANEWS From Roy Two days before Xmas day, almost 20 Israelis, a few internationals and two Santas joined the weekly Palestinian demonstration against the wall and occupation in Bil'in. With bells a ringin', we marched to the wall, and as soon as Santa touched the barbed wire (that protects the other barbed wire that protects the concrete wall that protects the Israeli snipers that protect the settlers watching over from the other side), before we could even chant "hura hura Falasteen", Santa and his entourage had a barrage of gas canisters shot directly at them, just barely failing to repeat the military achievement of killing a protester in Nebi Salah two weeks earlier. Due to a local wedding the shabab decided on a short demo and, with very few exceptions, refrained from throwing stone...

NOVANEWS Associated Press Two Muslim men who were kicked off an airplane in May are suing Delta Air Lines Inc. and a regional carrier that operated the flight from Memphis to Charlotte, N.C. The suit was filed Monday in federal court against Delta and Atlantic Southeast Airlines Inc. It said Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul went through several security checks. It claims the pilot wanted them off the plane because he thought their presence would make other passengers uncomfortable. The men are described in the suit as having beards and “traditional Arabic clothing.” It seeks compensation for losses and injuries as well as punitive damages. Atlantic Southeast and Delta issued a statement condemning discrimination but declining to comment further. The two were traveling to a conference ...