Human Rights

NOVANEWS DAMASCUS, Syria – Thirteen Syrian political prisoners have begun a hunger strike to demand their release and the lifting of emergency laws that give authorities a free hand to jail political and human rights activists, a rights group said Monday. The prisoners include prominent human rights activist Haitham al-Maleh, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Al-Maleh, who is 80 years old and has diabetes and thyroid problems, has been under arrest since October 2009. He was jailed from 1980 until 1986 for demanding constitutional reforms. The rights group said the activists launched the hunger strike in Damascus' Adra prison. The political detainees also include Ali Abdullah of the Damascus Declaration opposition group, prominent lawyer Anwar al-Bunni a...

NOVANEWS   George Katsiaficas Interview by Kourosh Ziabari George Katsiaficas is a renowned university professor, sociologist, author and activist. He is a visiting American Professor of Humanities and Sociology at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea where he teaches and does research on the 1980s and 1990s East Asian uprisings. Katsiaficas has a Ph.D. of sociology from the University of California, San Diego. Since 1990, he has taught sociology at the Wentworth Institute of Technology’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. During the period between 2006 and 2008, he was an Associate in Research at the Harvard University and Korea Institute. He specializes in social movements, Asian politics, the U.S. foreign policy, comparative and historical studies and has ...

NOVANEWS   by crescentandcross         By Robert Parry Consortium News, March 5, 2011 (Originally published September 12, 2009) Editor’s Note: The disclosure that Army Pvt. Bradley Manning was subjected to seven hours of forced nudity on Wednesday – amid new pressures aimed at getting him to identify others involved in the WikiLeaks case – recalled how the Bush administration used nudity and other abusive tactics to break down “war on terror” detainees. In 2004, the CIA told President George W. Bush’s lawyers how useful forced nudity was for instilling “learned helplessness” in prisoners, though the repeated emphasis on nudity took on a lewd and sadistic quality, as Robert Parry reported in this article from the archives: The CIA shared with George W. Bush’s ...

NOVANEWS Divergent views from Lebanon, but one common goal By  Franklin Lamb Shatila Camp, Beirut: Lebanese opponents of civil rights for Palestinian refugees often use less objective and more crude wording to define "tawtin" ("settlement") than is normally employed in civil society discussions. During last summer's debate in parliament, which failed to enact laws that would allow the world's oldest and largest refugee community the basic civil right to work and to own a home, the "tawtin or return" discussion took on strident and dark meanings, which were largely effective in frightening much of the Lebanese public from supporting even these modest humanitarian measures. Right-wing opponents of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon often define tawtin during public discussions as "implantat...

NOVANEWS Zio-Nazi regime  told the family of murder victim Husam Rweidi that his body would not be returned unless they agreed to a set of conditions, relatives said. Husam Rweidi, 24, was stabbed to death Friday by a mob of racist  Nazi Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem's city center. The victim's cousin Firas Baydoun said Zio-Nazi regime stipulated that his burial must take place at midnight, and that a maximum of 10 mourners could attend the funeral. Baydoun said Rweidi's body was being kept in the mortuary of IsraHell Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.  Zio-Nazi commander said the family could not take Rweidi's body to the Al-Aqsa Mosque for funeral prayers and Islamic rituals, Baydoun said. "The body must be carried to the Al-Rahma cemetery directly," the co...

NOVANEWS   CIA and Pentagon Officials Knew Their Interrogation Methods Were “Torture” By Sherwood Ross     The CIA and Pentagon used “enhanced interrogation techniques”(EIT) on Middle East prisoners knowing they were illegal and considered to be torture by the United Nations, according to an article published in the January issue of the American magazine“Science.” Tortures including sensory deprivation, forced nudity, and painful body positions were “routinely applied to detainees in U.S. custody in at least three theaters of operation and an unknown number of (CIA) ‘black sites,’” the article states. The U.S. did this “despite the fact that each EIT was considered torture by the United Nations and the United States (had) recognized them as such in its reports on human rights practices.” ...

NOVANEWS Recalling the Slaughter of Innocents by crescentandcross       By Ray McGovern  February 15, 2011 — Twenty years ago, as Americans were celebrating Valentine’s Day, Iraqi husbands and fathers in the Amiriyah section of Baghdad were peeling the remains of their wives and children off the walls and floor of a large neighborhood bomb shelter. The men had left the shelter the evening before, so their wives would have some measure of privacy as they sought refuge from the U.S.-led coalition bombing campaign, which was at its most intense pre-ground war stage. All of the more than 400 women and children were incinerated or boiled to death at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 13, 1991, when two F-117 stealth fighter-bombers each dropped a 2,000-pound laser-guided “smart bomb” on the civilian shelter ...

NOVANEWS   Dear Friends and Supporters, The situation of the Palestinian cave-dwellers in South Hebron Hills continues to be difficult. They suffer from permanent harassment carried out by the military and settlers. This year, however, has been even more difficult, due to a severe drought. As if it wanted to capitalize on the harsh conditions, on December 16th, the IsrahelL military destroyed 13 water cisterns belonging to Palestinian families in South Hebron hills. For more details watch the very illuminating video in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CpvE9lFlyU and read the following article in http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-destroys-unauthorized-bedouin-reservoirs-built-before-state-s-creation-1.330841  The military claims that these water cisterns (or reservoirs) were...

NOVANEWS   RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Israeli military court at the Ofer detention center extended the detention period of 14-year-old Islam Saleh Tamimi, to almost three months. The child, from the central West Bank village of An-Nabi Saleh, was detained from his home at 2am on the morning of 24 January. Local activist groups said he was taken to a police station and interrogated without his parents or a lawyer present and later beaten.  The court decision was handed down after the child's family refused a suggested plea bargain that they said would have seen their son exiled from his home and sent to stay with relatives who hold Israeli identity cards.  He would have to remain under house arrest in the new location, the family said. The release also asked for a 10,000 shekel ($2,718) fine....

NOVANEWS   My husband and other Palestinian prisoners are being denied basic rights and subjected to harsh treatment in detention. Janan Abdu guardian.co.uk Monday 31 January 2011 "Israeli security" is the sacred cow of the Israeli street and ruling establishment. Practically all the manifestations of Israeli racism directed at the state's Palestinian citizens, as well as those living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, fall within this elastic slogan. In the name of this slogan, too, Israeli human rights organisations working to expose the practices of the state and army have recently hadrestrictions placed upon them. The case of my husband Ameer Makhoul, which has received considerable media coverage and widespread local and international support, has play...