Erlich at Western and Southern Masters

Jonathan Erlich poses for a headshot for the Western and Southern Masters at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, on 26 July 2008, in Mason, Ohio.

Little Seren Was on 5 years-old

A mourner touches the body of bomb victim Seren Safadi, 5 years-old, which is wrapped in a Palestinian flag, before her funeral, on 26 July 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip.

Little Seren Safadi, was one of the latest victims of a terrorist attack; by global terrorist, Interpol fugitive Mahmoud Abbas’s terrorist organization.

Mourners carry the body of bomb victim Seren Safadi, 5, which is wrapped in a Palestinian flag, during her funeral.

Palestinian mourners carry the bodies of four of six beach bomb victims during a funeral, on 26 July 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip.

Palestinian mourners pray during the funeral of six bomb victims.

St. Augustine's Castillo de San Marcos

The city of St. Augustine, Florida; was founded by the Spanish in 1565.

Over the next one hundred years, the city was defended by nine wooden forts.

Following the 1668 attack of the English pirate Robert Searle, it was decided by the Queen Regent of Spain, Mariana, that a masonry fortification be constructed to protect the city.

In October 1672 construction began on the fort that would become the Castillo de San Marcos.

Over time, the fort has been held by the Spanish (twice), British and later the Americans.

Furthermore, Queen Deborah of Palestine, has known of this fort, since she was fourteen years old.

(Click to enlarge picture.)

Construction
The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called "coquina," literally "little shells," made of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a type of stone similar to limestone. Workers were brought in from Havana, Cuba and local Native Americans, to construct the fort.

It was later recorded, that a later unsealed room within the fort, was where the workers where put after the construction was completed. The workers where forced into a little room and the room was then sealed for many years.

The idea was said, so none of the workers would reveal any information about the fort, to the enemy.

This is just one of the idea’s people come up with in different time periods, in what sometimes occurs during a war.

In the more modern times, Castillo de San Marcos has been known as a well visited, tourist destination.

Rafah, Ghazza and West Bank in Iraq

An Iraqi flag and the spiral minaret of Samarra are painted on a concrete security 'blast wall,' on 7 November 2007, in Baghdad, Iraq.

Commentary

26 July 2008

by Laith

One of the gifts of God to Iraqis is their ability to make fun of everything. Without this great gift, I think there would be no Iraqi people because we are the nation that has the best relation with Sadness and pain.

Four days ago, I came to work around 10:00 a.m. I had to go an area known as Aden Intersection as a first step. When I reached the intersection, I had to pass through the blast wall that separates the residence area from the main street. There was a very small space between two concrete blocs. Only one person can go through this space. So you can imagine two long lines of old and young men and women waiting for their turn to pass. In fact, there were two groups of people not lines because each one wants to pass without even thinking about the others. I waited for about a minute. I was only three steps away from the gap but I didn't want to pass because I kept listening to the funny comments of the young men. A group of young men started talking as if we are in Palestine passing through the big blast wall that was made the Israeli authorities.

Young man 1:- "how is the situation in Gaza?"

Young man 2:-"It's very bad. The Israeli tanks surround the city and bothering the civilians (referring to the American Humvees which we saw near the main residence area.

Young man 3 "I don't know about that. I just came from Rafah and everything was fine."

I started laughing in pain. We make fun of our pains always but that was never the solution for the big problem of occupation. I'm afraid that one we would envy the People in Palestine because in spite of the improvement of the security situation, the Iraqi authorities insist on putting more blast walls. I'm afraid that I might wake up one day and I find an Iraqi checkpoint near my room's door searching me evey time I get in and out. I think at that time, I would be happy if I can travel to Gaza (the real Gaza in Palestine) for some peace.

'Your best friend, Anne'

Jacqueline Sanders-van Maarsen vor dem Anne Frank Haus, 2003.

26 July 2008

By Shaul Adar

Amsterdam - The year was 1938, and the portents were clear. German Jewry had been subjected to persecution since the Nazis' rise to power five years earlier, and Hitler's expansionist ambitions were no secret. The danger of war hovered over Europe, but Hyman Van Maarsen - a Jewish book dealer from Amsterdam who was married to Eline, a French Catholic who had undergone a very liberal conversion in Paris - had made up his mind. After years in which the Jewish community had not recognized his wife's conversion, and even though he was secular, he managed to register her as a member of the city's large Jewish community. From that moment on, the family, including the two daughters, was considered Jewish, with all the ramifications that entailed.

Two years later, the Germans occupied Holland and Van Maarsen's achievement became a risk factor. Restrictions were imposed on the Jews: They were barred from entering parks, cinemas, swimming pools and many other public places. They were required to wear yellow patches and children in public schools were forced to transfer to Jewish schools.

In October 1941, Jacqueline Van Maarsen, then 12, returned from her first day at the Jewish school to her home in south Amsterdam. A new classmate joined her, riding on a bike. "My name is Anne," she introduced herself. "Anne Frank."
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It was the start of a close friendship that lasted nine months, until it was interrupted when the Frank family went into hiding on July 6, 1942. The two girls became best friends, in Anne Frank's words, and spent many hours together nearly every day. "Today it's obvious that my father's move was a mistake that endangered our lives," says Jacqueline Van Maarsen, now 89, in her apartment in south Amsterdam. "Holland was neutral in the First World War and he believed, like many other people, that we wouldn't get involved this time, either. But it would have been better if he hadn't registered us as a Jewish family. Still, it was because of this that I got to meet Anne. That was the only positive thing to come out of it."

Van Maarsen lays out on the table the Monopoly board, illustrated with the streets of Amsterdam, that she and Anne once played with; the children's book she received from her as a gift for her 13th birthday; a New Year's Day postcard Anne sent her; and Jacqueline's school yearbook.

"This girl died in the war," says Van Maarsen as she pages through the yearbook. "This one survived." The number of victims exceeds the number of survivors, and in the center of the book there is a dedication with a small picture of Anne Frank:

Amsterdam, 23 March 1942

Dearest Jackie,

Always be a ray of light

And a good student, too

And then, you, my friend

I shall always remember

Remember your dear friend

Anne Frank

Margot's bra

A constant menace hung over the school on the banks of the Amstel River. The number of students and teachers steadily dwindled. Some left to go into hiding, but most were arrested by the police and the Gestapo and transferred to the Westerbrook transit camp in northern Holland. From there they were usually sent to their deaths in Germany or Poland. In one class, only three out of the 50 pupils who began the year were around to take final exams in April 1943, and by the end of the year, only one female pupil remained.

"It was a difficult time, but in a strange way we loved the Jewish school," says Van Maarsen. "Yes, we suddenly felt singled out and we had to leave our regular school, but I had good friends in the school, including Anne, and the teachers and pupils had a sense of shared fate."

It was a strange friendship. Anne was an outgoing girl - attention-seeking, nervy and flirtatious. Jacqueline was shy and quiet. "When she chose me as her friend, I was very surprised," says Van Maarsen. "Maybe she liked my black hair and blue eyes. We were two opposites. She talked all the time, and I didn't talk very much. She excelled at doing her homework and I didn't. I liked geography and history and she thought you could just read the facts in books, and didn't understand why we had to study these subjects. I was a lot better in math and I helped her. We complemented one another."

Van Maarsen says she didn't discern anything special in Anne. "She was funny and a good friend but also annoying at times, the kind of girl who always says what she wants to say even if it's not always nice. We spent a lot of time together - playing, strolling around town, going to the places we were still able to visit, like the ice cream store. She didn't write much in those days. I think that her writing talent only developed from the time she started writing the diary. I can't say that I saw something special in Anne, but she saw something special in herself."

One of the most famous girls of the 20th century, if not the most famous, Anne was intelligent and had a tremendous appetite for life, according to Van Maarsen. "Anne always needed to have people around her," she says. "She really enjoyed life. She organized parties and screenings of films at her house, and games. I never met anyone who enjoyed life as much as she did, but it wasn't always easy being around her. She was possessive and reacted with jealousy if I got close to other girls. In her diary she wrote that I got close to a girl named Ilsa, and became childish and condescending. I thought there was tension between Anne and this girl, who was very pretty, with curls, but then Anne added a few lines later on where she wrote that I was sweet again and that she was sorry for what she wrote before. At the time, I didn't notice all these details in the life of a group of girls. I just lived my little life and didn't care, but sometimes her jealousy was hard for me to deal with."

Those weren't the only difficulties. Anne wrote about in her diary: "I proposed to Jackie that we touch one another's breasts as proof of our friendship. Jackie refused."

Says Van Maarsen: "She wasn't pleased with my refusal and was only satisfied when I let her kiss me on the cheek. I prefer to think that she was just curious. She was flat-chested and filled the bra of Margot, her big sister, with cotton. I didn't need that. Some people think that it went beyond curiosity, but I don't know. It was embarrassing then, too, and I thought that I had to get away from her a little, and she got sad and angry, but I felt a need to set boundaries. She was demanding and this was an opportunity to tell her not to go so far."

Was there competition over who was Anne's best friend?

"Then, there wasn't any competition like that. But today there is. To me, there was no competition, but just a group of girls with Anne at the center - although not always in the way she described in her diary. She said that all the boys fell in love with her, but I didn't notice that. Years later, I met a woman who told me that her father had been in our class and that Anne noted in her diary that he was in love with her, but she found him unbearable. I asked the woman what her father thought of this; she replied that her father said he was never in love with Anne. Anne wrote about a guy named Helo who was also in love with her, but he said he thought Anne was nice and interesting, but Margot was the one he was really in love with."

No farewell letter

Life got harder and harder, but the girls were relatively protected. Their parents tried to shield them from rumors about the fate of the Jews in occupied Europe, and they were able to maintain an almost normal lifestyle, despite the growing restrictions. "I don't dare do anything because I'm always afraid that it's forbidden," Anne quotes Jackie in her diary. "We played ping-pong with other girls," says Van Maarsen. "I remember the books we read together that influenced her, I remember the games of Monopoly, the homework we did together. She was always very diligent. I remember that we cut out pictures of movie stars that she took with her. I remember sitting on the roof and all the chats we had."

On June 12, 1942, Anne celebrated her 13th birthday with a party at her home. A few days before that, she went with her father to a nearby shop and picked out her gift: a diary with a checkered cover. The shop on Rooseveltlaan is still in business at the same location and is included in the guided tours 'in the footsteps of Anne Frank' that pass by every so often. It was Anne's last birthday at home. Less than a month later, Van Maarsen came to the apartment one day and found it empty. Most of the household objects remained there; the bed was unmade, and one of Anne's favorite pairs of shoes had also been left behind. On the door was a note saying the family had moved to Switzerland.

Van Maarsen: "I was surprised, because we had promised one another to write farewell letters, and I thought there would be such a letter in the house, but I didn't find it. I also searched for the diary. I wanted to see what she wrote about us. But, more than anything, I was surprised and thought there must be a good reason why she didn't say goodbye to me. Had the situation been reversed, I think Anne would have been mad at me for disappearing without saying goodbye to her, but I just accepted it. I wanted to take some of Anne's things from the apartment, but it was dangerous."

The four members of the Frank family, together with another four Jews from Amsterdam, had entered a hiding place in the apartment above the office housing the business run by Otto Frank, Anne's father. There, Anne lived and wrote in her diary until the Dutch police, under Austrian command, raided the hideout. That was on August 4, 1944. The eight Jews were transferred to Gestapo headquarters in the south of the city and from there to the Westerbrook camp in the north of the country. A month later, on September 3, 1944, the last transport of Jews left Westerbrook for Auschwitz. All eight were on board. Only one of them, Otto Frank, returned to Amsterdam after the war. The other seven perished at different camps in Europe. Anne and her older sister, Margot, died of hunger and typhus at Bergen-Belsen about three weeks before the British army liberated the camp.

After the raid, books and other possessions of the eight Jews were left scattered on the floor of the hideout. Miep Gies, a family friend who had looked after the needs of the Jews while they were in hiding, picked up Anne's diary and hid it away in a drawer for safekeeping until the girl returned to Amsterdam. Gies did not read the personal diary; she asserted that if she had read it, she would have destroyed it, because of the information it contained about Dutch civilians who assisted the group in hiding - information that could have put their lives at risk. Gies kept the diary for eight months before she was able to return it to Otto Frank. And then Anne's wish to become a famous writer came true.

No one spoke about it

In the winter of 1942, raids by the Gestapo and police increased; young Jews were apprehended and sent to labor camps in Germany. Eline Van Maarsen realized that she had to do something before her family was harmed. The elegant Frenchwoman, who managed the dress department of the city's largest department store, put on her fanciest dress, carefully applied her makeup and boarded the tram for Euterpestraat, site of Gestapo headquarters. (Even today, with the building restored to its original use as a school and the street name changed to Gerrit van der Veenstraat, there is still something menacing about the fortress-like structure. Only a few hundred meters separate it from Jacqueline Van Maarsen's present home. Almost every day, she passes by the place where the fate of so many of her fellow Jews was sealed, while her family was fortunate enough to survive.)

Eline Van Maarsen asked to see the police commander and spoke with him in French. She explained that her husband had registered her and her daughters as Jews without her knowledge or consent. The commander was impressed by her and asked to see documents proving that she was not Jewish. When these arrived - with the help of a relative who ran a restaurant on the Champs-Elysees that was a favorite of high-ranking Nazis in Paris - the status of the females in the family was altered. The yellow patch was removed from their clothing, and Jacqueline and her sister Christine went back to being Catholics and ordinary Dutch citizens.

"My mother made us swear not to tell our father about this until it was official. She knew that he would object, but she was determined to do whatever was necessary in order to save us," says Van Maarsen. "It was a dangerous thing to do. There were people who entered Gestapo headquarters with a similar request and ended up being tortured. It wasn't a place where you wanted to proclaim your connection with Jews. This was a radical change in our lives, but I understood exactly why she made this move. Afterward, too, my father was upset, and my mother forbade me and my sister to talk about it. It created tension at home, but it saved my life and his life." All of Hyman Van Maarsen's relatives were sent to Sobibor, where they were killed in the gas chambers.

"I didn't feel guilty," says his daughter. "There was a sense of relief and concern for friends and family. Not for Anne. I thought she was safe in Switzerland. In the winter of 1944, when there was terrible starvation in Holland and thousands of people were dying of hunger and we were forced to survive on tulip bulbs, I remember that I was jealous of her, because I thought she was living comfortably in Switzerland."

Van Maarsen transferred back to a regular school. "At home we never spoke about a Jewish identity," she says. "The first time I encountered anti-Semitism was when I put on the yellow patch. My big disappointment with the behavior of the Dutch during the war was at the regular school that I transferred to. No one spoke about the Jews, and I was too shy to talk about what was happening to the Jews. My relatives were disappearing one after the other, but I couldn't talk about it in school. There was general indifference."

A little kiss from Anne

In May 1945, Holland was liberated. That summer, Otto Frank returned and went to the home of Miep Gies. He knew that his wife, Edith, was dead, but he still hoped and prayed that his daughters had survived. He met Van Maarsen, who learned then for the first time about the secret annex and the family's deportation to the camps, and they met again a few weeks later. In the meantime, Frank found out that his daughters had died at Bergen-Belsen - sick, bald and with nothing but parasite-infested blankets. The bereaved father wanted to hear again and again about the friendship between the two girls, about the days when Anne was a child like any other and loved her life.

Van Maarsen: "In those months, he came to our house over and over again and cried all the time. It seemed strange to me at the time, because I looked up to him as an adult, and I didn't want to think about the war. It was hard to cope with it all. My friend was dead, and I felt great sorrow for him and for others. My father's entire family died in the Holocaust. My two cousins, who were my age and whom I played with and was close to, were murdered in Sobibor. Otto wanted to talk with me every time about Anne and about our friendship and about those days. It was very hard for me, but I did my best and I think I was able to help him a little by preserving her memory. In those days, I blamed myself for not helping him more, but I don't know how I could have helped him more. I listened to him in his darkest hour and maybe that was some kind of comfort to him."

Despite his grief, Otto Frank was able to find a new purpose in his life. "He told me that he wanted to publish Anne's diary, and I didn't understand why," recalls Van Maarsen. "I didn't think anyone would be interested in reading a book like that. This was right after the war and people wanted to forget. And secondly, I didn't think that the stories of a young girl would interest anyone. Those were my first thoughts, and even after the book started to arouse interest around the world in the 1950s, I didn't want to be too involved. People were popping up, saying that they knew Anne and went to school with Anne, and it angered me. I didn't want to become famous because of a girl I knew who died in such circumstances. I didn't want to spend my life as 'Anne Frank's best friend' and, therefore, for years, I didn't talk about it at all."

Otto Frank gave her a copy of the diary in 1947, the first edition, with a dedication from him. "It was very strange to read it for the first time and I felt very uncomfortable," she says. "I knew that she didn't want me or any of her girlfriends to read the diary and I didn't feel right. It was weird to read about myself, especially when I knew that she was no longer alive."

The book, in which she is called Jopie, is still in her possession. Next to it is a framed copy of two letters that Anne wrote to Jacqueline and never sent. The two letters were written on September 25, 1942.

"I hope we will meet again soon," wrote Anne in the first letter, "but it won't be before the end of the war ... Be good, Jackie. Be well, I hope to receive a sign of life from you very soon and we will meet again.

Your best friend

Anne

P.S. I hope that by the time we meet I will always be your best friend.

Bye"

Anne concluded the second letter with the words: "We are not bored. We have company. That is all I'm allowed to tell about our life. It's scary but interesting, too. I'm not allowed to say more. See you, and a little kiss from Anne."

"This was a very sad and poignant moment," says Van Maarsen. "I thought about how lonely she must have been there and I regretted that I hadn't given her a picture when she asked for one. Anne had a lot of pictures, and I didn't have many, and so I thought there was no need for it, because we saw each other every day anyhow, but after I read the diary I felt terribly guilty and I was sorry that I was unable to at least write to her. Four weeks before Otto's death, he showed me the letter in her handwriting and, again, the sadness was hard to bear."

Not a Jew, not a Catholic

From the 1950s on, Anne Frank became the most widely known victim of the Holocaust. Initially, Otto Frank had trouble finding a publisher. Only after the play was staged on Broadway and a film was made on the basis of the diary, did the girl who had been Van Maarsen's best friend become an international phenomenon. The book sold over 25 million copies, and Anne Frank became a symbol.

Among Dutch Jewry, there is some discomfort over the special status of Anne Frank. Many feel that there has been too much focus on this one girl.

Van Maarsen: "I have Jewish friends and I don't talk with them about Anne, because they feel that all the attention is directed at her, while they lost all or most of their families. So many Jewish children died in the Holocaust and were forgotten, while she is so well known, they say. I don't argue with them, but I can tell you what I feel about Anne. People love her and the book, and the memory of the Holocaust is spread thanks to her. Thanks to Anne, I can write about my cousins, for instance."

Since 1986, Van Maarsen has been giving lectures all over the world about Anne Frank and her legacy, but it wasn't until 1990 that she was publicly revealed as "Jopie" of the diary (In the newer editions, she is referred to by her real name.) Afterward, she wrote the book, "My Name is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank: The Memoirs of Anne Frank's Best Friend,"(Arcadia Books) in which she described their relationship. This year, a new edition of the book was published in English and a new book by Van Maarsen, "Anne Frank's Heritage," will be published next year. She is no longer the timid girl that Anne adopted on her way home, nor is she the naive girl she once was. For one thing, she is outraged by the excessive use of the famous line Anne wrote in her diary, about her belief in people's inherent goodness, in spite of everything. This sentence is often chosen as the final line of documentary programs, plays and films about the Holocaust, emptying them of meaning, she thinks.

"I don't think Anne would have written such a line had she lived," says Van Maarsen. "She wrote this sentence when she was still in hiding, before she experienced the horrors. I am certain she would not have written such a sentence after Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. I thought the same thing then. I believed that everybody was nice except for the Germans, and that all people were good in their hearts, but since then, I've changed my mind, of course. People's attempts to profit from Anne's memory infuriate me. I don't understand how people can behave this way."

Van Maarsen married Rudy Sanders, a Dutch Jew who survived thanks to a Dutch family that adopted him during the years of persecution (both of his parents also survived, after hiding in various places in Holland throughout the war). They had three children, and over the years she worked as an artistic bookbinder. Her father was the sole survivor of his family after the war, and her mother chose to maintain a distance from the Jewish community.

Even though she is married to a Jew and she loves Israel, Jacqueline Van Maarsen does not feel herself to be Jewish. "After the war, I didn't want to be a Jew anymore," she says. "I suffered a lot because of my Jewishness, though not like most of the Jews of Holland, and I thought - I don't want to be Jew, and I also don't want to be a Catholic. I know that for the Jews, I'm not considered Jewish, and I'm not really a Catholic, but it really doesn't matter to me anymore. I am who I am. I saw the discrimination against the Jews and I felt it, but I can't say that I'm a Jew."W

Commentary
While I have read much as I could on Anne Frank, in my early years of trying to understand the Jewish Holocaust, of course Jacqueline van Maarsen name would appear and one thing I have always wished to know is what happened to Jacqueline after the Holocaust; I had heard many things, but one knows how that goes.

I am grateful, to be able to know more about her.

Because of my studies, I had hoped to meet Jacqueline van Maarsen, one day and be able to talk with her. Not so much about Anne, but about Jacqueline’s life with the hope it is a good and happy one now.

Bush:The PEPFAR Bill Oppression Ideals

U.S. President George W. Bush makes remarks on the Freedom Agenda at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, on 24 July 2008 in Washington, DC.

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 26, 2008

Audio
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, Congress voted to expand a vital program that is saving lives across the developing world -- the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR. I thank members of Congress from both sides of the aisle for working with my Administration to pass this important bill, and I will be honored to sign it into law next week.

PEPFAR is the largest international health initiative dedicated to fighting a single disease in history. And it is a testament to the extraordinary compassion and generosity of the American people. When we first launched this program five-and-a-half years ago, the scourge of HIV/AIDS had cast a shadow over the continent of Africa. Only 50,000 people with AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment. Today, PEPFAR is supporting treatment for nearly 1.7 million people in the region. PEPFAR has allowed nearly 200,000 African babies to be born HIV free. And this program is bringing hope to a continent in desperate need.

The new legislation that I will sign next week will build on this progress. We will expand access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs. We will help prevent millions of new HIV infections from occurring. And we will also bolster our efforts to help developing nations combat other devastating diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

Fighting disease is one part of America's larger commitment to help struggling nations build more hopeful futures of freedom. Over the past seven years, we've learned how advancing the cause of freedom requires combating hopelessness. This is because the only way that the enemies of freedom can attract new recruits to their dark ideology is to exploit distress and despair. So as we help struggling nations achieve freedom from disease through programs like PEPFAR, we must also help them achieve freedom from corruption, freedom from poverty, freedom from hunger, and freedom from tyranny. And that is exactly what we're doing.

America is using our foreign assistance to promote democracy and good government. We have more than doubled the federal budget for democracy and governance and human rights programs. And through the Millennium Challenge Account, we have transformed the way we deliver aid, so we can support developing nations that make important political and economic reforms.

America is promoting free trade and open investment. Over the long term, we know that trade and investment are the best ways to fight poverty, and build strong and prosperous societies. So we have expanded the African Growth and Opportunity Act to increase trade between America and Africa. We have put eleven new free trade agreements into effect since 2001. And we're striving to make this the year that the world completes an ambitious Doha Round agreement, so we can tear down barriers to trade and investment around the world.

America is leading the fight against global hunger. This year, the United States has provided more than $1.8 billion in new funds to bolster global food security. We are the world's largest provider of food aid, and we have proposed legislation that would transform the way we deliver this aid to promote greater self-reliance in developing nations.

America is leading the cause of human rights. Over the past seven years, we've spoken out against human rights abuses by tyrannical regimes like those in Iran and Syria, Cuba, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. We've spoken candidly about human rights with nations with whom America has good relations, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia and China. And to ensure that our Nation continues to speak out for those who have no other voice, I recently issued a directive instructing all senior U.S. officials serving in undemocratic countries to maintain regular contact with political dissidents and democracy activists.

With all these steps, we're helping defeat the forces of violent extremism by offering a more hopeful vision of freedom. And as this vision takes hold in more nations around the world, America will be safer here at home.

Thank you for listening.

Iranians not to yield to big powers: President

26 July 2008

Tehran-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that the Iranian nation will never yield to endless requests and baseless allegations of the bullying powers.

He made the remarks in his address to a group of employees and managers of the car manufacturing 'Iran Khodro' factory in Binaloud, Khorasan Razavi province, northeastern Iran.

The Iranian people have always been the forerunner in science, culture, and industry along the history, he said.

Today, the world corrupted powers are angry with the Iranian nation since the nation has something valuable to say in different fields, the president said.

Highlighting Iran's capability to stand on its own, the president said that the Iranian nation does not need the big powers and that they need the Iranian people.

Five Killed in Abbas's terrorist Beach Explosion

Palestinians wheel a wounded man into the Al-Shifa hospital, after he was injured by an ambiguous explosion in a summer rest place on the beach, on 25 July 2008 in Gaza city, Gaza strip.

Safadi and four others people, were killed when an explosion blew up in the Al-Hilal summer rest place where 15 others were wounded.

A Palestinian man carries the body of 5 years-old Seren Safadi, into the Al-Shifa hospital, after she was killed in the explosion.

According to security and the medical officials, the bomb was planted in a place where police cars park near the rest place on the beach.

It has been further reported that Mahmoud Abbas’s terrorist organization has not just targeted Muslim Palestinians, but the Jewish people, as well as Christians.

To reaffirm, until this bloody rampage by Abbas’s terrorist is subdued, no one in Palestine is safe.

Bush critics get the opportunity to talk about impeachment

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, 25 July 2008, before the House Judiciary Committee hearing to review the term of President Bush.

25 July 2008

By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON - Call it the un-impeachment hearing.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Friday it insisted was not about removing President Bush from office. But critics of Bush's policies couldn't pass up the chance to charge the president with a long list of impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Leading the way was Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the former Democratic presidential candidate who has brought repeated impeachment resolutions on the House floor against Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Kucinich got a rock star welcome of whistles, hoots and clapping as he walked into the hearing room, holding hands with his wife, from hundreds of anti-war, anti-Bush people crammed into the room and lining the hallways outside. T-shirts reading "Arrest Bush" and "Veterans for Impeachment" illustrated the sentiments of many.

"The decision before us is whether to demand accountability for one of the gravest injustices imaginable," Kucinich testified, avoiding use of the "I" word.

The House Democratic leadership, not interested in a bloody impeachment battle in the last year of Bush's presidency, steered Kucinich's resolutions to the Judiciary Committee where they could quietly fade away, but Friday's hearing gave Kucinich and his allies an opportunity to air their views.

"To the regret of many, this is not an impeachment hearing," said committee chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., pointing out the less incendiary title of the event, "executive power and its constitutional limitations."

Still, Conyers, a vocal opponent of Bush, noted that his panel had pursued many issues that Kucinich and others regard as impeachable offenses: manipulating intelligence about Iraq; misusing authority with regard to torture, detention and rendition; politicizing the Justice Department and retaliating against critics, as in the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Republicans, clearly in the minority at the hearing, expressed suspicion at Democratic motives. Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., called it "impeachment lite," where people were given free rein to impugn Bush but not to impeach him.

"It seems that we are hosting an anger management class," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the committee's senior Republican. "This hearing will not cause us to impeach the president; it will only serve to impeach Congress's credibility."

The committee also reminded lawmakers and those testifying that House rules prohibit "personal abuse, innuendo or ridicule of the president." The House Rules and Manual points out that suggestions of mendacity, or accusations of hypocrisy, demagoguery or deception were out of order.

"The rules of the House prevent me or any witness from utilizing familiar terms," Kucinich said. "But we can put two and two together in our minds."

Former Los Angeles County Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, known for his prosecution of Charles Manson in 1970, acknowledged that "I am forbidden from accusing him of a crime, or even any dishonorable conduct" under House rules. But he could still encourage people to read his book, "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., was less circumspect in asserting that Bush was "the worst president that our nation has ever suffered."

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., concluded that "this is the most impeachable administration in the history of America because of the way that it has clearly violated the law."

"I am really astonished at the mood in this room," commented one witness, George Mason University School of Law professor Jeremy Rabkin.

"The tone of these deliberations is slightly demented," Rabkin said. "You should all remind yourselves that the rest of the country is not necessarily in this same bubble in which people think it is reasonable to describe the president as if he were Caligula."
___

On the Net
House Judiciary Committee: http://www.house.gov/judiciary

Iraq’s internally displaced

An internally displaced Shia woman carries an aid box containing food, donated by the Iraqi Red Crescent Society, at a squatter settlement in Abu Cher in west Baghdad, on 24 July 2008.

Millions of internally displaced Iraqis still lack access to basic needs such as shelter, food, water and healthcare, the International Organization for Migration said, on 18 July.

Heavy civilian toll blamed on U.S. strikes

An Afghan policeman receives treatment at a hospital in Farah province, on 20 July 2008.

25 July 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan-U.S. and NATO military officials in Afghanistan say they are investigating three U.S.-led air strikes this month that allegedly killed at least 78 civilians.

U.N. and Afghan officials say this is one of the deadliest years for civilians since fighting began, the Washington Post reported, with civilian deaths in Afghanistan for the first six months of the year running 40 percent ahead of last year.

More than half of those killed in the three recent U.S.-led air strikes, which occurred in a three-week period in three provinces in eastern and western Afghanistan, were women and children, Afghan and Western officials said.

One air strike in the eastern province of Nangahar claimed the lives of about 47 women and children who were members of a wedding party, the report said.

The civilian death toll has renewed political furor over foreign military operations in Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency is intensifying, the Post said.

Abbas Terrorist Kill's One in Latest Attack

U.S. Senator Barak Obama (L) shakes hands with global terrorist Interpol fugitive Mahmoud Abbas, on 23 July 2008 in city of Ramallah.

25 July 2008

Bomb blasts rocked a cafe and a Palestine legal government politician's home in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least one Palestinian in a terrorist attack by Mahmoud Abbas’s terrorist organization.

Security forces said the first bomb went off outside a popular cafe in the center of Gaza City, killing a passer-by whose identity was not immediately known.

The military is at this time, trying to subdue these latest terrorist attacks; by Abbas’s terrorist organization.

There was further mention of the Canaanite blood feud, this situation is about 9,000 years old now and it was always between the Canaanite‘s on one side trying to steal the country. On the other side, were always the Palestinians and the Jewish people; otherwise everyone else.

The Canaanite’s when they first came into Palestine as was said before, were because they where removed from there home country of now Turkey, for being beggars and thieves.

In this time period, my very great grandmother not knowing they where criminals, but thought they where just people in need, offered to help them and Palestine has had nothing but troubles with these criminals ever since.

Furthermore, they have no rights are say towards anything that has to do with Palestine; for they have been disowned, they are also know longer classified as Palestinian citizens.

Update:
The above picture is from Maan, one of Mahmoud Abbas’s terrorist news agencies, showing the car bombing that killed four people. Usually picture’s like this from Abbas’s news agencies, is more gloating then news.

Four are dead and twenty injured after the car of a Palestine legal government leader in Gaza exploded west of Gaza City Friday evening.

It was originally thought, that the target’s where numerous attacks throughout Gaza City and the vicinity; most of the targets where Palestine legal government personal, by terrorist from global terrorist Interpol fugitive Mahmoud Abbas’s terrorist organization; but it was later reported, that Abbas’s terrorists are attempting to create a bloody rampage throughout Palestine and the targets could be any religion.

The only terrorist organization in Palestine is Mahmoud Abbas’s terrorist organization.

All Palestinians citizens regardless of there religion should make every effort to protect themselves, from Abbas’s terrorist organizations, latest bloody rampage.

George the Wrong House

I heard a joke the other day about U.S. president George W. Bush’s new home, after he leaves the White House.

While Laura found one in an upper middle class neighborhood and she was so excited to show George on the day they are to move in and for some reason, George has less money then he did while being President.

There are two homes with a hedge in the middle and George jumps out of the car very excited also, but looks towards the wrong house.

He runs up the drive with the secret service watching him.

This home has glass windows and George likes glass windows, needless to say, he breaks into the home, which is not his.

On the other side of the hedge Laura keeps calling to George, he is in the wrong house.

Instead of going around the hedge, to the right home, he attempts to jump the hedge; catching his foot.

He lands flat on his face, on the lawn; at Laura’s feet.

Who Would Be a Good U.S. President?

U.S. Senator Barack Obama or U.S. Senator John McCain

My mother use to have a saying, which is truer today; with the current U.S. presidential race.

There is two buckets, one has urine in it and the other BM and there only good is to be pick-up by a honey truck; to be further saturated with water, to fertilize crops and nothing more.

Bush calls up Indian PM

25 July 2008

New Delhi-In what may be described as a significant move towards the progress of the Indo-US Nuke deal after the Parliament high drama, American President George Bush called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday night and discussed the future of the deal.

"The heads of both the states expressed their desire to see the US-India civil nuclear issue move forward as expeditiously as possible," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement, zeenews portal reported.

Bush told Singh he looks forward to continuing to work with his government to strengthen the United States India strategic relationship, Johndroe said, adding that they had also discussed stalled World Trade Organizations talks.

Bush and Singh "discussed the importance of all leading WTO members making contributions to a breakthrough that will put the Doha Round negotiations on a path to conclude an ambitious agreement before the end of the year," Johndroe said.

The telephone conversation came ahead of Bush's White House talks on Monday with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan, India's neighbour and nuclear rival.

The United States and India have been working to secure the international support necessary for their controversial nuclear cooperation agreement, reached in 2005, to win approval.

India said on Thursday it was sending out envoys to lobby for the final international clearances, a diplomatic offensive coming after the UPA government survived a hard-fought confidence vote in Parliament sparked by Left's opposition to the pact.

Meanwhile, India's Minister of State in External Affairs Ministry, Anand Sharma discusses N-deal with Rice.

The US has lauded India's "deep resolve" to go ahead with their nuclear deal as Secretary of State Condoleezza met Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma twice to discuss the "next steps" for finalising the pact.

External Affairs Ministry sources said Rice and Sharma had a meeting on Thursday on "issues related to concluding the historic deal" within hours after they first met last night.

"Both the leaders discussed the next steps for finalising the deal," the sources told agencies.

The two leaders also met last night on the sidelines of ASEAN ministerial meet here and talked on the "entire gamut of issues" relating to the civilian nuclear deal.

They had a "very good" meeting during which Rice appreciated India's "deep resolve to go ahead with the historic nuclear deal", sources said after the first round of talks.

The deliberations reflecting the urgency India and the US were attaching to the nuclear pact assume significance as the IAEA Board of Governors meets on August 1 to consider the agreement for approval.

Commentary
Iran has no nuclear or other threatening aspirations towards the Jewish people, but to the contrary; relations are improving all the time, it was reported.

Furthermore, as for Iran’s nuclear program, it is what they say it is.

The only one that is known to having dangerous nuclear aspirations, is the Bush administration.

Update:

Bush calls up Indian PM

Building Media City in Gaza

A Palestinian man works in a cattle farm project in the media city being developed by the Palestine Legal government, on 24 July 2008.

A Palestinian man works in a fish farm project in the media city being developed by the Palestine legal government, on 24 July 2008; in the former Jewish settlement of Gani Tal near Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.

With the farms are in place to raise revenue for this project, with half of the necessary financing raised so far.

The Palestine legal government plan to build a $200 million media city and movie production studio with entertainment for children, restaurants, mock villages, and farms as a tourist attraction and to better the community’s economy.

A Palestinian man displays chicks, as he works in a chicken farm project; in the media city.

President Bush Discusses Freedom Agenda

This speech is in response, to something Queen Deborah of Palestine wrote earlier, for the Bush Administration didn’t nor still does not wish the global community to know the truth; about there slave situations, they have created for over 100 years in various countries in the world and within the U.S., it was reported.

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 24, 2008

Video

Audio
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please be seated. Henrietta, thank you for the kind introduction. I am honored to join you all today to express America's solidarity with those who yearn for liberty around the world.

Captive Nations Week was first observed in 1959, at a time when Soviet Communism seemed ascendant. Few people at that first gathering could have envisioned then what the -- that the Cold War would end the way it did -- with the triumph of the shipyard workers in Poland, a Velvet Revolution in Prague, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union. Captive Nations Week is a chance for us to reflect on that remarkable history, and to honor the brave dissidents and democracy activists who helped secure freedom's victory in the great ideological struggle of the 20th century.

Captive Nation Week is also a chance to reflect on the challenges we face in the 21st century -- the challenge of the new ideological struggle against violent extremism. In this struggle, we can go forward with confidence -- free nations have faced determined enemies before and have prevailed, and we will prevail again.

I appreciate your leadership of USAID, Henrietta; and I want to thank all those who work for this very important Agency. I appreciate you being on the front lines of compassion and decency and liberty.

I'm honored to be here with the Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez. The Cuban dissidents have no better friend than Carlos Gutierrez. Think about America -- Carlos was raised, born in Cuba. Today he sits in the Cabinet of the President of the United States. I love what our country represents. And Carlos, I thank you for serving.

I'm proud to be here with Ambassador John Negroponte. He's the Deputy Secretary of the Department of State. Deputy Secretary of Defense, Gordon England, is with us. Ambassador Mark Dybul, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. Thanks for coming, Mark. Other members of the administration -- a lot of members from the Diplomatic Corps. Thank you for coming. I'm proud to be in your presence.

I believe America is the hope for the world because we are a nation that stands strongly for freedom. We believe every man, woman, and child is given the gift of liberty by our Creator. That's a fundamental belief of the United States. This cherished belief has guided our leaders from America's earliest days.

We see this belief in George Washington's assertion that freedom's cause, as he put it, the cause is "the cause of mankind."

We see it in Lincoln's summoning of "the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere."

We see it in Wilson's pledge to make the world "safe for democracy" in World War I, and FDR's determination to make America "the arsenal of democracy" in World War II.

We see it in Kennedy's promise to "pay any price to assure the survival and success of liberty," and Ronald Reagan's call to "move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny."

Over the years, different Presidents, from different eras, and different political parties, have acted to defend and advance the cause of liberty. These actions included bold policies such as the Lend-Lease Act, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, the creation of NATO and the Voice of America, support for freedom fighters in Central America, and the liberation of Grenada and Panama. And because we were steadfast in liberty's defense, the cause of freedom prevailed.

At the dawn of a new century, our belief in the universality of freedom is being challenged once again. We saw the challenge on September the 11th, 2001. On that day terrorists, harbored by a tyrannical regime thousands of miles from America, brought death and destruction to our shores. We learned important lessons: To protect America, we must fight the enemy abroad so we don't have to face them here at home. And to protect America, we must defeat the ideology of hatred by spreading the hope of freedom.

Over the past seven years, this is exactly what we have done. Since 9/11, we recognized that we're at war and we must stop new attacks before they happen -- not wait until after they happen. So we're giving our intelligence and law enforcement and homeland security professionals the tools they need to stop terrorists before they strike again. We're transforming our military to meet the threats of a new century. We're putting pressure on the enemy. We've captured or killed thousands of terrorists -- including most of those responsible for the September the 11th attacks. We've removed regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that threatened our citizens and the peace in the world. And now we're helping the people of those two nations fight the terrorists who want to establish new safe havens from which to launch attacks on America and our friends.

In the long run, though, the best way to defeat the terrorists is to offer a hopeful alternative to their murderous ideology -- and that alternative is based on human liberty. We've seen a hopeful beginning for the cause of liberty at the start of the 21st century. Over the last seven years, we've seen the citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq emerge from tyranny to establish representative governments. We've seen citizens in Georgia and Ukraine stand up for their right to free and fair elections. We've seen people in Lebanon take to the streets to demand their independence. We've seen strides toward democracy taken by nations such as Kuwait and Liberia, Mauritania and Morocco, and Pakistan.

It's in our national interest to continue liberty's advance -- because we know from history that the advance of freedom is necessary for our security and for world peace. Just think about World War II. During that conflict Japan and Germany were enemies of America who invaded their neighbors and destabilized the world. And today, Japan and Germany are strong democracies and good friends and strong allies in the cause of peace.

During the Cold War, the nations of Central and Eastern Europe were part of the Warsaw Pact alliance that was poised to attack Western Europe. Today, most of those nations are members of the NATO alliance, who are using their freedom to aid the rise of other young democracies. In these experiences, we have seen the transformative power of freedom. We've seen that free societies don't harbor terrorists, or launch unprovoked attacks on their neighbors. Free societies are peaceful societies. And that is why the United States of America must continue to cause -- to lead the cause of freedom.

Over the past seven years, we've learned that leading the cause of freedom requires combating hopelessness in struggling nations. Combating hopelessness is in America's security interests, because the only way our enemies can recruit people to their dark ideology is to exploit distress and despair. Combating hopelessness is in our moral interests -- Americans believe that to whom much is given, much is required. So the challenge for America in the years ahead is to continue to help people in struggling nations achieve freedom from corruption, freedom from disease, freedom from poverty, freedom from hunger and freedom from tyranny.

In the years ahead America must continue to use our foreign assistance to promote democracy and good government. Increased aid alone will not help nations overcome institutional challenges that hold entire societies back. To be effective, our aid must be targeted to encourage the development of free and accountable institutions.

In the past seven years we've more than doubled the federal budget for democracy and governance and human rights programs. We've increased the budget for the National Endowment of Democracy by more than 150 percent since 2001. We've transformed the way we deliver aid by creating the Millennium Challenge Account, which is a new approach to foreign assistance, which offers support to developing nations that fight corruption, and govern justly, and open their economies, and invest in the health and education of their people. The challenge for future presidents and future Congresses will be to ensure that America's generosity remains tied to the promotion of transparency and accountability and prosperity.

In the years ahead, America must continue to promote free trade and open investment. Over the long term, trade and investment are the best ways to fight poverty and build strong and prosperous societies. Over the past seven years, we expanded the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which is spreading prosperity by dramatically increasing trade between the United States and Africa; implemented free trade agreements with 11 countries, creating hope and opportunity for both our citizens and the citizens of these nations. We're striving to make this the year that the world completes an ambitious Doha trade agreement -- will open up new markets for Americans' goods and services and help alleviate poverty around the world. The challenge for future presidents and future Congresses is to reject the false temptation of protectionism and keep the world open for trade.

In the years ahead, America must continue to fight against disease. Nations afflicted with debilitating public health crises cannot build strong and prosperous societies for their citizens. America is helping these nations replace disease and despair with healing and hope. We're working in 15 African nations to cut the number of malaria-related deaths in half. Our Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, is supporting the treatment of more than 1.7 million people. And Congress will soon pass legislation to significantly expand this vital initiative. We're expanding our efforts to train health workers for the poorest countries, to treat key neglected tropical diseases such as river blindness and hookworm. The challenge for future presidents and future Congresses will be to continue this commitment, so that we can lift the shadow of malaria and HIV/AIDS and other diseases once and for all.

In the years ahead, America must continue to lead the fight against global hunger. Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug once said: "You can't build peace on empty stomachs." Americans are answering the call to feed the hungry. This year, the United States has provided more than $1.8 billion in new funds to bolster global food security. We're the world's largest provider of food aid. I strongly believe we must transform the way that our food aid is delivered. One innovative proposal is to purchase up to 25 percent of our food assistance directly from farmers in developing world. This would help build up local agriculture; it will help break the cycle of famine. And I ask the United States Congress to approve this measure as soon as possible. The challenge for future presidents and future Congresses will be to find still other innovative ways to alleviate hunger while promoting greater self-reliance in developing nations.

In the years ahead, America must continue to lead the cause of human rights. The Soviet dissident Andrei Amalrik once compared a tyrannical state to a soldier who holds a rifle on his enemy, until his arms finally tire and the prisoner escapes. It's important we never strengthen the arms. The role of free nations like ours is to put pressure on the arms of the world's tyrants and strengthen the prisoners who are striving for their liberty.

Over the past seven years, we've spoken out against human rights abuses by tyrannical regimes like those in Iran, Sudan, and Syria and Zimbabwe. We've spoken candidly about human rights with nations with whom we've got good relations, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia and China. In keeping with this commitment, today I renew my call for the release of all prisoners of conscience around the world -- including Ayman Nour of Egypt, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Oscar Biscet of Cuba, Riad Seif of Syria.

To ensure our government continues to speak out for those who have no other voice, I recently issued a directive instructing all senior U.S. officials serving in undemocratic countries to maintain regular contact with political dissidents and democracy activists. The challenge for future presidents and future Congresses is to ensure that America always stands with those seeking freedom -- and never hesitates to shine the light of conscience on abuses of human rights across the world.

As Henrietta mentioned, with us today are individuals who suffered terribly in the cause of freedom, and whose stories inspire our country, and their examples of resilience and resolve should give us courage. I'm not going to mention all the ones I met, but I'd like to make -- mention some.

First, we stand with Blanca Gonzalez. Her son, Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, remains in Castro's gulag for speaking the truth about the Cuban regime. Bienvenidos. (Applause.)

We stand with Olga Kozulina. Her father, Alexander Kozulin, remains in prison in Belarus for the "crime" of running for President. Welcome. (Applause.)

We stand with Manouchehr Mohammedi. Both he and his brother were viciously tortured by the Iranian authorities. He was the only one who survived and escaped. Welcome to America. (Applause.)

We stand with Cho Jin Hae, who witnessed several of her family members starve to death in North Korea. She herself was tortured by the communist authorities. (Applause.)

Thank you all for coming. I thank the others who took time out of their day to meet me, as well. I appreciate your testament to the universal desire for freedom.

This morning, I have a message for all those throughout the world who languish in tyranny: I know there are moments when it feels like you're alone in your struggle. And you're not alone. America hears you. Millions of our citizens stand with you, and hope still lives -- even in bleak places and in dark moments.

Even now, change is stirring in places like Havana and Damascus and Tehran. The people of these nations dream of a free future, hope for a free future, and believe that a free future will come. And it will. May God be with them in their struggle. America always will be.

Thank you for letting me come by, and may God bless you all. (Applause.)

END

The Collapsing American Housing Market

Gone Due to Foreclosures

In some cases, it has been reported, whole neighborhoods look like this; across the country.

African-American's Rare in Top Military Ranks

African-American machine gunners on the road near Maffrecourt, France, part of the 369th infantry; during World War 1. It should be known, that African-American integration at the beginning of U.S. military history, where usually put on the front war lines as cannon fodder .

24 July 2008

Blacks have made great strides in the military since it was integrated 60 years ago, but they still struggle to gain a foothold in the higher ranks, where less than 6% of U.S. general officers are African-American.

While blacks make up about 17% of the total force, they are just 9% of all officers, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press.

The rarity of blacks in the top ranks is apparent in one startling statistic: Only one of the 38 four-star generals or admirals serving as of May was black. And just 10 black men have ever gained four-star rank — five in the Army, four in the Air Force and one in the Navy, according to the Pentagon.

According to Pentagon data, as of May:

• 5.6% of the 923 general officers or admirals were black.

• Eight blacks were three-star lieutenant generals or vice admirals.

• Seventeen were two-star major generals or rear admirals.

• Twenty-six were one-star brigadier generals or rear admirals.

• Three of the black one-stars were women.

The excuse’s given for the lack of blacks in the higher ranks are many and complex, ranging from simple career choices to Congress and family recommendations. Most often mentioned is that black recruits are showing less interest in pursuing combat jobs, which are more likely to propel them through the officer ranks.

Furthermore, among African-American’s who had served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, the majority where disgusted; because of their maltreatment within the ranks, by white officer’s and counterparts.

Another one bites the dust

23 July 2008

Snoop Dogg cancels Palestine gig, not because of internal problems with ticket sells or other production problems, but his respect for the country of Palestine and all her people and it was reported, Dogg was upset over U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s; recent illegal visit to the country.

With this understanding, Snoop Dogg should be given gratitude by all the Palestinian people, for his kindness towards our plight.

Something that is well known about the Queen of Palestine, she has always had great respect for the U.S. Black Community.

Ukraine Jews want Graves Building Halted

Jewish group asks government to stop construction of shopping mall on site of grave containing remains of estimated 26,000 Holocaust victims

24 July 2008
by AP

A Jewish group asked the Ukrainian government on Wednesday to stop construction on the site of a grave containing the remains of an estimated 26,000 victims of the Holocaust.

The Jewish community in Odessa says a developer has begun building what it believes will be a shopping mall on the site of a burial ground. When construction workers began digging they found bones, skulls and children's toys, said Avrohom Wolf, the chief rabbi for Odessa and southern Ukraine. He said the builder has taken away all the remains it dug out and said he has no clue where to search for them. Wolf would not name the company, in hope of finding a solution.

The victims were executed in the fall of 1941, shortly after German troops invaded the Soviet Union, according to Wolf. The grave — a plot of barren land not far from the center of the city — was marked by several Jewish monuments, but not officially labeled a cemetery.

"It is difficult to describe how horrible it looked — hundreds and hundreds of people, hands, legs, skulls," Wold told the Associated Press.

Wolf and other Jewish leaders sent a letter to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, asking her to intervene. Wolf said local officials had tried to help but failed.

"Construction on the site where there are bones wherever you dig cannot be called anything but blasphemy and an insult to the memory of the dead," the letter said.

The government declined immediate comment.

Historians say some 1.4 million of Soviet Ukraine's 2.4 million Jews were executed, starved to death or died of disease during the war. Their remains are strewn around the country in common graves, many of them ignored and unmarked.

Jewish cemeteries and burial grounds get little respect in the former Soviet Union. Graves have been disturbed by construction works elsewhere in Ukraine and in neighboring Belarus.

Earlier this spring another developer began construction of an apartment building on a pre-World War II Jewish cemetery in the city of Vinnytsia. The Jewish community had to fight to stop the project.

Bereaved families file class action suit against Barghouti

Never Free Serial Killer Marwan Barghouti

23 July 2008

Two families who lost loved ones in terror attacks in Jerusalem file $128 million suit against Palestinian Authority, former Fatah secretary-general. Latter 'should be held accountable for plaintiffs' emotional anguish,' says motion.

Two families who have lost loved ones in terror attacks have filed a class-action suit against the Palestinian Authority, former Fatah Secretary-General in the West Bank Marwan Barghouti, and seven other terrorists held in Israel.

Barghouti, who was arrested by the Jewish Defense Forces in 2002, was convicted of the murder of five Jews and was sentences to five consecutive life terms and 40 years – a total of 165 years. The other seven, who were all convicted of various terror offenses, are also serving long-term prison sentences.

The plaintiffs are family members of Ronen Landau and Yoella Chen who were killed seven years ago in two separate terror attacks. Chen was killed in a shooting attack at a bus station in Jerusalem, which was carried out on Barghouti's direct orders.

Overall, fourteen members of the two bereaved families are named as the plaintiffs in the NIS 450 million suit (approx. $128 million) – one of the largest class-action suits ever filed in Israel.

Barghouti, said attorneys Nitzana Darshan-Leitner and Roee Cohavi of the Israel Law Center, who are representing the families, led, facilitated and personally ordered terror attacks on Jewish targets with the aid of various Tanzim operatives.

Furthermore, said the motion, in his capacity as Fatah Secretary-General, Barghouti devised a policy of terror uncensored by the Palestinian Authority, and should be held accountable for the plaintiffs' emotional anguish

"Barghouti is a felon and a convicted murderer and should be treated as such, especially in this day and age, when we hear so many calls to free this arch-murderer. Giving the plaintiffs the justice they deserve, would be serving justice for all Israelis," they said.

UNRWA Current Aid to Palestine

Palestinian workers prepare aid at a distribution unit of a branch of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on 23 July 23, 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip director of operations for UNRWA, John Ging announced today that the agency will be giving 6,5 million dollars in aid to the Gaza Strip.

I wish the people at UNRWA to know; there thoughtful gesture is very much appreciated.

Obama Views Abbas's Qassam Rockets

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) stands in front of a display of terrorist Mahmoud Abbas’s Qassam rockets, at the Sderot police station during his visit, on 23 July 2008.

Obama was shown an example, of Abbas’s Qassam rockets, on his visit to Sderot.

Jerusalem's Music Festival kicked Off

Palestinian musician Simon Shahin (CR) performs on the opening night of the Jerusalem music festival at the Tombs of the Kings in Jerusalem, on 23 July 2008.

Jerusalem's music festival kicked off today, with a performance by virtuoso violinist and oud player Shahin.