Attacks on innocent civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinian, are forbidden under most understandings of international law and ISM seeks nothing more for Israelis and Palestinians than the implementation of international law.

But besides stopping Israeli and Palestinian attacks on innocent civilians, compliance with international law requires ending a long list of Israeli violations, starting with Israel’s 36 year military occupation of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, and including the occupation’s cornerstones – construction of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, seizure and destruction of Palestinian land and homes, restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement within the Occupied Territories with checkpoints, road blocks and curfews, denial of Palestinian rights to health, education and employment, arbitrary detention and multiple forms of collective punishment.

In order to stop attacks on Israeli civilians this kind of violence, we must look at the source of violence and address that, instead of arguing about whether one act of violence is worse than another. We need to treat the disease of all the violence and not just one of its symptoms. Occupation forces and policies are degrading and dehumanizing; they injure, kill the soul and make life near impossible for Palestinians, and this is all this even when the Israeli army is not actively attacking (e.g.,a.k.a. carrying out operations in Palestinian villages, towns and cities). We oppose the tactic of suicide bombings, especially those that have been carried out against civilian targets. We don't however think that it is a more brutal tactic than dropping a bomb from a fighter plane on a civilian-occupied apartment building, firing a tank shell down a crowded city street, or placing dynamite in a family home. They are all brutal and repulsive acts. That some Palestinians have turned themselves into weapons is not something inherent to Palestinians or Muslims. Rather, it is a tragic weapon of those who have nothing else to fight with. This does not justify the action, but we are certain that if the Palestinians had F-16s or Apache helicopters, they would not use their bodies and explode themselves. This does not mean the ISM calls for an escalation of weapons armament, rather the ISM maintains that all military tactics should be stopped by all sides in favor of nonviolent alternatives. Most importantly, we’ve concluded from experience that as long as occupation remains, and the Palestinian people are denied freedom, human rights and self-determination, there will be those who will use violence against the underlying, systematic basic and foundational violence of the occupation.

However, anyone that decries the violence without decrying the violence of occupation is attacking symptoms instead of root causes and accepting violence in the form of occupation. The ISM seeks to bring about an end to violence by actively resisting the occupation through nonviolent means. The Israeli government has long worked to crush peaceful resistance, making it very difficult for Palestinians to act nonviolently on a large scale. We're working to develop an alternate way of resisting (nonviolently) that can be effective. We will continue and we invite all to join us.

AL-QAEDA: RECLUTA 18.000 NUEVOS INTEGRANTES
LONDRES.- La red Al Qaeda, encabezada por el millonario saudita Osama Bin Laden, reclutó a 18.000 nuevos miembros, listos para participar de atentados a gran escala en el mundo, sostuvo hoy el reporte anual de seguridad del Instituto Internacional de Estudios Estratégicos (IISS) de Londres.

La red terrorista Al-Qaeda reclutó 18.000 nuevos miembros
Según el informe anual de seguridad del Instituto Internacional de Estudios Estratégicos de Londres, la organización cuenta con más adeptos debido a la oposición a los Estados Unidos y Gran Bretaña por la ocupación de Irak

Informe: Al Qaeda reclutó 18.000 nuevos miembros listos para atacar

Londres - La red Al Qaeda, encabezada por el millonario saudita Osama Bin Laden, reclutó a 18.000 nuevos miembros, listos para participar de atentados a gran escala en el mundo, sostuvo hoy el reporte anual de seguridad del Instituto Internacional de Estudios Estratégicos (IISS) de Londres.

Al-Qaeda reclutó a 18.000 nuevos terroristas para sus atentados

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are very good at crosswords.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand the Washington Post. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave LA to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country, and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country .... or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be illegal aliens from ANY country or galaxy as long as they are Democrats.
10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11 ... n. El País es leído por la gente que manda en España.
n + 1. Estoooo, ¿cuál era la pregunta?

PARIS (Reuters) - France says it will raise its terror alert at the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, expected to be attended by the Queen and several world leaders. France will raise its four-step terror alert known as the Vigipirate plan to the second-highest level, red, in the area of the ceremonies from May 24, the office of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said. The rest of France will be raised to red during the event on June 6.

U.S. President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder are expected to attend, along with other world leaders and thousands of veterans and journalists. France raised its alert level to red in airports and train stations after the Madrid bombings in March, which killed almost 200 people. The alert level for the rest of France is orange.

Egyptian law gives Egypt’s ministry of information the right to ban or censor any publication. The censor reviews each edition of the Middle East Times before allowing them to be distributed. Articles may be censored if they:
-Report on human rights abuses
-Criticize the president or his family
-Criticize the military
-Refer to any ill-treatment of Egyptians in "friendly" Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia.
-Discuss modern, unorthodox interpretations of Islam.
-Report on discrimination against Coptic Christians in Egypt.
However, the censor is very arbitrary -- sometimes these things go through, sometimes they don't.

Millions of us in Arab countries live under the threat of our governing regimes. Citizens are jailed, some are tortured, others are never seen again. All the while our leaders say we have democracy. As Arabs, we are sad and angry that in place of democratic freedoms, we have police, militaries, torture, and lies. Please, please, help us create democracy. Condemn the Arab leaders who do not respect human rights.

Iran chides Spain for hosting defunct royals at prince wedding

Tehran, May 23, IRNA -- Iran sternly admonished Spain Sunday for inviting the son and widow of the defunct shah to the wedding of Crown Prince Felipe. "Inviting such individuals, who have been banished by the Iranian people, was not a suitable move," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters here in a weekly news briefing. Iran`s embassy in Madrid, he said, had formally protested to the Spanish government for inviting Reza Pahlavi and Farah Diba to the wedding. "These individuals have no place not only among our people, but among other people around the world and the Spaniards will realize later that the individuals invited are not used as delegates in any such ceremonies," Asefi added.

Crown Prince Felipe married former television presenter Letizia Ortiz Saturday amid tight security in the wake of the March 11 train bombings, which killed 191 people. The 36-year-old heir to the crown exchanged vows with Letizia, a 31-year-old divorcee, before 1,400 guests at the Roman Catholic Almudena Cathedral. There were reports of protests held before wedding, including by several hundred republicans who staged a parody of a wedding and chanted slogans "Tomorrow Spain will be a republic!". According to AFP, the protest passed off without incident under the watchful eye of a large police presence. Another grouping, the news agency said, denounced this `waste of money`. Iran`s `Peacock Throne` was overthrown following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which was led by late Imam Khomeini and forced Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to flee. He died one and a half years later after being denied asylum by one after another government, including by his own closest ally -- the United States.

Today, my brother in law and I went to the passports office to get an interim travel document, cause he wants to travel to Syria for some work, so I decided to get a document for me , who knows, probably I might travel oneday. I was shocked by the new behavior of the officials and the new procedures there, I thought that I were in another country! There was an organized queues of about 200 man and woman, the boss got out of the building and took the application forms from the elderly people who were standing there checked them and said: ‘ that’s it, come here at 1:00 PM’ ! We were surprised by the polite behavior of the boss! Not only that, he said: ‘ anyone has a problem in getting the document or any obstacle just tell me’ !! We were used to hear: ‘ HEY..READ THE NOTICE WELL BEFORE ASKING US ANYTHING’ and ‘ BE SURE OF YOUR APPLICATION FORM, OTHERWISE WE WON’T TAKE IT, DON’T BOTHER US’.. And in addition to the bribes, unexplained demands, the disgusting loop between the passports office and military offices with their insults and disrespect....and and and.. If I write about what was going on to an Iraqi who wanted a passport I’ll write a book about different stories, tragedies and those doctors who were imprisoned because they dared to try to get out from Iraq !

Today, everything is easily obtained and no one is banned from going abroad like what was happening under the ex-regime... When Iraqis were getting out, they were thinking thousands times before coming back again... Nothing like that now... Nearly more than 200 application form were applied in 20 minutes only, which is something impossible in Iraq ! Or was impossible... The officials said ‘ come back at 1:00 PM to get your documents’, we went back home, very happy with the new dealings, we played ‘Empire Earth’! Drank coffee and then we were there at 12:50PM, then after 10 minutes an official started to deliver the travel documents and we got them!! ... Wonderful... Believe me... You might see this as something absurd ‘ getting a passport’ but it was something hard.. Very hard to get...

Sé quién soy. Nadie más sabe quién soy. Si yo fuera una jirafa y alguien dijera que soy una serpiente, yo pensaría: No, la verdad es que soy una jirafa.

Lo sé, una prueba es una prueba. ¿Qué clase de prueba es una prueba? Una prueba es una prueba y cuando tienes una buena prueba es porque ha sido probado.

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know

The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

"To the allegation that there was a wedding going on, there was no evidence of a wedding," [Army Brig. Gen. Mark] Kimmitt reiterated. "There were no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration and no gifts. "The men were almost all military-aged, no family elders that one would expect to see at an event of this type," he said. To help substantiate his comments, the general showed reporters slides of items found at the site, which included a significant number of weapons, battery packs used to power improvised explosive devices and a host of other non-wedding-related items.

"What was interesting is that the building seemed to be somewhat of a dormitory," Kimmitt pointed out. "There were more than 300 sets of bedding gear in it and about 100 sets of prepackaged clothing. It's suspected that when foreign fighters come in from other countries they change their clothes into typical Iraqi clothing sets. We also found a significant number of identity cards, ID-making machines, the capability to make exit visas for Iraq and a couple of passports," the general noted. " And we found a waist-high medical table for examination and treatment."

Highlighting some other intelligence found at the site, Kimmitt said, "There were a couple of other items we found to be quite interesting. None of the bodies had any identification of any kind – no ID cards, no wallets, no pictures. They had watches, and that was about the only way you could identify one person from another.

"We feel that that was an indicator that this was a high-risk meeting of high-level anti-coalition forces," he said. Kimmitt pointed out items found in the victims' pockets, "including a lot of telephone numbers to foreign countries -- Afghanistan, Sudan and a number of others." (...) "There were also a number of terrorist training manuals (and) suspected forged Iraqi IDs," he said.

Kimmitt said there may have been some kind of celebration going on at the said, but not a wedding. "Bad people have celebrations too," he noted. "Bad people have parties too. It may have been that what was seen as some sort of celebration may have just been a meeting in the middle of the desert by some people that were conducting either criminal or terrorist activities. That's the conclusion we're continuing to draw the more we look at the material, intelligence, post-strike, and follow-up intelligence."

Kimmitt said the coalition believes "a handful of women" could have been present. "We believe six were killed, and we acknowledge that in all of our reports," he said. "But there are still not reports of any children being killed."

Kimmitt said a videotape distributed to the media showing at least a dozen bodies, including small children, wrapped in blankets for burial, being unloaded from a truck doesn't look like the video taken at the site of the attack.

"None of the geography in those videos match the geography of this open area," he noted. "But there are still some inconsistencies. We still remain opened-minded about this. We'll continue to look into everything that's provided to us in the way of evidence."

Memo to terrorists: If you value your families' lives, take a page from Michael Corleone's book, and keep your business and family separate!

In April 2003, while the main war was still going on, I gave a class to my company about the threat posed by Sadr. Though my fellow soldiers didn't appreciate having to attend a class at 8 a.m., they can tell you that what is happening now is no surprise.

Our evaluation more than a year ago was that Sadr presented a formidable and possibly impossible threat. Last summer, as my unit covered Sadr City - the sprawling part of Baghdad that Sadr controlled - his militia made a show of force in defiance of the effort to open Iraq to new freedoms. Sadr intimidated most of Iraq's Shia leaders and the community at large. He welcomed many foreign fighters to train and assist his militia in terrorist tactics and guerrilla warfare. Our leaders acted with caution and care to secure ever-stronger cards against Sadr while working to achieve four main goals. The first goal was to isolate Sadr. Second was to exile him from his power base in Baghdad. Third was to contain his uprising. And the last was to get his hard-line supporters to abandon him and to encourage moderates to break from him. This has been done brilliantly. Sadr is losing everything. Consider just some of the goals we've accomplished recently:

Goal One: Sadr's so-called Mahdi Army militia now is fighting alone. The people of Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf are not supporting him. His forces are isolated.

Goal Two: His one-time powerbase, Sadr City in Baghdad, has been lost. Sadr has been exiled. We have him on the run. Other Shia leaders are breaking from him. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has left Sadr's call for jihad and uprising to founder on deaf ears. Paul Bremmer and Gen. John Abizaid stunned the Shia community by negotiating a calm in Fallujah. That tail-spinned Sadr's ability to intimidate Iraq's Shia leaders. The Iraqi people of Najaf and Karbala are offended by this Baghdad thug coming to their cities and trying to hijack them into conflict with the United States.

Goal Three: Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia are insulting the most sacred sites of Shia Islam daily. This is offending Iraq's Shia leaders very much. Our units, in fact, are operating within 500 meters of the most sacred Shia religious sites, and the local people are not resisting. This is what the pessimists at home are preventing you from understanding. Something like this would have been impossible before Sadr and his militia thugs went into there to hijack Iraqi Shia Islam. The people of Najaf and Karbala know we are not there to conquer and occupy the religious sites; we are there to liberate them from this would-be tyrant.

Goal four: Now Sadr's patrons and mentor in Iran are breaking from him. Grand Ayatollah Kazim al-Haeri in Qom, Iran, is no longer backing him. Haeri was a close intimate to Sadr's respectable father. Sadr has been abandoned.

Un mes después de su entrada en vigor, la semana laboral de 35 horas en Francia está lejos de acarrear la catástrofe dibujada por la patronal y buena parte de los economistas. Al contrario, la experiencia muestra que, en el actual ciclo expansivo, la reducción del tiempo de trabajo está teniendo un impacto mínimo en el coste laboral y repercute positivamente en la confianza ciudadana, en el consumo interno, en la creación de empleo y en el crecimiento económico.

19. Now, beating the game will depend on how I play to Ivy League politicians who think a gun is something you hang over your mantlepiece to be occasionally dusted by the maid in your Connecticut Summer home. And when it comes to that point in the game where this panel demands the truth (and says they're "entitled" to the truth) I want a little drop-down menu that will let me tell them that they, in fact, can't handle the truth.

With a couple of clicks (or maybe a Hotkey) I'll tell them that we live in a world that has walls and that those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. I will tell them that I have a greater responsibility than they can possibly fathom. They weep for mistreated prisoners and curse the military. They have that luxury. They have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that the naked human pyramid and homoerotic torture, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to them, saves lives.

I'll tell them that they don't want the truth, because deep down, in places they don't talk about at parties, they want me on that wall. They need me on that wall. I'll tell them that I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to men who rise and sleep under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it.

I'd rather they just said "thank you" and went on their way. Otherwise, I'd suggest they pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what they think they're entitled to.