Tyrone To Gaza, home safely in Dungannon

[Mickey Linden]

Legend!

[The Watcher Pat]

Good to see your home safely John, though I'm sure it won't be long before you have another trip planned. Its just a pity people need to in this day and age.

Fair play to you, your a credit to your parents, your Country and yourself.

Keep up the good work.

[fitzroyalty]

Good to see your home safely John, though I'm sure it won't be long before you have another trip planned. Its just a pity people need to in this day and age.

Fair play to you, your a credit to your parents, your Country and yourself.

Keep up the good work.

x2!

[Declan]

OPINION: Barack Obama says US intelligence fails to 'connect the dots' to prevent terror attacks. America itself fails to connect the dots that help explain motive, writes LARA MARLOWE

IN AMERICA, 2010 has been dominated so far by the aftermath of the failed Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253. Amid the flurry of recriminations and speeches, it was reported that a state department official "misspelled" the name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted to bring down the aircraft with explosives sewn into his underwear, thus preventing data concerning him and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from being correlated.

The story fed the narrative of bureaucratic ineptitude, and received wide coverage. No one pointed out that there is no correct spelling of Arabic names transliterated into English. Umar is the same as Omar, and both spellings are correct, just as Mohamed can be written several ways.

This footnote to the failed suicide bombing was symptomatic of a wider breakdown in understanding, as if the collective American psyche was pre-programmed by rigid mental software not to comprehend.

Any cop will tell you that the first thing one searches for when investigating a crime is a motive. The fact that two well-educated young men – Abdulmutallab the Nigerian and Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian – were ready to turn themselves into human bombs in the hope of killing Americans, just five days apart, ought to make us ask why. Abdulmutallab (23) is from a rich family and studied engineering at University College London. Balawi (32) was a medical doctor with a Turkish wife and two young daughters. On December 30th, he dealt the worst blow to the CIA in 27 years by killing seven agents at its base in Khost, Afghanistan.

In a posthumously broadcast video, Balawi said his "martyrdom" was to avenge the assassination by an unmanned US drone last August of Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani extremist leader.

It would be easy to dismiss Balawi's suicide bombing as merely another round in the cycle of revenge between the US and al-Qaeda. But clues to Abdulmutallab and Balawi's motives are there if you search for them. There was a photograph of the solemn, baby-faced Abdulmutallab, wearing a red polar fleece at what appeared to be a London demonstration against the Israeli bombing of Gaza. One of Balawi's brothers told the New York Times that Balawi was changed by the Israeli assault on Gaza, which killed 1,300 Palestinians.

Balawi's family, like that of Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, the US army psychiatrist who killed 13 US service members at Fort Hood in November, were Palestinians from what is now Israel. In 2008, the Washington Post reported, Balawi wrote on an internet site that he wished to "be a bomb" so he could punish Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.

You would think these events might spark a debate about the anger of Palestinians and Muslims towards Israel and the US. But to the extent that this anger is mentioned, it is portrayed as blind, fanatical hatred, with no reference to Israel's continued occupation of Arab land, the suffering of Palestinians still under siege in Gaza or the 1,300 Palestinians killed by Israel one year ago.

The New York Times published a one-and-a-quarter-page spread on "The Terrorist Mind" in which the words Israel and Palestinian appeared not once. It is as if a curtain, a de facto taboo, falls over these topics in the US. No wonder Americans "don't get it". President Barack Obama made six statements and speeches about the Christmas Day attack and ordered two policy reviews. House and Senate committees are gearing up for a string of hearings on the security lapses. I recall no comparable US interest in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.

Time magazine reporters in Amman quoted senior Jordanian intelligence sources saying they believed Balawi turned on the CIA because so many civilian deaths resulted from the airstrikes in Afghanistan for which he provided intelligence as a double agent.

The US has suffered 4,358 fatalities in Iraq and 943 in Afghanistan. In the same period, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are believed to have been killed and thousands of Afghans. US officials say most die at the hands of their own countrymen. That doesn't change the perception that the US is ultimately responsible because it started both wars.

During a TV debate on profiling, MSNBC presenter Chris Matthews said: "If Americans were going around killing Muslims, they'd be searched at airports too." But Americans are killing Muslims, in far greater numbers than Muslims are killing Americans.

A US federal judge's recent dismissal of charges against four Blackwater mercenaries who shot dead 17 Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007 was quickly forgotten by the US public. You can be sure it wasn't forgotten by Arabs.

MSNBC is supposed to be a politically liberal network. So I was surprised to hear one of its breakfast commentators suggest that prisoners at Guantánamo "live better there than they did in their own countries". A classified Pentagon report this month concluded that one in five prisoners released from Guantánamo then joined an extremist group. If you'd been water-boarded, subjected to sleep deprivation, loud music, extreme temperatures, threatening dogs and scantily clad women interrogators using sex to humiliate you – and seen your holy book flushed down the toilet – you'd probably join an extremist group too.

At a recent briefing Obama's chief counterterrorism expert John Brennan was asked about the motivation of suicide bombers. Al-Qaeda, Brennan said, "is dedicated to murder and wanton slaughter of innocents . . . has the agenda of destruction and death . . . is just determined to carry out attacks here against the homeland".

"But you haven't explained why," the journalist protested. Brennan ignored her, and went on to the next question.

The US "failed to connect the dots", Obama and other officials repeated ad nauseam in the wake of the Abdulmutallab case. The dearth of co-ordination between 18 US intelligence agencies, the fact there is still no single database and more than half a million names on an ineffectual "terrorist watchlist" have been analysed to death in the past two weeks.

Yet nothing has been said about the equally dangerous failure to provide Muslims appalled by US policies with an alternative to suicide bombing. Obama hinted at this in a speech on January 7th. "We must communicate clearly to Muslims around the world that al-Qaeda offers nothing except a bankrupt vision of misery and death," he said, "while the United States stands with those who seek justice and progress."

One thing would convince Muslims that the US seeks justice: the creation of a viable, independent state for the Palestinians. After more than half a century of skewed US Middle East policy, peace between Israelis and Palestinians would not stop attacks on the US overnight. But the injustice done to Palestinians remains a festering wound and, even more than Guantánamo, the best recruitment tool for al-Qaeda.

Obama knows this, but seems powerless to do anything about it.

[give her dixie]

Please click onto this link to view photo's from the trip to Gaza.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=541019313#/album.php?aid=173529&id=541019313&ref=mf


Below is a few to wet your appetite......



Another fan in Gaza


Israeli gunships keep an eye on the children playing


Convoy parked up in Gaza


Sunset on the Gaza Strip


Derry To Gaza


Holy Trinity Cookstown jersey hand over.

[ziggysego]

I was looking at these this morning John. Amazing photographs.

[give her dixie]

Just a quick reminder folks about the event tonight in the Bank Hotel in Dungannon.
I will be talking about the recent trip to Gaza, the Gaza GAA Club, and of course, the situation
on the ground in Gaza right now.
Mickey Coleman will be singing a few songs, including his anti war song "Mothers Lullaby".

Doors open at 8, so come along for what is sure to be a great event.

[Chris agus Snoop]

Just read this and I must say fair dues to everyone involved.
But I cant see other countries getting involved on the side of the Palestinians, Israel is rich and powerful and the
palestinians have nothing. Thats all that matters.
The only hope for the people of Gaza is individuals like John.

[Declan]

John's interview on RTE re the GAA club
http://www.rte.ie/sport/other/audiovideo_index.html
Fair play

[Denn Forever]

Michael earns his corn.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0306/gaza.html

Martin briefs EU ministers on Gaza situation
Saturday, 6 March 2010 13:37
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has briefed EU Foreign Ministers about the humanitarian situation in Gaza following his visit to the region.

The briefing took place amid the half yearly informal meeting of Ministers in the Spanish city of Cordoba.

The closed-door meeting was also attended by the EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, who is expected to visit the Middle East in the coming weeks.

AdvertisementMinister Martin said he briefed those present on what he called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and pointed to the effective destruction of the private sector there.

Mr Martin visited Gaza last week and was the first EU foreign minister to enter the coastal strip in over 12 months.

The area was severely damaged in an Israeli offensive in December 2008, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

The Minister's recent tour of Gaza was the first visit by an EU Foreign Minister since an Israeli assault in 2009.

Minister Martin said that his report was well received.

[longrunsthefox]

Any time the Gaza is on the news now I think of think of Dixie's and the convoy's magnificent efforts...



One Laptop Per Child reaches Gaza Strip

The UN in the Gaza Strip has begun distributing thousands of laptop computers to children in its schools.
The rugged laptops are made by the non-profit organisation One Laptop Per Child, which aims to give a computer to every child in the developing world.
One Laptop Per Child say computers are a good way of improving the education of children living in poverty.

Humanitarian conditions have deteriorated in the Gaza Strip in the last three years, the UN says.

HOWEVER...
Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza, which was tightened in 2007 after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, and all but humanitarian supplies are prevented from entering.

Unrwa, the UN agency for refugees, began distributing 2,100 laptops on Thursday in Rafah, a town in the south of the strip.

This is part of a wider ambitions to distribute 500,000 laptops to children in Gaza by 2012.

Connected

One Laptop Per Child has built the energy efficient XO laptop especially for children in developing countries.
"The XO laptop has a special place in children's education in regions that are disrupted by ongoing violence," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the organisation.
"With the XO the children can continue to stay connected and gain the skills and knowledge required to participate fully and thrive in the 21st century - even when getting to school is impossible."
The UN agency which looks after Palestinian refugees, UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provides housing, health services, education and emergency food supplies to more than four million refugees in five countries.

The computers are to be loaded with textbooks and teaching aids that cover the primary school curriculum, a statement from UNWRA said.

[give her dixie]

Folks, I think by now most of you know that actions like this are crock of shit, and for anyone who knows anything about the situation there right now will know that laptops are the last thing they want to see in Gaza right now. Maybe since they have been locked up for 4 years, with no sign of a release date, i'm sure they think they need something to pass the time away, while doing their stretch in prison.

The UN is handing out lap tops because Israel has allowed it to happen in order to publicise a Hollywood story about how it is extremely nice of them to let children have lap tops. Would it not suit them better to allow in some food? Every single child who will recieve a lap top lives in a prison created by an illegal siege on 1.5million people. 60% of whom are uner 18. On a daily basis, they go hungry, they go without water, they go without electric.

Gaza is one big labratory, where the Zionists have the power to turn on and off the lifeblood.
Everyone lives their life not knowing what they will turn off, when they will turn it off, and for how long. Over the past year, they have been introducing longer periods of cut offs. A few weeks back, they cut of their electric for 3 days. It's a slow genocide, and they are turning the screws tighter each and every day.
And the leaders of the world have their eyes shut tight when it comes to Palestine. They are all controlled by the Zionists, and they say nothing.

What has Ireland done about the stealing of passports? Nothing. Michael Martin went to Gaza on a personal capacity for lunch on afternoon a few months back. He refused to meet a member of the democratically elected Government at the border. He went to a couple of schools, got a few photo's took, and was gone before dark. His 1st press conference out of Gaza, he called for the release of an Israeli prisoner of war, and refused to acknowledge that there are over 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, hundreds of whom are children.
Israel treat 16 as the age you can be tried as an adult. Throwing rocks gets you anything from months, to years. Plus, only a small amount of them recieve visits from families. No one from Gaza has been allowed to visit a friend or a family member in over 4 years.

For the 50,000 people left homeless after the brutal attacks last year, they still live in tents. For over 4 years now, building materials have been banned by Israel, and they are still banned. Last week, for the 1st time in nearly 4 years they allowed in a couple of hundred tonne of cement to the UN I believe. Again, this news story was pumped out by the Zionists through all their media outlets. What lovely people they Israeli's are. They have a heart of gold.

So folks, do you want to know why they have allowed cement and laptops into Gaza for the 1st time in 4 years? Well, in 3 weeks time, a flotilla of cargo and passenger boats will set sail for Gaza. 5 passenger ships with 600 people on board from all over the world, and 3 cargo ships carrying 5,000 tonnes of cement, medicine, school supplies, and guess what? Lap tops.

So, by Israel allowing in these token items in, it lets them off the hook by saying cement isn't banned. Sure didn't we allow it in last month? Laptops are not banned. Sure didn't we allow them in 2 weeeks ago?
Now, the flotilla of ships can't say that these items are banned. Israel have all their evidence to show that they allow them in. Takes the wind out of the organisors sails though....

Anyhow, stay tuned for more developments on this flotilla. As usual, I will have all the latest news, and believe you me, this is going to be some challenge to Israel on the Med. Turkey are sending a 3,500 tonne cargo boat, and a 400 seater ship. 5 more boats from across Europe will join them, and together, they will head straight for Gaza. What happens is anyones guess, however, seeing as the Turkish Prime Minster has been very vocal against Israel, a major diplomatic storm could be brewing......... What this space......

[Declan]

Keep up the good work

[Hedley Lamarr]

Muslim unity?

GAZA CITY: Hamas movement has slammed a gas attack by Egyptian security forces that killed four smugglers in a tunnel under the Egypt/Gaza border on Wednesday afternoon.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zohri demanded an immediate probe into the incident at a press conference on Thursday and called on the Egyptian government to prosecute those in charge. He said that his movement strongly denounced the action against the Palestinian victims.

On Wednesday, medical sources at Al-Najar hospital reported that nine others had also been wounded.

At least 40 smugglers have been poisoned by noxious gases since a blockade was imposed on the Gaza Strip, said Abu Zohri.

He added that a total of 145 residents have been killed in different incidents.

He explained that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip need the tunnels because of the blockade.

"We demand that Egypt explain its position about what is happening and investigate the circumstances of this terrible crime and show the truth to the entire world and hold those responsible accountable."

In Cairo, an Egyptian intelligence official denied the allegation. He said that security forces blew up the entrances to several tunnels earlier this week.

He said Egypt routinely blows up the entrances to seal the tunnels off. He said fires sparked by such explosions could use up all the oxygen in the tunnel and people caught inside could suffocate.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

After Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Israel imposed a crippling blockade on the territory and closed most of its commercial border crossings into Gaza.

This forced people in the area to dig a vast network of smuggling tunnels under the borderline between Egypt and Gaza so they could smuggle in vital supplies.

Israel says Palestinian fighters use tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza, and have ordered its warplanes to repeatedly bombard tunnels in the city of Rafah south of the Gaza Strip.

[give her dixie]

www.vivapalestina.org

Flotilla to break Gaza siege

On May 24th, an international flotilla of cargo and passenger ships will depart from various European ports  and set sail for Gaza. 3 cargo ships will carry over 5,000 tonnes of medical and building supplies, and  5 passenger boats will carry over 600 people.

This flotilla is been led by the IHH charity from Turkey, and is supported by many groups worldwide, including the Free Gaza Movement, Free Palestine Movement, European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza and the Greek and Swedish Boat to Gaza groups amongst others.

In January of this year, IHH  was an integral partner with  Viva Palestina on the convoy to Gaza, where 500 people in over 200 vehicles successfully broke the siege on Gaza and delivered essential humanitarian aid.  Viva Palestina are therefore very proud to announce their involvement with IHH again on this flotilla, and in addition to sending medical and building supplies, a Viva Palestina Coalition team will be on board this historic journey.

The siege imposed on Gaza is now in it's 4th year. It has created a humanitarian crisis that has left the entire population without sufficient food, water, medicine, electricity, building supplies, clothes, toys, and freedom of movement. 1.5 million people, over half of whom are children, suffer directly because of this siege. Since the attacks on Gaza last year that left over 1,400 people dead, and 50,000 people homeless, no building supplies have been allowed to enter Gaza. 15 months on, people still live in tents and temporary shelter, unable to rebuild their homes.

Viva Palestina, led by George Galloway M.P.  have successfully broken the siege on Gaza 3 times with land convoys of aid. Over 1,000 volunteers in 500 vehicles have delivered essential humanitarian aid to the stricken region in the past year. By taking part in this flotilla, Viva Palestina will be bringing much needed humanitarian aid, and attempting to break the siege once more.

We are calling on our supporters to donate towards the cost of medical and building supplies. Viva Palestina will be purchasing supplies in Turkey that will be loaded onto the IHH cargo ship departing from Istanbul. People can donate towards the cost of materials by clicking on the following link: 

http://www.vivapalestina.org/donations.htm

Or, for UK mobile phones users, text the word "Cement" to 70060
£5 will be charged to your phone bill.

You can also follow us on facebook by joining the following Viva Palestina Flotilla group:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000958034539&ref=profile#!/group.php?gid=238347355199

If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at: info@vivapalestina.org

Thanks for your valuable support,

Viva Palestina