Assange: Many Arab Officials Have Close CIA Links

In his second interview with AlJazeera, Assange, increasingly fearful of a US cabal against him and his organization, is threatening to unveil sensitive information that a careful editing of the cables would normally not unveil, naming Arab leaders with CIA links and Arab countries that operate torture prisons for the CIA.

I think Assange right now is entitled to any means at his disposal to protect himself and his organization. What our leaders do behind our back is our business especially when it contradicts what they say in public. Diplomacy certainly uses secrecy but it is not a tool for secrecy in democratic governance. Secrecy is merely a feature of the business but it is not a goal. And we are increasingly seeing great disparities between private and public political discourse as well as an unhealthy amount of secrecy as worrying tendencies in actual western democratic governance.

Moreover, I am not surprised by the revelations about Arab states. Any Arab with a critical mind knows this and without any doubt can list the countries with close CIA links and CIA torture chambers. Bin Laden was a close CIA ally and foreign Saudi policy in general is 100% aligned with the US.

However, I am concerned about what we as Arabs (the people, not the governments) can and will do with these revelations. I am mostly distressed by the amount of silence in the Arab press and especially in the Lebanese press surrounding Al-Akhbar's revelations about Lebanese officials' collaboration with Israel and the US* against legitimate Lebanese resistance to Israeli invasions while telling us a different story publicly (this reaction from a Lebanese blogger close to Saudi Arabia's lebanese allies is an example).

Palestinians have suffered from this irresponsible conduct by Arab governments and Politicians. Our standing in the world and estimation of ourselves as people and nations are the first victims of this autocratic attitude by Arab governments which is in contrast with the political sympathies and affinities of the people in Arab countries.

*Unfortunately I was not able to link to the original story in Al-Akhbar because their website was down for more than a week following the publication of the first Wikileaks cables which were very damaging to Saudi Arabia and its March 14th allies in Lebanon.

Frost Interviews Assange

The interview is on AlJazeera English website. It is a good interview. It brings a lot of nuances on the Assange case, nuances the print media weren't able to achieve.

Wikileaks\USrael: The US Covered The Mossad In The Abu Dhabi Murder

The Cable from Abu Dhabi requesting information about the identities of the Master Card holders suspected to be implicated in the murder of a Hamas executive.

The refusal of collaboration in the investigation.

Palestinian prisoners tortured and denied basic rights by Israel

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club say detainees from the occupied West Bank are cut off from the rest of the world in Israeli detention facilities. The report also cited cases of "systematic violence" and torture.
Between 70% and 90% of the detainees in the years 2005 to 2007 were not allowed to meet a lawyer able to provide advice and assistance prior to signing a confession, say the organisations. The average time prisoners represented by the group were isolated from the outside world was 16.7 days. Irit Ballas, a lawyer and one of the report's authors, said the situation has remained the same for the past three years. "The information we receive from our lawyers tells us that the incommunicado detention has not decreased," he said.

Organ trafficking mafia: The Israeli connection

Three days ago, The Guardian reported on a council of Europe inquiry implicating Kosovo's prime minister and Kosovo's physicians in killing and harvesting Serb prisoners' organs.

Now it appears that the main recipient of these illegal operations is Israel.

The Israeli market for donor livers has been well-documented, and most international trafficking rings have involved wealthy Israeli patients on so-called "transplant tours". Organ donation in Israel is low due to concerns in the Orthodox community about the body after death.
And "Only 10% of Israeli adults hold donor cards, compared with more than 30% in most western countries."

More critically, there appears to be no ethical guidelines in Israel for organ collection and donation.

Israel admitted harvesting organs illegally.

More than being a recipient, Israel was accused of executing Palestinians for the only purpose of harvesting their organs.

Read here more about Israel and organ trafficking operations.

And in nearly every scandal of illegal organ trafficking, Israel is involved:

Read here about NetCare in South Africa

Organ trafficking and relief efforts: Israel always present in relief efforts in third world countries. Read here how organ trafficking was reported by Haitian PM on January 2010 right after the earthquake struck. Nobody knows for sure if Israel was involved in this one but Israel was one of the first nations to be allowed by the US, who was coordinating the airport operations in Port-au-Prince, to set an army field hospital and a team of approximately 100 doctors, nurses and other army health professionals, having the capacity for around 500 patients a day. Countries traditionally allied with Haiti like France saw their teams turned back at the airport.

Rabbis Also Make Fatwas

In Israel, Rabbis can have opinions about different public and private matters and their opinions are generally followed by faithful Jews. These opinions are edicts and they resemble the fatwas emitted by Muslim clerics. But in general their edicts do not receive a wide press coverage as the western press is generally reluctant to criticize everything that is related to Israel and Jews but eager to denounce anything related to Muslims and Arabs.

The latest move was to forbid Israeli citizens to rent homes to Arabs. It seems that 55% of Israelis approve of these racist measures.

However, this move was denounced by a group of world rabbis.

The EU Will Toughen Up Against Israel

It is always former heads of states that adopt a tough stance against israel once they leave office. However, this is a group of former heads of EU states asking the union to adopt a consequentialist approach with Israel refusing any future upgrade in Israel-EU relations unless there is a total freeze in settlements.

• Put forward a plan to resolve the conflict, including a clear time frame, together with the US, UN, Russia, and Arab League.
• Reiterate its position that it will not recognise any changes to the June 1967 boundaries [of Israel], that a Palestinian state should be "territory equivalent to 100% of the territory occupied in 1967", and that its capital should be East Jerusalem.
• Refuse to upgrade ties with Israel unless settlements are frozen. "The EU has always maintained that settlements are illegal, but has not attached any consequences for continued and systematic settlement expansion."
• Bring an end to the import of settlement products "which are, in contradiction with EU labelling recommendations, marketed as originating in Israel".
• Send a high-level delegation, including Lady Ashton, to East Jerusalem "as a matter of urgency to draw attention to the erosion of the Palestinian presence there, and report back to the EU with an agenda of proposals to arrest and reverse the deterioration of the situation on the ground". The situation in East Jerusalem, it says, is the "most critical flashpoint and greatest threat" to a peace deal.

The Palestinian cause does not need Julian Assange's accuser

It is reported that one of Julian Assange's accuser will be headed to Palestine on behalf of a religious charity to work for peace and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis.

The Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people have had enough people working on behalf of Palestine's enemies, parading as friends of Palestine, and/or narcissistic people trying to make good publicity for themselves. Palestinians should ignore the 'help' of this person.

Update: It seems that this person has canceled her travel for now to Palestine.

Saudi Arabia appears from the leaks as the biggest threat to Mideast security after Israel

Each of the above two countries is preoccupied with its own survival, Saudi Arabia is preoccupied by the survival of its ruling class and Israel is preoccupied by its legitimacy as an expansionist state. Both states have a very poor track record in human rights.

Saudi Arabia is a cash machine for terrorists

Saudi King urged US strike on Iran

Saudis proposed to the US Arab force to invade Lebanon

Saudis meddling in Pakistani affairs

US secure record 60 Billions arms sale to Saudi Arabia

Lebanon Wikileaks Documents Expose Deep Strife And Treason At The Heart Of The Current Lebanese Government

The US cable is one of several that have been published in Beirut by the leftwing al-Akhbar newspaper which has apparently been leaked as part of the WikiLeaks cache obtained by the Guardian, the New York Times and three continental European publications.

Al-Akhbar has highlighted contacts between the March 14 movement led by the current prime minister Saad al-Hariri, the US and the Saudis, prompting denials or defensive reactions from those named.

Marwan Hamadeh, the Lebanese minister of communications, warned the US charge d'affaires of the risks involved after Hezbollah indicated it would see any action against the telecoms network as "equal to an Israeli act of aggression".

Hamadeh also reported interference with Lebanese mobile communications by Syria and Israel.

...Lebanon's defence minister, Elias Murr reported in other leaked documents as telling US officials that the (Lebanese) army would not involve itself in a future Israeli attack on Lebanon...

Source: The Guardian via Al-Akhbar