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In an overnight raid into the Gaza Strip the IDF have abducted two brothers. The Israelis claim that the brothers are members of Hamas. Hamas denies this and states that the two brithers are merely the sons of a Hamas member.

The two captured men were brothers Osama and Mustafa Abu Muamar, sons of Hamas activist Ali Muamar. ... read full story / add a comment

On April 28 last, a section of the East Timorese army mutinied, ostensibly over pay. An eyewitness, Australian radio reporter Maryann Keady, disclosed that American and Australian officials were involved. On May 7, Alkatiri described the riots as an attempted coup and said that "foreigners and outsiders" were trying to divide the nation.

The opportunity for "influence" arose on May 31, when the Howard government accepted an "invitation" by the East Timorese president, Xanana Gusmão, and foreign minister, José Ramos Horta – who oppose Alkatiri's nationalism – to send troops to Dili, the capital. This was accompanied by "our boys to the rescue" reporting in the Australian press, together with a smear campaign against Alkatiri as a "corrupt dictator." Paul Kelly, a former editor-in-chief of Rupert Murdoch's Australian, wrote: "This is a highly political intervention … Australia is operating as a regional power or a political hegemon that shapes security and political outcomes." Translation: Australia, like its mentor in Washington, has a divine right to change another country's government. Don Watson, a speechwriter for the former prime minister Paul Keating, the most notorious Suharto apologist, wrote, incredibly: "Life under a murderous occupation might be better than life in a failed state…." ... read full story / add a comment

Usual suspects use child sex abuse to heighten their image ... read full story / add a comment

The new Palestinian Anti-Terrorist Act passed by the US House of Representatives last month is preventing aid agencies, like Mercy Corps, delivering assistance to Palestinians already burdened by poverty and hardship. Since the Hamas victory in the elections, Israel has punished the Palestinian people by withdrawing valuable tax breaks, freezing wages to teachers, healthcare employees, policemen and other municipal workers, and by limiting entry through checkpoints that Palestinians need to access in order to be able to go to work. ... read full story / add a comment

Leaders are our example and we should emulate and follow that example at all times, in this way we guarantee a future of complete destructive ‘anarchy’ for the world – ‘blessed are the liars and murderers for they have inherited the earth’! Whatever the discourse and regardless of any other consideration we will incorporate it to achieve our aims. The law and other ‘constraints’ are for the weak; we create and alter laws according to our needs. ‘Sedition’ automatically implies our ‘right’ and your ‘wrong’ – we are the trustees of 'reality', we weave the social fictions YOU live by. ... read full story / add a comment

The mysterious transformation of Janez Drnovsek, Slovenia's President: from technocrat to "guru".
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Families divided by ideals

Ken Loach's award-winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley captures the tragic texture of the War of Independence and the Civil War, writes Luke Gibbons

At one point in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, an Irish audience is depicted watching a film about the War of Independence that gives rise to uproar in the cinema. The film is a newsreel outlining the details of the Treaty that had just been negotiated between the Sinn Féin delegation led by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, and the British cabinet fronted by Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Responding initially with cheers, the mood of the audience divides and darkens as the realities of the historic compromise are spelled out on the screen. In this we have, perhaps, a dress rehearsal for Ken Loach's work since the 1960s, which has managed not just to entertain but to agitate audiences and bring viewers, in more ways than one, to their feet. ... read full story / add a comment

TV review: Documentariy on the making of The Wind that Shakes the Barley

Good in parts

'Rebel County' Hidden History. RTE 1 Tuesday, 13 June. Pat Collins, Producer/Director, Harvest Films

This documentary on the War of Independence in Cork, using Ken Loach's prize winning The Wind that Shakes the Barely as a backdrop was, like the curate's egg, good in parts. Interviews with Ken Loach, Scriptwriter Paul Laverty, academic historians and relatives of those who fought, illustrated the fight against the RIC, Tans, Auxiliaries and regular British forces.

The story of the "ordinary people" who in Ken Loach's words "were able to shake the might of the Empire" was well expressed. So too was the effect on the community of the torture and executions of IRA prisoners. Post-torture photographs of Tom Hales and Pat Harte, hit with hammers and their fingernails pulled out, and with Harte forced to hold up a Union Jack, was reminiscent of more recent US torture in Abu Ghraib, ... read full story / add a comment

Bob’s barrister nudged him in the ribs as a signal to stand. The jury had returned with its verdict. Bob anticipated their decision as one would an echo – guilty as charged! The Judge shifted into automatic and delivered the sentence – three years with not less than twelve months to be served for his third offence, possession of marijuana. ... read full story / add a comment

Sarcasm and RTE

Tonight's RTE Nine O'clock news reported that President Bush wants to close the Guantanamo detention centre. According to an RTE report Bush 'understands' European concerns over the imprisonment of terror suspects in Guantanamo.

Anne Doyle commented that the President had "gone out of his way" to assure EU leaders about treatment in Guantanamo.

RTE correspondent, Sean Whelan, stated that President Bush "would like to close" the facility, to which the correspondent followed with the question, "when would he like to close" the facility?

There seems to be one seemingly obvious question RTE failed to ask. ... read full story / add a comment

BBC reports that company "ignored accident warning"

Protesters against the Corrib gas scheme have often highlighted the appalling terms of the contract whereby the shareholders of the Shell, Statoil, Marathon Oil, and even the people of Norway, will gain more than the people of Ireland from the exploitation of Irish natural resources. Others however, claim that private operators simply would not be attracted to the Irish scene if the government didn't give them such a good deal (so what difference would it make?).

However the thing that no-one can argue about is safety. No-one believes that people should be forced to live beside an experimental piece of industrial equipment carrying explosive gas at extremly high pressure, if there is a chance that it might explode. Everyone agrees- if it's not safe, it shouldn't be built.

Shell say it is safe, but the following report from the BBC casts doubt on the company's attitude to safety.

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Now that Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer have broken the taboo in the mainstream American media establishment of not only pointing out that the Israel lobby exists, but actually analyzing it from their perspective, the only place that open discussion, analysis and debate about the lobby remain firmly taboo is, ironically, ON THE LEFT! It’s a taboo imposed on the left by certain leftist icons and their suppression – if not censorship – of free expression and debate on this topic in progressive venues (lectures, panels, press or broadcast). Even some Palestinian-Americans have been forced to knuckle under to these leftist icons’ denial of the power of the Israel lobby in exchange for those icons’ or certain progressive/leftist groups’ political support.

For example, as of this writing, where is an informed rebuttal to Noam Chomsky's dismissive position on the Lobby or at least an honest, open debate about the lobby on the national radio program Democracy Now? So, I wanted to incisively debunk at least some of the major arguments used by certain Left icons in denying the power and influence of the Israel lobby in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and in suppressing discussion of its power domestically. Now, some people will bring up a red herring list of other possible influences in U.S. Mideast foreign policy to deny my analysis, but here I am dealing with THE ISRAEL LOBBY and how leftist icons respond to that topic. My ultimate position is: whatever our positions on the lobby, do we get to honestly discuss and debate it in formal public settings? Please read more: ... read full story / add a comment

Filthy American capitalists make money from the Internet. ... read full story / add a comment

The world’s most cowardly leader, John Howard, has surpassed even himself with his latest spineless effort of making a gift of the (once sovereign) Australian nation to the Yanks. The clearest indication of America’s newest colonial acquisition is the construction of permanent US military bases in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Those who imagine that US bases are not an indication of US military or economic supremacy, think again. Locating all the US bases on the globe is a revealing exercise. Without exception all the bases that exist outside continental USA have been built after either military or economic CONQUEST. ... read full story / add a comment

Harney is in the news for opening the shiny new private healthcare facility and for admonishing Consutlants for not recommend the National treatment fund programe, both projects seem to help the 'crisis' but merely funnels money to private heatlhccare rather then building capactiy in the public system.

TÁNAISTE OPENS IRELAND’S SECOND WALK-IN URGENT CARE FACILITY
http://www.vhi.ie/press/190606.jsp
The private clinic, which is a joint initiative between VHI and The Well, aims to treat and discharge the majority of its patients within one hour.

Opening the facility, The Tanaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney TD said, " I am pleased to open the second Vhi SwiftCare Clinic This is a unique partnership between Vhi Healthcare, The Well and DCU that will provide a community based urgent care centre in North Dublin. There is a natural synergy between the partners and I welcome this initiative. Vhi Swiftcare Clinic is a walk-in urgent care centre based closely on well established Australian and US Models. ... read full story / add a comment

U.S. President George W Bush has launched an intensive diplomatic effort to persuade North Korea not to test a long-range ballistic missile that could reach the United States. ... read full story / add a comment

Welcome to the twenty-first century, welcome to social retrogression and the new barbarism – primitive theological values and barbarism have temporarily stolen the post-modern age. Quite an irony in today’s highly advanced society but the reality of barbarism and retrogression are undeniable. The world’s most advanced technological nation is a perfect example. America has succumbed to theological ideology and all the bigoted, avaricious, violent values associated with primitive religion and barbarism. A crusader, a mental deficient who fancies himself a ‘holy’ knight of the Middle Ages battling the forces of ‘evil’, leads the USA; a literal mental retard and social regressive leads the world’s ‘leading’ nation. ... read full story / add a comment

According to a report in the Sunday Tribune, cheap fags peddled around Ireland have dangerous amounts of chemicals - six times as much lead as in regulated cigarettes and high levels of arsenic.

"Fake cigarettes seized by Customs in the North contained 160% more tar, 80% more nicotine, and 133% more carbon dioxide than genuine cigarettes." ... read full story / add a comment

Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: [email protected]
Date: 14 Meitheamh / June 2006

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

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