New Evidence of Gaza Child Deaths

(from BBC World News)

Four-year-old Samar Abed Rabbu is a little girl with a captivating smile to melt the heart of the most hardened correspondent

When we first came across her in the hospital in the Egyptian town of El-Arish, just over the border from Gaza, she was playing with an inflated surgical glove beneath the covers.

The doctors had puffed air into the glove, trying to distract her from the further pain they had to inflict inserting a drip.

Samar had been shot in the back at close range. The bullet damaged her spine, and she is unlikely to walk again.

At her bedside, her uncle Hassan told us the family had been ordered out of their home by Israeli soldiers who were shelling the neighbourhood.

A tank had parked in front of the house, where around 30 people were taking shelter.

The women and children - mother, grandmother and three little girls - came out waving a white flag and then, he said, an Israeli soldier came out of the tank and opened fire on the terrified procession.

Samar's two sisters, aged seven and two, were shot dead. The grandmother was hit in the arm and in the side, but has survived.

Young victims

One of the most alarming features of the conflict in Gaza is the number of child casualties. More than 400 were killed. Many had shrapnel or blast injuries sustained as the Israeli army battled Hamas militants in Gaza's densely populated civilian areas.

But the head of neurosurgery at the El-Arish hospital, Dr Ahmed Yahia, told me that brain scans made it clear that a number of the child victims had been shot at close range.

Samar's uncle said the soldier who had shot his niece was just 15m (49ft) away. ''How could they not see they were shooting at children?'' he asked.

When we finally got into Gaza, we tried to investigate further.

Finding a house, even with an address, in a neighbourhood that has been bombed into oblivion, where all landmarks have been obliterated and even the locals cannot find their bearings, is not easy.

But we eventually met a man who knew Samar's family and took us to the family house, or what was left of it.

The four-storey building has been concertinaed to the ground.

Father's agony

Khalid Abed Rabbu wears on his face all the pain of Israel's bloody three-week campaign in Gaza. In his hand he carried the teddy bear that had belonged to his daughter, Samar's six-year-old sister.

Its head had been blown off, apparently in the same burst of gunfire that had cut his daughter in half.

He described the events of that night almost identically to his brother. There were minor discrepancies, but he too believes his daughters were shot in cold blood.

Khaled Abedrabou found toys in the wreckage of his house

"There were soldiers leaning against the tank eating crisps," he said. "But then one of them jumped down and walked towards the house with an M16 automatic rifle."

He showed me a photo of his eldest daughter under shrouds in the mortuary.

"What has my family done to Israel," he cried. "What has Samar done to deserve all this pain?"

We have put the family's allegations to the Israelis. So far they have told us that they can not comment on specific cases.

Their spokesman said they had made every effort to limit civilian casualties but were fighting a terrorist organisation that often uses the civilian population as cover.

Troubled neighbourhood

The Israelis say is evidence that on many occasions when civilians were killed their troops had been responding to incoming fire.

There are reports of the neighbourhood where the family lived, known as Ezbat Abed Rabbu, had been used by militant fighters in the past. During an incursion in the spring of 2008 the Israelis took over Khalid's house for two days.

But Khalid insists he is not Hamas, he is not a fighter. He said he worked for the Palestinian Authority and is a member of Fatah, Hamas's political rivals.

"There were no fighters here," he added, picking up crisp bags printed with Hebrew lettering that the soldiers seemed to have left behind. "Do you think soldiers eat crisps sitting on their tanks when there is incoming fire?"

Samar's father and her uncle have not spoken to each other since she left Gaza for treatment in Egypt, yet in separate interviews they told us the three girls were outside the house, in plain view, when they were shot.

We toured the part of Jabaliya where the Abed Rabbus lived. In an area that must cover at least a square mile, there are no houses left - no mosques, no factories and no orchards. The entire neighbourhood has been devastated.

It may be true that fighters were hiding in the alleys of Jabaliya. It is possible that rockets were being fired from here towards Israel.

But for the people who lived here, this is a story of wanton destruction. The world must now decide whether the Israeli action here was justified under the rules of war.

Obama Redraws Middle East Policy

As my friends from the Middle-East would agree, we need a positive change, a change that will not thrust the idea of "American Democracy" on them. Rather U.S. should act as "a guide at the side" and help them formulate their own ideas and ideals of governance. Let's pray that the Obama administration successfully assists in bringing about peace in the Middle East. However, I also hope that they remember that the Middle East has different values and culture, and respects that. (Behrooz K.Y. Avari)


(below is an article from the Australian Newspaper -- The Age)

US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signalled greater diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. Photo: KEVIN LAMARQUE

ON HIS third day in office, US President Barack Obama has dramatically shifted America's stance towards the Middle East conflict.

He has called on Israel to open its borders with Gaza to allow humanitarian aid and commerce to flow and said one of America's most talented negotiators would try to broker a more extensive peace in the troubled region.

Mr Obama also announced plans to close the contentious detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year and to ban all forms of "enhanced interrogation" used by the CIA, branding them torture and contrary to American values.

The announcements are signals to the world — particularly the Arab world — that the new administration will pursue vigorous diplomatic engagement, abide by international obligations and return to what Mr Obama termed the nation's "core values".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at her department to rousing applause as she told staff she would welcome debate and good ideas.

"The President is committed to making diplomacy and development the partners in our foreign policy along with defence. And we must be smarter about how we exercise our power," she said.

The most tangible evidence of the new approach was in Mr Obama's statements on Gaza, when he offered a more even-handed assessment of the problems underlying the conflict.

Under the former president, George Bush, America had been strongly supportive of the Israeli actions in Gaza and had blamed Hamas for bringing suffering on its own people. The US was also a reluctant supporter of ceasefire negotiations.

Mr Obama said: "Just as the terror of rocket fire aimed at innocent Israelis is intolerable, so too is a future without hope for the Palestinians. I was deeply concerned by the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent days, and by the substantial suffering and humanitarian needs in Gaza …

"As part of a lasting ceasefire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime with the international and Palestinian Authority participating."

Mr Obama said the US would "actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians" in the wake of the recent Gaza conflict.

"The outline for a durable ceasefire is clear: Hamas must end its rocket fire; Israel will complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza; the US and our partners will support a credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime, so that Hamas cannot re-arm," he said.

Mr Obama announced the appointment of George Mitchell — the man who helped forge a peace agreement in Northern Ireland — to begin work on brokering an agreement as US special envoy for the Arab-Israeli conflict. Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the United Nations, has been appointed as representative for Afghanistan-Pakistan.

The moves signalled another shift from the foreign policy of the Bush administration, which had resisted appointing a high-profile envoy for Middle East peace.

Mr Obama also made good on his campaign promises to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay within a year and end immediately the use of torture by the CIA. The order sets up a commission to look at options for relocating the remaining 245 inmates. This is likely to include asking allies, such as Australia, to consider taking inmates.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has already rejected similar overtures from Mr Bush, but Portugal and Switzerland have indicated they may be willing to take some. Other options include moving inmates to US military prisons, returning some to their native countries, and finding third countries to take them.

The President also signed an order saying that all interrogations conducted by the US would abide by the army field manual, effectively banning the CIA from using "enhanced interrogation" techniques including waterboarding.

Thailand: Stop Forced Returns of Karen Refugees to Burma

The Karens are a tribal ethnic group in Burma, and make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population.The Karen have fought for independence from Burma since January 31, 1949. Consequently, that day is recognized amongst the Karen as Karen Revolution Day.

(below is an article from Human Rights Watch 07/17/2008)

Thai security forces should immediately stop forcing Karen refugees and asylum seekers to return to Burma from refugee camps in Thailand, Human Rights Watch said today.

Forced repatriation of Karen refugees from Mae Ra Ma Luang camp on July 17, 2008. © PrivateThe Karen, an ethnic group who have fled armed conflict and human rights violations in Burma, face persecution and violent reprisals by the Burmese military government if forced to return, Human Rights Watch said.

“Forcing civilians back into an active war zone may be an easy answer for Thailand, but it’s brutal – a completely inhumane and unacceptable solution,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Thai government should cooperate with international relief agencies and UNHCR to ensure that it upholds the rights of civilians under international law.”

On July 17, local Thai paramilitary forces, the tahaan prahn (literally “hunter-killer soldiers”) rounded up 52 Karen from two refugee camps in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province along the Burma border, 39 – mostly women and children – from Mae Ra Ma Luang refugee camp and 13 from Mae La Oon camp. They permitted 17 students to stay on the Thai side, but sent 35 refugees across the border to the Ei Tu Hta relocation site in Burma.

The refugees, part of a larger group of more than 280 who fled to the Thai camps in early 2008 during a major military offensive in Eastern Burma, were told late on July 16 that they would be forced back the following day. According to local refugee sources, tahaan prahn commanders announced that all new arrivals since April will eventually be forced back to Burma.

Although Thailand has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is bound by the principle of non-refoulement, a firm prohibition in customary international law on returning refugees to any country where they are likely to be persecuted or their lives are at risk.

“The Thai government has ignored its obligations to protect refugees fleeing persecution and violence in Burma,” said Adams. “Sending these people back over conflict zones dominated by the Burmese army is disgraceful.”

Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the European Union, the United States, and other states to pressure the Thai government to immediately cease the refoulement of refugees and continue to provide sanctuary to people fleeing fighting or persecution in Burma.

“The Thai government cynically launched this illegal operation during the first day of a major Buddhist holiday, Choul Vosa, or Buddhist Lent,” Adams said. “This, along with the Thai media’s preoccupation with escalating border tensions with Cambodia over the Preah Vihear temple, provides effective cover for Thailand’s serious breach of international law.”

Ei Tu Hta relocation site in Burma, located along the Salween River, has grown during the past two years to nearly 4,300 civilians who have fled attacks and abuses by the Burmese army. The overcrowded camp receives limited international and local health and food assistance, which is often blocked by local Thai security forces. In addition, the camp faces the constant risk of attack because of its proximity to Burmese army encampments.

Thai security forces only permitted the 52 civilians sent to Ei Tu Hta camp on July 18 to carry two weeks’ supply of food and basic plastic sheeting, and prohibited the refugees from carrying mosquito nets or cooking utensils.

More than 100 civilians arrive at Ei Tu Hta camp each month as the Burmese army continues its offensive in Northern Karen State despite the monsoon rains. Human Rights Watch believes that there are now more than 90 Burmese army battalions (more than 10,000 troops) operating in the area. The soldiers are forcing Karen civilians into relocation sites, or burning their villages and food stocks with the aim to clear the area.

More than 50,000 civilians have fled or been displaced by the army offensive against civilians in Eastern Burma, which has been ongoing since 2006. They join more than half a million internally displaced civilians in Eastern Burma. The offensive in Eastern Burma is the largest operation by the Burmese military in several years. It has been denounced by international groups, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in a June 2007 statement, and Amnesty International in a June 2008 report.

Refugee protection in Thailand has sharply deteriorated during the past several years, as the Royal Thai Government’s procedures for registering refugees has been bogged down. There are an estimated 20,000 unregistered people out of 148,000 in the nine Karenni and Karen minority refugee camps along the border, many of whom would likely qualify as refugees. Without registration, most are not eligible for food and shelter, nor do they receive formal protection from the UNHCR. In March 2007, Thai security forces forcibly returned nearly 100 Rohingya Muslim men from Western Burma to an area controlled by a pro-SPDC armed group along the Thailand Burma border.

For more than a year, Thai security forces and Ministry of Interior officials have been threatening unregistered refugee camp residents with forcible return. The hundreds who arrived at the two Karen camps of Mae Ra Ma Luang and Mae Ra Moe have been routinely threatened with return since May by local security forces, claiming to act on behalf of the central authorities in Bangkok.

“The root causes of why people flee Burma haven’t changed, but states such as Thailand continue to turn a blind eye to serious abuses while continuing to do business with the Burmese government,” Adams said. “Thailand should raise concern about Burmese human rights violations that cause forced displacement as well as responding humanely to its victims seeking asylum at their borders and in their territories.”

Radical in the White House

(An article in New York Times 01/21/2009 by Thomas Friedman)

For one day, for one hour, let us take a bow as a country. Nearly 233 years after our founding, 144 years after the close of our Civil War and 46 years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, this crazy quilt of immigrants called Americans finally elected a black man, Barack Hussein Obama, as president. Walking back from the inauguration, I saw an African-American street vendor wearing a home-stenciled T-shirt that pretty well captured the moment — and then some. It said: “Mission Accomplished.”

But we cannot let this be the last mold we break, let alone the last big mission we accomplish. Now that we have overcome biography, we need to write some new history — one that will reboot, revive and reinvigorate America. That, for me, was the essence of Obama’s inaugural speech and I hope we — and he — are really up to it.

Indeed, dare I say, I hope Obama really has been palling around all these years with that old Chicago radical Bill Ayers. I hope Obama really is a closet radical.

Not radical left or right, just a radical, because this is a radical moment. It is a moment for radical departures from business as usual in so many areas. We can’t thrive as a country any longer by coasting on our reputation, by postponing solutions to every big problem that might involve some pain and by telling ourselves that dramatic new initiatives — like a gasoline tax, national health care or banking reform — are too hard or “off the table.” So my most fervent hope about President Obama is that he will be as radical as this moment — that he will put everything on the table.

Opportunities for bold initiatives and truly new beginnings are rare in our system — in part because of the sheer inertia and stalemate designed into our Constitution, with its deliberate separation of powers, and in part because of the way lobbying money, a 24-hour news cycle and a permanent presidential campaign all conspire to paralyze big changes.

“The system is built for stalemate,” said Michael J. Sandel, the Harvard University political theorist. “In ordinary times, the energy and dynamism of American life reside in the economy and society, and people view government with suspicion or indifference. But in times of national crisis, Americans look to government to solve fundamental problems that affect them directly. These are the times when presidents can do big things. These moments are rare. But they offer the occasion for the kind of leadership that can recast the political landscape, and redefine the terms of political argument for a generation.”

In the 1930s, the Great Depression enabled Franklin Roosevelt to launch the New Deal and redefine the role of the federal government, he added, while in the 1960s, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and “the moral ferment of the civil rights movement” enabled Lyndon Johnson to enact his Great Society agenda, including Medicare, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

“These presidencies did more than enact new laws and programs,” concluded Sandel. “They rewrote the social contract, and redefined what it means to be a citizen. Obama’s moment, and his presidency, could be that consequential.”

George W. Bush completely squandered his post-9/11 moment to summon the country to a dramatic new rebuilding at home. This has left us in some very deep holes. These holes — and the broad awareness that we are at the bottom of them — is what makes this a radical moment, calling for radical departures from business as usual, led by Washington.

That is why this voter is hoping Obama will swing for the fences. But he also has to remember to run the bases. George Bush swung for some fences, but he often failed at the most basic element of leadership — competent management and follow-through.

President Obama will have to decide just how many fences he can swing for at one time: grand bargains on entitlement and immigration reform? A national health care system? A new clean-energy infrastructure? The nationalization and repair of our banking system? Will it be all or one? Some now and some later? It is too soon to say.

But I do know this: while a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, so too is a great politician, with a natural gift for oratory, a rare knack for bringing people together, and a nation, particularly its youth, ready to be summoned and to serve.

So, in sum, while it is impossible to exaggerate what a radical departure it is from our past that we have inaugurated a black man as president, it is equally impossible to exaggerate how much our future depends on a radical departure from our present. As Obama himself declared from the Capitol steps: “Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed.”

We need to get back to work on our country and our planet in wholly new ways. The hour is late, the project couldn’t be harder, the stakes couldn’t be higher, the payoff couldn’t be greater.

Testimony: "I Fear Nothing Now"

Testimony, The Electronic Intifada, 7 January 2009

Nael Shaeth, 40, a father of four, talked to IRIN by telephone from his home in al-Naser neighborhood, central Gaza, about the challenges faced by people who have been trapped in their homes since the Israeli offensive on Gaza began on 27 December:

Scenes of destruction are everywhere. When you walk in the streets you see many damaged buildings. Some of them are totally damaged and cannot be repaired. They need to be rebuilt anew.

Nobody leaves his or her house unless there is something extremely urgent. The last time I went out was before yesterday to refill my car with fuel. But I go to visit my mother who lives nearby to check on her. That day I passed by a bakery where I had to stand in a long queue to buy some bread. We usually wait for an hour in queues to buy bread as only two or three bakeries in our area are still functioning. When it is your turn, the quantity they give you depends on the available supply of wheat and cooking gas.

Prices [of commodities] are rising. In grocery shops some items are available and some are not. And even some of what is available might have become spoilt now, after three days of continuous electricity cuts in our area. I heard that some areas have had no electricity since the start of the bombardment nine days ago.

When the electricity is cut, water supplies are directly affected. We use electricity to pump water from tanks on the ground to rooftop tanks -- from where it is distributed to the different flats ... Now even if you have water, you might not be able to use it unless you try to carry it. Even when you manage to get water, it is difficult to take a shower in very cold water ... Solar heating systems don't work properly in winter.

My four children are terrorized because of the attacks -- especially the youngest [two] aged six and 11. With severe bombardments outside and lack of electricity inside, they refuse to go to the toilet on their own at night. They want someone to accompany them. We are also subject to psychological pressure. A few hours back I heard that a friend had died.

January is one of the coldest months of the year ... but in these cold conditions, we have to leave windows partially open to prevent them from shattering in the bombardments.

Despite this extremely difficult situation, I fear nothing now and do not have any concerns. I believe in God and that everyone has to die one way or another. It is better to die in this honorable way. These are not my personal beliefs, all Gazans believe the same.

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Let Our Children Live

Nurit Peled-Elhanan writing from Israel, Live from Palestine, 22 January 2007


Bassam Aramin spent nine years in an Israeli jail for being a member of the Fatah in the Hebron area and trying to throw a grenade at an Israeli army Jeep which was patrolling in Occupied Hebron. On Wednesday morning, an Israeli soldier shot his nine-year-old daughter, Abir, in the head. The soldier will not spend an hour in jail. In Israel, soldiers are not imprisoned for killing Arabs. Never. It does not matter whether the Arabs are young or old, real or potential terrorists, peaceful demonstrators or stone throwers. The army has not conducted an inquiry in Abir Aramin's death. Neither the police nor the courts have questioned anyone. There will be no investigation. As far as the Israeli Defense Forces are concerned, the shooting did not happen. The army's official account of her death is that she was hit by a stone that one of her classmates was throwing "at our forces."

We who live in Israel know that stones thrown by 10-year-olds do not blow brains out. Just as we see every day the Israeli jeeps circling Palestinian children on their way to and from school and greet them with stun-bombs, "rubber" bullets and riot control gas.

A bullet penetrated Abir Aramin's skull, while she was walking to school with her sister. I saw her just afterwards at Hadassah Hospital, where she slept quietly in a huge hospital bed. Abir's face was white. Her huge eyes were closed. By then, she was already brain-dead, and the doctors decided to allow the rest of her to die. I saw clearly that her head had been shot from behind. A young student who witnessed her shooting told journalists that the Israeli border police, part of the IDF, drove up to the girls as they came out of their school examinations: "The girls were afraid and started running away. The border police followed them in the direction in which they were retreating. Abir was afraid and stood against one of the shops at the side of the road. I was standing near her. The border policeman shot through a special hole in the window of his jeep that was standing very close to us. Abir fell to the ground ... I saw that she was bleeding from the head."

Abir Aramin

Abir Aramin is dead. The doctors at Hadassah will not disclose the cause of her death to her parents or her friends. Her family has requested an autopsy. Her father, Bassam Aramin, is one of the founders of Combatants for Peace. My son, who served as an Israeli soldier in the occupied territories, is also a member. They are friends. Bassam told us that he cannot rest until his daughter's killer convinces him that nine-year-old Abir threatened his life or the lives of the other soldiers in his jeep. I fear he will never have the chance to rest.

Abir Aramin has joined in the underground kingdom of dead children the thousands of other children killed in this country and the territories it occupies. She will be welcomed by my own little girl, Smadar. Smadar was killed in 1997 by a suicide bomber. If her killer had survived, I know he would have been sent to prison for his crime and his house would have been demolished on the rest of his family.

In the meantime, I sit with her mother Salwa and try to say, "We are all victims of occupation." As I say it, I know that her hell is more terrible than mine. My daughter's murderer had the decency to kill himself when he murdered Smadar. The soldier who killed Abir is probably drinking beer, playing backgammon with his mates and going to discotheques at night. Abir is in a grave.

Abir's father was a warrior who fought the occupation -- officially a "terrorist," although it is a strange logic that terms those who resist the occupation and dispossession of their people as terrorists. Bassam Aramin is still a fighter -- but as a peace activist. He knows, as I know, that his little dead girl takes all the reasons for this war to her grave. Her small bones could not bear the burden of life, death, vengeance and oppression that every Arab child here grows up with.

Bassam, as a Muslim, believes he must pass a test -- as a man of honour not to seek revenge, not to give up, not to neglect the struggle for dignity and peace on his own land. When he asked me where we find strength to go on, I said the only thing I could think of: from the children who are left to us. His other children, my three living sons. From the other Palestinian and Israeli children who have a right to live without their elders forcing them into being occupiers or occupied. The so-called enlightened, western world does not get what is happening here. The whole enlightened world stands aside and does nothing to save little girls from murderous soldiers. The enlightened world blames Islam, as it once blamed Arab nationalism, for all the atrocities the non-Islamic world is inflicting upon Muslims. The enlightened west fears little girls with scarves on their heads. It is terrified of boys in keffiyehs. And in Israel, children are educated to fear, most of all, the fruits of the Muslim womb. Therefore, when they become solldiers, they see nothing wrong in killing Palestinian children "before they grow." But Basam and Salwa and all of us -- Jewish and Arab victims of the Israeli occupation -- want to live together just as we die together. We see our children sacrificed on the altar of an occupation that has no basis in law or justice. And, outside, the enlightened world justifies it all and sends more money to the occupiers.

If the world does not come to its senses, there will be nothing more to say or write or listen to in this land except for the silent cry of mourning and the muted voices of dead children.

Woman Born With No Arms Becomes First Pilot to Fly Airplane With Feet

Jessica Cox, of Tucson, Ariz., was born without arms, but that has only stopped her from doing one thing: using the word "can't."

Her latest flight into the seemingly impossible is becoming the first pilot licensed to fly using only her feet.

Click here for photos of Jessica.

With one foot manning the controls and the other delicately guiding the steering column, Cox, 25, soared to achieve a Sport Pilot certificate. Her certificate qualifies her to fly a light-sport aircraft to altitudes of 10,000 feet.

"She's a good pilot. She's rock solid," said Parrish Traweek, 42, the flying instructor at San Manuel's Ray Blair Airport.

He runs PC Aircraft Maintenance and Flight Services and has trained many pilots, some of whom didn't come close to Cox's abilities.

"When she came up here driving a car," Traweek recalled, "I knew she'd have no problem flying a plane."

Finding a plane that was compatible with her abilities was a task within itself. She found it in the Ercoupe, a plane manufactured in the mid-1940s. Locating one took her to Florida and California, although she finally find one less than 70 miles away in San Manuel.

Flight lessons usually run more than $100 per hour, but Cox was able to get her 40-plus hours of training through an Able Flight Scholarship.

"Once you're with Jessica for about 20 minutes, you don't even notice she doesn't have arms," Traweek said from the one of the airport's hangars.

Cox, unwrapping a piece of chewing gum with her toes nearby, was clad in a yellow T-shirt sporting a stick figure with truncated arms beneath the phrase: "Look Ma, No Hands."

"Jessica's showing people there are no limits," he said. "Jessica's incredible. She really is."

Most who meet her, especially on her motivational speaking circuit, agree. She's spoken at hundreds of gigs, from Wisconsin to Phoenix, where she shares her upbeat philosophy and incredible story.

Doctors never learned why she was born without arms, but she figured out early on that she didn't want to use prosthetic devices.

"Instead of investing so much time in being normal," she said, "I realized it was more important to celebrate my difference."

She gave up the prosthetic arms for good when she turned 14 and her family moved to Tucson from their hometown of Sierra Vista.

"They handicapped me," she said of the prosethetic arms, which she keeps shoved in the back of her closet.

"When we moved to Tucson, I had a fresh slate," she said.

That slate is now covered with achievements from a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Arizona to two black belts in tae kwon do. She's also seeking a publisher for her life story.

She keeps even more active with swimming and walking.

"It's critical to maintain strength and flexibility in my legs for any kind of activity," she said.

Her feet have become so agile, she said. that a recent X-ray showed her toe joints looked more like fingers.

"The toes were curled in more like a hand would be," she said. "I had to ask the doctor, 'Does everyone's feet look like that?' "

Cox credits much of her success to her supportive family: mom Inez, 58; dad William, 68; brother Jason, 28; and sister Jackie, 23.

She is grateful for her ability to motivate others, and not only when she's speaking on stage.

"I realized when I go to the grocery store to get a gallon of milk and wheel the cart up to the cashier, I really don't have to say anything," she said.

(from FoxNews.com)

A Plea for Peace From a Bereaved Palestinian Father

(Below is a heart-felt account of a bereaved Palestinian father -- Bassam Aramin -- that always haunts me. I believe its high time to come together, to unite, and to stop the needless bloodshed)

I fought with my daughter on the day she was shot.

On her way out the door to school, Abir announced, in that way children have of doing, that she would be playing with a friend that afternoon rather than coming straight home to study for an exam scheduled for the next day. She was 10 years old, smart, dedicated to her schoolwork and still a little girl.

She wanted to play. I told her to not even think about it.

If I could tell her anything now, it would be: Go. Do whatever you want. Play.

Because now, she never will. She will never laugh again, never hear her friends calling her name, never feel the love of her family wrapped around her at night like a warm blanket.

Abir, the third of my six children, was shot in the head as she left school January 16, caught in an altercation between Israel Border Guard troops and older kids who may or may not have been throwing rocks. She died two days later.

I know what the Israeli army has said about the incident, and I know what Abir’s older sister Arin saw with her own two eyes: Abir was running away from the troops when she suddenly stopped and fell, and blood splattered onto the ground. An independent autopsy confirms the most likely cause of death: a rubber bullet, through the back of Abir’s head. I have that bullet in my house, because poor Arin, watching her sister get shot, picked up the bullet and brought it home. I was not surprised when the Israeli army tried to blame Abir for her own death. First we were told that she was among the rock throwers; then we were told that “something” blew up in her hands — though her hands remained miraculously in tact— before she could toss it at the Border Guard jeep.

I was not surprised, but the anguish that such fabrications cause my wife and me is hard to express. Our baby was killed — must her name and innocence be desecrated, as well?

It would be easy, so easy, to hate. To seek revenge, find my own rifle, and kill three or four soldiers, in my daughter’s name. That’s the way Israelis and Palestinians have run things for a long time. Every dead child — and everyone is someone’s child — is another reason to keep killing.

I know. I used to be part of the cycle. I once spent seven years in an Israeli jail for helping to plan an armed attack against Israeli soldiers. At the time, I was disappointed that none of the soldiers was hurt.

But as I served out my sentence, I talked with many of my guards. I learned about the Jewish people’s history. I learned about the Holocaust.

And eventually I came to understand: On both sides, we have been made instruments of war. On both sides, there is pain, and grieving, and endless loss.

And the only way to make it stop is to stop it ourselves.

Many people came to support and comfort us as Abir lay dying, her small face chalk white, her eyes forever closed. Among those who never left my side were a number of men I have recently come to love as brothers, men who know my past, and who share it. Men who, like me, were trained to hate and to kill, but who now also believe that we must find a way to live with our former enemies.

Israeli men. Every one of them, a former combat soldier.

These men and I are members of Combatants for Peace. Each of us, 300 Palestinians and Israelis, was once on the front lines of the conflict. We shot, bombed, tortured and killed. We believed it was the only way to serve our people.

Now we know this not to be true. We know that to serve our people, we must fight not each other but the hatred between us. We must find a way to share this land each people holds in the depths of its soul, to build two states side by side. Only then will the mourning end.

I will not rest until the soldier responsible for my daughter’s death is put on trial, and made to face what he has done. I will see to it that the world does not forget my daughter, my lovely Abir.

But I will not seek vengeance. No, I will continue the work I have undertaken with my Israeli brothers. I will fight with all I have within me to see that Abir’s name, Abir’s blood, becomes the bridge that finally closes the gap between us, the bridge that allows Israelis and Palestinians to finally, Inshallah, live in peace.

If I could tell my daughter anything, I would make her that promise. And I would tell her that I love her very, very much.

Bassam Aramin lives in Anata, just outside of Jerusalem.

I Weep For Them All

Damned be the rich!

Damned be the system!

Damned be the world!

Over whom shall we weep first?

Over the burned ones?

Over those beyond recognition?

Over those who have been crippled?

Or driven senseless?

Or smashed?

I weep for them all.

Now let us light the holy candles

And mark the sorrow.

This is our funeral,

These our graves,

Our children,

The beautiful, beautiful flowers destroyed,

Our lovely ones burned,

Their ashes buried under a mountain of caskets.

(The above is part of a poem "The Triangle Fire" written by Morris Rosenfeld in the Jewish Daily Forward after the New York City Factory fire in 1911. And below is what I feel about the attack on Gaza Strip)

The way the media covered the Mumbai terror attacks was awesome; live coverage 24/7. But this was so, because it was an untoward incident, which happens once in a while, not so often.

On the other hand, the conflict in Palestine, and the terrorism that they are undergoing is hardly if ever highlighted and brought into focus by the main stream media. This terrorism that has been going on since May 1949, needs to be stopped; people need to be sensitized toward it.

I fail to understand how a people whose ancestors have gone through the world's worst Holocaust can themselves inflict so much misery and pain on others? Is it because "violence breeds violence"?

Isn't it time to stop, learn from the past, and step toward a brighter future? A future where someone's land is not snatched away, a future where someone's house is not shelled, a future where you do not destroy someone's farms, someone's livelihoods. A place where children jump and run freely, a place where one is free to go about one's daily chores without fear, a place filled with hope and trust.

It pains me to hear about the "Iron Wall", it pains me to see the difference between the map of Palestine in 1947 and the map of Palestine today, it pains me to see so many people living as refugees, it pains me to see death and destruction everywhere.

-- Behrooz K Y Avari

There Was No One Left To Speak Up For Me

Who Was Martin Niemoller?


First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

A few weeks ago, someone on alt.activism asked who said these words and what had happened to him. First, the version above is taken from an article on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of WW II that appeared in TIME Magazine, Aug 28, 1989. There are many versions of this poem floating around… by no means is this the authorative one. Similarly, the author of the poem is often not mentioned. On one level, that is not important. Indeed, Martin Niemoller was an outspoken advocate for accepting the burden of collective guilt for WW II as a means of atonement for the suffering that the German nation (through the Nazis) had caused before and during WW II.

On the other hand, I think that something is missed if one doesn’t understand that the words come from a man who also declared that he “would rather burn his church to the ground, than to preach the Nazi trinity of ‘race, blood, and soil.’”

Niemoller was tainted. He had been a U-boat captain in WW I prior to becoming a pastor. And he supported Hitler prior to his taking power. Indeed, initially the Nazi press held him up as a model… for his service in WW I. [Newsweek, July 10, 1937, pg 32]

But Niemoller broke very early with the Nazis. In 1933, he organized the Pastor’s Emergency League to protect Lutheran pastors from the police. In 1934, he was one of the leading organizers at the Barmen Synod, which produced the theological basis for the Confessing Church, which despite its persecution became an enduring symbol of German resistance to Hitler.

From 1933 to 1937, Niemoller consistantly trashed everything the Nazis stood for. At one point he declared that it was impossible to “point to the German [Luther] without pointing to the Jew [Christ] to which he pointed to.” [from Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict]

He rejected the Nazi distortion of “Positive Christianity” (postulating the ‘special virtue’ of the German people), as opposed to “Negative Chistianity” which held that all people regardless of race were guilty of sin and in need of repentance. An excerpt from a sermon of his printed in TIME Magazine [Feb 21, 1938, pg 25-27]:

“I cannot help saying quite harshly and bluntly that the Jewish people came to grief and disgrace because of its own ‘Positive Christianity!’ It [the Jewish people] bears a curse throughout the history of the world because it was ready to approve of its Messiah just as long and as far as it thought it could gain some advantage for its own plans and its own aims for Him, His words and His deeds. It bears a curse, because it rejected Him and resisted Him to the death when it became clear that Jesus of Nazareth would not cease calling [the Jews] to repentance and faith, despite their insistence that they were free, strong and proud men and belonged to a pure-blooded, race-concious nation!

“‘Positive Christianity,’ which the Jewish people wanted, clashed with ‘Negative Christianity’ as Jesus himself represented it!… Friends, can we risk going with our nation without forgiveness of sins, without that so-called ‘Negative Christianity’ which, when all is said and done, clings in repentence and faith to Jesus as the Savior of sinners? I cannot and you cannot and our nation cannot! ‘Come let us return to the Lord!’”

And in a celebrated manifesto, produced and smuggled out of the country in classic Charter-77 style, and reprinted in the foreign press just prior to the 1936 Olympics, he along with 9 other pastors wrote to Hitler:

“Our people are trying to break the bond set by God. That is human conceit rising against God. In this connection we must warn the Führer, that the adoration frequently bestowed on him is only due to God. Some years ago the Führer objected to having his picture placed on Protestant altars. Today his thoughts are used as a basis not only for political decisions but also for morality and law. He himself is surrounded with the dignity of a priest and even of an intermediary between God and man… We ask that liberty be given to our people to go their way in the future under the sign of the Cross of Christ, in order that our grandsons may not curse their elders on the ground that their elders left them a state on earth that closed to them the Kingdom of God.” [from TIME Magazine July 27, 1936]

Rev. Martin Niemoller was protected until 1937 by both the foreign press and influential friends in the up-scale Berlin suburb where he preached. Eventually, he was arrested for treason. Perhaps due to foreign pressure, he was found guilty, but initially given only a suspended sentence. He was however then almost immediately re-arrested on Hitler’s direct orders. From then on until the end of WW II, he was held at the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Near the end of the war, he narrowly escaped execution. [from Charles Colson’s Kingdoms in Conflict]

After the war, Niemoller emerged from prison to preach the words that began this post, that all of us know… He was instrumental in producing the “Stuttgart Confession of Guilt”, in which the German Protestant churches formally accepted guilt for their complicity in allowing the suffering which Hitler’s reign caused to occur. In 1961, he was elected as one of the six presidents of the World Council of Churches, the ecumenical body of the Protestant faiths.

Niemoller emerged also as an adamant pacifist and advocate of reconciliation. He actively sought out contacts in Eastern Europe, and traveled to Moscow in 1952 and North Vietnam in 1967. He received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967, and the West German Grand Cross of Merit in 1971. Martin Niemoller died in Wiesbaden, West Germany on Mar 6, 1984, at the age of 92. [from the Encyclopedia Britannica].

Is Patriotic Journalism different from Real Journalism?

Hamid Mir, Editor of Islamabad based Geo TV Channel of Pakistan who had confirmed the fact that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured in Mumbai during the terrorists attacks on November 26, was indeed from Pakistan, was asked a question by the students of journalism in Lahore to explain the difference between patriotic journalism and real journalism?

This is one question that is being raised in India as well following the manner in which reporting of Mumbai mayhem was handled by the Indian Media.

India Media allegedly went overboard in reporting the happenings in Mumbai live and round the clock for three days continuously. To keep the viewers glued to the screens the reporting had to have a good mix of emotion. The terrorists and their country - Pakistan-had to be bashed.

After the coverage was almost over, question was asked as to whether live reporting helped the terrorists to achieve their objectives? Did the security forces suffer because of the live telecast?

To many it seemed that whatever way one called it, "patriotic journalism" or "real journalism", the coverage during the crucial three days helped the terrorists. Did plain and simple journalism become a casualty?

One has to accept that the proliferation of Media globally has led to severe cut throat competition, particularly among the 24 hour TV News Channels. Everyone wants to be first to break the news. And to stay first they need to remain live

The events in Mumbai put a severe strain on the news channels. Each channel had to deploy all its reporters irrespective of the fact whether they were trained for such assignments. The seniors in the newsrooms had to depend on young reporters and cameramen. For many of them the Mumbai mayhem was too overwhelming.

My mind went back to the manner in which the American Channels had reported 9/11 events and the British channels the 7/7 attacks in London. I was in London when the events 7/7 attacks occurred. Both in the United States and London, the TV Channels reported the events live, but they were restrained. In London no one came in the way of the police and waited for a proper briefing by the Metropolitan Police Chief in the late afternoon after he had gathered the facts.

In Mumbai it seemed every one was on his own. You could get any person on the street to comment and push a mike in the face of any policeman or the nearest officer. Media was not to blame for all this. The police had failed to place a forensic cordon and even when it was put, the reason given out was that the authorities wanted to keep the Media away from the harm's way!

The spokesman of the Government, both Central and State, were nowhere is the scene to guide the media during the events in Mumbai. Where was the Spokesman of the Mumbai Police? The Commanders of the Naval commandoes, the area commander of the Army, told their side of the story as the operations were continuing. The head of the National Security Guard briefed the press when the whole operations were over. . Over the years these press departments of the state government have learnt to work more for their Ministers than the government of the state. No wonder they were absent and not liasing with the Media at all.

It was evident to one and all in the very first hour of Mumbai terror attack that it was going to be a long haul. Why did the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India fail to get there first thing in the morning to help the media to report events that had impact worldwide? What was the Defence Press Relations doing both in Mumbai and Delhi when they were aware that army and Navy had moved into the area?

We saw the " parachute journalists" arrive in Mumbai from all over the world overnight to cover the events. Very rightly so; after all many nationalities were targets of the terrorist commandos. One expected some body from the Foreign Office to be present in Mumbai. One heard in dismay the BBC reporting the mayhem by terrorists being called the "militant attack" on Mumbai!

The Chief Minister and his Home Minister of Maharashtra sat in their offices to pronounce that "such incidents do happen in big cities".

Thus, in the absence of any authoritative briefing what we had from Mumbai was neither "patriotic journalism" nor "real journalism", but a lot of breast beating by emotionally charged individuals and reporters.

Pakistan is being monitored by world powers, and the information gathered has indicated the involvement of Pakistani forces - what President Zardari called 'non-state actors' in the Mumbai mayhem. The military - jehadi nexus in Pakistan has been in existence for nearly two decades now. The Mumbai attacks took over a year for planning and execution, which was not in the knowledge of the civilian government there. A repetition of Kargil.

Truth about who carried out the terrorist attacks in Mumbai would not have been known had it not been for the capture of Ajmal Amir Kasab. Pakistan's military -jehadi nexus is a threat not just to nascent civilian rule in Pakistan but to the whole world.

The question of "patriotic journalism" has been raised in Pakistan because the army and jehadi elements in that country want to equate the attack on Mumbai as a war like issue between India and Pakistan. . Therefore Pakistani patriots must stand against India and the media toe the national line in defence of the country.

If any journalist attempts to bring out the truth as was done by Hamid Mir, then according to the protagonists of "patriotic journalism" in Pakistan he should be ready for 'retribution' - and treated as a traitor in a nation at war

There is no place for "real journalism" in Pakistan as propounded by Hamid Mir. The real rulers in Pakistan forget that journalism simply requires honest presentation of the facts as known to a reporter or as captured by a cameraman.

Here in India we need to watch that the very high reputation of Indian journalism is not sullied by enthusiastic youngsters or high-pitched emotional commentators. Get your facts and present them in a sober manner so that the people of India are helped in understanding an issue and making up their mind.

As a fellow commentator wrote recently whether India and Pakistan go to war or not, the Media of the two countries are perhaps already at war. Is this the situation that the Media of the two countries should be in? It is time that serious practitioners of the profession move in and take charge. (ANI)

(The author of this article is Chairman of ANI, was active field journalist, member of the Central Press Accreditation Committee for several years, among the founders of National Union of Journalists and President of the TV Programme Producers Guild of India) By Prem Prakash(ANI)

A German’s point of view on Islamic Fanaticism

Dr. Emanuel Tanay

(A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.)


'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march.
It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide.
It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter people throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent.
It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor- kill.
It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque.
It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.

The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our posers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:
Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans,Indians, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

-- Dr. Emanuel Tanay, psychiatrist

Lessons learned about lead -- Professor Jeffrey Weidenhamer

Professor Weidenhamer, Ashland University, OH

I was privileged to be in Professor Weidenhamer's "Lead & Civilization" class. We did a number of tests on various products from the United States, Mexico, India & China, and found almost 98% of them conatined more than the permissible (600 ppm) amount of lead in them. Moreover, we learnt how over the ages pollution has kept rising, and how scientists are proving it by testing ice which has been dug from deep within ice-sheets in Antartica (amazing isn't it?). Also, we got to know how lead-based paints (banned in 1970's in the US) are still causing various illnesses in people who continue to inhabit old houses. (Behrooz K Y Avari)

Read the article (taken from a blog) below to know more about Professor Weidenhamer's crusade and how the CPSC functions --


When the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently recalled a lead-laden key-chain sold at Wal-Mart for three years, Ashland University Professor Jeffrey Weidenhamer was pleased but puzzled. Pleased that the CPSC had acted to remove the key chain from the market but puzzled that it had taken them so long to do so. After all, Weidenhamer had found high lead levels in a similar key chain when he tested it in 2006 and reported his results to the CPSC that December. What prompted the April recall was not Weidenhamer's testing but reports that a nine-month-old child who had mouthed one had elevated levels of lead in her blood.

"You shouldn't have to wait a year or 16 months to recall a product," Weidenhamer told a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Until recently, Weidenhamer’s research specialty had been chemical compounds produced by plants. Now he is more widely known for the research that he and his students at the Ohio college have done on lead in children’s toys. His findings may have resulted in at least 11 recalls by the Consumer Product Safety Commission involving more than 1.4 million individual items. That’s an impressive track record—although Weidenhamer is hesitant about touting it. As he wrote in Ashland's alumni magazine, “It is unfortunate that someone can become well known for drawing attention to lead contamination issues. It certainly would be far better for the kids if there were no story at all about lead contamination in these products.”

Weidenhamer’s fame all started with a chemistry class, Lead and Civilization, that he taught for non-majors and that focused on the chemistry and toxicity of lead. Then in the spring semester of 2006, he learned that a four-year-old Minnesota boy had died of lead poisoning after swallowing a lead-laden charm given away with a pair of shoes by Reebok International. (Earlier this year, Reebok agreed to pay a record $1 million penalty for distributing the charm bracelet).

Knowing that the analysis of metal samples for lead was not too involved, Weidenhamer thought his class would be able to conduct tests in the lab to see if similar items were on store shelves in his Ohio city. “I was not prepared for what my students found,” he said. “In the first set of 20 inexpensive jewelry items, 14 were heavily leaded, in two cases as high as 100 percent lead by weight.” CPSC guidelines for lead in children’s jewelry items sets a maximum level of 0.06 percent lead by weight.

Weidenhamer and his students have done repeated testing since the spring of 2006, including some tests of Halloween toys completed at the request of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. Weidenhamer says he tested more than 50 different items and found lead contamination in six of them, including plastic teeth. That, he says “seemed like the worst since they were clearly designed to go into a child’s mouth.” (The teeth were recalled by the CPSC.)

This spring, Weidenhamer found lead in several Easter products, two of which were recalled by the CPSC the Friday before Easter. “It is a surprise that after all the publicity about toy recalls of last year ... you can still find items on the shelves with lead in them.” He said he will continue to test products. “Hopefully by Halloween this year, we won’t be finding lead in paint in these products,” he said. “It shouldn’t be remotely possible for me or anyone to go out to American stores and pull products from shelves, test them and find levels of lead in them.”

Let's hope he's right but as long as it is possible, we are thankful for Weidenhamer’s efforts. And for that, he becomes one of our safety crusaders.

CPSC recalls related to complaints filed by Weidenhamer

• 86,400 children's "Ultra Gear" bracelets (DM Merchandising) Feb. 7, 2007
• 115,000 "Claudia Jublot" children's rings (Big Lots) Feb. 23, 2007
• 396,000 metal key chains (Dollar General) April 3, 2007
• 63,000 Frankenstein tumblers (Dollar General) Oct. 4, 2007
• 55,000 Halloween skull pails (Albert’s) Oct. 17, 2007
• 142,000 purple Halloween pails with witch decorations (Family Dollar Store) Oct. 25, 2007
• 43,000 “Ugly teeth” party favors (Amscan Inc.) Oct. 31, 2007
• 10,000 Halloween-themed baskets (Hobby Lobby) Nov. 16, 2007
• 205,000 pieces assorted Rachel Rose jewelry (Family Dollar Store) Nov. 21, 2007
• 13,000 camouflage eggs and spinning egg top toys (Hobby Lobby) Mar. 21, 2008
• 310,000 seasonal writing pads (Michaels Stores)

Babylon's history swept away in US army sandbags

(Ishtar Gate)

Fragments of bricks, engraved with cuneiform characters thousands of years old, lie mixed with the rubble and sandbags left by the US military on the ancient site of Babylon in Iraq.

In this place, one of the cradles of civilisation, US troops in 2003-2004 built embankments, dug ditches and spread gravel to hold the fuel reservoirs needed to supply the heliport of Camp Alpha.

Today, archaeologists say a year of terracing work and 18 months of military presence, with tanks and helicopters, have caused irreparable damage. The Americans remained five months in Babylon and then handed over to the Poles who pulled out 16 months later.


Hands on hips, and wearing a seemingly permanent air of dismay, Maithem Hamza, director of the -- totally empty -- museum on the site, points to the soil: "Look at this land, it is packed with remnants. They filled their bags with them."

He pushes with his foot a fragment of raw brick, with cuneiform inscriptions plainly visible. To one side of it, on soil filthy with fuel oil, lies the broken door of a Hummer, the US army's light vehicle.

Undoubtedly the palace built on the site and on an artificial hill in 1993 by then-president Saddam Hussein drew the US military to Babylon during its invasion in March 2003.

The palace, like elsewhere in Iraq, was requisitioned as a military headquarters.

On one wall, near the door of the monumental entrance, a black stencil proclaims: "Building No.1". Further on, adorning a warehouse wall, graffiti reads: "Miss you, Smoothy!."

From April 2003 to June 2004, huge gravelled avenues were gouged out around the ruins of the palaces of Nebuchadnezzer in order to set up prefabricated buildings which became home to up to 2,000 troops.

The heliport is only some 300 metres (yards) from the remains of the north palace, and according to Maithem Hamza, vibration from the aircraft caused the base of the temple of Ninmah -- rebuilt by Saddam in the 1980s -- to collapse.

In a report published in 2005, experts from the British Museum confirmed that damage visible on nine of the dragon casts on the temple's Door of Ishtar, and those on the cobbles of the processional way, were due to vibration caused by the passage of heavy machinery.

"That which is broken is broken... We will try to repair what we can," said Maryam Omran Mussa, director of the site, speaking in her office near the entrance to the site which has been closed to the public since 2003.

"Many of the relics were buried near the surface. Vibration from tanks and lorries caused irreversible damage, that's for real... From the start, we told the Americans (their actions) were a mistake. I wrote letters...

"They finally understood, and left, but it took time."

British Museum curator John Curtis was one of the first to sound the alarm over the ancient site.

"They understood when photographs started to be published on the World Wide Web, particularly aerial photographs showing the extent of the military camp there," he said.

"It's only because of that that the military authorities of the coalition started to be very nervous and decided that they had to leave."

In the face of the protests, terracing and building work was interrupted in June 2004, six months before the troops left.

In its defence, the US military argued that if its presence there certainly had caused damage, it had also protected the site from looters who were running riot during the first weeks of the occupation.

Questioned in 2006 in a programme on the BBC, Marine Colonel John Coleman accepted the principle of an apology to the director of the Iraqi antiquities department.

"If it makes him feel good, I can certainly give him one," he said.

But he added: "Is there a price for the presence? Sure. I'll just say that the price had the presence not been there would have been far greater."

For Curtis, however, the price of the military presence was extremely high.

"A lot of the damage done is permanent. For example digging these long trenches: 170 metres long and more than two metres deep, this is not reversible, this is permanent damage that will last forever."

Another problem arrived in the earth brought from outside the site to fill sandbags. "It contaminates the record of Babylon for the next generations of archeologists," said Curtis.

"Moving the gravel can be done, but it's a very long and very expensive job. And in the process, more damage would be done."

Despite the damage to such an historic site, Curtis accepted that the US military believed that "building a base there wouldn't actually cause any damage."

He commented: "I don't think it's malicious: it comes from ignorance and stupidity, definitely."

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