Around 8pmest every night
Historic day for information in the I/P negotiations
The Palestine Papers
Al Jazeera has obtained more than 1,600 internal documents from a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Glossary: We've compiled a list of the most frequently-used terms from The Palestine Papers.
The Guardian's Palestine Papers coverage
The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel's annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.
A cache of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records covering more than a decade of negotiations with Israel and the US has been obtained by al-Jazeera TV and shared exclusively with the Guardian. The papers provide an extraordinary and vivid insight into the disintegration of the 20-year peace process, which is now regarded as all but dead.
The documents – many of which will be published by the Guardian over the coming days – also reveal:
• The scale of confidential concessions offered by Palestinian negotiators, including on the highly sensitive issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
• How Israeli leaders privately asked for some Arab citizens to be transferred to a new Palestinian state.
• The intimate level of covert co-operation between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian Authority.
• The central role of British intelligence in drawing up a secret plan to crush Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
• How Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders were privately tipped off about Israel's 2008-9 war in Gaza.
As well as the annexation of all East Jerusalem settlements except Har Homa, the Palestine papers show PLO leaders privately suggested swapping part of the flashpoint East Jerusalem Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah for land elsewhere.
Most controversially, they also proposed a joint committee to take over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City – the neuralgic issue that helped sink the Camp David talks in 2000 after Yasser Arafat refused to concede sovereignty around the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques.
VIDEO: Guardian associate editor Seumas Milne and Middle East editor, Ian Black, discuss the leak of secret notes from years of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians
So much information here that we will be talking about all of it for weeks and months. Wow.
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Michael Hastings, who blew whistle on Gen. McChrsytal for Rolling Stone, on Bill Maher Friday:
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US asked Australia to stop Dutch pulling out of Afghanistan
"According to Quinn, Karzai had blamed POTUS (the president of the United States) for Afghanistan's current problems in a rambling, incoherent response," Mr Mussomeli wrote.
"Quinn did not elaborate, but noted that the government of Australia was unhappy about comments Karzai made in his November 9 NPR (National Public Radio) interview with Margaret Warner, in which Karzai said the West is not in Afghanistan for the sake of Afghanistan, but to fight the war on terror."
Mr Quinn also complained that attitudes about the state of Afghanistan "have swung from too optimistic to too pessimistic", and argued that the situation in Oruzgan province, where the Dutch and Australian troops were stationed, had improved.
The cable, along with other dispatches released by WikiLeaks, lays bare the depth of Washington's anxiety ahead of the expected Dutch withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.
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Amnesty Internation sends a letter to Robert Gates about Bradley Manning's treatment and Ralph Lopez did a diary about it. Go read it!
The harsh conditions imposed on PFC Manning also undermine the principle of the presumption of innocence, which should be taken into account in the treatment of any person under arrest or awaiting trial. We are concerned that the effects of isolation and prolonged cellular confinement – which evidence suggests can cause psychological impairment, including depression, anxiety and loss of concentration – may, further, undermine his ability to assist in his defence and thus his right to a fair trial.
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/...
n past visits, Hamsher and House have had no problem driving onto the base to visit Manning. This is the first time House has been denied access to Manning. House and Hamsher’s detainment comes on the heels of Amnesty International calling for an investigation into the conditions of Manning’s confinement. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has also announced that the UN will be starting an investigation and Manning’s attorney has filed an article 138 complaint citing inhumane and overly harsh conditions on part of the Brig. Now House, Manning’s primary visitor outside of his attorney, who has provided public testimony about Manning’s deteriorating conditions as a result to his solitary confinement, has effectively been denied access to Manning.
Basic Links
Wikileaks cable page
Unofficial Wikileaks information site
Greg Mitchell's amazing Wikileaks blog at The Nation
Aftenposten english Wikileaks torrent - I can't seem to find an updated page for this. Please let me know if you can.
Glenn Greenwald
Wikirebels
@Youtube
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
@Swedish TV
In full
Al Jazeera English discussion
It's about 22mins long and well worth it. Again, here is the exchange that I think is VERY important at about the 10min mark:
When the host asks Baruch Weiss, a former U.S. Government lawyer,
if leaking classified information is a crime in the United States, he says:
"I'm going to say it twice because noone will believe me the first time, but the answer is usually no. No.
There is no statute on the books in the United States that says 'Thou shalt not leak classified information.' There is no statute of that sort. Congress tried to pass one during the Clinton administration and Clinton Vetoed it and for a very good reason. And the good reason is, that in the United States there is a huge over-classification problem. There is a huge amount of material that should not be classified that is."
Julian Assange: A Wanted Man
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Part 3
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Audio of Greenwald interviewing Lamo - Transcript also at Informationthread 20
Robert Meeropol, the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg—the only U.S. citizens to be executed under the Espionage Act, in what’s been described as the most controversial death sentence in U.S. history. This week, Meeropol released a widely read statement in support of WikiLeaks called, "My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act-Here's Why We Must Fight to Protect Julian Assange."
Part 1
Transcript and Part 2 at Informationthread 22
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On Dec 31, Democracy Now! dedicated the full hour today to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. You can find the full transcript at the Democracy Now! link and the Daniel Ellsberg transcript at Informationthread 23
Part 1
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Part 4
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For more on Bradley Manning
Informationthread 11
Informationthread 13
Informationthread 15
Informationthread 28
For more info on DOJ/Twittergate :
Informationthread 37
Informationthread 36
Informationthread 35
Informationthread 34
Informationthread 33
Informationthread 32
Informationthread 31
Democracy Now! Interviews Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Part 1
Part 2
Transcript at Informationthread 36
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The Agenda tv show interviews Birgitta Jonsdottir
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Democracy Now! Dr. Atul Gawande: Solitary Confinement is Torture Transcript at Informationthread 28