Monthly Archives: July 2006

Open letter to Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs

Thank you for your response to my phone call to Mr Rudd’s office this morning (27 July 2006).

If you wish to check again with Fleur of Mr Rudd’s electorate office, what I did say was that the shadow minister had spoken about the need for more embassy staff in Beirut but had not focused in those interviews on the terrible human rights abuses happening in Lebanon right now by the Israeli Defence Forces — a repeat of the abuses of the last invasion of Lebanon in 1982, on this occasion on a wider scale.

In a radio interview dated 24 JULY 2006 (11 days after Israel bombed the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon) that you forwarded to me, Mr Rudd said:

“We need to see a ceasefire which involves Hezbollah ceasing its rocket attacks on Israel, the return of Israeli troops that have been captured by Hezbollah and Israel itself ceasing all hostilities.”

Yet Mr Rudd did not seek an immediate ceasefire 11 days into the Israeli bombing causing so may lives to be lost.

What has Mr Rudd said of the return by Israel of the thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians held without trial in Israeli jails?

Mark Regev, Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman, stated on ABC Lateline (26 July 2006) that:

“I can say the following: we do not deliberately target civilian targets, whether they are Lebanese civilians or anyone’s civilians.”

A transparent lie after the ambulance and UN building attacks 2 days ago and the attacks on Lebanese civilians and Palestinians in Gaza over the past 14 days. Has Mr Rudd asked the Israeli government officials if it is official Israeli Defence Force policy to target Lebanese civilians? If not, why not?

Mr Rudd put the following spin on 14 days of massacre of Lebanese civilians by Israeli forces:

“A ceasefire is necessary. A ceasefire which involves Hezbollah ceasing its rocket attacks on Israel. A ceasefire which involves the return of Israeli troops. And on top of that a cessation of hostilities on the part of Israel itself.”

What is Mr Rudd doing himself to get both Ms Rice and Mr Howard to call an immediate ceasefire? Has he threatened ALP withdrawal of bipartisan support for the US alliance? Has he called for the immediate withdrawal of Australian and American troops from Iraq under the treat of withdrawal of support for the US Alliance? Has he called for a withdrawal of ALP support for all US joint defence bases in Australia?

Why continue to support the US Alliance when so many lives have been lost through human rights abuses by the Americans and their ally, Israel, and so many more lives may be lost?

Ian Curr
Camp Hill QLD
27 July 2006

Please click on slide to the right to sign the petition supporting an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and Palestine.
The two articles below show the hypocrisy of the diplomacy of the Australian, British and US governments in the Middle East. While calling for Israeli restraint both governments are directly involved in assisting Israel bombard Lebanon and Gaza by providing training, bombs, and logistical support to the Israeli Defence Forces.
The articles below testify to the complicity of these governments in Israeli war crimes.

Times Online July 27, 2006
US says Israel bomb flights did not break British rules
The United States has denied it contravened British air transport procedures by allowing two cargo aircraft loaded with bunker-busting bombs bound for Israel to stop over in Scotland.
The US Defence Department said Washington had double-checked its records of all flights since the reports emerged and found it has not broken any regulations in Britain or anywhere else.
British defence sources have alleged that the Airbus jets stopped to refuel at Glasgow’s Prestwick airport last weekend during a flight to transport GBU28 laser-guided bombs to Israel.
The matter is now being investigated by Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority.
The controversy comes amid a backdrop of mounting criticism in Britain over Tony Blair’s support for President Bush in refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
British officials are understood to be angry about the stop-overs and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, is reported to have approached Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to speak to her personally about the matter at yesterday’s ministerial conference in Rome.
Mrs Beckett said yesterday she was “not happy” about Washington failing to comply with procedures for such flights. “We have already let the United States know that this is an issue that appears to be seriously at fault, and we will be making a formal protest if it appears that that is what has happened,” she said. “It appears that insofar as there are procedures for handling that kind of hazardous cargo, irrespective of what they are, it does appear that they were not followed.” The Foreign Office has said it is still investigating the matter.
A US Defence Department spokesman, Joe Carpenter, said: “It’s our policy that US military flights and those contracted on our behalf comply with existing bilateral agreements. “There have been no recent deviations from those procedures.”

ABC Online 27 July 2006
US Air Force begins bombing missions in NT The United States Air Force has given the first details of new long range missions that will see it dropping bombs on the Northern Territory in up to six separate exercises a year. The first exercise started on Tuesday, with two stealth aircraft flying non-stop return trips to Guam and releasing two concrete-filled bomb casings at the Delamere range near Katherine. Only one of the B-2 bombers has actually touched down in Australia, the others are being refuelled in the air. US Air Force Colonel Bob Wheeler says the stealth bombers can carry nuclear weapons, but that will not happen during the training exercises. “No. That will never be done. The weapons that we will be using here are the ones that are approved for your ranges,” he said. “And those do not include anything with depl- (sic) uranium or any kind of replicas or regular nuclear weapons. There will be nothing in that area.”

The Israeli spindoctor on the ABC’s Lateline (July 26 2006) lied unconvincingly about the bombing of the UN building and the ambulances in Southern Lebanon.
Here is a brief excerpt of what he said. Note that the Hizballah leader’s threats are canvassed at the end of the interview. This is a very worrying development. If Hizballah uses bigger rockets, the Israeli response could be a greater catastrophe than has already happened.

Tony Jones, Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview with MARK REGEV, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN on the bombing of the UN and ambulances in South Lebanon

TONY JONES: OK. How can you explain the attack on Sunday night reportedly by an Apache helicopter on that ambulance heading for Tyre in a convoy where an Israeli missile went straight through the centre of the Red Cross on the roof of the ambulance?

MARK REGEV: I’m sorry, but I haven’t been briefed on that particular event and so I don’t have a good answer for you.

TONY JONES: It’s on front page of the newspapers here in Australia and it’s received coverage all round the world because I’ve read it on the Internet.

MARK REGEV: I’m just not familiar with that event and I apologise and I can say the following: we do not deliberately target civilian targets, whether they are Lebanese civilians or anyone’s civilians. They are not our enemy. Ultimately, we hope for a day of peace with Lebanon. We are trying to deal with a very formidable military machine – that is the Hezbollah military structure. A machine, as your reporter from Lebanon says, continues to hurl missiles into Israeli civilian cities. A machine whose outposts, every time we take on one of their fortresses, we are losing some of our service people because they are well fortified, they are very well defended. Ultimately, I would say the following: this whole tragedy, this whole crisis, is a result of the fact that Hezbollah has initiated this conflict and that is why it is just so important that we implement UN Security Council resolution 1559 for calls for the disarming of Hezbollah as a military instrument.

TONY JONES: Let’s look at Sheik Hassan Nasrallah threatened today that his attacks would now go, as he put it, beyond Haifa. Do you understand what he means by that?

MARK REGEV: I am afraid so. I mean he is threatening us with missiles to go even deeper into Israel, maybe coming as far south as cities like Natania, getting close to Tel Aviv. We take these threats very seriously. We saw from day one of this crisis they had a formidable military machine, the way they took out our naval vessel with a very sophisticated land-to-sea missile…

For complete interview go to  http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1697956.htm

The Ploughshares group were acquitted of charges of criminal damage without lawful excuse of US military aircraft used in Iraq. The verdict was received at 12.14am 26 July 2006 EST this morning concerning this significant trial in The Four Courts.

However it was just another day for U.S. Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice, passing through Dublin. Dr Rice was on her way to shake hands with the Israeli Prime Minister and to give him the OK to continue the bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza.

Trial Diary.
Since their action on the 3rd February 2003 the five defendants have waited three years for todays verdict, under onerous bail conditions, with two other trials collapsing (Trial 1,Trial 2). In a statement released immediately after the verdict the Pitstop Ploughshares said:

The jury is the conscience of the community chosen randomly from Irish society. The conscience of the community has spoken. The government has no popular mandate in providing the civilian Shannon airport to service the

US war machine in it’s illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
In 1996 in Liverpool the Jury acquittal of the four ‘ploughshares’ women contributed to the end of arms exports to the Suharto dictatorship in

Indonesia and the independence of East Timor.
The decision of this jury should be a message to London, Washington DC and the Dail that Ireland wants no part in waging war on the people of Iraq. Refuelling of US warplanes at Shannon Airport should cease immediately.

Pine Gap Trial?
So what awaits the Pine Gap Four in Alice Springs in October 2006 on their charges of trepass under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952?

Stop Israeli bombing of Lebanon and Gaza!

This slide show contains disturbing images of war.
It was forwarded to me by a friend from an aunt who lives in Lebanon, a nun in the Catholic order of the Sacred Heart.
Her request is simple – for Australians to demand that the Australian government support a call for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
aggressionagainstlebanon.pps