CT Police Backtrack Saying Adam Lanza Was NOT in Altercation at School Day Before Mass Shooting

12/17/2012

Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance denies reports that there was any altercation between the gunman Adam Lanza and four teachers at Sandy Hook elementary school the day before the mass shooting took place.

4 Afghan Boys Shot Dead by British Forces While Drinking Tea

12/04/2012

TheGuardian:

The defence secretary, Philip Hammond, has been asked to launch an urgent inquiry into claims that British forces led a counter-insurgency operation in Afghanistan during which a 12-year-old boy and three teenagers were shot dead while they were drinking tea.

Lawyers acting for the brother of two of the victims have written to Hammond describing an incident on 18 October in the village of Loi Bagh in Nad Ali, Helmand province, where British forces have been based since 2006.

According to statements given to the lawyers by other family members and witnesses, the operation involved Afghan and UK forces, but it was British soldiers – possibly special forces – who were said to have been in the lead.

“We submit that all of the victims were under the control and authority of the UK at the times of the deaths and ill-treatment,” states the letter to Hammond.

“The four boys killed all appear to have been deliberately targeted at close range by British forces. All were killed in a residential area over which UK forces clearly had the requisite degree of control and authority.”

The four victims are named as Fazel Mohammed, 18, Naik Mohammed, 16, Mohammed Tayeb, 14 and Ahmed Shah, 12.

Britain contributes soldiers to Nato’s International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf), which has already confirmed that an operation took place in the village on that date.

The incident has been reported in the Afghan media. Major Adam Wojack, a spokesman for Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, confirmed the “joint Afghan-coalition forces” operation in Nad Ali on 18 October. He said the result was the “killing of four Taliban enemies in action”. That claim is rejected by relatives of the victims.

Military sources also said it was unusual for UK forces to take the lead in operations of this kind because the Afghans are supposed to be in control as part of the transition process. The MoD said it would give the claims “full consideration before responding”.

According to a statement sent to Hammond on Tuesday by Tessa Gregory, lawyer for Noor Mohammad Noorzai, brother of two of the dead youths, the boys were “shot and killed at close range” in a family guesthouse. Gregory, of the law firm Public Interest Lawyers, obtained written sworn statements from witnesses in a visit to Afghanistan last month. They allege that British soldiers, who were engaged in a joint operation with Afghan forces, hooded some of those arrested despite a ban on the practice.

“The soldiers walked through the village calling at various houses asking to be told where the claimant’s brother Fazel Mohammed lived”, says Gregory’s statement. “It is alleged that the soldiers entered the house of a neighbour dragged him from his bed, hooded him and his son and beat them until under questioning they showed the soldiers the house of Fazel which was across the street.”

According to the document sent to Hammond, the families and neighbours “reject outright any suggestion that any of the four teenagers killed were in any way connected to the insurgency. All four were innocent teenagers who posed no threat whatsoever to Afghan or British forces”.

Gregory told the Guardian: “On 18 October 2012, during a joint British-Afghan security operation, four innocent Afghan teenagers were shot whilst drinking tea in their family’s mud home in Helmand province. Our client, the elder brother of two of the teenage victims, wants to know why this happened. As far as we are aware no investigation into these tragic deaths has taken place. We hope that in light of our urgent representations the Ministry of Defence will act swiftly to ensure that an effective and independent investigation is carried out without any further delay.”

In her statement to Hammond, Gregory says: “After the soldiers left, the claimant’s family and some neighbours entered the “guesthouse” where they found the bodies of the four teenagers lying in a line with their heads towards the doorway”.

The statement adds: “It was clear that the bodies had been dragged into that position and all had been shot in the head and neck region as they sat on the floor of the guesthouse leaning against the wall drinking tea..”

Gregory says the British soldiers involved in the operation are bound by the European Convention of Human Rights which enshrines the right to life and outlaws inhumane treatment. Unless the MoD could show it has carried out a full investigation, lawyers representing the victims’ families will ask the high court to order one.

An MoD spokesman said: “The Ministry of Defence received details of these allegations on Tuesday in a letter from a UK firm of solicitors on behalf of an Afghan national and will give them full consideration before responding. The ‘letter before action’ is the first stage of seeking a judicial review and requires the MoD to reply within 14 days, providing a reasonable opportunity to consider the claim and whether there is a case to answer.”

The MoD said protection of the Afghan civilian population is at the core of Isaf’s military strategy in Afghanistan and, that unlike the insurgency they are supporting the Afghan people to defeat, Isaf and UK forces place a high priority on protecting civilians during combat.

04/08/2011 Another Bloody Friday In Syria

WLCentral:

Amnesty is now putting the death toll in Syria over the last three weeks at 171, with the majority killed by security forces firing live ammunition at protesters. This list detailing all people people imprisoned, missing and killed since the protests began, has now reached 770. Amnesty confirmed another eight people killed today, six from Dara’a and two in Homs, but they say the confirmations from today could rise significantly. A doctor in Dara’a told CNN that 22 unarmed civilians were shot dead in just Dara’a today. The Syrian government said it was nineteen of the security force. From AllVoices, Amar Qurabi, president of the Syrian NGO National Human Rights Organization, reported a total of 22 people dead in three cities. “We have a list of names of 17 protesters killed in Deraa (south) and we have been informed of the death of two protesters in Homs and three in Harasta.” Reuters also puts the death toll in Dara’a at 17, from a “hospital source and activist.” NewsTsar has graphic videos from a mosque in Dara’a.

President Bashar al-Assad signed a decree yesterday to finally (after a fifty year wait) give Syrian citizenship to tens of thousands of Kurds in Syria. There was still a huge protest today in the Kurdish city of Amouda, which does not seem appeased. There is no indication that Assad plans to stop or curb the violence directed at the protesters and open a real dialogue or implement the changes wanted by the protesters, particularly the scaling back and reform of the security and intelligence forces run by his brother Maher and brother in law Assef Shawket. Syrian protesters have vowed to come out and protest every Friday until the government meets their demands for meaningful change.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF SYRIA REVOLUTION

March to End the Egyptian Blockade of Gaza – March 4th, 2011

The Plan: A march to the Rafah Crossing. The starting point is tentatively set to begin from a tea house approximately a kilometer distance from the gate.

The Strategy: To use the force of public opinion to persuade new leadership in Egypt that it’s time for change.

The Objective: To free the people of Gaza and end Egypt’s support for Israel’s collective punishment.

Let us be clear, the power of the peo­ple is para­mount and we can achieve absolutely any­thing we set our minds to. For nearly four years now we as peo­ple have allowed fear, along with denial of our col­lec­tive power, to allow a bar­baric and ille­gal col­lec­tive pun­ish­ment block­ade of Gaza to endure. Make no mis­take, we could have ended this block­ade long ago, and if it were up to the pow­ers that be, the peo­ple of Pales­tine would live impris­oned and vio­lated till the end of time.

At this point it is hardly debat­able, Barack Obama dis­gust­ingly vetoed the Secu­rity Coun­cil res­o­lu­tion to con­demn Israeli set­tle­ments, the US gov­ern­ment is noth­ing more than a quis­ling agency of Israeli Apartheid; their motives are plain to see. Right now over $1 bil­lion US dol­lars con­tinue to go largely to the Egypt­ian Mil­i­tary, and we know it was lower rank­ing com­man­ders who refused to carry our Mubarak’s orders to slaugh­ter pro­test­ers in Tahrir Square that spared a mas­sacre. Thus we can­not ignore the fact that the expec­ta­tion of America’s bribe money is to main­tain effec­tive con­trol over Egypt and a con­tin­u­a­tion of the Israeli/Egyptian block­ade. It is a mat­ter of the peo­ple vs. cor­rupt indi­vid­u­als both inside and out­side of Egypt who remain com­mit­ted to cor­rupt­ing the will of the people.

And here we find our­selves at a time in which we must not fail to seize the moment. Within days of this march being launched the Egypt­ian gov­ern­ment announced Rafah Cross­ing would be open per­ma­nently. There is no coin­ci­dence in this. And so the organ­is­ers of this march seek to effect a cel­e­bra­tion as opposed to a con­fronta­tion. Every­one of sound mind sim­ply wants to see Rafah Cross­ing open, so that not only peo­ple, but build­ing mate­ri­als and vital trade can be estab­lished. As long as the peo­ple main­tain gen­tle but firm pres­sure, the lib­er­a­tion of the peo­ple of Gaza will result.

So March 4th will see the peo­ple march­ing to Rafah Cross­ing on both the Egypt­ian and Gazan side. Pales­tini­ans and Egyp­tians and inter­na­tion­als will express the will of the peo­ple from around the globe who have felt the pain and the shame of the block­ade. We will camp and march as decided by the lead­ers of this march on the ground in Egypt. Noth­ing will be done unless it is sanc­tioned by them.

http://Tahrir4Gaza.net/

WikiLeaks cable showing the disruption and lack of co-operation from Israel regarding the supply of goods from Egypt.

2 Million Egyptians showing their support for the Palestinian people, chanting “Free Palestine!” and “We go to Jerusalem! Matyrs in the millions!”

In an interview with Press TV, international activist and former US marine Ken O’Keefe compares the US and EU imperialism with Gaddafi’s power hold over the Libyan nation, and how they are all one in the same forms of domination and suppression of the people.

UPDATE:

Mubarak may have stepped down, but until the Mubarak era Egyptian blockade of Gaza is shattered, the Egyptian revolution is incomplete. We must end this Zionist/American imperialist blockade once and for all.

http://Tahrir4Gaza.net/