Ship of Women Attack Zionists, Pussy v. Putin

THE ABSURD TIMES

Thanks to Latuff, sorry it took this long to put it up.

A documentary was made in 2014 of the concentration camps and released.  Actually, the U.S. And British war machines were producing it and they abandoned it and it was only lately that it was released.  I only saw this think this morning and reflected on how absolutely low and vile Israel has become when, a few hours later, I reflected again on its current practices and action against the Palestinians.  The temptation to link the two is too overwhelming to resist, so I'll leave that to you.  All we can really say is that Zionism today is a modern form of Nazism.  And lest anyone try the standard pitiful defense of "anti-semitism," present Zionism is in no way in keeping with any of the tenents of the Jewish faith and an overwhelming number of Rabbis concur.

83 billion dollars in military aid has been promised to Israel, by Obama, and they hate him because he is a "Schwartzer," and because he is "anti-semitic," or at least not supportive enough.  Imagine, thinking there is something wrong with the eviction on hundreds of Palestinians from their homes!  What a pussy!

Frankly, the whole topic disgust me to the extent that I can not continue.  I am putting an interview next that is more measured about how Israel "detain" a boat of women, 44 miles out in International waters, to protect the poor beleaguered oppressed Jewish people from these wild Amazons.

First, however, just a mild comment that was too long for twitter: Some academic, a visiting Professor from some eastern European country, a guy older, doesn't get out much, is buried in his books, put on the TV during the debates (he is not used to American Television either) was quoted as calling a colleague and saying "Otto! You haff to zee ziss.   A strange man is schtalking a voman on a schtage in Mizzouri!"

[No, I can't let it go that easy, not now.  The pussy grabber is making a major announcement on TV about how many liars there are and how the women are out to get him, but also we have the Clinton e-mails on Wikileaks.

Has Assange no shame?  Why we hear that Vlad Putin is behind all this and that makes Putin a pussy grabber enabler.  We can't have that.  Well, how do we know that the Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming are behind all this?  Well, because, anyway, the only real argument I've heard for that is the fact that they (probably that bastion of American Democracy, the NSA) found Cryllic letters in the code used and where would you get that kind of lettering?  Hmm? Y'all?  Where, here are a few in the following, using the paragraph just finished:

Имеет Ассанж не стыдно? Почему мы слышим, что Влад Путин стоит за всем этим и что делает Путину киске граббер активатора. Мы не можем этого. Ну, как мы знаем, что русские идут, Русские идут позади все это? Ну, потому что, во всяком случае, единственным реальным аргументом я слышал, что тот факт, что они (вероятно, что оплот американской демократии, АНБ) нашли Cryllic буквы в коде используется и где бы вы получить такую надпись? Хм-м? Y'all? Где, вот некоторые из них в дальнейшем, используя этот пункт только что закончил:

On the other hand, I've been given information that Ukranians are behind it.  See, Ukranians know that alphabet and that missle that hit the Malaysian airplane was made in Russia, after Kruschev, a Ukranian, gave Crimea to Ukraine.  I've been told that everyone knows that there are some great hackers in Odessa and Kiev and other places.  They do services for equipment that they want.  There was also a great deal of evidence concerning proxys and IPA addresses and other such geek speak that I didn't follow, but the case seems pretty solid given the source which of course is classified by me.]

But, after all, we need to get to the real story about the evil women on the boat that attacked Zion:

Und das is alles fur heute!

TOPICS

·                                 Palestine

·                                 Gaza

·                                 Gaza Flotilla

GUESTS

ANN WRIGHT

retired Army colonel and former U.S. diplomat. She was one of the 13 passengers on the Zaytouna-Oliva, the Women's Boat to Gaza attempting to break Israel's nine-year naval blockade of the territory. Wright's recent article is titled "Women's Boat to Gaza Participants See the Israeli Imposed Perpetual Darkness on Gaza." She is also the co-author of the bookDissent: Voices of Conscience.

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A flotilla bound for Gaza carrying food, medicine and other humanitarian aid was intercepted and seized last week by the Israeli Navy. The Women's Boat to Gaza had set sail from the Spanish port city of Barcelona in mid-September in efforts to break the ongoing Israeli blockade. Organizers say the Israeli military seized the boat and detained the 13 human rights activists aboard in international waters about 40 miles away from Gaza's shore. The Israeli military towed the boat to the Israeli port of Ashdod and detained the women for up to four days before deporting them. We speak to passenger Ann Wright, retired Army colonel and former U.S. diplomat. Her recent article is titled "Women's Boat to Gaza Participants See the Israeli Imposed Perpetual Darkness on Gaza." Wright spent 29 years in the military and later served as a high-ranking diplomat in the State Department.

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TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: A flotilla bound for Gaza carrying food, medicine and other humanitarian aid was intercepted and seized last week by the Israeli Navy. The Women's Boat to Gaza had set sail from the Spanish port city of Barcelona in mid-September in an effort to break the ongoing Israeli blockade. Organizers say the Israeli military seized the boat and detained the 13 human rights activists aboard it in international waters about 40 miles away from Gaza's shore. The Israeli military towed the boat to the port of Ashdod and detained the women for up to four days before deporting them.

AMY GOODMAN: We're joined now by one of the participants on the Women's Boat to Gaza, Ann Wright. She is a retired Army colonel, former U.S. diplomat. Her recent article is headlined "Women's Boat to Gaza Participants See the Israeli Imposed Perpetual Darkness on Gaza." Colonel Wright spent 29 years in the military, later served as a high-ranking diplomat in the State Department. In 2001, she helped oversee the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, where she served as deputy chief of mission. In 2003, she resigned her State Department post to protest the war in Iraq.

Ann Wright, welcome back to Democracy Now!

ANN WRIGHT: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Describe this ship of women that set sail and why you did it and what happened.

ANN WRIGHT: Well, the mission of the Women's Boat to Gaza, of course, was to bring international attention to the continuing Israeli blockade, naval and land blockade, of Gaza, this 25-mile-long tiny strip, five miles wide, with 1.9 million people living in it, a brutal blockade which controls all the electricity, the food, the—everything to come into Gaza has to come through Israeli hands now. It used to—Egypt was a part of it, but they've really blocked their southern border. So, our flotilla was to bring international attention to this continuing blockade.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what happened, if you could give us a sense of when the Israeli military confronted the boat?

ANN WRIGHT: Well, it was actually a confrontation 34 miles off the coast of Gaza. The Israelis have kind of learned a different lesson from having—after they've murdered nine people, and subsequently a 10th person died from the 2010 flotilla with the Mavi Marmara, and 50 other people wounded. They knew that this was a boat of women, of unarmed civilian women, trained in nonviolent action, led by a Nobel Peace laureate and two members of Parliament, one from Algeria, one from New Zealand. And over the course of the three legs of this trip, which was 1,715 miles—it was a long trip, let me tell you—almost three weeks of educational activities, though, in Barcelona, in Ajaccio, Corsica, France, and then down in Messina, Sicily, Italy. So, we were doing an educational thing as we were heading toward Gaza.

The Israelis boarded the boat. It was very interesting. There were 30 people on the Zodiac boat that came up next to us. And when they came up, it was—the front part of it, the bow of it, had women sailors on it. Women sailors were the first ones to board our boat.

AMY GOODMAN: These are the Israeli sailors.

ANN WRIGHT: The Israeli sailors, yes. They were not in combat gear. They had baseball caps. They had long-sleeved jerseys on, GoPros. So, the Israeli military has kind of learned a lesson. I wish they would learn the same in their treatment of Palestinians, though, because the treatment of us internationals was very different from what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to talk about the Nobel Peace Prize laureate you mentioned, Mairead Maguire, one of the 13 women on the Gaza flotilla. She released this prerecorded video message in anticipation of being detained at sea.

MAIREAD MAGUIRE: My name is Mairead Maguire. I am the Nobel Peace laureate from Northern Ireland. If you're listening to this, then you will know that myself and all of the women who sailed on the Women's Boat to Gaza have been arrested and are in detention in Israel. We were arrested, kidnapped illegally in international waters, and taken against our wish into Israel. This has happened to me before. We will be deported and, tragically, not allowed back to see our friends in Palestine and in Israel. This is totally illegal. As men and—as women from many countries, we uphold our freedom of movement in any part of our world.

So, for those who can help to call for the release of all those on the Women's Boat to Gaza, please do so. But even more importantly, because it's not about us, work for the freedom and human rights, the lifting of the blockade against the people of Gaza and for the freedom for the Palestinian people and peace in the Middle East. We can all do this together. It is not a dream. And we are here in person because we care for human rights, for human dignity for the Palestinian people.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire, one of the 13 women on the Gaza flotilla that was boarded by the Israeli Navy, women soldiers. And you were taken to Ashdod and then to a prison and then released, is that right?

ANN WRIGHT: Yes, that's correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, tell us, though, about the situation in Gaza, why you would risk doing this. One of the ships didn't even make it.

ANN WRIGHT: Well, that's correct. One of the ships had engine problems leaving Barcelona. And we had women from all over the world that had come in, and they were great people who continue to speak about the tragedy of Gaza. As we approached the coastline of Gaza, it was unbelievable. To the left, you could see all of the lights of Israel. To the right, a very distinct line, was darkness, all the way to the south, and that's Gaza.

And that exemplifies what's going on there, that the lack of electricity, usually less than four hours a day, the lack of medical supplies. Dr. Fauziah Hasan, who was our medical doctor from Malaysia, she said her organization, MyCARE Malaysia, is trying to reduce the time for operations, which—in Gaza, which now go on to 2025, there are people lined up. And they're trying to reduce the time that people who need life-saving operations have it. The issue of food, of water, of sewage—all of these things make for the United Nations now saying, by the year 2020, Gaza will be uninhabitable.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And yet the Obama administration, while continuing to increase its criticism of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, does nothing about the situation.

ANN WRIGHT: No, in fact, they give them $38 billion in military and other type of aid, which will be used to hammer the Palestinians both in Gaza and in the West Bank.

AMY GOODMAN: This $38 billion, the largest military funding package the U.S. has given any nation.

ANN WRIGHT: Any nation. And it will be used in the training fields of the Israeli military, which are in Gaza. Gaza is the place where military experiments are done, using U.S. military weaponry and done by the—by the IDF.

AMY GOODMAN: You're former U.S. military.

ANN WRIGHT: Yes, I'm a colonel, 29 years in the U.S. military. And I say the U.S. military and our government are complicit in the crimes against the people of Gaza and the West Bank by the use of our military hardware and by the training that the Israelis give us and we give them.

AMY GOODMAN: What happened to the aid on the boat?

ANN WRIGHT: Well, actually, it was—the aid was really minor. I mean, it was us coming as representatives of the international community. We only had a little 50-foot boat. We really weren't carrying substantial amounts of anything other than goodwill from the international community.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you deported?

ANN WRIGHT: Oh, yeah. Now I have a 20-year deportation, 10 years from 2010.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we're going to leave it there. Colonel Ann Wright, retired Army Colonel Ann Wright, former U.S. diplomat, was one of the 13 women on the Zaytouna-Oliva, the Women's Boat to Gaza, attempting to break Israel's nine-year naval blockade on Gaza.

Yemen, Israel, and Syria v. Clinton

THE ABSURD TIMES

Latuff: You said it.  More of our adventures abroad and don't think Hillary will do better.  If they hate Obama so much, they will love her.

Below is a transcript on things that are at stake in this election, but for our international friends there are a few things to point out.  People in the United States really don't care or take various positions.

Obama is the peace president, believe it or not.  Now this will be difficult to believe given the facts in the transcript below, but it is true.  All along, he had to resist Hillary's more militant and aggressive attitudes while she was Secretary of State.  Now the election seems to have come down, and we do mean down, to a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. 

The idea that a female would be a more peace-loving ruler is conceived against the backgrounds of Golda Meir and Indira Ghandi.  Golda led the war of aggression against several Arab states in 1967 and Ghandi went all out against just about anybody she could find.  The U.S. finally stopped hey only when she insisted that Coca Cola reveal its secret formula.  I know that sound weird, but remember that Alliende was victim of a coup after he tried to nationalize the phone company and coca Cola.  Kissinger was the motivating force against that.

So, here we have the transcript of what we are doing in Yemen.  Donald is busy grabbing pussy and Hillary is busy defending a woman's right to her pussy, so Obama is left with the more serious business of making war on humanity.  The only problem is that Clinton will be much worse.  Trump?  It is not clear what he would do, but one can expect the same subtlety of thought and "strategery" of Bush II and his Oedipus Complex from him. 

One final note: a bill to increase weapons to Saudi Arabia has passed.  Rand Paul and a few Democrats still oppose it, but it will be implemented.  Still, the whole issue is that there are bad optics here.  I wonder what the Calculus will be?

TOPICS

·                                 Yemen

·                                 Saudi Arabia

GUESTS

NASSER ARRABYEE

Yemeni journalist based in Sana'a and founder and president of the media service company Yemen Alaan, or Yemen Now.

SARAH LEAH WHITSON

executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division. She has made numerous trips to Yemen, including a visit this year to examine the impact of Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.

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On Sunday, thousands of Yemenis gathered at the United Nations building in Sana'a calling for an international investigation into the U.S-backed Saudi assault on a funeral. The attack was carried out with warplanes and munitions sold to the Saudi-led coalition by the United States. The U.S. Air Force continues to provide midair refueling to Saudi warplanes. According to the U.N., more than 4,000 civilians have been killed and over 7,000 injured since the Saudi-led coalition bombing began last year. Airstrikes have reportedly caused about 60 percent of the deaths. We go to Sana'a to speak with Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee and Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.

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TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to see if we can reach Nasser Arrabyee, the Yemeni journalist based in Sana'a, founder and president of the media service company Yemen Now. Nasser, are you with us?

NASSER ARRABYEE: Yes, yes. Thank you very much.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us—you're speaking to us from the capital. Can you talk about what you understand happened, who you've spoken to? And what evidence is there of the U.S. support for the Saudi attack?

NASSER ARRABYEE: Well, no single Yemeni doubt that Saudi Arabia was not the one who did this crime at all, because it is not the first, it is not the last. Saudi Arabia has been committing war crimes since March 26, 2015. So, without doubt, it;s Saudi Arabia.

But let me tell you what is the—what is also the thing. The big criminal is Obama himself. This is how Yemenis see to the situation, because every Yemeni believe that Saudi Arabia would not have done that at all, would not have done a war in Yemen, without the approval of Obama. And it is very clear to everyone that Obama wanted to appease the Saudis after the Iranian nuclear deal. But, unfortunately, he appeased them by the Yemeni blood. And this is a big problem to the Americans. Obama is destroying the values and the principle of America now. Obama is leading the world to the law of jungle. Obama, unfortunately, is doing—is killing Yemen now, killing Yemen. No killer except Obama in the eyes of Yemenis now, because everybody knows Saudi Arabia and what it would do if there is not the approval of Obama.

AMY GOODMAN: Nasser, you tweeted this morning, "Obama Has been killing Yemen humans With Saudi hands for about 20 months now." Also, from The Intercept, they write, "Multiple bomb fragments at the scene appear to confirm the use of American-produced MK-82 guided bombs. One fragment, posted in a picture on the Facebook page of a prominent Yemeni lawyer, says 'FOR USE ON MK-82 FIN, GUIDED BOMB.'" Nasser Arrabyee?

NASSER ARRABYEE: Yes, yes. Well, let me tell you something very important. You know, the problem why—or the reason why we say Obama is killing Yemen, is killing Yemen humans, is simply because Obama or United States, the administration of the United States, is cooperating. And this is announced. This is known to everyone. But it is not only a matter of cooperating with the refuel or with the intelligence or with the logistic things. No. But it is a will. It is Obama will to support the Saudi Wahhabi regime, which means to us is Obama now is supporting the Qaeda, ISIS, because Obama is saying he's supporting the internationally recognized government, the exiled government based in Riyadh now. Obama should know—and I think he knows—that three members, at least—three members, at least, of this government are designated by Obama, by Treasury Department, as global terrorists. I can give you the names now. Three, at least, of this government in Riyadh are Qaeda, ISIS leaders. They are leading their operators here in Yemen, using the American weapons, using the Saudi money. This is what Obama is doing in Yemen. Obama is leading the Americans to the law of jungle and the world to the law of jungle. He is crazy now.

AMY GOODMAN: In June, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon removed the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition from a blacklist of forces responsible for killing children. Ban later acknowledged he was coerced into doing so after the kingdom threatened to cut off funding to the U.N.

SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON: The report describes horrors no child should have to face. At the same time, I also had to concede the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously, if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many U.N. programs. Children already at risk in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and so many other places would fall further into despair. It is unacceptable for members states to exert undue pressure.

AMY GOODMAN: That's U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Sarah Leah Whitson?

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: The fallout to U.S. and U.N. credibility from this support for Saudi Arabia and its disastrous war in Yemen has been quite severe. Not only is the U.S. implicated in the crimes that are being carried out by the Saudi coalition in Yemen, not only has the U.N.'s credibility been tarnished by basically accepting a bribe to take Saudi Arabia off of this list of shame of worst attackers on children, but now we have the U.S. government standing behind a government, the Saudi coalition, that is carrying out the exact same kind of strikes in Yemen—an attack on a funeral—that extremist groups in Iraq, ISIS, has been carrying out in Baghdad for over a year, and, again, making it very hard for people to tell the difference about who the extremists really are. Finally, the recent vote on—at the U.N. Security Council about a resolution on Aleppo was significantly stymied because the U.S. just could not maintain condemning an attack by Russians and Syrian government forces on civilians, while it's supporting, aiding and abetting very similar attacks that its partner, its number one arms client, is carrying out in Yemen.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Senator Chris Murphy, who's spoken out against the U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in August. He was on CNN.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: There is an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen. Why? Well, it's because though the Saudis are actually dropping the bombs from their planes, they couldn't do it without the United States. It's our munitions, sold to the Saudis. It's our planes that are refueling the Saudi jets. And it's our intelligence that are helping the Saudis provide their targeting. We have made a decision to go to war in Yemen against a Houthi rebel army that poses no existential threat to the United States. It's really wild to me that we're not talking more about this in the United States. The United States Congress has not debated a war authorization giving the president the power to conduct this operation in Yemen.

AMY GOODMAN: Connecticut Senator Murphy went on to say that Congress can put an end to arms sales in Saudi Arabia, again, speaking on CNN.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: Congress may have a chance to weigh in, in September, because the Saudis need more bombs, and so they need the Congress to reauthorize a new sale of weapons. So Congress can step in and say enough is enough.

AMY GOODMAN: And Senator Murphy said that the perception in Yemen is that the United States is responsible for the war, not Saudi Arabia.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: If you talk to Yemenis, they will tell you that inside Yemen, this is not perceived to be a Saudi bombing campaign, this is perceived to be a U.S. bombing campaign. What's happening is that we are helping to radicalize the Yemeni population against the United states.

AMY GOODMAN: Which is exactly what Nasser Arrabyee, our guest, just said from Sana'a. So, he was talking about cutting off the weapons supply back in September. It's now October, Sarah Leah Whitson.

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Mm-hmm. And there was a remarkable vote in the Senate, which was defeated, to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but there were more votes in support for it than ever could have been imagined. So, clearly, there is a shift and a reconsideration. And, of course, most importantly, on Saturday, the State Department announced that it was going to review what it called its drastically reduced support for Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen. So, clearly, the administration is feeling the heat.

We need an international investigation, a true, impartial investigation, to understand what is happening with these airstrikes and to hold those responsibility to account. And I think the U.S. Congress has a major role to play, not only in suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but in forcing this administration to tell us exactly what sort of assistance it has been providing and what its involvement has been in every single one of the unlawful strikes that we've documented. There are answers that the U.S. government, that the National Security Council, the State Department, owes the American people as to what exactly it's doing in terms of its support for this war in Yemen. And it's only given very vague and cryptic answers.

AMY GOODMAN: Why is President Obama doing this?

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Well, as your guest said and as the administration has itself repeatedly conceded, this war in Yemen is the price of the Iran deal. The Yemeni people are paying the bill for Saudi being very upset about the Iran deal. And I think the administration calculated that this would be a very short war, that the Houthis would be quickly dislodged, and they could befriend and win over the Saudis. What they didn't count on, and what we've seen time and again in the region, is that the war unfolds into a massive disaster and the U.S. in way over its head.

AMY GOODMAN: Nasser Arrabyee, we have 30 seconds. Your final message to the American people from Sana'a, from Yemen?

NASSER ARRABYEE: The final message is that the—we want to salute the American heroes, despite all the war crimes of Obama, because there are a lot of people who—I mean, the Americans, all the Americans, we respect them. We know that they are with us. Human Rights Watch and the senators like Chris Murphy and Rand Paul and a lot of senators, they are heroes. We respect them. We salute them. We know they are going to rescue the values and the principles of America against Obama. Obama is misled. Obama is bylined by Saudi dirty money. Saudi dirty money is destroying the principles of American values of America. They should stop Obama and every official who does not know what's happening in Yemen now.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me just ask—let me ask Sarah Leah Whitson, very quickly: Last month, the U.S. Senate approved a billion-dollar arms deal to Saudi Arabia; is there any chance this might be revoked, if there are concerns that the U.S. itself is involved with war crimes?

SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Absolutely. Even if the deal itself is not revoked, delivery can be suspended, delivery can be delayed. And we've already seen the U.S. government, for example, suspend the transfer of various weapons during the courses of various wars. So they can absolutely suspend this. And I think the U.S. government knows that, really, the time is up for this war and its support.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, so let's see some of the moderators of the debates ask the presidential candidates these questions. Sarah Leah Whitson, thanks so much for being with us, from Human Rights Watch. And, Nasser Arrabyee, thank you for joining us from Sana'a, Yemeni journalist based in Sana'a, founder and president of the media service company Yemen Now. This is Democracy Now! We'll be back in a minute.

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