company:middle east eye

Qahtani played ’central role’ in abduction and interrogation of Lebanon’s Hariri: UN report | Middle East Eye
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/qahtani-played-central-role-interrogation-lebanese-prime-minister-un

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Top Saudi royal adviser Saud al-Qahtani, one of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s closest confidants, played a central role in the abduction and interrogation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a UN report has revealed. 

UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard said she was informed that Qahtani was one of two officials who had “personally interrogated and threatened” Hariri at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton hotel after being summoned to the capital in 2017.

“People close to the incident suggested the prime minister was a victim of ’psychological torture’ and treatment that may have been ’cruel, inhuman and degrading’,” the UN report said.

#Liban #arabie_saoudite

Jeremy Corbyn and the truth about Tom Bower’s book | Middle East Eye
Peter Oborne - 9 March 2019
A biography about the Labour leader systematically distorts the truth, writes Peter Oborne
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/tom-bower-book-dangerous-hero-jeremy-corbyn-labour-leader-truth

http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/column-image/Corbyn-AFP.jpg

Those of us who report on politics are at liberty to express, within limits, whatever opinions we like. These limits include an obligation to observe standards. We should strive to be accurate. We can make strong arguments but ought not to distort the truth or suppress relevant information to make our point.

Writer Tom Bower fails catastrophically to meet these standards. It is not only that Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot For Power, his new book on Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, contains numerous falsehoods. It systematically omits relevant facts in order to portray Corbyn as a ruthless Marxist and anti-semite hell-bent on destroying Western liberal values.

The Times, the nearest thing that Britain has to a paper of record, has awarded it a prominent review. Ditto the Sunday Times. Tom Harris, a former Labour MP, was not far short of reverential in the Daily Telegraph, calling it a “meticulous and highly readable account”. In the US, an interview with Bower has appeared in the Washington Post. (...)

#Corbyn

Maryland: Former legislator sues state over anti-BDS law | Middle East Eye
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/maryland-former-legislator-sues-state-over-anti-bds-law-1453433549
▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/main-images/Saqib+Ali%20%20Omar%20Al%20Saray%20CAIR.JPG

A software engineer and former state legislator is suing the US state of Maryland over its anti-boycott law.

Saqib Ali, who became the first Muslim member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 2006, said he refused to sign a “loyalty oath” pledging that he does not boycott Israel, in order to win a contract to build a computer programme for the state.

“I do boycott Israel and the illegally occupied territories because Palestinians are not free; they live under a brutal military occupation,” Ali said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit on Wednesday.

“And until that occupation is ended, I decided I will boycott Israel. It is my First Amendment right. It is guaranteed by the US Constitution.”

Maryland is one of the dozens of states that have passed measures banning government entities from hiring companies that boycott Israel.

The push is part of a nationwide effort to counter the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel economically and politically to end its abuses against Palestinians.

Critics of such measures say they restrict freedom of speech, protect a foreign nation from criticism and censor meaningful debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Last year, US courts in Kansas and Arizona ruled that it is unconstitutional to force government contractors to refrain from boycotting Israel, blocking the anti-BDS laws in both states.

In the case of Maryland, the anti-boycott measure was enacted through an executive order by Republican Governor Larry Hogan in 2017, after it failed to pass through the legislature.

Hogan has defended the executive order, saying that it aims to protect Israel from BDS.

“They’re asking people to discriminate against Israel,” he said of the movement after signing the order in 2017, as reported by the Baltimore Sun at the time. “There’s no argument to the contrary that makes any sense.”

#bds #usa #israel #palestine

Violence escalates: 6 Palestinians killed, 20 injured in Israeli airstrikes
Nov. 13, 2018 11:36 A.M. (Updated: Nov. 13, 2018 12:48 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=781772

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Six Palestinians were killed and at least 20 others were injured during a campaign of Israeli airstrikes from overnight Monday until predawn Tuesday across the northern besieged Gaza Strip.

Medical sources in Gaza reported that six Palestinians were killed and 20 others were injured during continuous Israeli airstrikes over various parts of Gaza.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza identified the six killed as Muhammad Zacharia al-Tatri, 27, Muhammad Zahdi Awda, 22, Mousa Iyad Ali Abed al-Aal, 22, Hamed Muhammad al-Nahal, 22, and Khaled Riad Ahmad Sultan, 26, and Musaab Hawas, 20.

In addition, Mahmoud Abu Usba, 40, was killed after a residential building was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza towards the Ashkelon Regional Council, in southern Israel, on late Monday.

Abu Usba was a Palestinian resident of Halhoul City, north of the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, and was a worker in Israel.

Hebrew-language news outlets reported that two Israeli women, who were present in the same residential building were reported to be in critical conditions, due to the hit.

The sites additionally confirmed that some 550 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards the Israeli communities surrounding Gaza, which led to 70 Israelis injured and the destruction of several buildings in the communities.

Israeli warplanes targeted and fired at over a hundred Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad movement sites, including an intelligence compound, which is located in the center of Gaza City near a school, a mosque and other diplomatic facilities, an Israeli army spokesperson confirmed.

The entire complex itself includes a kindergarten and a warehouse, however, the Israeli army claimed that it is used for intelligence gathering, research and development.

A Ma’an reporter said that Israeli warplanes had targeted and demolished three residential buildings, which were home to three Palestinian families, and another five commercial buildings, including a hotel, in Gaza City.

Following the violent escalation overnight, Hamas’ military wing spokesperson said in a statement that Beer Sheva and Ashdod would be targeted next if “Israel persisted in its aggression.”

The Jihad reiterated the statement by Hamas, saying Gaza factions have the capacity to continue their offensive.

It is noteworthy that Israel is currently not working with the United Nations nor Egypt to reduce tensions.

#Palestine_assassinée

Turkey Says Recordings Are Evidence of Saudi Journalist’s Killing - WSJ
▻https://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-says-saudi-journalists-killing-was-recorded-1539314057
▻https://images.wsj.net/im-29748/social

The Turkish government has what it describes as audio and video recordings purporting to show that Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and has shared the evidence with U.S. officials, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Turkish officials may release the evidence in coming days, these people said, adding the recordings have been described by those who have reviewed them as evidence of a killing. The audio evidence is particularly graphic, according to these people.

et récit détaillé ici (repris de la presse turque)

▻https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/12/middleeast/khashoggi-saudi-turkey-recordings-intl/index.html

Missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have recorded his own death, a Turkish newspaper reported Saturday morning.
Khashoggi turned on the recording function of his Apple Watch before walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 , according to Sabah newspaper.
The moments of his “interrogation, torture and killing were audio recorded and sent to both his phone and to iCloud,” the pro-government, privately owned newspaper paper reported. The Turkish newspaper said conversations of the men involved in the reported assassination were recorded.

Security forces leading the investigation found the audio file inside the phone Khasshoggi left with his fiancé, according to Sabah.
Upon noticing the watch, Sabah reports, Khashoggi’s assailants tried to unlock the Apple Watch with multiple password attempts, ultimately using Khashoggi’s fingerprint to unlock the smart watch. They were successful in deleting only some of the files, Sabah reported.
However, on its website, Apple does not list fingerprint verification as one of the Apple Watch’s capabilities. A representative from the company confirmed to CNN the watches do not have the feature.
It was not immediately clear whether it would have been technically feasible for Khashoggi’s Apple phone to transfer audio to his phone, which he had given to his fiancee before entering the consulate.
CNN cannot independently verify Sabah report and is seeking comment from both Saudi and Turkish officials.

Jamal Khashoggi: A different sort of Saudi | Middle East Eye

▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/jamal-khashoggi-different-sort-saudi-1109584652

This is the darkest day of my time as editor of Middle East Eye. It should not be. Jamal Khashoggi is not the first Saudi exile to be killed. No one today remembers Nassir al-Sa’id, who disappeared from Beirut in 1979 and has never been seen since.

Prince Sultan bin Turki was kidnapped from Geneva in 2003. Prince Turki bin Bandar Al Saud, who applied for asylum in France and disappeared in 2015. Maj Gen Ali al-Qahtani, an officer in the Saudi National Guard, who died while still in custody, showed signs of abuse including a neck that appeared twisted and a badly swollen body. And there are many, many others.

Thousands languish in jail. Human rights activists branded as terrorists are on death row on charges that Human Rights Watch says “do not resemble recognised crimes”. I know of one business leader who was strung upside down, naked and tortured. Nothing has been heard of him since. In Saudi, you are one social media post away from death.

A Saudi plane dropped a US-made bomb on a school bus in Yemen killing 40 boys and 11 adults on a school trip. Death is delivered by remote control, but no Western ally or arms supplier of Saudi demands an explanation. No contracts are lost. No stock market will decline the mouth-watering prospect of the largest initial public offering in history. What difference does one more dead Saudi make?

As a journalist he hated humbug. The motto in Arabic on his Twitter page roughly translates as: “Say what you have to say and walk away.”
And yet Khashoggi’s death is different. It’s right up close. One minute he is sitting across the table at breakfast, in a creased shirt, apologising in his mumbled, staccato English for giving you his cold. The next minute, a Turkish government contact tells you what they did to his body inside the consulate in Istanbul.

Stolen Arab Art: Israeli exhibition showing Arab artwork without artists’ consent | Middle East Eye
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/stolen-arab-art-Israel-arab-artists-BDS-Tel-Aviv-Ireland
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/main-images/Stolen+Arab%20Art.jpg

A startup Israeli art gallery has launched its first exhibition, Stolen Arab Art, in which works by prominent contemporary Arab artists are being purposefully shown without their consent or knowledge.

“We are showing the works in the exhibition in Israel without the artists’ knowledge or consent, acutely aware of this act of expropriation,” the 1:1 Centre for Art and Politics, a gallery in southern Tel Aviv, said in the exhibition’s statement.

“By delineating these political and geographic boundaries we wish to call attention to Israel’s exclusion from the Middle East family,” the gallery claimed.

A selection of four video artworks by six acclaimed artists from the Arab world are being shown in the exhibition, without crediting the artists or publishing their names.

Wael Shawky, an Egyptian artist whose artwork was shown in the exhibition, was livid.

#israël #palestine #propagande #marché (via AngryArab)

Remote control repression: Israel tested its latest weapons against the Great March of Return – Middle East Monitor
▻https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180523-remote-control-repression-israel-tested-its-latest-weapo

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This was the repression of protesters by remote control. It was cold, clinical and calculated, with devastating results. Israel is one of the world’s leading developers of high-tech weapons and munitions, and the Great March of Return presented an ideal opportunity to experiment with its latest products. With a guinea pig population of almost two million Palestinians held under siege in Gaza, Israel can boast of its technology and weaponry as being “battle proven” in a corporate world unconcerned about ethics.

Much focus has been given to Israel’s use of drones to drop tear gas on Palestinian protesters and journalists covering the protests. The drones were first seen back in March when footage by Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV appeared to show small aerial devices dropping gas canisters on anyone close to the Gaza-Israel border. The Times of Israel reported that “a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces said the UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] was not operated by the army but by the Border Police.” The Border Police declined to comment.

Butterfly bullet is a type of bullets that launched faster than sound and causes severe damage in flesh layers and bone when hitting the human body. It is used by the Israeli army snipers against the armless demonstrators on the borders of Gaza [Twitter]

In an investigation into Israel’s use of drones in this way, Middle East Eye (MEE) noted that “there appear to be three types of drones being used to disperse the gas.” The first is known as the “Cyclone Riot Control Drone System” and is developed by Israeli company ISPRA. The others are believed to have been used for the first time against Great March protesters, with MEE explaining that one is “a drone that releases gas directly from the craft like an aerosol” and the second “a helicopter-style drone which carries rubber bursting grenades with metal tops that disperse gas as they fall.”

Gaza Killings: Names and Faces of Those Killed by Israeli Forces This Week
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/gaza-killings-names-and-faces-of-those-killed-by-israeli-forces-this

Editor’s note: Middle East Eye has live coverage of protests in Palestine and Israel here.

Sixty-one people were either killed or died of wounds inflicted by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on...

On Land Day, Israeli forces kill 14 Palestinians, injure hundreds more in Gaza
March 30, 2018 8:19 P.M. (Updated: March 30, 2018 8:19 P.M.)
▻http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=779989

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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot dead 14 Palestinians and injured over a 1,000 more along the Gaza border on Friday, as thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in “The Great March of Return” on the 42nd anniversary of Land Day.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 14 Palestinians were killed on Friday. They were identified as:

Mohammad Kamel Najjar
Wahid Nasrallah Abu Samour
Mahmoud Abu Muammar
Mohammad Abu Amro
Amhad Ibrahim Odah
Jihad Farina
Mahmoud Rahmi
Ibrahim Abu Shaer
Abd al-Fattah Bahjat Abd al-Nabi
Abd al-Qader al-Hawajri
Sari Walid Abu Odah
Hamdan Ismail Abu Amsha
Omar Samour
Bader Fayek al-Sabbagh

The ministry added that 1,272 Palestinians were injured. While the majority suffered from severe tear-gas inhalation, tens of Palestinians were injured with live ammunition, some critically.

The ministry called on Palestinians across Gaza to donate blood at hospitals.

#Palestine_assassinée #marcheduretour

#Guantanamo ’prepared’ for new inmates : US admiral | Middle East Eye
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/guantanamo-prepared-new-inmates-us-admiral-1684468227

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D’autant plus qu’il n’existe, d’après les farceurs de Middle East Eye, que des « accusations » de #torture et non pas des preuves en béton.

The prison, which was opened by former President George W Bush to hold terrorism suspects captured overseas after the 11 September 2001 attacks, has come to symbolise harsh detention practices that opened the United States to accusations of torture.

#Etats-Unis « #journalisme_objectif » #sans_vergogne

EXCLUSIVE: Saudi torture victims include former king’s son
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-former-crown-prince-among-saudi-torture-victims-340914670

Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, the son of the late King Abdullah who was once considered a future crown prince, was beaten and tortured, along with five other princes, when he was arrested and interrogated in Riyadh during the ongoing political purge in the kingdom, Middle East Eye has confirmed.

All six princes were admitted to hospital in the 24 hours following their arrest. One of the men was in such a bad condition that he was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit - treatment which occurs when there is a high risk to the life of a patient, such as organ failure, from the heart, lungs, kidneys, or high blood pressure.

Hospital staff were told that the injuries sustained in each case were the result of “suicide attempts”. All had been severely beaten, but none of them had fractures. The marks on their bodies were consistent with the imprints left by military boots.

At least 17 of those detained were taken to hospital, but the number maltreated in the purge ordered by the current Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is certainly higher, according to sources who MEE is unable to identify because of concerns for their safety.

MEE has learned that medical units have now been installed in the Ritz-Carlton hotel where the beatings have taken place. This is to prevent torture victims from being taken to hospital.

Is Mohammed Bin Salman rewriting Saudi Arabia’s history? | Middle East Eye

▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/mohammed-bin-salman-rewriting-history-saudi-arabia-633696870

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman confirmed his decision to return the country to moderate Islam. The prince insisted that the conservative, extremist trend was a recent phenomenon in the Kingdom and that it went back to just 30 years ago. He added that it was born out of the climate created by the Iranian revolution.

Bin Salman did not hesitate to note that the kingdom’s former leaders failed to address the phenomenon and that he was determined to put an end to it. He said: "What occurred during the past thirty years was not Saudi Arabia. What happened in the region was not the Middle East. In the wake of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, there emerged some people who wanted to copy that model in other countries. Saudi Arabia was one of those countries.

READ MORE ►

 Salman’s ’moderate Islam’: A Disneyland for robots, not an open society
“We did not even know how to tackle it, and the problem spread across the entire world. Now is the time to get rid of it once and for all.”

Bin Salman added: “We are simply going back to what we used to follow, moderate Islam, the Islam that is open to the world and to other religions … We shall not waste thirty more years of our life in confronting extremists. We shall destroy them, now and immediately.”

Dismay in Germany as hard-right AfD marches into parliament | Middle East Eye
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/dismay-germany-hard-right-afd-marches-parliament-361169920

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The Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Sunday became the first hard-right, openly anti-immigration party to enter parliament with so many seats since World War II, breaking a taboo in spite of calls to halt “the Nazis” in their tracks.

Exit polls credited the AfD with around 13 percent of the vote, making it the third-biggest political force in Germany - a stunning result for a party that was founded just four years ago.

“We will change this country,” vowed Alexander Gauland, one of the party’s top candidates, pledging to “go after” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.

The results mean at least 60 AfD lawmakers will sit on the opposition benches and be able to spread their views, including challenging Germany’s culture of atonement over World War II and the massacre of six million Jews and others in the Holocaust.

Peter Oborne: Why #MI6 must share the blame for jihadis
▻http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4546934/PETER-OBORNE-MI6-share-blame-jihadis.html

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In the case of Syria, they wanted to get as much help as possible in their mission to topple the Syrian president Bashir al-Assad.

There was a similar policy towards Libya. British citizens — it has been reported this week that among them was the father of the Manchester suicide-bomber — were undoubtedly encouraged to travel to the north African country to fight in the civil war there to get rid of Gaddafi.

Indeed, research by the Middle East Eye website has revealed the extent to which the British authorities, I believe with the encouragement of MI6, released terror suspects in this country from control orders which had previously been imposed on them in order to restrain their movements and stop them from using the internet.

Duly, these people were free to join terror groups in the Middle East and North Africa — organisations with links to #Al_Qaeda and other terror outfits. 

Of course, as well as being enemies of al-Assad and Gaddafi, these groups were also enemies of the West.

So, while MI5 officers were working day and night to prevent Islamist terrorists inflicting carnage on British streets, MI6 officers were complicit in creating a generation of British-born jihadis who are prepared to do anything, and kill anyone — even young children — in their efforts to destroy this country.

#apprentis_sorciers #incurie #criminels