Sabbah Report » Internet ‘n Computers

Angry Twitter Birds Topple Arab Dictator in a TV Ad [VIDEO]

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:57:16 +0000

In this TV ad, French international news channel France 24 is promoting Twitter's power to dislodge dictators in a dramatized manner.

The two-minute ad shows an animated Mubarak (Egypt), Ben Ali (Tunisia) and Gadaffi-like under attack by righteously blue angry birds representing freedom. The scene, of course, is an allegory for the Arab Spring, in which Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media contributed to the ousting of rulers in Egypt and Tunisia along with civil uprisings in Libya and many other Arab countries.

Syria Shuts Down the Internet As Revolt Gains Steam

Haitham Sabbah — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:24:08 +0000

Internet intelligence firm Renesys reported on its blog that starting at 3:35 UTC yesterday, approximately two-thirds of all Syrian networks became unreachable from the global Internet. Over the course of roughly half an hour, the routes to 40 of 59 networks were withdrawn from the global routing table.

This image shows the current state (green: reachable, red: unreachable) of each network prefix in the Middle East this morning, visualized as a packed Hilbert-curve representation. The size of the colored area is proportional to each country's Internet presence, so you can see that Syria's Internet (red block near the top center) is a little smaller than that of Kuwait.

The network prefixes that remain reachable include those belonging to the Syrian government, although many government websites are slow to respond or down. The Oil Ministry is up, for example, and Syrian Telecom's official page, but the Ministry of Education is down, as is the Damascus city government page, and the Syrian Customs website.

The networks that are not reachable include, substantially, all of the prefixes reserved for SyriaTel's 3G mobile data networks, and smaller downstream ISPs including Sawa, INET, and Runnet.

News is filtering out of Syria very slowly. If Egypt and Libya's Internet outages are any guide, one might conclude that events on the street in Syria are reaching a tipping point.

Syria has been banning social media services in the last few months, but this is the full time there has been a widespread Internet outage.

The move comes as protests have intensified in the troubled nation. 34 people were killed Friday after security forces opened fire. The uprising, which began in late January, has been focused on ousting Bashar Al-Assad from his role as President of Syria. Al-Assad ascended to the presidency in 2000 after his father’s 29-year rule.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak shut down Internet services during the Egyptian revolution so protesters couldn’t easily organize. It didn’t quell the revolt though, and on February 11, Mubarak resigned.

US Steps Up Anti-Arab Cyber Propaganda War

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 08:50:27 +0000

The US military is developing software that would allow military personnel to use fake profiles in online chat rooms.

The idea is to use social media to spread "positive" messages about the United States and its allies such as Israel. While the Pentagon says it is a bid to counter violent extremist and enemy ideologies, we all know it's a propaganda war tool.

Israel recruited an army of cyber terrorists to do the similar job during their massacres in Gaza and Lebanon. In fact Israeli propaganda machine reached U.S. Department of State officials and evidences were presented at Sabbah Report few years ago.

Video link: http://youtu.be/qdU4c9ndgZA

Anti-Arab and Anti-Islam propaganda is all over the U.S media. It is not surprising to see the same spread all over the cyberspace.

Israeli elite army unit duped into revealing secrets by fake Facebook beauty

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:52:57 +0000

SABBAH REPORT NOTE: (This is a Der Spiegel story in German, picked up from an Israeli Internet portal.... The google translation is all over the place but I have a German speaking friend who has provided me with a more coherent translation of the opening paragraphs:)

Online Espionage

The beautiful Facebook girlfriend of the Elite Soldier

by Sarah Stricker, Tel Aviv

An enchanting young woman befriends Israeli military men on Facebook – and elicits secrets from them. According to a press report, 20 elite soldiers fell into the trap. The Lebanese Shiite militia is presumably behind it.

Hizbolla is supposed to have infiltrated the elite unit with a faked Facebook profile. With the photo of a pretty young woman who logged in with an Israeli name, the Shiite military is supposed to have built up contact to elite soldiers and elicited secret information, this was reported by the Israeli News portal MySay.co.il

The facebook page of Reut Zuckerman, who is lying on a sofa beaming into the camera in her profile photo went online about a year ago. The people behind the site made contact with numerous Israeli army soldiers. MySay reports that about 200 soldiers and reservists were on Zuckerman's friends list.

Zuckerman concentrated particularly on an elite unite of paratroopers. Apparently many of the men suspected that the woman was herself an Israeli soldier in a special unit. The people behind the site worked slowly to gain the confidence of the soldiers and are reported to have gained key information regarding the activities of the unit in question.

The men in the unit gave their Facebook friend names of members of the unit, jargon, secret codes, and detailed descriptions of bases . Some of the soldiers began to be suspicious only after about a year when they realized how many soldiers in the elite unit were named as her friends. The army began investigating in January....

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,694582,00.html

Good one, Hezbollah!

Michael Gillespie – Dubai Investigation Exposes Israeli Ops in USA

SR Editor — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:58:15 +0000

By Michael Gillespie* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

An ongoing investigation by the Dubai Police force into the assassination of a high-level Hamas official in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January has drawn back the curtains of secrecy and deception to reveal yet again the contours of Israel's massive and ever-expanding espionage operations in the United States.

The murder of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana, a 275-room five-star luxury hotel, in Dubai on January 19 has been widely perceived to be a Mossad operation involving, by the most recent count, 27 suspects traveling on fraudulently obtained and falsified European or Australian passports. In late February and early March, the plot thickened suddenly and significantly when major US media outlet reports connected the crime and many of those involved in it to the USA and to corporations based in the USA and Israel and revealed that some of the suspected assassins, apparently members of a Mossad kidon team, had entered the USA after leaving Dubai.

ABC News reported on February 24 that Dubai police had identified 15 new suspects as part of a ring that killed Al Mabhouh.

"Fourteen of the suspects purportedly used credit cards from META Bank, a regional American bank, to pay for hotel rooms and travel arrangements. ... Dubai police linked META Bank to a New York-based company called Payoneer, which provided prepaid MasterCard credit cards issued by META Bank. According to its Web site, Payoneer has a research and development center in Tel Aviv," reported ABC.

The TV network report noted that some of the additional suspects played a central role in the crime while others were accused of "'providing prior logistical support and preparations to facilitate,' making a series of trips to Dubai in advance" of the assassination.

The New York Times reported on March 1 that, "At least two suspects in the killing of a Hamas official in a hotel here in January traveled to the United States afterward, according to a person familiar with the investigation."

"One suspect traveling on a British passport arrived in the United States on Feb. 14; the other used an Irish passport and arrived on Jan. 21, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. He did not say where the men entered the country, and added that there was no known record of their leaving," wrote Robert F. Worth in a story filed from Dubai.

Worth's report noted that if the suspected assassins who entered the U.S. presented foreign passports, they would have been photographed and finger printed upon arrival.

The Wall Street Journal's Chip Cummins filed a similar report from Dubai on the same day attributing the information to "people familiar with the situation" and "records shared between international investigators." In many previous news reports from Dubai information about the investigation had been attributed to Dubai's Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim.

Neither report explored the rather remarkable news that the suspect carrying a British passport in the name Roy Allan Cannon was confident enough to travel on the falsified document more than three weeks after the assassination and to present it upon arrival in the USA, where passport controls are generally assumed to be most stringent.

"At one time it was possible to produce false identity documents with little or no regard for what is referred to as backstopping as data bases at national points of entry were unsophisticated and were generally unlinked to any central sources of information. That has all changed in the past eight years. European and American passports in particular can all be verified from central data bases that include information that is also drawn from other public record sources," wrote former CIA officer Philip Giraldi in a February 25 column for Antiwar.com.

On March 3, Al Jazeera TV reported that Tamim, "said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the head of Mossad [Meir Degan]."

Tamim's investigation, which has been described by Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble as "thorough," has seriously inconvenienced and embarrassed the Israeli government and its espionage organization.

The Money Trail

The Independent Monitor contacted MetaBank's corporate headquarters in Storm Lake, IA to ask why an Iowa bank would provide credit cards to 14 suspected members of a death squad.

MetaBank's Lisa Binder, Vice President for Investor Relations and Corporate Communications responded via telephone and e-mail with a statement saying, in part, "The Meta cards in question were issued in conjunction with a Meta Payment Systems program, not at a retail bank location. Meta Payment Systems, which has issued more than 150 million prepaid cards, markets its payroll cards through various Program Managers─in this case, Payoneer─to offer reputable US companies network branded payroll cards with which American companies can pay expatriates, employees and contractors of their company who live in the US and in foreign countries. The cards in question were 'loaded' by the companies using direct deposit for payroll, disbursements, and other compensation."

The Independent Monitor attempted to contact Payoneer offices at 410 Park Avenue in New York City but found that the only phone answered at Payoneer headquarters was a customer support line for Payoneer's Birthright Israel customers.

Birthright Israel provides first time educational trips to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18 to 26. The program sends "thousands of young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants' personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people," according to the organization's website.

Funding for Birthright Israel is "provided by our partners: private philanthropists through The Birthright Israel Foundation; the people of Israel through the Government of Israel; and Jewish communities around the world (North American Jewish Federations, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel). ...

"Taglit-Birthright Israel requires that all participants pay their deposit through Payoneer. ... If you lose your Payoneer card while in Israel, it can be immediately blocked and will be replaced with a new card within 24 hours. ... You will not need to contact your bank back home or worry about making many calls. One call to our Customer Support center and you are all set," says the www.birthright.payoneer.com website.

Payoneer's Birthright customer support center declined to provide the Independent Monitor with contact information for Payoneer founder and CEO Yuval Tal or for Payoneer corporate communications/media relations personnel.

"Since the assassination, Tal has been shielded by a wall of public relations representatives and does not respond to media requests for comments. ... Tal's public relations representatives in New York have refused to comment on his past and relations with Israel's intelligence agency Mossad," wrote Abbas Al Lawati, a staff reporter for Gulf News.com on March 3.

"Tal is referred to by his associates in Israel as 'an outspoken Israeli patriot' despite having lived in New York for over ten years. In a 2006 Fox News interview about Israel's summer war on Lebanon, Tal was presented as a 'special ops commando' on Fox and Friends, and stated that 'this is a war Israel cannot (afford to) lose,'" wrote Al Lawati.

Payoneer's website proclaims that the company is "a registered MasterCard Merchant Service Provider (MSP), and partner with MetaBank or Choice Bank Limited to deliver our services. Privately held, our funding partners include Greylock Partners, Carmel Ventures, and Crossbar Capital."

The Independent Monitor found that all three of Payoneer's funding partners are venture capital firms that have offices in or strong connections to Israel.

Charlie Federman, Managing Partner of Crossbar Capital, previously co-founded BRM Capital in 1999, headed its New York office, and served as a Managing Director of the Israel and New York based fund until 2007. BRM Group, headquartered in Herzliya was founded by Nir Barkat, mayor of occupied Jerusalem.

Carmel Ventures is also headquartered Herzliya. Greylock Partners, founded in 1965, "operates in a number of global centers of innovation, including Boston, China (Beijing), India (Bangalore), Israel (Herzliya) and Silicon Valley. ... Current Greylock portfolio companies include Data Robotics, Digg, Facebook, Imperva, LinkedIn, Palo Alto Networks, Pandora, Picarro, Redfin, Workday and ZipCar," according to the firm's website. Greylock's investment activities in Israel were launched in 2002 by partner Moshe Mor, who "served six years in the Israeli Army as a Captain in the Military Intelligence branch."

Tal almost certainly possess information that could be of value to U.S. law enforcement and counter-intelligence investigators, but whether their political masters, many of whom have been effectively co-opted by Israel, will allow U.S. investigators to pursue any sort of meaningful investigation is an open question. Thus far there has been little to indicate that U.S. officials are seriously interested in investigating the funding of travel expenses and hotel accommodations of suspected Israeli assassins through U.S. corporations, despite the reported entry of at least two of the suspects into the U.S. on fraudulent, falsified passports.

When the Independent Monitor contacted the Department of State (DoS) for comment about the news reports, a DoS press officer declined to comment and referred questions to the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press offices. A DoJ press officer also declined to comment and referred questions to a DHS press officer who has not responded to an e-mail message sent on March 5.

The Sayanim Network

Any substantive U.S. investigation of the suspected Dubai killers' connections to the USA would likely focus on members of the Mossad's worldwide network of sayanim, diaspora Jews who provide a wide variety of services to the Israeli intelligence and special operations agency. In his books, By Way of Deception (1990) and The Other Side of Deception (1994), former Mossad field officer or katsa Victor Ostrovsky described the sayanim network.

"Sayanim─assistants─must be 100 percent Jewish," wrote Ostrovsky in 1990.

The Mossad's helpers, chosen because they are well placed, willing, and able to provide valuable assistance to Israeli agents, are businessmen, doctors, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, police officers, intelligence officers, politicians, government bureaucrats, university professors and administrators, media professionals, information technology specialists, any occupation, profession, or position in which a sayan might prove useful in support of Israeli espionage operations.

Though they do not live in Israel, their first loyalty is to Israel. They do whatever Mossad officials, field officers, or assassins ask of them in behalf of Israel against the enemies of Israel or those who are seen as opposed to Israeli policies.

"Often the loyalty of sayanim is abused by katsas who take advantage of the available help for their own personal use. There is no way for the sayan to check this," wrote Ostrovsky.

"The one problem with the [sayanim] system is that the Mossad does not seem to care how devastating it could be to the status of the Jewish people in the diaspora if it was known. The answer you get if you ask is: 'So what's the worst that could happen to those Jews? They'd all come to Israel? Great,'" wrote Ostrovsky.

"A sayan will rent a car or pass money to a kidon with no questions asked," said Gordon Thomas, author of Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad (1999) in a report by Alun Palmer of the Mirror (UK) on February 18. Thomas, who has estimated that there are at least 20,000 sayanim in the US and Great Britain, writes that all Mossad assassinations are authorized by the office of the prime minister of Israel.

The illegal use of U.S. banks and credit card companies to fund the movements and other expenses of a Mossad death squad in the Middle East indicates an alarming expansion of Israeli espionage operations on US soil and reveals to an unprecedented extent the foreign intelligence agency's penetration of major U.S. financial institutions, developments that limn the breadth, depth, and success of the Mossad's desperate efforts to expand and consolidate Israel's malignant influence over the Washington foreign policy establishment and sway within a broad range of U.S. institutions, despite growing popular opposition to Israel's the brutal and patently illegal occupation of Palestine and the punishing siege of Gaza.

The Myth, Cult, and Culture of Redemptive Violence

The supposed clash of civilizations, the conflict between the putatively modern Western Judeo-Christian tradition and radical Islam, the Bush administration's Global War on Terrorism later rebranded by the Obama administration as Overseas Contingency Operations, and the suppurating wound that is Israel's long-running illegal occupation and systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine are evidence of a retrograde social and political dynamic that now threatens the continued progress and future of human civilization. That dynamic is epitomized by the myth, cult, and culture of redemptive violence.

"The myth of redemptive violence defends the belief that violence saves, that war brings peace. It is one of the oldest stories in the world. It misappropriates the language, symbols and scriptures of Christianity. Its God is the tribal God worshipped as an idol. Its offer is not forgiveness but victory. Its good news is not unconditional love of enemies but their elimination. Its salvation is not a new heart but a successful foreign policy. It is blasphemous. It is idolatrous. And it is immensely popular," writes Dr. Walter Wink, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City.

Wink might have added that while Christian scripture is tainted by the myth of redemptive violence, the Hebrew Old Testament scriptures, attached at the spine of the Holy Bible to the New Testament, are Christianity's primary source of the pernicious mythology of redemptive violence. Only about 10 percent of the New Testament is devoted to Jesus' teachings about the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, the kingdom of Heaven, the happiness of peacemakers, and forgiveness and mercy as moral and spiritual imperatives.

True religion opposes violence as a technique of social evolution, but many Christians have been and are today all too willing and ready to embrace Hebrew Old Testament teachings that glorify war and the wholesale slaughter of innocents and ascribe such acts to the commands of a wrathful God that is both vengeful and violent. The popularity of the myth of redemptive violence in the West and the attitudes and policies it engenders in political and economic spheres of activity severely undercuts the supposed moral superiority of Western modernity and culture in relation to other traditions and cultures.

U.S. leaders often attempt to justify their wars with self-serving declarations that they are fighting for peace.

"One day the Iraqi people will understand that we came in peace," averred Secretary of State Colin Powell in March 2003 as U.S. troops advanced on Baghdad after a devastating and enormously destructive "Shock and Awe" air assault on the city.

If the status of a civilization can be accurately gauged by the fairness of its courts and the integrity of its judges, resort by national leaders to extra-judicial killings conducted by intelligence agency death squads is emblematic of the West's glorification of war and ruinous reversion to militarism─autocratic, cruel, and savage. Rigidly ultranationalistic Israel, more an army and an espionage agency with a country than a country with an army and an espionage agency, clearly intends to be the West's model and instructor in this regard.

A feature article by Associated Press reporter Matti Friedman published in the Washington Post on March 4 quoted Jonna Mendez, who worked for the CIA for 27 years and became the agency's chief of disguise. Mendez "believes the Dubai perpetrators took the fallout into account, all of it: the TV footage, the blown aliases and the head shots. The agents, she said, clearly knew they were under surveillance─they had simply decided it was unavoidable and a price worth paying.

"'You can be sure they knew they were being surveilled. Likewise, they would assume that the documents they were using would be made available after the fact,' said Mendez. 'What does this mean? It means it didn't matter. The faces and the documents that were captured by the cameras will probably never be seen again.'

"The fact that the perpetrators had to take the identities of real people rather than simply invent false identities is a symptom of the new world facing modern-day spies, one of databases and traceable passport information, she said.

"The real agents likely don't resemble the faces in the photos, she said ... And if they do, plastic surgery, dental implants and hair grafts can ensure they are unrecognizable afterward.

"'Steal the identity, disguise the participants, be ready on the other side with another set of identities and documents, and embrace and conceal the protagonists on their return,' she said.

"'With that goal in mind this may, in fact, be the operation of the future,'" wrote Friedman.

Thinking Americans have an increasingly clear choice.

They can join the cult of redemptive violence, kneel before a Zionist tribal God of vengeance, and watch their country and its culture revert to the law of nature as militarism runs amok and Israeli spies and assassins, protected by corrupt and co-opted political leaders, roam America at will.

Or they can embrace and actively support not the savagery of assassins but the rule of law. They can cultivate the wisdom, insight, and foresight that are indispensable to the endurance of nations. They can persevere in their efforts to elect honest, wise, and progressive leaders. And they can continue to strive to live up and into the noblest ideals of their religions.

* Michael Gillespie, in addition to his regular freelance work for Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, is also a contributing editor and the Des Moines, IA correspondent for The Independent Monitor, the national newspaper of Arab Americans, published by Sami Mashney in Anaheim, CA.

Source: DV

Israeli Army Set to Defy Palestinian Cyber Warfare

Donald Corder — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:45:02 +0000

By Bishop Donald Corder* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Merciless will be the Israeli army's onslaught in devouring any and all forms of opposition in the war for the minds and hearts of the global body politic and supporters of the Palestinian Battle Cry: "No Credible Goldstone Investigation No International Holocaust Remembrance Day!" Echoing the demand for justice in response to the UN General Assembly's endorsement of the 'Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict' (document A/HRC/12/48), informally referred to as the "Goldstone report", after Richard Goldstone, the South African Justice who headed the mission. Hence, Israeli military targets Facebook, Twitter, Israel's new battle ground and employs Leyden Communications to Help Israel on UN Goldstone Report. Concluding, "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." --Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994.

IF EVER THERE WAS A TIME TO HEAR THE WARNING CRY OF, "WOLF!" now is that time for Palestinian and Middle Eastern leadership, in this dark and somber hour. Israel considers Iran its top enemy after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state was doomed to be "wiped off the map" and questioning the scale of the Holocaust. Israel subsequently cried out and demanded an unholy 'Twitter war' on Iran. "A new Middle East war of the general type and implications indicated will occur if certain specified incidents materialize. It will occur only if the combination of the Israeli government and certain Anglo-American circles wish to have it occur. If they should wish it to occur, the incidents to "explain" that occurrence; will be arranged. Lyndon Larouche. "Lyndon Larouche Executive Intelligence Review" January 2001.

"In history of wartime propaganda all political regimes of whatever stripe, do all employ the coarsest of lies. Whether to launch a country into a war, maintain warlike fervour or justify a military crusade after the fact, only a good old-fashioned big lie will speak to the crowd. An ingenious lie or a newly invented one will not do the trick. There exist formulas for moving a mass of people to indignation, anger, the desire to fight, formulas for arousing, at least temporarily, the will to commit oneself heart and soul to the war effort. The first weapon of the ordinary confidence man is not some genius for swindling but an ability to gain sympathy when approaching the victim and to proceed with the very simplest talk." Robert Faurisson The Revisionist Method Applied to the History of the Third World War. May 11, 2003.

Truth has nothing to do with propaganda nor does it have anything to do with Iran and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nor the reasons published for putting them at the top of the 'Whack'em List!" From purely a personal, and my own very Christian view, President Ahmadinejad is not their boogey man. Rather the Zionist problem stems back to the Jewish belief system and the applicability of the scriptures which declared they would be scattered throughout the nations, fearful and have no certain footing because of their sin. It seems reasonable that if that same God is indeed a God then if anyone would wipe them off of the face of the earth, it very well might be Him; starting in 70 AD with the fall and destruction of Jerusalem. Which land, I can believe now properly belongs in the family of Abraham as historically entrusted into the hands of Ishmael the elder son; who was not scattered across the face of the earth.

Secondly, President Ahmadinejad's questioning the scale of the holocaust in and of itself should not provide a foundation to declare war against him nor Iran. There was no budget. There was no plan. There was no extermination order from Hitler. Material evidence is astonishingly absent. The alleged gassing procedure has serious, unanswered questions. And the famous six million number has an amazing history. Revisionists claim that the public has been seriously misled by traditional historians. Are they right? Debating the Holocaust a New Look at Both Sides By Thomas Dalton, Ph.D
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For the past few decades there has been raging a kind of subterranean debate, one of monumental importance. It is a debate about the Holocaust -- not whether or not it "happened" (this is a meaningless claim), but rather, HOW it happened, through what MEANS, and to what EXTENT. Worldwide the Holocaust has grown into a temporal religion says noted Israeli journalist Israel Shamir, "...the Holocaust is not a Jewish religion; it is a religion par excellence for goyim" â€“ a disrespectful Hebrew word for non-Jews.
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Subsequently, why can't the UN General Assembly move according to their constitution as they fully explore and address the legal force and unintended consequence of the elements constituting Resolution 60/7 as touching the holocaust in its pursuit of justice and world peace. America's most successful revisionist activist, Bradley Smith, writes simply but strongly on how the Holocaust taboo blinds professors, journalists, politicians, and the human rights community to their responsibilities to encourage a free flow of ideas. "Revisionism means nothing more or less than the effort to correct the historical record."...Harry Elmer Barnes. Thus, affirming and providing legitimacy to the Palestinian Battle Cry: "No Credible Goldstone Investigation No International Holocaust Remembrance Day!"

Zionist are mobilizing the entire might of Israel and every pro-Israeli lobbyist under the sun to smite down the idea of a Free Palestine and impede the dreams of our babies from ever being echoed through cyberspace. In the wake of Sun Tzu's wisdom we must respect the necessary discipline and learning required: "when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

Middle Eastern governments, persons of wealth and influence and those who are morally offended by the Palestinian genocide must elevate the level of their engagement. Begin recruiting computer experts and target the Internet's social networking sites to create a direct link with international audiences rather than continuing the unrelenting frustration of attempting to access the regular media. Take the initiative to represent the Nation of Palestine and the Arab nations independently on the Internet and other domains.

Establish groups between 8 to 10 young people who might be willing to become experts in Web 2.0 - YouTube, Facebook and Twitter - and identify them for training, development of cyber club websites and computer giveaways. Post videos of attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip on YouTube and contact bloggers who are known as opinion-makers and directly send them information and pictures. Raise the level of your strategic aims from the grassroots of cyberspace and provide the resources to get this initiative off of park and establish a super secure global distributed network, a Wide Area Network (WAN). Raise the Palestinian Battle Cry to the next level of engagement: "No Credible Goldstone Investigation No International Holocaust Remembrance Day!"â€¨â€¨What is at stake and what must be articulated is the idea of a free Palestine and vision for actualized Arab Nations in a productive global community. Breaking the bands holding us in captivity falls upon the shoulders of 'they' who are men, who would protect their own families, ways of life along with insuring the dreams of our children's future might be fully realized. What hope is there for an American savior when the Zionist unashamedly declare publicly, "Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." -- Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

For us to do nothing in this defining hour of what perhaps is of eternal historical significance; well, the alternative future for us all might be echoed in these historic words: "Our race is the Master Race, we are divine gods on this planet, as different from the inferior races as they are from insects, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races, our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves." -Menachem Begin (Israeli Prime Minister, 1977-1983)

American Maxim: Don't Get Mad, Get Even...: "No Credible Goldstone Investigation No International Holocaust Remembrance Day!"

* Don Corder is presiding bishop for Spirit of Life International Believers Fellowship and Senior Pastor of the Pillar of Truth Ministries. Mr. Corder is a published author, grassroots organizer and community activist, in addition to his work in urban and international development as a business consultant and entrepreneur. Email: DonCorder@gmail.com

Israel deploys cyber team to spread positive spin

Jonathan Cook — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:14:49 +0000

By Jonathan Cook * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitters and Facebook may not be all that it seems.

Israel's foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel.

Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilised soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government's line on the Middle East conflict.

"To all intents and purposes the internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose," said Ilan Shturman, who is responsible for the project.

The existence of an "internet warfare team" came to light when it was included in this year's foreign ministry budget. About $150,000 (Dh551,000) has been set aside for the first stage of development, with increased funding expected next year.

The team will fall under the authority of a large department already dealing with what Israelis term "hasbara", officially translated as "public explanation" but more usually meaning propaganda. That includes not only government public relations work but more secretive dealings the ministry has with a battery of private organisations and initiatives that promote Israel's image in print, on TV and online.

In an interview this month with the Calcalist, an Israeli business newspaper, Mr Shturman, the deputy director of the ministry's hasbara department, admitted his team would be working undercover.

"Our people will not say: â€˜Hello, I am from the hasbara department of the Israeli foreign ministry and I want to tell you the following.' Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis," he said. "They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the foreign ministry developed."

Rona Kuperboim, a columnist for Ynet, Israel's most popular news website, denounced the initiative, saying it indicated that Israel had become a "thought-police state".

She added that "good PR cannot make the reality in the occupied territories prettier. Children are being killed, homes are being bombed, and families are starved."
Her column was greeted by several talkbackers asking how they could apply for a job with the foreign ministry's team.

The project is a formalisation of public relations practices the ministry developed specifically for Israel's assault on Gaza in December and January.

"During Operation Cast Lead we appealed to Jewish communities abroad and with their help we recruited a few thousand volunteers, who were joined by Israeli volunteers," Mr Shturman said.

"We gave them background material and hasbara material, and we sent them to represent the Israeli point of view on news websites and in polls on the internet."

The Israeli army also had one of the most popular sites on the video-sharing site YouTube and regularly uploaded clips, although it was criticised by human rights groups for misleading viewers about what was shown in its footage.

Mr Shturman said that during the war the ministry had concentrated its activities on European websites where audiences were more hostile to Israeli policy. High on its list of target sites for the new project would be BBC Online and Arabic websites, he added.

Elon Gilad, who heads the internet team, told Calcalist that many people had contacted the ministry offering their services during the Gaza attack. "People just asked for information, and afterwards we saw that the information was distributed all over the internet."

He suggested that there had been widespread government cooperation, with the ministry of absorption handing over contact details for hundreds of recent immigrants to Israel, who wrote pro-Israel material for websites in their native languages.

The new team is expected to increase the ministry's close coordination with a private advocacy group, giyus.org (Give Israel Your United Support). About 50,000 activists are reported to have downloaded a programme called Megaphone that sends an alert to their computers when an article critical of Israel is published. They are then supposed to bombard the site with comments supporting Israel.

Nasser Rego of Ilam, a group based in Nazareth that monitors the Israeli media, said Arab organisations in Israel were among those regularly targeted by hasbara groups for "character assassination". He was concerned the new team would try to make such work appear more professional and convincing.

"If these people are misrepresenting who they are, we can guess they won't worry too much about misrepresenting the groups and individuals they write about. Their aim, it's clear, will be to discredit those who stand for human rights and justice for the Palestinians."

When The National called the foreign ministry, Yigal Palmor, a spokesman, denied the existence of the internet team, though he admitted officials were stepping up exploitation of new media.

He declined to say which comments by Mr Shturman or Mr Gilad had been misrepresented by the Hebrew-language media, and said the ministry would not be taking any action over the reports.

Israel has developed an increasingly sophisticated approach to new media since it launched a "Brand Israel" campaign in 2005.

Market research persuaded officials that Israel should play up good news about business success, and scientific and medical breakthroughs involving Israelis.

Mr Shturman said his staff would seek to use websites to improve "Israel's image as a developed state that contributes to the quality of the environment and to humanity".

David Saranga, head of public relations at Israel's consulate-general in New York, which has been leading the push for more upbeat messages about Israel, argued last week that Israel was at a disadvantage against pro-Palestinian advocacy.

"Unlike the Muslim world, which has hundreds of millions of supporters who have adopted the Palestinian narrative in order to slam Israel, the Jewish world numbers only 13 million," he wrote in Ynet.

Israel has become particularly concerned that support is ebbing among the younger generations in Europe and the United States.

In 2007 it emerged that the foreign ministry was behind a photo-shoot published in Maxim, a popular US men's magazine, in which female Israeli soldiers posed in swimsuits.

* Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" and "Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair".

Links: Daily Roundup

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 07:04:29 +0000

lifestreams - your life live

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Handy Designer's Tools "On The Fly"

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Schedule Future-Dated Twitter Tweets Â» TweetLater.com

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Screencast-O-Matic

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Apple iPhone vs. Google Android - Mobile Software War Between Google and Apple - Popular Mechanics

Google is hoping to transform cellphones the way it did the Web, but if it really wants to dominate the mobile market, it will have to prove that it can out-do (or get third parties like HTC to out-do) Apple's iPhone.

Sabra-Shatila Foundation: XO Laptops to the children of Palestinian camps

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:55:13 +0000

Donations to Support Our XO Laptop Program are Greatly Appreciated

Note: The Sabra Shatila Foundation is funding the purchase and shipment of as many XO laptops as possible from the MIT One Laptop Per Child program. These unique self-powered, wind-up, internet-ready laptops cost approximately $180 per unit to manufacture, but they are offered in lots of 10,000 at a reduced rate of $100 per unit. We need public support to continue funding this project.

Transfer: Bank of Beirut, SAL, Eldorado Branch.
A/C # 1140 V 3819 0900

SWIFT: BABELBBE

Also, use our secure online PayPal link on the sidebar to make a contribution!

Sabra-Shatila Memorial Event and Laptop Distribution Programme

A Sabra-Shatila Massacre Memorial Event will begin at 10:30am on 16 September 2008. The event will commence outside the Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp in Beirut, Lebanon, at the Kuwaiti Embassy roundabout, and will proceed in a short Memorial Walk to Martyrâ€™s Square off Rue Sabra, at the site of the 1982 massacre. Among those commemorating the 26th anniversary will be friends and relatives of the victims, foreign delegations, local student groups, NGOâ€™s, dignitaries, and government officials. Scheduled speakers include Palestinian Ambassador Abass Zaki, Minister of Education Bahia Hariri, Members of Parliament and the Diplomatic Corps, the Mayor of Ghoberi Municipality, Mr Abu Said Al-Khansaa, Mr Aarwan Abdel Al of the PLO Central Committee, and victims of the 1982 Massacre. The ceremony will also include the launch of 1000 balloons in tribute to the 3000 people killed in 1982.

Just as the release of the balloon is at once a symbol of both honour and hope, this event will also mark a move forward for the new generation of Camp residents. The Sabra-Shatila Foundation (www.sabrashatila.org) announces the distribution of specially designed educational XO laptop computers as gifts to Palestinian students living in Shatila Camp. The Foundation will present laptops with award certificates to hundreds of students.

This distribution is part of a projected 100,000 laptops to be donated in the coming months to deprived Palestinian and Lebanese students in Lebanon. It is the hope and commitment of the Sabra-Shatila Foundation that all 59 Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and all of Palestine will, in the near future, benefit from the XO Laptop educational programme now being launched in Lebanon.

Full details of the history of the XO Laptop educational programme, as well as full specifications of the laptop unit can be found at www.laptop.org. The One Laptop Per Child programme is a non-profit organization providing children in need with a tool to discover their potential for learning and becoming part of the solution to the challenges faced by their community. These benefits are being implemented here in Lebanon by the Sabra-Shatila Foundation.

The XO Laptop

This special laptop has a critical mission: the education of disadvantaged children whose living environment would seriously challenge a traditional laptop. Full specifications and the history of its design can be found at www.laptop.org. Some key characteristics are:

* Spillproof, rain-proof, dust-proof and drop-proof
* Fanless, silent and light weight (less than 2 kilos)
* Built-in video camera, microphone, memory-card slot, graphics tablet and game-pad controllers
* Rugged screen that rotates into a tablet configuration
* Real-life tested in Africa, Asian and South America
* Run by a lithium ferro-phosphate battery, replaceable at only $10, and good for 2000 charges
* Low energy requirements, consuming a mere 2 watts compared with the conventional 60+ for ordinary laptops
* Non-dependant on electricity, using a pull-cord charger; one minute of pulling provides 10 minutes of power
* Colour screen with sharp definition (1200 x 9000 pixels), with option to turn off backlight so that the screen remains legible in bright sunlight
* Wireless internet connection and MESH networking capablility, allowing communication amongst laptops even with no internet, and the ability to share internet connection
* Includes a word processor, web browser, calculator, PDF textbook reader, educational games, music programs, and more

Source: Sabra Shatila Foundation, via: Servant

CAMERAâ€™s broken lens

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:12:51 +0000

EI study refutes CAMERA media bias accusation
By Shervan Sardar, The Electronic Intifada, 18 August 2008

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9711.shtml

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is a media monitoring organization with a large database of supporters known for its staunch support for Israeli policies and its ability to influence media coverage. While CAMERA claims to be objective and interested in holding the media accountable to its own "self-professed standards," the terminology and views of the organization are largely consistent with those of the Israeli government itself.

Earlier this year, an Electronic Intifada investigation brought CAMERA under scrutiny for its efforts to secretly take control of the administrative structures of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia (story here) CAMERA'S The Washington Post analysis

CAMERA's analysis of The Washington Post found only four outside commentaries (17 percent) in a 19-month period supporting an Israeli view or criticizing Arab policies and 17 supporting an Arab perspective or criticizing Israel, with two neutral op-eds. Only four op-eds on the conflict during this period would have been an extraordinarily small number considering this was a period which included the Israel-Lebanon war, Israel's proposed "convergence" plan, the Palestinian elections in which Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament, the international boycott of Palestinians following the elections, and unprecedented intra-Palestinian violence.

CAMERA's flawed research led it to the conclusion that "[The] Washington Post Arab-Israeli commentary by outside writers is overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli or both." "The Washington Post rarely publishes outside commentary by Israelis in the news, or their supporters, whose views contradict those of Palestinians like the terrorists [Hamas advisor Ahmad] Yousef, [Hamas Prime Minister Ismail] Haniyeh, or [Hamas leader Mousa Abu] Marzook; or those of Palestinian apologists like [journalist Daoud] Kuttab, [former US diplomat Aaron David] Miller, and [former Clinton advisor Robert] Malley or anti-Israel polemicists like [former US President Carter ..."

However, a closer look at the data shows that CAMERA had not included 27 relevant op-eds (16 primary, 11 tangential) and had improperly classified others. Furthermore, most of the outside commentaries supporting Arabs or criticizing Israel contained views well within the mainstream international consensus for resolving conflict and support for international law.

During the 19-month period, The Washington Post had actually published not four, but 17 primary guest op-eds supporting an Israeli perspective or criticizing Arab policies, 13 more than claimed in the original CAMERA study. Ten of these 17 primary op-eds were missing from CAMERA's report altogether. There were also 16 primary op-eds supporting an Arab point of view or criticizing Israel with six neutral op-eds.

The primary op-eds omitted by CAMERA included two by Dennis Ross ("The Art of the Possible Peace; Rice's First Task: A Viable Israeli-Palestinian Cease Fire," "The Specter of 'Hamastan'; More Must Be Done to Counter Islamist Gains in Gaza") and one each from David Makovsky ("The Next Mideast War"), Newt Gingrich ("The Only Option Is to Win"), Richard Holbrooke ("The Guns of August"), Michael Oren ("Necessary Steps for Israel; Confronting State Sponsors of Terror Is the Only Option"), David Rivkin and Lee Casey ("Israel Is Within Its Rights"), Philip Gordon ("Air Power Won't Do It"), John McLaughlin ("We Have to Talk to the Bad Guys") and Franklin D. Kramer ("Making Peace Stick in Lebanon").

There were also several improperly classified op-eds including:

* Aaron David Miller ("Palestinians' Crisis of Leadership") criticizes Palestinian leadership as not coherent and "irresponsible" which CAMERA acknowledges. Nevertheless, CAMERA considered the article supportive of an Arab perspective.
* Steven A. Cook ("Don't Blame Democracy Promotion") blames Hamas and Hizballah for much of the conflict with Israel and criticizes their failure to embrace democracy, but CAMERA still considered the article neutral.
* Robert Eisen ("Muslims and Jews: Common Ground") discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from Muslim and Jewish perspectives and supported the role of the clergy in trying to bring people together. CAMERA characterized the article as a pro-Arab dismissal of threats to Israel -- and a failure to understand Islamic fundamentalism.

When op-eds tangentially discussing the Arab-Israeli conflict were considered, the data actually showed that 10 additional guest commentaries took an Israeli perspective or criticized Arab policies (eight of which were not included in the original CAMERA report), bringing the total to 27. Three additional tangential op-eds supported an Arab perspective or criticized Israel, a total of 19 and three more neutral op-eds appeared for a total of nine. Rather than pro-Arab, anti-Israeli or both, the guest commentaries in The Washington Post were actually more supportive of Israel or critical of Arab policies, similar to the rest of the editorial page.

CAMERA's The New York Times analysis

CAMERA's The New York Times analysis found only eight op-eds supporting Israel or criticizing Arab policies and twice as many criticizing Israel or supporting Arab policies which led to its conclusion that "rather than representing the 'nation's most important forum on the most contentious issues of the day,' The New York Times has become a vehicle for one-sided (pro-Arab) advocacy in a contentious debate."

Far from a vehicle for "pro-Arab advocacy," in fact, The New York Times actually published not eight, but 18 primary guest commentaries supporting Israel or criticizing Arab policies. There were another 16 guest commentaries supporting an Arab view or criticizing Israeli policies and with 12 neutral op-eds.

When op-eds only tangentially covering the Arab-Israeli conflict were considered, the data showed that six additional op-eds supported an Israeli perspective or criticized Arab policies, raising the total to 24, two additional op-eds supporting an Arab point of view or 18 total, and two more neutral op-eds or 14 total.

The primary difference between CAMERA's original analysis of guest commentaries in The New York Times and the re-examination was not the omission of articles per se as in their analysis of The Washington Post -- but the finding that CAMERA had arbitrarily classified many of the guest commentaries in a manner that downplayed op-eds supporting Israel or criticizing Arab policies and slightly increased the number commentaries supporting Arab policies or criticizing Israel.

In this regard, CAMERA's approach took several patterns. Some op-eds recommended ideas for how to resolve conflicts focusing primarily on the changes that could be made on the Arab side. These commentaries were considered neutral by CAMERA and not consistent with its own criteria for classifying articles:

* Former Israeli soldier Adir Gurion Waldman ("Lebanon's Force for Good") suggested that a task force between Israeli and Lebanese representatives could work on a broad range of issues but should have a new mandate for overseeing the "disarmament of Hizballah and other terrorist organizations." Although many might agree with this policy, the analysis did not contain equal criticism of the parties involved in the conflict.
* Mark Helprin ("Forced to Get Along") endorsed the West Bank first strategy of isolating Hamas and all other residents of Gaza. Again, the criticism primarily focused on Palestinians and could not be considered neutral.
* Michael Oren ("What if Israel and Syria Find Common Ground") considers the requirements for peace between Israel and Syria -- and in doing so discusses the problems with Syria from US and Israeli perspectives. Nevertheless, CAMERA considered the op-ed neutral.

In addition, some writers appeared to be typecasted as "pro-Arab" regardless of the commentary and even if demands were placed on both sides. Discussing how to resolve the conflict between Israel and Hizballah, the commentaries by authors Chibli Mallat ("Resolve to Put Lebanon in Charge") and Paul Salem ("Stop Bombs, Start Talks") below supported among other elements, the disarmament of Hizballah, called for the Lebanese government to be put in charge of the entire country, and sought the return of prisoners -- but they were still not considered balanced by CAMERA.

Finally, some classifications of op-eds were simply difficult to explain:

* CAMERA's description of an op-ed ("A Conflict that Will Stay Closer to Home") by Edward Luttwak states, "Discusses Israeli-Hizballah conflict as part of a larger conflict financed and directed by Iran and Syria." Although the description clearly blamed Syria for the conflict, the op-ed was placed in a neutral category.
* In another op-ed ("Cold, Hard Cash"), CAMERA claimed that Geoff Porter "urged US, EU funding of a Hamas-led government" when the main purpose of the article was to suggest that Arab states should make an effort to moderate Hamas with aid so that Hamas would not fall under Iran's orbit. This op-ed focused primarily on changing Palestinian behavior -- and whether or not this is an appropriate policy -- criticism was only directed at one side party to the conflict.
* An op-ed by Ted Koppel ("Look What Democratic Reform Dragged In") argued the US was fighting a war with Iran through proxies -- and took the view that Israel's bombing of Lebanon was a function of Israel understanding their "enemy's intentions with greater clarity than most" -- but the op-ed was still considered neutral by CAMERA.

Conclusion

CAMERA is incorrect in its analysis and perception that outside commentaries in The Washington Post and The New York Times reflect an anti-Israeli bias. When CAMERA's own analytic criteria are correctly applied and arbitrarily excluded articles are included, the statistics reflect that supporters of Israel or those critical of Arab policies have a slight advantage in the narrow category of guest op-eds during the period examined. The fact that the editorial staff and regular columnists of these papers are also overwhelmingly supportive of Israel and critical of Arab policies -- an issue not examined by CAMERA -- only drives the point home more clearly of the real problem of bias on the editorial pages.

Overall CAMERA claimed that 59 percent of The Washington Post and The New York Times primary guest op-eds dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict supported an Arab perspective or criticized Israel. In reality, the proportion was only 38 percent. And whereas CAMERA claimed that just 21 percent of primary guest op-eds supported an Israeli perspective or criticized Arabs, in reality 41 percent took such a position. CAMERA based its conclusions on an examination of just 56 articles, when in fact there were 85 primary op-eds (39 in The Washington Post, 46 in The New York Times) that met its criteria for inclusion in the study. Once again it is worth noting that these 85 guest op-eds did not include newspaper editorials, staff op-eds, or nationally syndicated writers.

The broader implication of the research here is that a more balanced presentation of the issues and opinion is sorely needed in the pages of America's newspapers -- where there is a lack of discussion of international law generally, [30] UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to the conflict often do not appear, casualties on the Arab side are given less mention or not discussed at all, and the collective consensus of human rights organizations on critical issues of the conflict are rarely mentioned. If the media cannot portray the issues accurately or fairly -- and the national discourse on foreign policy remains unchanged on the pages of these papers, there can be little hope that the foreign policy itself will reflect standards of international decency or lead to a just resolution for all parties involved.

Download the full report [PDF]:
http://electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/080811-EI-CAMERA-report.pdf

Shervan Sardar is a Washington, DC-based lawyer. He holds a MA in International Affairs from American University and can be reached at ssardar_23 A T comcast D O T net.

US Dept of Justice IP address blocked after ‘vandalism’ edits to Wikipedia

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:52:03 +0000

Wikinews has learned that a United States Department of Justice (DOJ) IP Address has been blocked on Wikipedia after making edits to an article which were considered "vandalism". In two separate instances, the IP address from the DOJ removed information from the Wikipedia article about the organization Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), regarding an attempt by the organization to secretly gain influence on the site. The IP address has been confirmed by Wikinews to be registered and used by the DOJ located in Washington, D.C.

On April 21, Electronic Intifada published a report based on leaked emails written between CAMERA and Wikipedia contributors who are allegedly planning to gain influence on the online encyclopedia. Information about CAMERA's campaign to influence Wikipedia was first added to the site's article about the organization on April 21 by user 'Bangpound', who cited the Electronic Intifada article.

According to the edit history on the Wikipedia article CAMERA, the entire subsection relating to this controversy was removed by the IP address 149.101.1.130, which is hosted by 'wdcsun30.usdoj.gov' and is used by the DOJ. The IP address removed information regarding CAMERA's plan to "cooperate with prominent Wikipedia editors to promote a Zionist viewpoint and oppose pro-Arab viewpoints on Wikipedia" at least two separate times, on April 24 and April 25.

The IP address belonging to the DOJ also made edits identified as vandalism to the Wikipedia articles Tracy Jordan, Roger Ebert, and James E. Akins. After several warnings on the IP address's "talk page", the IP address was blocked for four days for "repeated vandalism." Several hours prior to the DOJ edits, an IP address also from Washington D.C., 71.178.102.65, removed the same information. Wikinews can confirm the IP address is located in Washington D.C. and belongs to Verizon.

Wikipedia administrators were kept apprised in an ongoing discussion about the incident at Wikipedia's Administrators' noticeboard. "The Justice employee is attempting to scrub any mention of CAMERA's activities to influence Wikipedia (now double-sourced) as seen here in this edit," said Wikipedia editor Lawrence Cohen, in an initial post to the Administrators' noticeboard.

Founded in 1982, CAMERA is a pro-Israel media-monitoring and research non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. On April 21 the Electronic Intifada, a not-for-profit online publication which covers the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective, published an article describing efforts by CAMERA to secretly influence Wikipedia articles. According to the article, Electronic Intifada obtained a series of emails between CAMERA and members of Wikipedia, attempting to game the encyclopedia and influence articles on the site related to Israel.

Electronic Intifada quoted a March 13 email from Gilead Ini, a Senior Research Analyst at CAMERA, who enlisted volunteers to make sure articles about Israel on Wikipedia were "free of bias and error, and include necessary facts and context". In a follow-up email from March 17, Ini emphasized secrecy, telling the email list members not to "forward it to members of the news media", and wrote that "There is no need to advertise the fact that we have these group discussions." The media criticism organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting criticized the CAMERA emails, calling them "particularly insidious" because "stealth and misrepresentation are presented as the keys to success."

Later discussions in the series of emails obtained by Electronic Intifada included advice on how to get members of CAMERA elected as Wikipedia administrators, in order to gain influence. Wikipedia user 'Zeq' posted to the list: "One or more of you who want to take this route should stay away from any Israel realted [sic] articles for one month until they [sic] interact in a positive way with 100 wikipedia [sic] editors who would be used later to vote you as an administrator."

After the IP address belonging to the DOJ was blocked, Wikipedia editors informed the Wikimedia Foundation's Communications committee about the incident. Both Wikinews and Wikipedia are projects of the Wikimedia Foundation. In addition to the DOJ IP address, several Wikipedia users determined to be cooperating with the CAMERA campaign to influence Wikipedia had also previously been blocked by Wikipedia administrators.

Wikinews requested a statement from the Department of Justice on the edits to Wikipedia, but as of this article's publication had not received a response.
Sources

* "About CAMERA". Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, retrieved April 28, 2008
* "Need admin eyes on US Department of Justice activity, please (CAMERA/lobbying)". Wikipedia, April 28, 2008
* "Communications committee/Notifications - US Department of Justice blocked for ongoing vandalism". Wikimedia Foundation, April 26, 2008
* "Talk:Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America#Edit from U.S. Department of Justice". Wikipedia, April 28, 2008
* "POLÃ‰MICA EN ORIENTE PRÃ“XIMO CON WIKIPEDIA - Â¿Se puede reescribir la historia?". elmundo.es, April 24, 2008 ((Spanish))
* "Media Views - Electronic Intifada: A Pro-Israel Group's Plan to Rewrite History on Wikipedia". Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, April 21, 2008
* "EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia". Electronic Intifada, April 21, 2008
* Wikinews

Source: Mister-Info.com

Facebook: Danger to Israeli Security?

Haitham Sabbah — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:38:47 +0000

Read and laugh:

Israeli soldiers warned about Facebook [USA TODAY]

Israeli defense officials say they've identified an unlikely new threat to national security - Facebook.

A new list of rules aims to prevent soldiers and Defense Ministry employees from revealing classified information on social networking sites. The officials say some soldiers have uploaded pictures of themselves with classified equipment and inadvertently revealed sensitive information.

The rules released Thursday allow soldiers to create pages on networking sites as long as they don't identify themselves as soldiers or reveal any information about what they do.

The officials say defense authorities continue to surf the Net to make sure there are no further security breaches. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the rules have not been officially published.

All what I saw of Israeli soldiers online so far were some dirty asses, few boobs and burning Merkava's :-)

Good luck for our "occupation-resistance inelegance". I'm sure they are following up with some of these dump asses and using all the info they can get.

Google and Facebook Celebrate Israel’s 60th

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:36:20 +0000

Blair, Gorbachev, Streisand to attend Israel's 60th

President Shimon Peres is bringing in top personalities from around the world to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday.

United States President George W. Bush, Barbra Streisand, Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev and Rupert Murdoch ...

But guess who is joining the celebration too:

The list of confirmed guests also includes Henry Kissinger, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, former Czech President Vaclev Havel, Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz, Google founder Sergey Brinn, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerman, Ratan Tata, chairman of India's Tata group, U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson, and Abdurrahman Wahid, former president of Indonesia, a country with no diplomatic relations with Israel... read on!

There you go, Daily KOS got their pay, now it is Google and Facebook turn to collect their cheques!

Israeli city demand Google Earth to erase Nakhba – Palestinian Catastrophe – info, Google says NO!

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:42:13 +0000

Israeli occupiers in the city of Kiryat Yam filed a police complaint to force Google to delete what they called as "false information that hurts the city's image".

The so called "false information" was placed a Palestinian doctor as user-generated notation placed on the image of Kiryat Yam and gives brief historical information about the location and refers to Nakhba - Palestinian Catastrophe. The notation reads:

This is one of the Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. For basic information about this locality, including brief history, the 1948 events, its current status, pictures and statistics, visit: www.palestineremembered.com.

(Click to enlarge)

The Israeli occupier complaint that "Those who see Kiryat Yam on Google Earth are told that the city was built on the ruins of an Arab town from which innocent civilians were expelled. In fact, officials said, the city was built by Holocaust survivors on land that was completely barren and had not been settled in the past. The false information was placed as part of a deliberate attempt to hurt the city's interests, they said."

The good news is that Google told them to "get lost" and that the altered map is "not illegal":

While we recognize that some may find the user generated content objectionable, we are careful to balance the integrity of an open forum with the legal requirements of local governments. It looks as though this particular user-contributed annotation does not breach our Terms and Conditions nor is it in any way illegal.

The Google Earth community layer is a place where people can tag their knowledge or opinions of a location. Their comments are clearly indicated with the 'I' icon and this layer can easily be switched on and off.

We believe the majority of people use the community positively to share their expertise and experiences. In most cases, our users increase the utility of the product and provide a more meaningful and robust experience for each other with their contributions to the Google Earth community.

The International Herald Tribune published more details about the story and interviewed the Palestinian doctor:

Northern Israeli town files complaint over Google claim it was built on Arab village

IHT - An Israeli town is suing Internet giant Google for slander, a local official said Monday, because a feature of its worldwide map service shows the town was built on the ruins of an Arab village.

The dispute brings together two controversies, one old and one new. Officials from the town, Kiryat Yam, deny they displaced Arabs during the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948, and Google is defending the practice of allowing any surfer to change information in its files.

Kiryat Yam is a town of 40,000 on the Mediterranean coast just north of the port of Haifa. An entry on Google Earth, a feature that allows users to zero in on locations around the world, alleges that the town was built on the ruins of Ghawarina, an Arab village.

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled or were expelled during the 1948-49 war that began with Israel's declaration of independence. Dozens of Arab villages were destroyed.

Kiryat Yam was pulled into the dispute - still one of the hottest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - when a Google Earth user, Thameen Darby, inserted a note on the map saying it was built on the location of Ghawarina. Darby has inserted at least 10 such notes over Google's map of Israel.

Kiryat Yam filed a slander complaint with Israel's police, said town official Naty Keyzilberman. "This obviously cannot be true, because Kiryat Yam was founded in 1945," he said, explaining the police complaint.

Darby, 30, a Palestinian doctor raised in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, said his mother was a refugee from to the village Balad al-Sheikh near Kiryat Yam. His said his contributions to Google Earth are part of the "Nakhba -- Palestinian Catastrophe" information hub aimed to help displaced Palestinians understand their heritage or find the villages of their parents or grandparents.

"As far as I can know, the Arab Ghawarina locality was in the place depicted," Darby told The Associated Press. He noted that he may have not marked the exact location and if proven wrong "by reliable sources, I will be quick to reallocate it."

Darby's Internet Web site pinpoints Ghawarina on the site of Kiryat Yam, but another places it south of Haifa at the site of a present-day Arab town, Jisr el-Zarka. Six decades later, it is difficult to accurately locate many of the destroyed villages, leading to the conflciting claims.

Above Kiryat Yam, Darby wrote, "this is one of the Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war."

"That's simply complete nonsense," Professor Yossi Ben-Artzi of Haifa University told Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. "Kiryat Yam was built on sand dunes, and there wasn't any Palestinian village in the area. The lands were bough in 1939 by the Gav Yam construction company."

Asked to respond to the police complaint, a Google spokesman said Google Earth depends on user-generated content that reflects what people contribute, not what Google believes is accurate. The spokesman would not give his name, in keeping with company policy.

The spokesman insisted that the altered map is not illegal, and Google's policy is not to remove such postings.

One point for Google!

Desperate to Censorship Facebook! (Updated)

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:23:34 +0000

"You know you are doing well when Zionists and their alike are desperately trying to silence you."

Image by: Carlos Latuff

This is exactly what is happening to me on Facebook for two consecutive days now.

As you know, beside Sabbah's Blog, I also run the aggregator, Palestine Blogs - The Gazette.

Yesterday I received an email from Facebook Team complaining about Palestine Blogs application which I created there few days ago. Following is a copy of Facebook email to me, which is self explanatory:

From: Facebook [developers -help+mmymw2yr@facebookmail.com]
Date: Nov 13, 2007 12:19 PM
Subject: User TOS report against Palestine Blogs - The Gazette
To: haitham.sabbah@gmail.com

Hi,

A Facebook user reported that your application Palestine Blogs - The Gazette violates our Terms of Use. The user reporting it selected Attacks individual or group as the violation. This person also said:

"blatantly Anti-Semitic. Attacks Jews and Israelis as Nazis, war criminals, legitimate suicide bombing targets, etc."

Please investigate this issue.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

I replied back to Facebook Team explaining to them that the above is not true and gave them a brief description of the aggregator - Palestine Blogs, but the email bounced back because the sender email (Facebook's) is configured to bounce emails sent to it. I looked around Facebook site to find a way to contact the 'Team' but could not find a way to do that, so I gave up... At least I tried!

The story did not end there. Today I got a second email from Facebook again, and it was another complain, but this time regarding my blog application (Sabbah's). The email below is self explanatory:

From: Facebook [developers -help+mmymw2yr@facebookmail.com]
Date: Nov 14, 2007 7:37 PM
Subject: User TOS report against Sabbah's
To: haitham.sabbah@gmail.com

Hi,

A Facebook user reported that your application Sabbah's violates our Terms of Use. The user reporting it selected Attacks individual or group as the violation. This person also said:

"Following my recent encounters with Sabbah on his blog, it is pure propaganda blog that silences everybody who disagree with the writer (I was silenced after posting very polite comments questioning a few posts). It is basically a one-man hosted hate group and i don't think it has a place on platform such as Facebook. Thank you!"

Please investigate this issue.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Pathetic! They did not leave anything for chance and grouped all the sins in this world together. A "one-man hosted hate group, anti-Semitic, anti-Jews, anti-Israelis as Nazis, citing war criminals and legitimate suicide bombing targets."

It looks like a systematic-desperate force trying to influence/scare Facebook to censorship what is published there. Of course this is not new around the web (check Steve's post about the resent attempt to silence Google), and I'm sure it will never stop as long as we have Zionists spitting poison every way they go.

Anyway, if I disappear from Facebook, you know why!

Any advice?

Update (18/11/2007): I got the a third "investigate this" email from Facebook.

Like the preceding ones, some Zionist claims that I'm (my blog is) anti-Semitic.

Here is a copy of the email:

From: Facebook [developers-help+mmymw2yr@facebookmail.com]
Date: Nov 18, 2007 9:30 AM
Subject: User TOS report against Sabbah's
To: haitham.sabbah@gmail.com

Hi,

A Facebook user reported that your application Sabbah's violates our Terms of Use. The user reporting it selected Attacks individual or group as the violation. This person also said:

"Very antisemitic "

Please investigate this issue.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Note the "very"?! So one can be slightly anti-semitic, but in my case I'm "very" anti-semitic.