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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Agent Smiley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Note: forwarded message attached. ~~~~~ Is NATO at war with China? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/psy-op/message/10243 Wildfire For Profit? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/psy-op/message/10248 You are being conditioned http://www.memes.org --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes [All ads are inserted by Topica without our consent. Ignore them.] IN THIS MESSAGE: * US-Israeli joint intelligence/training on Urban Warfare * Protest Closure of the Office of the Pres. of Al-Quds Univ. * Jenin: Watermelons vs. Tanks * US Partner in Pakistan Scorns Democracy * Israeli Curfew Silences West Bank City * Judge Keeps Detainee, Attorney Apart ------------------------------------------------ http://www.marinetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-942592.php May 31, 2002 U.S., Israeli armed forces trade urban-warfare tips American military officials studied attack on Jenin refugee camp By Christian Lowe Times staff writer U.S., Israeli armed forces trade urban-warfare tips American military officials studied attack on Jenin refugee camp By Christian Lowe Times staff writer While Israeli forces were engaged in what many termed a brutal - some even say criminal - campaign to crush Palestinian militants and terrorist cells in West Bank towns, U.S. military officials were in Israel seeing what they could learn from that urban fight. Likewise, just weeks after the vicious fight in the Jenin refugee camp that ended April 15 with 75 Israelis and Palestinians dead and nearly 150 buildings in rubble, a senior Israeli Defense Force intelligence officer visited the United States to watch U.S. Marines experiment with new urban-warfare tactics. All this military-to-military contact comes at a sensitive time, one in which the Bush administration is taking pains to appear as an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian standoff. Moreover, human-rights groups and State Department officials have expressed concerns about the IDF's urban counterterror tactics that U.S. military officials now are studying. A top Palestinian representative in Washington said the military visits could adversely affect a resolution to the Middle East conflict. "As far as it affects the Palestinians we think that it is unwise," said Abdul Rahman, chief PLO representative in the United States. "Because at least the declared objective of the United States is to achieve a permanent peace in the Middle East. Therefore they need to judge how it really enhances this declared objective or hinders it." The U.S. and Israeli armed forces were trading urban war-fighting tips gleaned from a campaign that even U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had labeled "troubling" for its brutality. In an April 21 interview with ABC News, Powell said U.S. diplomats played a leading role in calling for a United Nations investigation of potential Israeli war crimes in the refugee camps - an investigation that ultimately never got off the ground. Powell told ABC News that reports from U.S. diplomats who went into Jenin "were disturbing - the loss of life, collapsed buildings, potential for disease. . We're doing what we can to relieve suffering" in Jenin. A State Department official said the department was aware of the military visits, but declined to comment on the potential diplomatic fallout such visits could cause. Officials from the Israeli embassy, the Pentagon and Marine Corps all are unapologetic about the exchange of information about tactics, saying they are the result of a long-standing partnership. "The United States maintains an active security cooperation program with its friends and allies throughout the Middle East," a Pentagon spokesman, Army Maj. Tim Blair, said May 31. "These programs are intended to enhance regional security and enhance stability." Service officials meet with their counterparts from many countries, including Israel, and the exchange of experience and information between them is valuable in the development of war-fighting strategies, said Marine Lt. Col. Dave Booth, who oversees the Marine Corps-Israeli Defense Force exchanges. "We're interested in what they're developing, especially since Sept. 11," Booth said. "We're interested in their past experience in fighting terrorism. So there's a lot of things we could learn from them." Though Pentagon officials say the U.S. military now has no formal relations with the Palestinian Authority, Rahman said he wouldn't object to U.S.-Palestinian military exchanges. "We have always been receptive to cooperation with the United States and coordination in the area of security," Rahman said. "It's part of our bilateral relationship." Fresh lessons Israel waged its campaign on one of the toughest battlefields on earth a heavily populated city. The U.S. military, including the Marine Corps, is eager to learn what it can from the Israeli Defense Force's successes and failures during the house-to-house fighting while those memories still are fresh. Marine Corps Warfighting Lab officials plan to examine closely Israel's tactics and make changes to the Corps' urban war-fighting doctrine to reflect what worked for the Israelis. For instance, the use of armor and air power in urban warfare always has been challenging, given its potential for collateral damage, so the Marines are looking closely at how the Israelis employed tanks and helicopters in their fight. Beyond Marine-specific efforts to gather lessons from the Israeli-Palestinian fighting, a Pentagon official confirmed that the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a delegation of more than a dozen officials to Israel for a trip of about a week that wrapped up May 23. Led by the Joint Staff's deputy director for international negotiations and politico-military affairs for the Middle East, Rear Adm. Carlton Jewett, the group gathered lessons from the fighting and other tips to help in the ongoing war on terrorism, according to Israeli officials. The Joint Staff's visit was meant in part to plan an upcoming Defense Policy Advisory Group meeting. That session, involving Israeli and Pentagon officials, is planned for early June in Washington and led by Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. Earlier, on May 8, the head of the Israeli Army's Combat Intelligence Corps, Brig. Gen. Amnon Sufrin - accompanied by two Israeli military attachis from Washington - watched a Marine Corps urban-warfare reconnaissance experiment in Boise, Idaho. Sufrin was invited to visit the Warfighting Lab event by Marine Corps headquarters as he made his way to visit Fort Lewis, Wash., home of an Army cutting-edge Interim Combat Brigade team, Marine officials said. The Corps put several new surveillance technologies and tactics to the test in Boise. Marines clad in civilian clothing to aid their infiltration into the city used handheld satellite phones and rugged laptop computers to transmit up-to-the-minute intelligence on "enemy" movement through the streets of the city. Sufrin's trip came just weeks after Operation Defensive Shield, as the Israeli counterterrorism operation was known, ended April 21. But Israeli military incursions have continued in smaller form since, with soldiers staging quick raids on West Bank villages, searching for weapons, explosives and suspected Palestinian militants. An Israeli embassy spokeswoman confirmed there have been a number of visits between the U.S. and Israeli military both in America and Israel after Operation Defensive Shield began in April, but would not elaborate further. Questionable tactics It is as yet unclear just how the IDF urban- warfare lessons will be applied to the U.S. military's training, but clearly, some of them are controversial. A U.S.-based Islamic group was quick to condemn the close U.S.-Israeli cooperation in the wake of the fighting at Jenin. "It's troubling if it leads to the Israeli-ization of the war on terrorism," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "The bottom line is we've seen how counterproductive these Israeli tactics have been in terms of bringing peace and justice to the region. They would hardly be something we'd like to emulate." A Human Rights Watch report published last month claimed witnesses to the April counterterrorist incursion saw Israeli troops used civilians as human shields who were forced to knock on the doors of apartments as the Israelis searched for hiding Palestinian militants. Israeli army officials repeatedly have denied this and other claims of brutality and indiscriminate killing. In fact, Israeli army spokesmen have claimed they put their troops at increased risk in order to avoid hurting civilians. On May 9, the Israeli Defense Force issued an "unequivocal" order to its troops prohibiting the use of human shields and promised to prosecute any soldiers who violated that order. The Israeli army says it lost 29 soldiers in Operation Defensive Shield - 23 of them in the brutal house-to-house fighting in Jenin alone - but that hundreds more were wounded in nearly 60 days of clashes. Human Rights Watch claims 52 Palestinians were killed in Jenin, only 27 of whom were militants. The Marine Corps has taken a close look at the Jenin battle partly because some Marines train for urban combat at a range on George Air Force Base, Calif., that is about the same size as the Jenin camp but with half the structures, according to Randy Gangle, director of the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities. CETO is a partnership between the Warfighting Lab and the Potomac Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank. According to news reports, the IDF surrounded Jenin with tanks and sent in its most seasoned reservists to rout armed militants and suspected terrorists. Despite the heavily booby-trapped alleyways and near- constant sniper attacks, the IDF met with moderate success and took relatively few casualties. The troops went from house to house, clearing whole apartment blocks of militants after the Israelis said they warned residents to leave. Human Rights Watch and others dispute this, saying inadequate warning was given and that, in some cases, the IDF unleashed U.S.-built AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships in indiscriminate missile attacks on apartment blocks. After Palestinian militants ambushed an Israeli patrol April 9, killing 13 soldiers, the IDF took the gloves off and sent in armored D-9 bulldozers to cut a swath through the city, demolishing entire apartment blocks as they went. Bracketed into the center of the city, the remaining militants were killed or captured in 19 days of brutal fighting. Learning from the bloody urban-combat experiences of others is not new for the Corps. In the 1990s, Marine intelligence officers interviewed both Russian and Chechen veterans of Moscow's attempt to pacify Muslim separatists in that former Soviet republic. Likewise, it's no surprise the Corps' takes a keen interest in how both sides fought in the most recent round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. "It's important to share experiences because no one can know if the other will have to face the same kind of tactics and operations in the future," said retired Israeli Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom, former chief of Mossad, the Israeli counterpart to the CIA. He now serves as a national security advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. "I'm sure some of the lessons we're now learning during Operation Defensive Shield will prove useful to U.S. war planners, especially considering demographic realities and the trend of future threats, which point increasingly to terrorists using highly populated urban areas as their preferred base of operations." Solving the urban puzzle The Corps for years has sought ways to more effectively wage an urban war. In past urban-fighting experiments, the Corps suffered casualty rates as high as 70 percent. War games such as the one conducted in Boise and others are meant to flesh out techniques Marines can use to reduce casualties and emerge victorious in an urban fight. So Corps planners are taking the fighting techniques used by the Israelis during their campaign seriously. Israeli "lessons learned" are to be compared against the Corps' own Basic Urban Skills training doctrine. Accounts of the Jenin fighting "reflected everything that we have been saying for the last four years about the problems we're going to face in the urban battle space," Gangle said. Some Israeli tactics may be incorporated into the urban-warfare curriculum, Gangle said, but others may serve as examples of what not to do. For instance, the Israelis used two battalions to assault Jenin, which covers an area of approximately one square mile. When Marines train in similar spaces, they prefer to use only one battalion. Moreover, the Israelis moved through Jenin in a linear sweep - primarily from one direction, one block at a time. Gangle said that might not be the preferred tactic. But incorporation of Israeli lessons still is in the early stages, and it's unclear how they ultimately will manifest themselves. For instance, whether two controversial techniques - the use of heavily armored bulldozers and the Israeli tactic of moving from house to house by blowing through adjacent walls - will be adopted remains to be seen. Regardless, the lessons of Jenin are more valuable to the Corps because they came so soon after the operation ended, Gangle said. The Warfighting Lab study should yield results by late summer. "This is a unique situation because we don't have the passing of time to alter the perception of those who fought there," he said. Defense News senior correspondent Barbara Opall-Rome contributed to this report from Tel Aviv, Israel. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ============================================ From: Gershon Baskin, IPCRI Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information Subject: Raise Your Voice Against the Closure of the Office of the President of Al-Quds University, Prof. Sari Nusseibeh Yesterday morning Uzi Landau, the Israeli Minister of Internal Security ordered the Jerusalem Police to close the Administrative Offices of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. This is the office of one of the main civil society Palestinian peace leaders Prof. Sari Nusseibeh. Prof. Nusseibeh was abroad at the time of the closure participating in a meeting with civil society peace leaders from Israel. Last month Prof. Nusseibeh initiated the petition that was published over the course of a week in the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds against suicide bombers. Prof. Nusseibeh is an active participant and leading figure in many peace activities including activities under the umbrella of IPCRI. In addition to the closure, the Police and the Shin Bet confiscated of all of the books, papers, and equipment from Sari's office, including all of his personal papers. Minister Landau stated on radio that Nusseibeh was carrying out illegal activities in his office as an arm of the Palestinian Authority. Prof. Sari does hold the Jerusalem portfolio in the framework of the PLO but does not represent the Palestinian Authority nor is he part of it. The irony of Landau's action is that it is predicated on the "Law for the Implementation of the Oslo Agreements". This law was enacted by the Knesset to facilitate the legal implementation of the creation of the Palestinian Authority. For the most part, the law was used to prevent the PA from working in Jerusalem. Landau was and still is one of the main opponents of the peace and Oslo within the Likud. We would like to ask you to raise your voice against this action. It seems that people like Uzi Landau cannot tolerate a Palestinian leader who sincerely seeks peace. Just a few days ago Prof. Sari said that he feared that the Israeli Government will work on preventing his activities for peace. I spoke with Justice Minister Meir Shitreet yesterday at 3:00 pm about the closure of the office. He had not heard about it. Shitreet is a member of the Cabinet, he said that there was no discussion about it in the Cabinet. He promised to raise the issue with Sharon. He clearly stated that this was a wrong move and that it is important to encourage the moderate voices in Palestine. I also spoke with MK Yossi Katz, Chairman of the Knesset Central Committee and a member of the Labour Party. He promised to raise the issue in the highest forum of the Labour Party in order to reach a Party decision to protest the closure. By chance I had a meeting yesterday with a senior advisor of the Minister of Defense. I also raised the issue with him. He too didn't know anything about a decision to close Sari's office. Please send a fax of protest to: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - fax number: 972-2-566-4838 Minister Uzi Landau: fax number: 972-2-581-1832 ============================================ Jenin: Palestinian watermelons vs Israeli tanks 13th July 2002 Brian Wood in conversation with Cahoime Butterly There is a significant measure of resistance creeping back into the people of Jenin. They say: We cannot live under 24 hour curfew, constantly subject to the gunfire of the Israeli soldiers, having our homes and shops destroyed. So, many peopleold to young, women to childrenhave been throwing watermelons and tomatoes at the tanks as they roll through the streets. One young boy successfully stuffed a piece of watermelon in the barrel of a gun on a tank. The desire to live in freedom is outweighing their fears of death and so they resist with what they have. One young boy told an international activist in the area: The only thing I want in the world is to protect my watermelon stand. Please stay with me. Many fruit and vegetable stands have been run over by tanks in recent weeks, taking away the very livelihood of the people who sell from them. Local estimates say that only 20% of the inhabitants of Jenin Refugee Camp, only three months ago home to 14,000, have left the camp due to continued Israeli military operations there. Soldiers continue using dynamite to blow up homes in the camp at whim, causing fear to grow and expand and forcing people to seek shelter elsewhere. Men of all ages are continually arrested or detained, beaten, blindfolded, and handcuffed. For most of them, this is the second time in three months this has happened to them. Those who remain in the camp are still trying to pick up the pieces of their homes that were willfully destroyed by soldiers when they entered the camp nearly three weeks ago. They went door to door, pillaging and destroying everything they came across. At the time the soldiers entered the camp, most people were still in the process of picking up their lives from the large invasion back in April. They have had to start from scratch again. Some prisoners taken in April have been allowed visits from immediate family members. This includes some of those held in administrative detention, meaning they have not been charged with any crime but are generally being kept in prison for two three-month periods. The Israeli military is still searching Jenin for two active resisters to their presence in the West Bank but is having trouble finding them. One of them comes from a very large family in the Jenin area. Many people, therefore, carry the same family name. One man with this family name, but a very, very distant relative of the wanted person, was arrested the 20th of June 2002 and is being given a four-month sentence because he belongs to this family. Food trucks are often being hassled trying to enter Jenin. Some drivers have had to spend the night in their truckswhich are not fitted with sleeper compartmentsdue to the Israeli military holding them up. No reports of people starving have surfaced but in the last three months, there has often been a skimpy amount of food available in the city. The presence of international activists attuned to cultural and situational sensitivities in Jenin and the Jenin Refugee Camp has been able to slow down the most brutal soldiers in the West Bank as they continue beating, killing, injuring and arresting the people of Jenin District. Due to one or two internationals continually standing between the Israeli soldiers and their targetschildrensoldiers have largely changed their ammunition from live to rubber-coated steel bullets (which are still lethal at ranges under 100m). Tanks and APCs continue to fire live ammunition exclusively. International activists follow soldiers or tanks around as they move through the city or the camp, trying to provide a constant presence and intervene where possible. Physical intervention has been undertaken numerous times by them, lessening the severity of the beatings some Palestinians have received at the hands of the Israeli soldiers. International activists have also been subject to beatings, verbal abuse, and one was drug on the ground recently. One Palestinian-Canadian was detained for several hours Friday the 12th of July with many other Palestinian men and later released. He witnessed 18-year old Israeli soldiers slapping a 70-year old Palestinian man in the face while in detention. Resistance will continue to grow in the hearts of the people of Jenin and Jenin Refugee Camp due to the unsustainability of the living conditions imposed on them by the Israeli military. Operation Determined Path is planting seeds of hatred and despair in the hearts of Palestinian children through the destruction of their communities, homes, and families. The first stage of the Al-Aqsa intifadah may be over, but the next one is already being born. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================= Pakistan's leader scorns democracy Musharraf defends army's political role Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Saturday, July 13, 2002 )2002 San Francisco Chronicle. URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? file=/c/a/2002/07/13/MN119991.DTL Islamabad, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf, under fire from an increasingly wary public, appeared to shut the door on democratic change in Pakistan Friday night, saying in a televised speech that parliamentary democracy has never worked in his country and insisting on a continuing major role for the armed forces in government. Musharraf -- America's chief regional ally in the war on terrorism -- defended his recently announced plan to change Pakistan's constitution in a way that would seriously weaken civilian institutions. "True democracy never worked in Pakistan." Musharraf said, appearing in full military uniform. "Otherwise, I would not be sitting here before you." The proposed constitutional changes include creation of a National Security Council, under Musharraf's leadership, that would have the power to fire the elected prime minister, the Cabinet and the entire National Assembly. The nine- member council would include the chiefs of the three branches of the military and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as well as the prime minister and opposition leader. "People say the army is not meant for politics, (yet) it has been called upon several times to intervene," Musharraf said, citing the military takeovers that have marked this nation's 55-year history. Promising that his changes would lay the basis for a "sustainable democracy" sometime in the future, Musharraf pleaded for public support, but his hourlong speech was immediately criticized by politicians, analysts and human rights groups. "The truth is, this is a military regime that is systematically destroying the capacities of political parties," said Samina Ahmed, an analyst in Islamabad. "This is not a recipe for stability, but it is a recipe for extremism." Musharraf has promised to hold legislative elections on Oct. 10 but will remain president for a five-year term, having won a controversial April referendum in which vote rigging was so blatant that he was forced to issue a public apology last month. SWEEPING POWERS FOR MUSHARRAF Nonetheless, he recently unveiled his proposed constitutional amendments, which would allow him to fire the entire Cabinet, dismiss parliament and personally appoint a successor. They would also shorten some elected officials' terms, lower the voting age, require parliamentary candidates to hold a university degree and bar people convicted of crimes from holding office. In his speech, Musharraf said his goal is to create a system of checks and balances that would ensure that the ousting of elected leaders by army chiefs - - a constant in recent Pakistani history -- would not reoccur. "I'm not power hungry," Musharraf said. "I want to give power; I don't want to grab it." Musharraf said all key decisions will rest with the new National Security Council, which he insisted will "keep a close eye on the power brokers." The president's latest decisions have stirred intense controversy. Last Saturday, Musharraf issued a decree barring any prime minister or provincial leader from serving more than two terms, effectively preventing his two predecessors -- Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- from ever again holding the office of prime minister. Both former leaders live in exile and face arrest if they return to Pakistan. Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in 1999, faces charges of plotting to kill the president; Bhutto faces arrest on a corruption conviction handed down earlier this week. On Wednesday, Pakistan's Supreme Court rejected petitions by three opposition parties that had previously supported Musharraf but were seeking to scuttle the new requirement that anyone running for a National Assembly seat must hold a university degree. DEGREE RULE DENOUNCED Lawyers and opposition politician Iftikhar Gillani called the degree requirement "the product of a politically illiterate and immature mind that has deprived 98 percent of the population from exercising its right to contest the elections." Immediate casualties of the new rule include 101 members of the disbanded parliament and several political party leaders, including Gohar Ayub Khan, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. "He is telling the Pakistani people: 'You are nothing,' and consigning them to the dustbin," said Ahmed, the political analyst. "And if only 2 percent of men meet the (degree) requirement, less than 1 percent of women do." Many Pakistanis are resentful that pressure from the international community on Musharraf to undertake a return to democracy dissipated when he allied himself with the United States after Sept. 11. "Only Bush can stop him," said Siddique al-Farooque, a key member of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N). Farooque was in Sharif's government and was imprisoned on corruption charges a few days after Musharraf seized power on Oct. 12, 1999. He remained in custody until September, when the courts dismissed most of the case against him. Since his release, Farooque has been warning that U.S. support for Musharraf will have dire consequences for Washington. "Is Washington trying to create another Reza Shah Pahlavi?" he asked, in reference to the overthrown leader of Iran. "Do they want to see another revolution, another Ayatollah Khomeini? Don't they see their interests are being damaged, too?" Musharraf, acknowledging his waning popularity and the widespread criticism in the local press, said in his speech, "I have not changed. I am the same Pervez Musharraf." But he now faces an increasingly vocal and potentially dangerous opposition. On Friday, police wielding batons broke up a meeting of the alliance, detaining more than 24 people for illegal assembly. Political gatherings have been banned since Musharraf's takeover. "Musharraf has been a uniting factor" for the opposition, said Taj Haider, a senior member of Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP), which has joined forces with a dozen other parties under an umbrella organization called the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy. "This election will be about one issue: democracy, yes or no. And the Pakistani people say yes," said Haider. "No army in the world is big enough to defeat an idea. Democracy -- sooner or later, the easy way or the hard way -- will prevail." )2002 San Francisco Chronicle. Page A - 1 ====================================== http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-curfew.html July 13, 2002 Israeli Curfew Silences Ancient West Bank City By REUTERS Filed at 8:40 a.m. ET HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Abdallah Nazar's array of fruit rotted beside him in an alleyway as he gazed mournfully out at his local market square rendered off-limits by an Israeli army curfew. The order has brought Palestinian life in one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited places to a halt. Hebron is one of seven West Bank cities reoccupied by Israel with the stated aim of rooting out Palestinian suicide bombers, but 50,000 residents feel collectively punished. ``Time is standing still. It's very hard for us, stuck here, useless, getting ever poorer hour by hour,'' Nazar muttered. The young man's watermelon and lemons withered away under a Middle Eastern sun. Stalls lay jumbled about the desolate, refuse-strewn square, some overturned and splintered by what the Palestinians said was Israeli vandalism. Rows of shuttered shops stretched in all directions. ``Peace Tours and Travel Co.'' read a one sign -- the vestige of an era when tourists flocked to Hebron to see the tombs of biblical patriarchs revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews. VENDORS RETREAT TO SHADOWS AS TANKS PASS ``We can't do much about the fruit spoiling because we can't be on the street to sell it,'' said Nazar. ``It was getting harder to sell even before the curfew because a lot of it was drying out during delays at army checkpoints on the way into town.'' Locals recoiled from the mouth of the alleyway back into shadows whenever an Israeli armored combat vehicle or jeep roared by on patrol, every 20 minutes or so. ``If they catch us on the street, they will shoot at us or beat us,'' said Fedi Abu Aldaabat, 20. He rolled up tattered pants to reveal a swollen, circular welt on his thigh he said was caused by an Israeli rubber bullet fired the day before. Palestinian militants rose up for independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip 21 months ago after talks on a Palestinian state hit an impasse, a few years after Israel turned the main towns over to local administration under interim peace deals. The reoccupation of cities in the West Bank and Gaza, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, has locked down around 700,000 Palestinians, crippled Palestinian Authority public services and stifled commerce. ISRAEL PONDERS EASING CLAMPDOWN Israel's uneasy ``national unity'' coalition of left and right is debating ways to ease the distress of Palestinian civilians. That showed scant sign of abating on Saturday when Israel said it was delaying indefinitely a meeting with Palestinians later in the day focused on easing security and economic restrictions on Palestinians. Israel said the decision was due to ``technical'' reasons and because it needed to be sure Palestinians were undertaking reforms. The sides agreed earlier this week to hold meetings after breaking the ice at their first high-level talks in months. In Hebron, the curfew has been occasionally relaxed for a few daylight hours to let people stock up on staples, but was re-imposed in full at mid-week, international monitors say. Israel announced on Saturday it was lifting the curfew in the city and three other West Bank areas for several hours to allow locals to restock. International monitors reported no resistance to the army clampdown and roundups of hundreds of alleged militants. ``The general mood is apathy,'' one said. Once raucous with traffic and trade, the largest city in the southern West Bank has fallen virtually silent. The few people seen outdoors include young men scurrying home with tanks of water loaded on carts, timing their trips to neighborhood wells to dodge Israeli patrols. Some boys play soccer in secluded side streets. Indoors, card games and Arab television are the only respite from boredom. The city's only ambient sound aside from passing Israeli patrols comes from the amplified sermons and prayers at mosques. One large mosque in the Old Town drew 200 for Friday prayers this week, about a fifth of the pre-curfew turnout. ``I'm risking my life walking through the streets to observe my religion,'' said Mazen al-Qawasmi, 30, a red prayer rug over his shoulder. ``People farther away don't risk it any more.'' Qawasmi, a shoemaker -- unemployed along with over half the Palestinian population under Israeli closure -- was a teenage stone-thrower in the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation from 1987-93, and spent three years in Israeli jails. He says he steers clear of conflict now because he has a daily struggle providing for his wife and four children. But he keeps a photograph above his bed of a former cellmate in combat garb who became a prominent militant and died, he said, when the Israelis rocketed his car last year. ``Inshallah (God willing), we will persevere through our ordeal until the end of the occupation,'' said Qawasmi. Copyright 2002 Reuters Ltd. | Privacy Policy ======================================== July 13, 2002 Judges Keep Detainee and His Lawyer Apart By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON, July 12 A federal appeals court ruled today that an American accused of fighting for the Taliban could be held, at least for now, without access to a lawyer and without being charged. The decision was in one of the most closely watched cases pitting civil liberties against national security in the aftermath of Sept. 11. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that would have allowed Yasser Esam Hamdi, a 21-year-old who was born in Louisiana and reared in Saudi Arabia, to see a lawyer. The ruling returns the case to the lower-court judge for review. It was at least a temporary victory for the government, which has alleged that Mr. Hamdi is an "enemy combatant" and thus not entitled to the constitutional rights of a citizen. Mr. Hamdi was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan last fall. He is being held in the naval brig in Norfolk, Va. His father and a public defender had sought access to him, arguing that Mr. Hamdi had a constitutional right to legal representation. But today, the appeals court in Richmond, which is generally considered the most conservative in the country, said the lower court had acted "without adequately considering the implications of its actions" when it ruled that Mr. Hamdi could see a lawyer. The ruling, written by Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III and joined in by Judges William W. Wilkins Jr. and William B. Traxler Jr., said the decision last month, by the Federal District Court in Norfolk, "does not consider what effect petitioner's unmonitored access to counsel might have on the government's ongoing gathering of intelligence." Civil liberties groups have said they are alarmed by the government's view, since it suggests that an American could be imprisoned indefinitely during a terrorism fight that is expected to last years. In the earlier decision, Judge Roger G. Doumar sided with the civil liberties groups and appointed a public defender for Mr. Hamdi. In reversing Judge Doumar's opinion, the appeals court acknowledged it was uncomfortable with the government's "sweeping proposition namely that, with no meaningful judicial review, any American citizen alleged to be an enemy combatant could be detained indefinitely without charges or counsel on the government's say-so." Rather than dismissing the Hamdi family's request for legal representation, the appeals court returned the case to Judge Doumar for review, saying that "any judicial inquiry into Hamdi's status as an alleged enemy combatant in Afghanistan must reflect a recognition that government has no more profound responsibility than the protection of Americans, both military and civilian, against additional unprovoked attack." Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company ___________________________________________________________ FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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