Report: Hamas Used Child Labor to Build Terror Tunnels; Hundreds Killed

by JOEL B. POLLAK 27 Jul 2014, 5:36 AM PDT

Hamas killed hundreds of children in the construction of its extensive tunnel network, built partly to carry out attacks on children across the Gaza border in Israel. That report--confirmed by Hamas itself--emerged in 2012, not from the Israeli government, but the sympathetic Journal of Palestine Studies, in an article that otherwise celebrated the secret tunnel system as a symbol of Palestinian resistance to the Israeli "siege" of the Gaza Strip.

The article, "Gaza's Tunnel Phenomenon: The Unintended Dynamics of Israel's Siege," was published in the Summer 2012 edition of the Journal by Nicholas Pelham, who writes for the Economist and the New York Review of Books, according to his bio. It is receiving new attention thanks to Myer Freimann of Tablet, an online journal of Jewish affairs, whose post about Hamas's use of child labor has gone viral in social media.

Pelham wrote that despite the economic success of the tunnels underneath the Egyptian border, which enriched Hamas through a thriving black market as well as arming it with new weapons, there were a few drawbacks. One of these was a "cavalier approach to child labor and tunnel fatalities," he noted. "During a police patrol that the author was permitted to accompany in December 2011, nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies. At least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials" (emphasis added). (CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Report: Hamas Used Child Labor to Build Terror Tunnels; Hundreds Killed

Cara Isadora McKinney Sings: The Black Swan from The Medium by Menotti - YouTube

Cara Isadora McKinney sings The Black Swan from The Medium by Menotti at the Norfolk Chrysler Museum's Perry Glass Studio for an evening of arias and "performance glass blowing" called The Phantom of the Hotshop. Accompanist is Beth Barefoot. Cara also coordinated and directed the night's performances. 

VIDEO LINK: Cara Isadora McKinney Sings: The Black Swan from The Medium by Menotti - YouTube

Cara Isadora McKinney Singing Un Bel di Vedremo from Madama Butterfly by Puccini - YouTube

Cara Isadora McKinney sings Un Bel di Vedremo from Madama Butterfly at the Norfolk Chrysler Museum's Perry Glass Studio for an evening of Arias and "dramatic" glass blowing called The Phantom of the Hotshop, complete with crazed and disfigured phantom and a falling glass chandelier. Accompanist is Beth Barefoot. Cara also coordinated and directed the night's performances.

VIDEO LINK: Cara Isadora McKinney: Un Bel di Vedremo from Madama Butterfly by Puccini - YouTube

Apollo Astronaut: Climate Alarmism Is the ‘Biggest Fraud in the Field of Science’ | CNS News

Climate alarmism is "the biggest fraud in the field of science" and the 97% consensus claim is nonsensical, Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham tells MRCTV in a preview of his presentation at the upcoming Heartland Institute climate conference, July 7-9.

"Since about 2000, I looked farther and farther into it," Col. Cunningham (USMC, Ret.) tells MRCTV in an exclusive interview. "I found that not one of the claims that the alarmists were making out there had any bearings, whatsoever. And, so, it was kind of a no-brainer to come to the conclusion." (CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO HERE: Apollo Astronaut: Climate Alarmism Is the ‘Biggest Fraud in the Field of Science’ | CNS News

Syria's Assad accused of boosting al-Qaeda with secret oil deals - Telegraph

Western intelligence suggests Bashar al-Assad collaborating with jihadists to persuade West the uprising is terrorist-led

 Photo: REUTERS/AFP

By Ruth Sherlock, in Istanbul and Richard Spencer
7:53PM GMT 20 Jan 2014

The Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad has funded and co-operated with al-Qaeda in a complex double game even as the terrorists fight Damascus, according to new allegations by Western intelligence agencies, rebels and al-Qaeda defectors.

Jabhat al-Nusra, and the even more extreme Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS), the two al-Qaeda affiliates operating in Syria, have both been financed by selling oil and gas from wells under their control to and through the regime, intelligence sources have told The Daily Telegraph. 

Rebels and defectors say the regime also deliberately released militant prisoners to strengthen jihadist ranks at the expense of moderate rebel forces. The aim was to persuade the West that the uprising was sponsored by Islamist militants including al-Qaeda as a way of stopping Western support for it. (CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria's Assad accused of boosting al-Qaeda with secret oil deals - Telegraph

Ending Rape In D.R Congo - YouTube

The horribly slow and painful legal effort to bring rapists to justice in the DR Congo:



VIDEO LINK:
Ending Rape In D.R Congo - YouTube

The Impact of Dodd-Frank and Conflict Minerals Reforms on Eastern Congo’s Conflict 10June2014.pdf

The Impact of Dodd-Frank and Conflict Minerals Reforms on Eastern Congo’s Conflict 


Fidel Bafilemba, Timo Mueller, and Sasha Lezhnev 

June 2014 

Executive Summary

Market changes spurred by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law on conflict minerals1 have helped significantly reduce the involvement of armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (“Congo”) in the mines of three out of the four conflict minerals. The law, in 

addition to conflict minerals audit programs from the electronics industry and related reforms begun by African governments in the region but not yet fully implemented, has made it much less economically viable for armed groups and Congo’s army to mine tin, tantalum, and tungsten, known as the 3Ts. Minerals were previously major sources of revenue for armed groups, generating an estimated $185 million per year for armed groups and the army. 2

However, artisanally mined gold continues to fund armed 

commanders. Further reforms are needed to address conflict gold and close loopholes on the other minerals. 

Furthermore, initial military restructuring within Congo’s army has removed armed actors from many mines, and military operations undertaken by the Congolese army and the United Nations Force Intervention Brigade have significantly reduced the threats of 

powerful armed groups such as the M23 and the Allied Democratic Forces. Neutralizing these groups – two of the biggest contributors to Congo’s deadly conflict in recent years – is helping improve the situation in the areas where they operated with impunity. 

FULL REPORT:  www.enoughproject.org/files/Enough Project - The Impact of Dodd-Frank and Conflict Minerals Reforms on Eastern Congo’s Conflict 10June2014.pdf

Syria Is Obama's Rwanda | VICE United States

Qusai on the streets of Moadamiya, which has been attacked nearly daily by the regime by shelling and aircraft bombings

Twenty-seven-year-old Qusai Zakarya woke up at about 4:30 AM on August 21, 2013. He rolled out his prayer rug inside his family’s two-bedroom apartment in the small town of Moadamiya, Syria, and started his morning prayers.

Alarms coming from nearby Damascus interrupted his daily ritual. After two years of revolution, Qusai had gotten used to the near constant shelling and bombings, but something was different this summer morning. The alarms were the kind “you usually hear in movies about World War II when there is a big air raid,” he told me.

“Within seconds, I started hearing rockets flying into the ground,” Qusai recounted. They hit the rebel-held town about 500 feet away from him.

“Before I realized what was going on, I lost my ability to breathe. I felt like my chest was set on fire. My eyes were burning like hell, and I wasn’t even able to scream to alert my friends,” he said. “So I started beating my chest over and over until I managed to get my first breath.” (CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria Is Obama's Rwanda | VICE United States

Admiral William H. McRaven's Awesome 2014 Commencement Address at UT

HOW TO SUCCEED IN THE WORLD BY REALLY, REALLY TRYING!

Remarks by Naval Adm. William H. McRaven, BJ '77, ninth commander of U.S.Special Operations Command, Texas Exes Life Member, and Distinguished Alumnus.

University-Wide Commencement

The University of Texas at Austin, May 17, 2014. 

LINK: University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address - Admiral William H. McRaven - YouTube

MADISON RISING SUMMER TOUR KICKOFF, NORFOLK, VA, LINE OF FIRE - YouTube

Madison Rising kicked off their 2014 summer tour on Memorial Day Friday, May 23rd at the storied Granby Theater in downtown Norfolk, in conjunction with the Concerned Veterans of America's Defend Freedom Summer Tour. I recorded some of their songs on my Nikon. I believe this song is called "Line of Fire"

LINK: MADISON RISING SUMMER TOUR KICKOFF, NORFOLK, VA, LINE OF FIRE - YouTube

REAL SHOCKER: The Global Warming Lie - John Coleman - YouTube

Why haven't we heard about all this fraud in the media?



LINK: The Global Warming Lie - John Coleman - YouTube

John Coleman (Founder of The Weather Channel) Hammers Al Gore and Global Warming Frenzy - YouTube

Weather Channel founder John Coleman's new video debunking the Global Warming Religious Frenzy goes for Al Gore and Company's jugular. Blood all over the place! How many of you know that Al Gore's great mentor, Roger Revelle, that he extols in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, changed his mind and became a global warming skeptic in the late 80s. Gore's pathetic, Machiavellian response? "He's senile." Watch:

VIDEO INK: John Coleman (founder of The Weather Channel) on Global Warming Scam - YouTube

Putin’s Propaganda | National Review Online

Vladimir Putin is a master propagandist. Fresh from using his state TV to mount glittering coverage of the Olympics in February, he has turned his Kremlin stooges to the task of Ukraine’s government as “fascist” and portraying it as a clear danger to any Russian speakers under its control. If the West, especially the U.S., doesn’t step up its game in responding, it will soon wonder either how Ukraine was lost to Russia or how it was rendered ungovernable.

When pro-Russian separatist groups seized control of government buildings in the eastern city of Donetsk last month, they made sure to occupy the TV station. They brought a technician with them whose first job was to turn off Ukrainian channels and replace them with Russian ones whose idea of covering the crisis was to blend montages of Ukraine’s pro-Western leaders with footage of Nazi storm troopers from World War II. (CONTINUED) 

 FULL ARTICLE HERE: 

Putin’s Propaganda | National Review Online

April 28th: From Annihilation to Liberation: Israel Marks Holocaust Memorial Day | United with Israel

From Annihilation to Liberation: Israel Marks Holocaust Memorial Day

 On Monday April 28, Israelis commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, with memorial services across the country.

 

“Today we mark Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared. “The State of Israel will honor the memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust. The main difference between the helplessness of the Jews during the Holocaust and the situation of the Jews today is that today we have a strong, sovereign state with a strong military that can defend us against those who seek our lives.”

Holocaust Memorial Day is dedicated to honoring the Six Million Jews murdered during World War II as part of a systematic, state-sponsored program of genocide developed and executed by Nazi Germany throughout the German Reich and German-occupied territories.

LINK: From Annihilation to Liberation: Israel Marks Holocaust Memorial Day | United with Israel

Unprecedented Statement by Top US Officer: Putin is Lying, Russian Troops in Eastern Ukraine

The highest ranking US officer in Europe, who is also the Supreme Commander of NATO, released an unprecedented statement yesterday.

On his personal NATO site General Philip Breedlove unmasked Russian tactics and tradecraft in Eastern Ukraine. Behaving as senior ranking officers of old, without obfuscation or any political packaging of his words, the General was prepared to talk truth to the propaganda of the Kremlin. His bosses: President Obama, the heads of state of NATO nations, and even the Secretary General of the Alliance, have only said that Russia “may” be behind the most recent incidents of masked gunmen taking over facilities in Eastern Ukraine. The Commander of NATO says there are. (CONTINUED)

GEN BREEDLOVE'S STATEMENT HERE

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Unprecedented Statement by Top US Officer: Putin is Lying, Russian Troops in Eastern Ukraine

CONGO ON THE COME UP: Omekongo w/ JD Stier Lindsay Samakow - YouTube

From Hip-Hop star Omekongo Dibinga:

My latest hip-hop video featuring NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Hollywood actress Emmanuelle Chriqui. JD Stier and Lindsay Samakow are also featured on the track. Please spread the word and let's elevate Congo! You can purchase the song right here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/con...



DIRECT LINK: CONGO ON THE COME UP: Omekongo w/ JD Stier Lindsay Samakow - YouTube

If We Can Let Syria Burn, Have We Learned Anything at All from Rwanda?

When we think about Rwanda today, it is not the genocide that began 20 years ago that we are likely to recall, but the much more recent incidents of repression which President Paul Kagame is alleged to have perpetrated against opponents at home and abroad, and his exploitation of the chaos in next-door Congo. Kagame has undermined Rwanda's reputation, and its victim status.

We should not, however, allow Kagame's misdeeds to obscure the extraordinary achievement of the Rwandan people over the last two decades -- thanks in part to Kagame himself. At an event at Yale University commemorating the mass killing, I had a long conversation with Yvette Rugasaguhunga, a Rwandan diplomat who as a Tutsi teenager had survived the killings by hiding with a succession of Hutu families, almost all of whom were at the same time actively slaughtering her own people. Her father, her brother, and her grandparents were murdered. (CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE HERE: If We Can Let Syria Burn, Have We Learned Anything at All from Rwanda?

Out-of-state groups ride in to stand with Nevada rancher in battle with feds over grazing rights | Fox News

Cliven Bundy said his family's herd has always grazed on public land. (Courtesy Bundy Ranch)

Groups from as far away as New Hampshire are riding out to Nevada to join the cattle rancher whose standoff with the federal government is growing tenser by the day.

The groups said they were going to the ranch, some 80 miles north of Las Vegas to stand with Cliven Bundy, who property is surrounded by federal agents. Bundy's herd, which once numbered nearly 1,000, is being thinned out by private contractors under the watch of dozens of armed federal agents in SUVs and helicopters, the government says, he has refused for two decades to pay fees to allow the cattle to graze on federal lands.

“Our mission here is to protect the protestors and the American citizens from the violence that the federal government is dishing out.”

- Jim Landy, West Mountain Rangers

 “Our mission here is to protect the protestors and the American citizens from the violence that the federal government is dishing out,” Jim Landy, a member of the West Mountain Rangers, who made the journey from Montana to Nevada, told Fox News Channel. “People here are scared.”

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Out-of-state groups ride in to stand with Nevada rancher in battle with feds over grazing rights | Fox News

▶ Afghanistan's Eastern Voters Embrace Democracy Despite Taliban- YouTube

YouTube decription:

Published on Apr 6, 2014:

The Afghan elections are being hailed a success after more than seven million people turned out to vote. That's three million more than last time and a third of them were women. In the more conservative east of the country, the city of Jalalabad, men and women defied threats to participate.

LINK: ▶ Afghanistan's eastern voters - YouTube

▶ Female Voters Defy Taliban Threats in Afghanistan - YouTube

LINK: ▶ Female voters defy threats in Afghanistan - YouTube

Kevin Sorbo (TV's Hercules) and wife have a Message for You on the Gosnell Movie - YouTube

GOSNELL MOVIE SITE FOR CROWD-FUNDING: CLICK HERE

VIDEO LINK: Kevin and Sam Sorbo support Gosnell Movie - YouTube

▶20 YEARS AGO: Confronting Evil: Genocide in Rwanda - YouTube

Remembering the vast horror and how Bill Clinton, the UN and the West turned away.



▶ Confronting Evil: Genocide in Rwanda - YouTube

▶ Peace One Day 18 March Press Conference -- Goma, DRC - YouTube

Jeremy Gilley and Peace One Day held its highly anticipated press conference in Goma, DR Congo on Tuesday, March 18th, with some significant dignitaries, including Mary Robinson, UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa, Barbara Bentein, head of UNICEF in the Congo and also a number of Congolese officials.
 
Jeremy has announced that Peace One Day is, as of March 18th, launching a three year collaborative campaign to bring peace and progress to the Congo and will, furthermore, hold their annual UN Peace Day concert in Goma this September 21st. 

This campaign will bring considerable international attention to the Congo. Please watch this video of the press conference and pass it along.

▶ Peace One Day 18 March Press Conference -- Goma, DRC - YouTube

Land Grab at Ile a Vache: Haiti’s Peasants Fight Back | NEWS JUNKIE POST

Before Haiti’s Prime Minister declared all of Haiti’s offshore islands to be Zones of Tourism Development and Public Utility, he did not consult with the residents of the islands whose lands would be appropriated. Instead Mr. Laurent Lamothe went to a favorite online magazine in December 2012, to promote his plans. 

“We have decided to take the tourism development to the island of Ile a Vache, so there we’re going to build an international airport, and then the tourism [infrastructure] to attract investors — we have several investors already…. I think Ile a Vache has great potential, and it doesn’t present the challenges for land title that you might face on the mainland.”


As Ile a Vache, a 20-square mile island off of Haiti’s southern coast was promoted to investors in Qatar, the Dominican Republic, China, the wider Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and United States as being a jewel of the Caribbean and a potential draw for eco-tourists, the residents of the island, mostly small farmers who had cultivated food crops and fished sustainably for centuries and who occupied homes that had been in their families for many generations, were ignored. The islanders’ requests for meetings with government representatives went unanswered, even while Tourism Minister Stephanie Villedrouin found ample time to report the details of the $230 million project in March 2013, once again, to a magazine.

- See more at: http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/03/01/land-grab-at-ile-a-vache-haitis-peasants-fight-back/#sthash.6oaq7lSU.dpuf

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Land Grab at Ile a Vache: Haiti’s Peasants Fight Back | NEWS JUNKIE POST

▶ Russia Today Anchor Quits on Air over Whitewash Propaganda- YouTube

RT anchor Liz Wahl said she could no longer be "part of a network that whitewashes the actions of Putin."
 
March 5, 2014
www.FreeBeacon.com
LINK: ▶ RT Anchor Quits on Air - YouTube

POWERFUL VIDEO MIRRORING PLIGHT OF SYRIAN CHILDREN▶ Most Shocking Second a Day Video - YouTube

A young girl's life gets turned upside-down in this tragic second a day video. Could this ever happen in the UK? This is what war does to children. Find out more at http://bit.ly/3yearson

LINK: ▶ Most Shocking Second a Day Video - YouTube

Rubio: Russia Is a Government of Liars and an Enemy to World Peace and the US

LINK: Rubio: Russia Is a Government of Liars and an Enemy to World Peace and the US

Hangin' with the Manatees - YouTube

Lynnhaven Dive Center from Virginia Beach went on a dive trip to Crystal River, Florida Feb 14-17 and went snorkeling with the manatees off a pontoon boat, compliments of Birds Underwater. Great time!



LINK: Hangin' with the Manatees - YouTube

Syria: Thousands of Houses Unlawfully Razed | Human Rights Watch

 Mezzeh area, Damascus


Extensive demolition of dozens of high-rise residential and commercial buildings along the main road between Mezzeh Air Base and the neighborhood of Daraya. 

Satellite imagery, witness statements, and video and photographic evidence show that Syrian authorities deliberately and unlawfully demolished thousands of residential buildings in Damascus and Hama in 2012 and 2013, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 38-page report, “Razed to the Ground: Syria’s Unlawful Neighborhood Demolitions in 2012-2013,” documents seven cases of large-scale demolitions with explosives and bulldozers that violated the laws of war. The demolitions either served no necessary military purpose and appeared to intentionally punish the civilian population or caused disproportionate harm to civilians, Human Rights Watch found. 

“Wiping entire neighborhoods off the map is not a legitimate tactic of war,” said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These unlawful demolitions are the latest additions to a long list of crimes committed by the Syrian government.” ................

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syria: Thousands of Houses Unlawfully Razed | Human Rights Watch

SPIEGEL Reporting Supports Accounts of Torture and Execution in Syria - SPIEGEL ONLINE

By Christoph Reuter and Christoph Scheuermann

REUTERS

Photos released last week show that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad tortures, starves and murders its prisoners. The images provide grisly evidence to support what witnesses have been telling SPIEGEL for months.

He says he was never witness to executions, nor did he see torture taking place. That wasn't his job. His task was that of taking photos of the corpses afterwards. He would snap four or five images per body -- of the face and other parts of the person -- documenting the cause of death, insofar as it was possible to determine. He did so tens of thousands of times between March 2011 and August 2013 -- when he finally fled Syria, taking some 55,000 photos with him on a USB stick. The images are of starved, strangled and tortured men, primarily young and mostly naked. Some have no eyes. The defector, who has been cited under the alias "Caesar," worked for Syrian security, and says that he and his colleagues were called on up to 50 times a day to photograph corpses, each of which was given a number for documentation purposes....... (continued)


FULL ARTICLE HERE: SPIEGEL Reporting Supports Accounts of Torture and Execution in Syria - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Syrian Government, Opposition Meet in Geneva - YouTube

LINK: Syrian Government, Opposition Meet in Geneva - YouTube

▶ Human Rights Watch World Report 2014: Berlin Press Conference - YouTube

LINK: ▶ Human Rights Watch World Report 2014: Berlin Press Conference - YouTube

▶ ‫MIRACLE IN ALEPPO! WATCH! 22 / 1 / 2014‬‎ - YouTube

Syrians do the impossible after another horrific Assad regime Barrel Bomb attack on civilians.

LINK TO A MIRACLE IN ALEPPO:

▶ ‫إخراج طفلة حية من تحت الأنقاض في حي المعصرانية 22 / 1 / 2014‬‎ - YouTube