JERUSALEM ( Israeli Sniper photo of Child in Crosshairs outrages Public) No code of ethics

Israeli Sniper Posts Photo of Child in Crosshairs

By Alexander Marquardt | ABC News – 3 hrs ago

•  

View Photo

ABC News - Israeli Sniper Posts Photo of Child in Crosshairs (ABC News)

JERUSALEM - A photo posted online by an Israeli soldier showing a child in the crosshairs of a rifle scope has created a firestorm on the internet, drawing widespread criticism.

The photo was reportedly posted on Jan. 25 by Mor Ostrovski, 20, a member of an Israeli sniper unit. It shows crosshairs zeroed in on the back of the head of what appears to be a Palestinian boy in a village. The photo has since been taken down and Ostrovski's account has been deactivated.

"There are no other images to suggest that the photographer actually fired at the person in the image in this case," wrote Palestinian activist Ali Abuminah who runs the site Electronic Intifada and drew much of the attention to the photo. "The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing. It embodies the idea that Palestinian children are targets."

Before the account was taken down, Abuminah posted other photos from Ostrovski's account that showed him in his olive green uniform holding a variety of weapons, including a sniper rifle.
Eytan Buchman, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, told ABC News that Ostrovski told his commander on Saturday that he had not taken the photo himself but that he'd taken it off the internet. No disciplinary action will be taken.

"The picture in question does not coincide with IDF's values or code of ethics," the spokesman added in an e-mailed statement.

The uproar over the photo follows another posted by an Israeli infantryman on Facebook around a week ago. In it, he mocked the four Palestinian prisoners he was guarding by posing bound and blindfolded next to them. He was sentenced to 14 days detention after the brigade's commanders discovered the photo and ordered it taken down.

"Before the investigation began, it was discovered that the soldier was already judged by his commanders," Buchman said in a statement. "Since the documented offense isn't criminal and since the legal procedure conducted by the soldier's commanding officer was found appropriate, a disciplinary action was decided to be sufficient."

The IDF is active on social networking, disseminating statements on Twitter and Facebook and photos on Flickr and Instagram. But individual soldiers using social media have a history of getting the Israeli military into trouble.

In November, the head of the IDF spokesperson's social media unit landed in hot water after he posted a photo on Facebook with mud on his face, captioned "Obama style." In 2010, a reservist named Eden Abergil sparked outrage after posting pictures with blindfolded Palestinian prisoners. She told Israeli Army radio she didn't understood what she did wrong, but the IDF called the photos "shameful behavior."

Iran ( 4 sex offenders were hanged in public - One hanged in Gaz Square ) Iran human rights news

Seven Executions In Iran: Four Executions In Public

Sunday 17 February 2013

[English] [فارسى]

 

Iran Human Rights, February 17: Seven prisoners were hanged in the cities of Arak and Shiraz according to the official Iranian sources.
Three prisoners hanged in Arak (Central Iran):
According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA three prisoners were hanged in the prison of Arak early Sunday morning February 17. The prisoners were identified as "A.B." (31) convicted of buying and possession of 1370 grams of Shisheh, "M. S." (26) convicted of possession of 1500 grams of heroin, and "A. F." (47) convicted of possession of 1382 grams of opium, 450 grams of shisheh and 390 grams of heroin, said the report.
Four prisoners were hanged in public in Shiraz (Southern Iran):
One prisoner was hanged yesterday and three prisoners were hanged in of Shiraz. All the executions were carried out in public. One prisoner was hanged publicly in the Gaz Square of Shiraz yesterday morning, reported the official website of the Iranian judiciary in Fars Province. The prisoner was identified as "A. B." (29) and was convicted of kidnapping and rape. The same website reported that three other prisoners were hanged publicly in the Sadra city of Shiraz Sunday morning (today). The prisoners were identified as "H.A.", "Y. F." and "M. V." and were convicted of kidnapping and sodomy rape of a young boy, said the report. Age of the prisoners was not mentioned in the report.
Besides the officially announced executions, the rights group HRDAI reported that at least four prisoners were hanged in the prison of zahedan. Iranian authorities haven’t confirmed these executions yet.

Pizza News ( Show a Gun and get a 15 percent discount on pizza ) hmm

Pizza Shop Offering Discount To Gun Owners

Posted on: 10:38 am, February 18, 2013, by Staff Writer, updated on: 10:39am, February 18, 2013

0

Pinterest 0

Share 0

Twitter 0

Email

Virginia Beach, VA – A pizza shop is offering a fifteen percent discount to gun owners. They are asking customers to show a weapon or a conceal and carry license to get the deal. They stared the promotion to show support for 2nd Amendment gun rights. The owner started the offer after a Utah frozen yogurt shop made headlines earlier this month for also giving gun toters discounts.

Saudi Arabia Princess ( Human rights princess caught on web cam- Blackmailer wanted 300,000)

The Saudi princess, the fake sheikh and a plot to silence her

She is the granddaughter of Saudi Arabia’s first king and the youngest daughter of its second ruler.

Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al Saud believes images stolen from her laptop are being used in a dissidents' blackmail plot Photo: CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER

By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter

8:50AM GMT 17 Feb 2013

19 Comments

Despite her royal heritage, the Saudi princess has long been a moderate and a human rights campaigner in a kingdom not known for its liberal outlook.

Now, Her Royal Highness Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al Saud – to give her her full title – faces her most arduous battle.

The princess, who lives in west London, has been blackmailed over a revealing video which she insists was stolen from her laptop by computer hackers.

The video appears to Western eyes innocuous enough, but to the Saudi establishment, which prefers neither to hear nor to see its women, it is deeply embarrassing.

^{The images of her smoking and with her hair uncovered}

The footage shows Princess Basmah blowing a kiss to the camera, smoking a cigarette while her long brown hair is uncovered, against Saudi tradition.

Her blackmailer has demanded more than £300,000 not to publish the contents of conversations the princess was tricked into having, as well as videos and photographs allegedly stolen from her computer.
But rather than pay up, Princess Basmah, 48, a mother of five children, has decided to go public to pre-empt the blackmailer.
“In Saudi Arabia it is a scandal for a woman to smoke and not have anything on her head,” Princess Basmah told The Sunday Telegraph.
“It is like seeing Princess Kate [the Duchess of Cambridge] with no bra. It has the same effect. And since I am a symbol – fighting for humanitarian causes and fighting corruption, and somebody with a moderate Islamic message, that would ruin everything for me with my public in Saudi Arabia.”
Princess Basmah is in some ways an unlikely member of the Saudi royal family. She was the youngest daughter of King Saud, who ruled the kingdom from 1953 to 1964 until he was forced into exile in Europe after being accused of corruption. Princess Basmah was the youngest of his 115 children and saw her father only twice before he died when she was only five.
The princess established herself in Saudi Arabia as a writer, businesswoman and charity worker, but moved to London two years ago.
She insists she has not fallen out with Saudi’s ruling elite – and now lives in the west London suburb of Acton in a £1.5 million house.
The plot began while Princess Basmah was on holiday at Christmas at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. Logging on to her Facebook account, she was contacted by a friend, whom she refuses to name, but describes as a 30-something sheikh from the United Arab Emirates. In fact, the sheikh’s account had been hacked by the blackmailer. The plot to undermine her had begun.
“I won’t say the name [of the sheikh]; I don’t want to hurt him,” said Princess Basmah, “But it was through his Facebook account that I was hacked. It was one of the prominent sheikhs.
“He sent me a message saying how fascinated he is by my work, how he admired my writings and how I was a hero of the Arab world.”
Flattered by the praise, the princess and the man she mistook for a sheikh continued their dialogue for a further three days before having a long video conversation via the internet, using Skype.
“We talked around December 27th,” said Princess Basmah, “He was a young man. He started getting emotional, saying he would be coming to see me and that I had to see him. He said he was very attracted to me and I started to become suspicious.”
The princess believes the man, who resembled the sheikh, was trying to entrap her into making injudicious and overtly sexual comments.

She confronted the man whom she now suspected of fraud and he revealed his true motives.

“He told me: 'I am not so-and-so [the sheikh], I am a blackmailer’,” recalled the princess. “I was speechless. I thought, why would somebody blackmail me?

"There are lots of people who want to get me in trouble but why blackmail me? There is nothing they can expose me on. I am a very public person. I have nothing to hide.

“I felt like I was physically beaten up. I felt bruised psychologically and mentally.”

The blackmailer demanded $500,000 (£320,000), asking money to be transferred to accounts in Egypt but the princess went public first.

On her website, she posted: “I have been threatened and blackmailed by a large organisation which has wielded its power to try and destroy my reputation.

"I have recorded these attempts and have evidence which I will publish via social media exposing the attempts to quiet my voice.”

The blackmailer then published a 40-second video of the princess on the internet site YouTube, showing her smoking a cigarette and blowing a kiss. Her head is uncovered.

The princess insists this is not footage taken from their Skype conversation. She says the video was stolen from her laptop and has no sound but shows her talking to her son by Skype.

To add to the intrigue, a few days after the blackmail plot the princess’s Range Rover was stolen from outside her house.

She is now convinced she is being watched and has brought in a computer expert to check for bugging devices on her computer and in her home and other cars.

Princess Basmah is certain the blackmailer is part of a network of activists and dissidents trying to undermine the royal family and her relationship with the kingdom’s rulers.

She is convinced the blackmailer has connections to an anonymous Twitter user called Mujtahidd, who has almost one million followers and has published intimate details of other members of the Saudi ruling family.

“The Twitter site is very well known in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Everybody gets information from it. Mujtahidd really tells you what is happening inside the country. The blackmailer told me he was one of them [in Mujtahidd’s network] and he told me information to make me believe him. His is a big, huge network.”

Bahrain ( King Hamad wants to arrest the terrorists who killed two Asians )

Bahrain revokes citizenship of Shia activists

Bahraini authorities have revoked the citizenships of 31 Shia activists, among them two former members of parliament, for having "undermined state security," according to state news.

Bahrain has experienced unrest since March last year when the authorities crushed protests led by the Shia Muslim majority Photo: EPA/MAZEN MAHDI

11:51AM GMT 07 Nov 2012

The names of the 31 activists, including brothers Jawad and Jalal Fairuz, both ex-MPs who represented the major Shiite Al-Wefaq bloc, were listed in the BNA report, which quoted an interior ministry statement.

Also named was Ali Mashaima, son of prominent activist Hassan Mashaima who is head of the radical Shiite opposition movement Haq and who is serving a life sentence for allegedly plotting against the monarchy.

The government move comes after Bahrain late last month banned all protests and gatherings to ensure "security is maintained," after clashes between Shia-led demonstrators and security forces in the Sunni-ruled country.

The Gulf state has experienced unrest since March last year when the authorities crushed protests led by the Shia Muslim majority.

According to the International Federation for Human Rights, 80 people have died in Bahrain since the violence erupted on February 14 last year.
Hundreds of people were arrested when the security forces, aided by troops from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, crushed the uprising within a month, while many activists, including some whose names appear on Wednesday's list, were tried in special military courts set up at the time.

Another former MP and leading Al-Wefaq member, Matar Matar, told AFP that "many named (on the list) were acquitted by a military court" after being charged with harming state security.

Others named on the list are currently living abroad, according to opposition sources.

Tension has been running high in the kingdom following a spate of bombings on Monday in the capital Manama which killed two Asian expatriates. Four people have been arrested in connection with the bombings.

King Hamad ordered Tuesday "the swift arrest of the terrorists who carried out the recent terrorist acts in Bahrain" and urged citizens to help "bring them to justice so they receive their punishment over this appalling act."

TURKEY Protest ( Turkish people protest over NATO- They say Go Home )

Turkish police arrest anti-Patriot protesters

Turkish people protest the arrival of NATO’s Patriot missiles in the country. (File photo)

Mon Jan 21, 2013 3:9PM GMT

15

131

25

Share | Email | Print

Related Interviews:

• 'NATO missile shield aimed at Russia'
• 'Erdogan lacks public support on Syria'

Related Viewpoints:

• 'Russia prefers economy over politics in Turkey'

Turkish police have arrested dozens of protesters who condemned the arrival of NATO’s Patriot surface-to-air missiles to be deployed near the border with Syria.

Police arrested 25 protesters on Monday after they tried to get through the barricades at Incirlik Air Force Base in the city of Adana, where US troops are assembling two Patriot missile batteries to be later deployed in Gaziantep near Syria’s border.

Protests were also held in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara outside the US embassy, where angry protesters condemned what they called Ankara’s interventionist policies towards Syria.

Earlier, two ships carrying two Patriot batteries each from Germany and the Netherlands anchored at the southwestern port of Iskenderun in Turkey, as part of a NATO-authorized operation to deploy the advanced armament along the border region.

The six batteries of the US-made missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, will be deployed in the southern city of Adana and the southeastern cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, along with 350 troops from each contributing country.

In December 2012, NATO approved Turkey’s request for the deployment of the Patriots in its territory. Germany’s Bundestag parliament approved the deployment - limited to one year - on December 14, 2012. Each Patriot battery has an average of 12 missile launchers. NATO says the missile systems will be operational by early February.

Syria has censured the Turkish plan to deploy the Patriots along its border, calling it another act of provocation by the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

PG/HSN

 

TUCSON Az ( New Arizona law gets Activist arrested- Tucson police arrest immigrant with 5 kids ) Call Border patrol

UPDATE: Border Patrol Arrests Tucson Activist Raul Ochoa

Posted by Mari Herreras on Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 6:16 PM

The Range just learned that Tucson immigrant rights activist Raul Ochoa was taken into custody today by five U.S. Border Patrol and three Tucson Police Department officers. Ochoa's friends and fellow activists are urging supporters to call Border Patrol at 514-4700 to demand his release. The Range has calls to Border Patrol and TPD to get more information on why Ochoa was arrested and will post updates.
UPDATE: The Range talked to a public information officer with U.S. Border Patrol. A statement will be released as soon as it is approved. Immigrant rights organization Corazon de Tucson is also expected to release a statement soon, too.
Ochoa was reportedly arrested after trying to intervene on behalf of a father of five who was stopped by TPD. Although TPD has said in the past that it doesn't call and will not Border Patrol, it in fact called Border Patrol. A march is being planned downtown tomorrow at 4 p.m. More details soon.