I have a new job in DC! lol

Israel holding over 1200 detainees without charge

How is this acceptable?
It's not.
This is some Guantanamo bullshit right out of the W Bush administration & incredibly authoritarian.

[link:https://apnews.com/article/israel-detention-jails-palestinians-west-bank-793a3b2a1ce8439d08756da8c63e5435|]



JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is holding over 1,200 detainees — nearly all of them Palestinians — without charge or trial, the highest number in over three decades, an Israeli human rights group said Tuesday.

The detainees, 99% of whom are Palestinians, are held under Israel’s policy of “administrative detention,” without trial and under allegations that Israeli authorities keep secret.

The detentions can range from a few months to years — and authorities often extend them for unknown reasons, according to Jessica Montell, the executive director of Hamoked, the rights group that published the figures.

Hamoked said this makes it nearly impossible for detainees or their lawyers to mount a proper defense.

More at link above.

The ACLU has weighed in on war crimes

Jamil Dakwar is the Director of ACLU Human Rights Program.

Funny thing this

Fair.

UK - Police stop Pro-Israel rally for safety concerns

UK - Police stop Pro-Israel rally for safety concerns.

[link:https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/metropolitan-police-israel-rally-golders-green-safety-fears-b1115263.html|]



Organisers of a prayer walk in a Jewish area of north London claim police pressured them to cancel it because a mass pro-Palestine march was taking place seven miles away.

Christian Action Against Anti-Semitism called off the event when officers warned that participants could be “injured or intimidated” in Golders Green.

The group, behind Pray for Israel and the Jewish People, expected up to 30,000 people and said they felt “silenced” by the police.

A pro-Palestine rally attended by up to 100,000 people went ahead in central London on Saturday.

More at link above

Aid agencies call for immediate ceasefire

Article [link:https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza-war-tuesday-intl-hnk/index.html]


https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1716725839608287313

Gaza and Jerusalem
CNN
—
Aid agencies are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as doctors warn an Israeli blockade on fuel means many more vulnerable babies and wounded people in hospitals will soon die. One agency says at least 2,000 children in Gaza have been killed in the past few weeks.

Israel has intensified its bombing campaign in the besieged strip as its defense minister Yoav Gallant said Monday the country is preparing for a “multilateral operation” on the militant group Hamas that controls Gaza from the “air, ground, and sea.”

Israel’s leadership has vowed to wipe out Hamas in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

On Monday, Hamas freed two Israeli citizens – both elderly women – amid growing international pressure to secure the release of the rest of those abducted and taken to Gaza.

More at link above.

The winds of war are beginning to blow

I feel like we're slow marching into WW3.

https://twitter.com/Yonatan_Touval/status/1716630443338919984

Eisenhower task force rerouted to middle east

It was supposed to join the Gerald Ford task force in the Mediterranean but has been rerouted to the middle east.

[link:https://news.usni.org/2023/10/23/uss-dwight-d-eisenhower-midway-across-atlantic-en-route-to-the-middle-east|]



THE PENTAGON – The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as it heads to the Middle East, instead of joining the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed the Ike Carrier Strike Group to U.S. Central Command on Sunday, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Monday morning.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, which includes Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Gravely (DDG-107) and USS Mason (DDG-87) and Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58), deployed Oct. 14, with initial plans to head to the U.S. European Command area of response.

Despite deploying Saturday, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), the flag ship of the carrier strike group, was still off of the coastline of Virginia Beach, Va., as of Thursday, USNI News understood. The ship was completing a final set of carrier qualifications before departing the East Coast. Ike is now in the western Atlantic Ocean, according to the USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker.

More at link above

Children in Gaza 'developing severe trauma' after 16 days of bombing

Sigh.....
This has to end.

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/22/children-in-gaza-developing-severe-trauma-after-16-days-of-bombing]



Children in Gaza are developing severe trauma symptoms alongside the risk of death and injury, according to a Palestinian psychiatrist.

On Sunday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 1,750 children had been killed in the 16 days of bombardment by Israeli forces since Hamas’s murderous onslaught on 7 October. That is an average of almost 110 children a day. Thousands more have been injured.

The psychological impact of the war on children was showing, said Fadel Abu Heen, a psychiatrist in Gaza. Children had “started to develop serious trauma symptoms such as convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and not leaving their parents’ sides.”

The “lack of any safe place has created a general sense of fear and horror among the entire population and children are most impacted,” he said.

More at link above

Kim Ogg (D) DA of Harris County TX (Houston) has to go!

She's a former Republican turned Democrat.
She has to go.
Texas Democrats have had enough of her bullshit abuse with targeting them & 60 Dem leaders have signed on to a resolution condemning her actions.

A LOT more here - [link:https://newrepublic.com/post/176385/texas-democrats-push-back-kim-ogg-district-attorney|]



In Houston, the country’s fourth largest city, the feud between District Attorney Kim Ogg and her own party has reached a boiling point.

On Monday, more than 60 Democratic Party leaders submitted a resolution to formally condemn her role in weakening voter rights, attacking criminal justice reform, and her tacit approval of Republican voter suppression laws. The move also comes after reports of Ogg using her power to investigate members of her own party over personal feuds.

“The primary mission of the Harris County Democratic Party is to elect Democrats who support the U.S. Constitution, share our values, and are willing to stand up against extremist Republicans,” the resolution penned by local precinct chairs begins. But Ogg has “stood silent” on Republican efforts to squeeze the life out of Harris County’s blue voting bloc, going so far as to bring criminal charges against a 64-year-old Black man for voting while on parole (the charges were quickly thrown out), and standing by while the Texas Rangers—an agency with a sordid history—opened a criminal investigation against election workers based on “debunked conspiracy theories and outright lies invented and promoted by Republican Party officials.”

Ogg has also used her position to attack political opponents with onerous court cases, effectively punishing them for challenging her. In mid-September, a county court-at-law judge told the Houston Chronicle that he warned colleagues not to cross her: “If you piss her off, you’re going to a grand jury and you may or may not be indicted.” In 2022, Ogg indicted three ex-staffers of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a young progressive in charge of the local Commissioners Court, for steering $11 million in COVID-19 vaccine outreach funds to a politically connected vendor, but since then the case has hung in limbo. Hidalgo denies the charges, and no trial date has been set.