₦airaland Forum

Israeli sniper killing wounded civilian


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBakqLUBWP0

Published on Jul 21, 2014


20/7/14: International and Palestinian volunteers accompanied Civil Defense and other rescue crews, as well as family members, into Shujaya, in an attempt to locate survivors of overnight and ongoing shelling by the Israeli army. A young Palestinian man, in a green t-shirt, who hoped to reach his family's home, was shot by an Israeli soldier while crossing an alley between buildings. Two additional rounds struck him as he lay injured on the ground.

Israeli sniper killing wounded civilian


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBakqLUBWP0

Published on Jul 21, 2014


20/7/14: International and Palestinian volunteers accompanied Civil Defense and other rescue crews, as well as family members, into Shujaya, in an attempt to locate survivors of overnight and ongoing shelling by the Israeli army. A young Palestinian man, in a green t-shirt, who hoped to reach his family's home, was shot by an Israeli soldier while crossing an alley between buildings. Two additional rounds struck him as he lay injured on the ground.

NairaMinted, I am a great admirer of Putin most especially the way he stands up to the hegemony of the West and most recently the victory scored recently with the BRICS bank however the onus is on him to show that he or the separatists are not responsible for this tragedy. I want to believe he is already presenting his case & like you, I await a proper investigation.

seguntijan: This is a speech made by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his cabinet about three weeks ago. It was reprinted by Affan Sosibo for the African National Congress Youth League on the 8th July 2014.

"We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the blacks and Arabs that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the blacks and Arabs in 1001 ways. The State of Israel that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expenses of intelligence, sweat and blood………We do not pretend like other whites that we like the blacks. The fact that, blacks and Arabs look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles because they look alike. If God had wanted us to be equal to the blacks and Arabs, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually, we are superior to the Blacks and Arabs; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years. I believe that a Jew is honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being……By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks and Arabs cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the Blackman is a symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn’t it plausible? Therefore that the Whiteman is created to rule the Blackman……And here is a creature (Blackman) that lacks foresight….. The average Black does not plan his life beyond a year”

Hey, hey, hey Please verify your posts before posting them! I believe this was discredited as untue. Such posts make those of us that stand for justice and the truth lose credibility!

As more details begin to emerge the question we have to ask if who stands to gain from this act? Cui bono? Was it an accident or a deliberate act and why?

If it was a deliberate act, commonsense dictates that the fascist Ukranian govt which in recent times has suffered heavy losses and hasn't been able to make any significant progress in addition to the retaking of Slavianysk stands to gain the most as it would draw the attention of the international community to their cause.

If it was an accident, then it was most likey the rebels that are the culprits since I don't see how deliberately shooting down a passenger airline aids their cause in any way or puts Russia in a favourable position....

Now the US media is claiming that the Buk system used by the rebels (which the Ukranian foreign minister had unwiittingly contradiced just a few minutes ago live on CNN when he stated that such a system was never in the hands of - or seized from Ukranian forces by the rebels) has been shipped off to Russia to be dismantled. If this report is to be believed you have to marvel at the speed not only with which these rebels can allegedly move this heavy system over borders but at the speed a which US and Ukranian intelligence sources are able to arrive at these conclusions and so-called evidences (those intercepted videos and conversations purpotedly of rebels in the aftermath of the crash included)

The Russians on their part are claiming that that a Buk missile system under the command of the Ukrainian armed forces was operational on the day this plane was shot and that a heat signature from that system was observed just before the plane was brought down......

All these claims, accusations and counter accusations makes this incident and the conflict in Ukraine at large very intriguing and potentially extremely dangerous

shymexx: The next few days will be interesting though.

Yes indeed. I just find it very bizarre that this is another Malaysia Airline involved and that this is happening on the heels of the new sanctions and the launch of the BRICS bank amongst other things..........

Looking forward to the next few days...

davidylan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jordan#Transjordan_Emirate

Jordan was originally a part of the british mandate of palestine... although of course all the maps are now redrawn to deliberately obfuscate this fact.

Lol! U have attempted a tactically retreat.....No one is trying to obfuscate any fact except YOU with your attempt to merge a map of historical British ruled Palestine (Mandatory Palestine) with that of modern Jordan.

Now, that would explain the question I asked you earlier as to why you still have the outline of map of Palestine still highlighted within that map you posted which you claimed to be the original map of Palestine......Like I explained in my previous mail, these maps were carved out by the British and French with the Sykes–Picot Agreement...... The entire Middle East had no boundaries as they exist today prior to this agreement.........
You were caught out and now attempting to backtrack.......Oga, we all have access to historical books and the internet.....

You were right though by this statement: Jordan was part of the British Mandate for Palestine which I must stress was the name a legal instrument for a much larger region encompassing Jordan and even parts of modern day Iraq and Saudi Arabia NOT that Jordan was ever originally part of Palestine!!


The British Mandate for Palestine, or simply the Mandate for Palestine, was a legal commission for the administration of the territory that had formerly constituted the Ottoman Empire sanjaks of Nablus, Acre, the Southern portion of the Beirut Vilayet, and the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, prior to the Armistice of Mudros. The draft of the Mandate was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922, amended via the 16 September 1922 Transjordan memorandum[1][2] and which came into effect on 29 September 1923[1] following the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne.[3][4] The mandate ended at midnight on 14 May 1948.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/maps-interactive/resource-downloads/cab24-120-cp21-2607.jpg

How many of you even know that an original possible location to settle the Jewish people was in Africa? In Uganda to be precise!!

The Uganda Scheme was a plan in the early 1900s to give a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland. It drew support from prominent Zionist Theodor Herzl as a temporary means of refuge for Russian Jews facing antisemitism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Scheme

The Jews are living on occupied land...Kapish!

Whether you chose to accept it or not, the land upon which Israel stands now is stolen land. I'll provide a brief history by shedding light on the Picot-Skyes agreement and why so many countries in the Middle East have straight artificial lines as boundaries such as that Oga daviddylan as provided above as fact.....

As part of the Picot-Sykes agreement by the British and French in 1905, it was in their interest to secularise islamic boundaries, there was no Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Iraq, etc... it was all one Islamic Caliphate (part of the Otoman Empire), which like today with the EU area, was a unified islamic government with no borders, relying on a welfare system called Zakat. So there was no discrimination between Arabs and non-Arabs but it was destroyed by the Picot-Sykes agreement being enforced by Britain sending their spies to the holyland, one of them being Lawrence of Arabia (Thomas Edward Lawrence), who under pretence helped raise Arab nationalism against the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The other British regiment helped raise the young Turks, who opposed the Arabs as a result. 1914 was the year when Balfour regiment was introduced by the British, meaning invade Palestine and create a zionist state by force called Israel, that day Palestinians became refugees in their own land, Mustafa Kemal the young Turks leader at the request of the British, abolished the caliphate in 1924 and since Islam is a political system based on God's law, Lord Curzon of Britain after the abolishment of the caliphate said “The situation now is that Turkey is dead and will never rise again, because we have destroyed its moral strength, the Caliphate and Islam.” and after that they knew that the rest of the Muslim would take note of the this plan, so they offered Saud the ruler of the Arab peninsula monarchy, which he accepted, therefore kingdom of Saudia Arabia was born and all Muslim states became independent and secular which in turn borught about racism and nationalism, meaning a nations interest wouldnt exceed its borders.

Palestine should be of interest of all muslims as they are meant to be one, however this aint affecting the lives of Pakistani Muslims or Saudis or Egyptians, so why should they help Palestine? Thats what nationalism did to Muslims.

Lol!
You have even debunked yourself without realizing it! Where on earth did you get this map from? A palestine state with arficial straight line borders? How so? And why is the outline of the present state of Israel and Palestine showing within this map itself? Have you asked yourself that question? The map is so ridiculous it beggars belief!

I'll do you one. Why don't you log unto wikipedia where you would find accurate historical pictures of Palestine, not this fictional one which you have posted here... Here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestine

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/07/facts-us-citizens-need-know-israel-palestine.html

Be sure to read from the site and click on the hyperlinks within the article

Facts All US Citizens Need to Know About Israel and Palestine

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Robert Barsocchini


■Gaza (along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem) is occupied Palestinian territory under international law, determined by the vast majority of the world, as well as the highest court in the world, the UN’s International Court of Justice. Gaza cannot commit aggression against Israel, since Israel is in constant and continual commission of illegal aggression against Palestine by occupying it (illegally and sadistically blockading it and frequently committing terrorism against its civilians, including by targeting them with chemical weapons provided by US taxpayers – see “Rain of Fire” by Human Rights Watch). As documented by Amnesty Int’l, Human Rights Watch, and many others, Israel intentionally targets and murders civilians, including children, en masse.
■Israel also kidnaps and tortures children, including by keeping them in outdoor cages, over night, in winter.
■But, even ignoring international law and that Gaza is under illegal Israeli occupation, Gaza did not initiate this current round of violence; Israel did:
■Western/US/Israeli propaganda says the violence started with the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli youths on June 12th. That is a lie:
■On May 20th, the Israeli government murdered 2 unarmed Palestinian teens, one on video, and wounded a third.
■The firing of pathetic scrap metal rockets from impoverished Gaza, which have killed no one, were in fact launched in response to earlier Israeli bombings, killings, assassinations, and arrests of Palestinians, including children.
■Since the year 2000, Israel has killed 1,500 Palestinian children, while Palestinians have killed 132 Israeli children. That means Israel has killed over 1,000% percent more Palestinian children than vice versa.
■As documented by the Washington DC based non-Profit, The Jerusalem Fund, Israel breaks far more ceasefires than Palestine – this includes firing of the Palestinian scrap metal rockets.
■For example, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many other human rights organizations reported that in Israel’s 2009 Gaza Massacre, Israel killed about 450 children, and it was Israel, they documented, that broke the ceasefire. (In that massacre, Israel killed overall from 1,400 to 7,000 Palestinians, almost all civilians, while 13 Israelis were killed, several from friendly fire.)
■According to a landmark, comprehensive study of all of Israel’s wars, by Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis, former head of the Graduate School of Government and Policy and of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, and former academic director of the M.A. Program at the Israeli Defense Forces’ National Defense College:
■“. most of the wars in which Israel was involved were the result of deliberate Israeli aggressive design . None of these wars – with the possible exception of the 1948 War of independence – was what Israel refers to as Milhemet Ein Berah (war of necessity). They were all wars of choice . ” – Defending the Holy Land, pg. 35, (bold added)
■“I review a number of peace-related opportunities ranging from the Zionist-Hashemite collusion in 1947 through the collapse of the Oslo Process in 2000. In all those cases I find that Israeli decision makers – who had been willing to embark upon bold and daring military adventures – were extremely reluctant to make even the smallest concessions for peace . I also find in many cases Israel was engaged in systematic violations of agreements and tacit understandings between itself and its neighbors.” – Defending the Holy Land, pg. 40
■Israel has violated more UN resolutions than any other country. That includes Iraq under Hussein.
■Hamas is the government elected by Gaza in elections that Jimmy Carter (and many others) observed and said were completely fair and free. Israel constantly says Hamas uses human shields. But in Israel’s biggest massacre of Gaza, the one in 2009, all the human rights organizations, including Amnesty, HRW, and the jurist Richard Goldstone, found that Hamas DID NOT use human shields. On the contrary, Israel used human shields, which is a regular practice for Israel. Israel uses civilians as human shields.
■Israel forced Palestinian civilians to dig and lay naked in trenches around Israeli tanks. See here at 6:45.
■Goldstone Report:
■XIV. THE USE OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS AS HUMAN SHIELDS
■“The Mission received allegations that in two areas in north Gaza Israeli troops used Palestinian men as human shields… The Mission found the foregoing witnesses to be credible and reliable. It has no reason to doubt the veracity of their accounts and found that the different stories serve to support the allegation that Palestinians were used as human shields.”
■Noam Chomsky: “Hamas is regularly described as ‘Iranian-backed Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.’ One will be hard put to find something like ‘democratically elected Hamas, which has long been calling for a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus’—blocked for over 30 years by the US and Israel. All true, but not a useful contribution to the Party Line, hence dispensable.”
■In the history of all rocket and mortar fire into Israel, 26 people, total, have been killed. And remember, Palestine breaks ceasefires far less often than Israel, as documented above.
■This number of 26 is in contrast to the minimum number of 1,400 people who were murdered by Israel in a single one of its terrorist atrocities, the 2009 Gaza Massacre.
■Noting that in the current massacre, zero Israelis and over 100 Palestinians have thus far been killed, and noting that Gaza is a concentration camp – Israel allows no one to enter or leave – Dan Sanchez gives a perfect description of the disparity in arms between the US/Israeli war machine and Palestinian scrap metal projectiles: “They [the Gazans] are like fish in a barrel, being blasted by a shotgun from above. It’s like some of the fish in the barrel pathetically spitting water at the gunman, and [US media calls] that a “shooting battle.”
■The rhetoric and tactics of Hamas and other groups resisting Israeli occupation and colonization can be brutal (though far less so than Israel). Propagandists try to attribute this to anti-Semitism, to distract from the fact that these groups are resisting having their country stolen and their people dispossessed and annihilated. Native American resistance to European colonizers was sometimes extremely brutal, as was their rhetoric, but everyone universally recognizes that this was not because of “anti-White-ism”, or “anti-European-ism”, but because they were having their land stolen and their people massacred, the same thing that Israel is doing to the Palestinians.
■Palestinians have the right under international law to resist occupation, ethnic cleansing, colonization, aggression, and annexation. Miko Peled, son of an Israeli general, recently stated that if Israel doesn’t Like rockets, they should decolonize Palestine. Dr. Norman Finkelstein notes that “The Palestinians have the right to use arms to resist an occupation . However, the fact that morally and legally they have that right doesn’t mean that it’s the most prudent strategy. In my opinion, a national Palestinian leadership committed to mobilizing nonviolent resistance can defeat the Israeli occupation if those of us living abroad lend support to it.”
■In 1948, the people who wanted to form a Jewish state carried out a massive terror and ethnic cleansing campaign against the occupants of Palestine, expelling about half of them (750,000) from their land and into concentrated areas (Gaza and West Bank). Israel has slowly continued colonizing even those areas, which were specifically reserved by the UN for Palestinians. Israel takes all the best land and resources, such as water. Here is a visualization of what has happened, and is currently happening with massive support from Obama:
https://www.juancole.com/images-ext/2010/03/map-story-of-palestinian-nationhood.jpg

■Obama requested more military aid for Israel than any president ever.
■Israeli settlement building in Palestine is a war crime under international law. Under Obama, Israeli settlement building is up over 130%.
■For about 40 years, there has been an international consensus that Israel must stop colonizing territory outside its 1967 borders. The consensus has been blocked by the United States, in isolation from the international community (much like the USA’s isolated, strong support for South African Apartheid). Every year there is a UN vote on the issue, and every year it goes about 165 to 2, the world against the US and Israel. This continues under Obama. All human rights groups support the consensus, as does Hamas, the Arab League, Iran, the Organization of the Islamic Conference… Virtually everyone, except the US and Israel. (More details on this page.)
■Palestinians are brutalized, repressed and impoverished by Israel. To get a quick visual understanding of the difference between Gaza and Israel, take a look at the images of people and cities being wantonly pummeled by Israeli terrorism when you search the word “Gaza“, and the images of opulence, wealth and luxury that come up when you search “Tel Aviv“.
■Israel has an illegal stash of hundreds of nuclear weapons.
■Israel, whose government intentionally targets, tortures, and murders civilians, including children, including with chemical weapons, and whose government uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, and whose government is the last entity on Earth carrying out old-style ethnic cleansing and colonization of foreign countries, is the single biggest recipient of US aid, at over three billion dollars a year and huge amounts of lethal weaponry such as attack helicopters and white phosphorous chemical explosives.
■To reiterate, Obama requested more military aid for Israel than any president ever. This is not because Obama and the USA love Jewish people. Obama was recently an accomplice in a literal neo-Nazi-led coup d’etat in Ukraine, and is currently fully supporting the junta-integrated Ukrainian government, which is staffed with several neo-Nazis in high ministries, and which uses neo-Nazi paramilitaries to carry out massacres (and possibly genocide) against people resistant to the junta. The actual reason the US supports Israel is discussed below.
■As Amnesty International has noted, all aid to Israel is illegal under international (and US) law, because Israel is a consistent violator of human rights.


Amnesty International also noted that Israel’s 2009 massacre of Gaza would not have been possible without the illegal funding (money and weapons) and support Israel gets from the USA.


This is also true of the current massacre Israel is committing in Gaza.


However, in a way, that is good news.


That means US citizens can STOP the massacres.


If we stop our money and weapons-flow to Israel, which is illegal anyway, we stop Israeli terrorism! All we have to do is stop committing a crime, and we will stop more crimes! That’s great news.


Here is a previous example of how this has worked: When the USA cut its funding for Indonesia’s genocide against East Timor, which the USA was funding almost exclusively, Indonesia was forced to stop and withdraw. All it took was cutting off our illegal flow of money and weapons to the criminals.


The same thing would happen if we cut our illegal funding for Israel’s genocides and acts of terrorism, ethnic cleansing, colonization, and annexation against Palestine.


But since the USA is an anti-democratic country, the only way to stop US plutocrats from using our money to fund Israeli terrorism is to force it through massive, non-violent pressure.


One way it happens is when it becomes too politically costly for the plutocracy to keep funding genocide and terror, meaning the costs of their illegal support outweigh the benefits, as in Indonesia. In that case, massive publicity and indigenous resistance accomplished the goal.


But Israel is the USA’s main imperial – and nuclear – base for controlling the Middle East, which US planners, in 1945, called the greatest material prize in world history, due to the oil and gas. Thus, it might require more, as in non-violently making our country into a democracy so that people control their own institutions and money, and thus the way we operate as a society and interact with the world.


Last note: To be clear, Israel is a legal state, but only within the borders allotted to it by the United Nations – the Pre-1967 borders, which existed before Israel started eating away, through terror, ethnic cleansing, colonization, and annexation, at the areas reserved by the United Nations for Palestinians, as well as areas of other countries, such as Syria (the Golan Heights).


Per international law, US domestic law, and common sense, Israel doesn’t deserve any support until it abandons isolationism and accepts that it can’t steal other people’s countries, and stops blockading and withdraws its soldiers and settlers, all there illegally, from those countries.


Israel is, militarily, the most powerful country in the Middle East, by far. Removing our support for the Israeli government (which we are legally required to do) will not put Israelis in danger. It will pressure the Israeli government to stop doing what endangers Israelis, which is committing aggressive acts against Israel’s neighbors.


If Israel ends its status as a consistent violator of human rights, decolonizes Palestine, and respects its neighbors, it could be a pleasure – and legal – to work with and support Israel.


Germany, Japan, and South Africa went from being the most reviled countries on Earth to being some of the most admired. Maybe Israel could undergo the same transformation, but not unless we, US citizens, help by ceasing to enable Israeli terrorism and war crimes by illegally supporting them.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/07/facts-us-citizens-need-know-israel-palestine.html

Be sure to read from the site and click on the hyperlinks within the article

Facts All US Citizens Need to Know About Israel and Palestine

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Robert Barsocchini


■Gaza (along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem) is occupied Palestinian territory under international law, determined by the vast majority of the world, as well as the highest court in the world, the UN’s International Court of Justice. Gaza cannot commit aggression against Israel, since Israel is in constant and continual commission of illegal aggression against Palestine by occupying it (illegally and sadistically blockading it and frequently committing terrorism against its civilians, including by targeting them with chemical weapons provided by US taxpayers – see “Rain of Fire” by Human Rights Watch). As documented by Amnesty Int’l, Human Rights Watch, and many others, Israel intentionally targets and murders civilians, including children, en masse.
■Israel also kidnaps and tortures children, including by keeping them in outdoor cages, over night, in winter.
■But, even ignoring international law and that Gaza is under illegal Israeli occupation, Gaza did not initiate this current round of violence; Israel did:
■Western/US/Israeli propaganda says the violence started with the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli youths on June 12th. That is a lie:
■On May 20th, the Israeli government murdered 2 unarmed Palestinian teens, one on video, and wounded a third.
■The firing of pathetic scrap metal rockets from impoverished Gaza, which have killed no one, were in fact launched in response to earlier Israeli bombings, killings, assassinations, and arrests of Palestinians, including children.
■Since the year 2000, Israel has killed 1,500 Palestinian children, while Palestinians have killed 132 Israeli children. That means Israel has killed over 1,000% percent more Palestinian children than vice versa.
■As documented by the Washington DC based non-Profit, The Jerusalem Fund, Israel breaks far more ceasefires than Palestine – this includes firing of the Palestinian scrap metal rockets.
■For example, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many other human rights organizations reported that in Israel’s 2009 Gaza Massacre, Israel killed about 450 children, and it was Israel, they documented, that broke the ceasefire. (In that massacre, Israel killed overall from 1,400 to 7,000 Palestinians, almost all civilians, while 13 Israelis were killed, several from friendly fire.)
■According to a landmark, comprehensive study of all of Israel’s wars, by Zeev Maoz, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis, former head of the Graduate School of Government and Policy and of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, and former academic director of the M.A. Program at the Israeli Defense Forces’ National Defense College:
■“. most of the wars in which Israel was involved were the result of deliberate Israeli aggressive design . None of these wars – with the possible exception of the 1948 War of independence – was what Israel refers to as Milhemet Ein Berah (war of necessity). They were all wars of choice . ” – Defending the Holy Land, pg. 35, (bold added)
■“I review a number of peace-related opportunities ranging from the Zionist-Hashemite collusion in 1947 through the collapse of the Oslo Process in 2000. In all those cases I find that Israeli decision makers – who had been willing to embark upon bold and daring military adventures – were extremely reluctant to make even the smallest concessions for peace . I also find in many cases Israel was engaged in systematic violations of agreements and tacit understandings between itself and its neighbors.” – Defending the Holy Land, pg. 40
■Israel has violated more UN resolutions than any other country. That includes Iraq under Hussein.
■Hamas is the government elected by Gaza in elections that Jimmy Carter (and many others) observed and said were completely fair and free. Israel constantly says Hamas uses human shields. But in Israel’s biggest massacre of Gaza, the one in 2009, all the human rights organizations, including Amnesty, HRW, and the jurist Richard Goldstone, found that Hamas DID NOT use human shields. On the contrary, Israel used human shields, which is a regular practice for Israel. Israel uses civilians as human shields.
■Israel forced Palestinian civilians to dig and lay naked in trenches around Israeli tanks. See here at 6:45.
■Goldstone Report:
■XIV. THE USE OF PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS AS HUMAN SHIELDS
■“The Mission received allegations that in two areas in north Gaza Israeli troops used Palestinian men as human shields… The Mission found the foregoing witnesses to be credible and reliable. It has no reason to doubt the veracity of their accounts and found that the different stories serve to support the allegation that Palestinians were used as human shields.”
■Noam Chomsky: “Hamas is regularly described as ‘Iranian-backed Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.’ One will be hard put to find something like ‘democratically elected Hamas, which has long been calling for a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus’—blocked for over 30 years by the US and Israel. All true, but not a useful contribution to the Party Line, hence dispensable.”
■In the history of all rocket and mortar fire into Israel, 26 people, total, have been killed. And remember, Palestine breaks ceasefires far less often than Israel, as documented above.
■This number of 26 is in contrast to the minimum number of 1,400 people who were murdered by Israel in a single one of its terrorist atrocities, the 2009 Gaza Massacre.
■Noting that in the current massacre, zero Israelis and over 100 Palestinians have thus far been killed, and noting that Gaza is a concentration camp – Israel allows no one to enter or leave – Dan Sanchez gives a perfect description of the disparity in arms between the US/Israeli war machine and Palestinian scrap metal projectiles: “They [the Gazans] are like fish in a barrel, being blasted by a shotgun from above. It’s like some of the fish in the barrel pathetically spitting water at the gunman, and [US media calls] that a “shooting battle.”
■The rhetoric and tactics of Hamas and other groups resisting Israeli occupation and colonization can be brutal (though far less so than Israel). Propagandists try to attribute this to anti-Semitism, to distract from the fact that these groups are resisting having their country stolen and their people dispossessed and annihilated. Native American resistance to European colonizers was sometimes extremely brutal, as was their rhetoric, but everyone universally recognizes that this was not because of “anti-White-ism”, or “anti-European-ism”, but because they were having their land stolen and their people massacred, the same thing that Israel is doing to the Palestinians.
■Palestinians have the right under international law to resist occupation, ethnic cleansing, colonization, aggression, and annexation. Miko Peled, son of an Israeli general, recently stated that if Israel doesn’t Like rockets, they should decolonize Palestine. Dr. Norman Finkelstein notes that “The Palestinians have the right to use arms to resist an occupation . However, the fact that morally and legally they have that right doesn’t mean that it’s the most prudent strategy. In my opinion, a national Palestinian leadership committed to mobilizing nonviolent resistance can defeat the Israeli occupation if those of us living abroad lend support to it.”
■In 1948, the people who wanted to form a Jewish state carried out a massive terror and ethnic cleansing campaign against the occupants of Palestine, expelling about half of them (750,000) from their land and into concentrated areas (Gaza and West Bank). Israel has slowly continued colonizing even those areas, which were specifically reserved by the UN for Palestinians. Israel takes all the best land and resources, such as water. Here is a visualization of what has happened, and is currently happening with massive support from Obama:
https://www.juancole.com/images-ext/2010/03/map-story-of-palestinian-nationhood.jpg

■Obama requested more military aid for Israel than any president ever.
■Israeli settlement building in Palestine is a war crime under international law. Under Obama, Israeli settlement building is up over 130%.
■For about 40 years, there has been an international consensus that Israel must stop colonizing territory outside its 1967 borders. The consensus has been blocked by the United States, in isolation from the international community (much like the USA’s isolated, strong support for South African Apartheid). Every year there is a UN vote on the issue, and every year it goes about 165 to 2, the world against the US and Israel. This continues under Obama. All human rights groups support the consensus, as does Hamas, the Arab League, Iran, the Organization of the Islamic Conference… Virtually everyone, except the US and Israel. (More details on this page.)
■Palestinians are brutalized, repressed and impoverished by Israel. To get a quick visual understanding of the difference between Gaza and Israel, take a look at the images of people and cities being wantonly pummeled by Israeli terrorism when you search the word “Gaza“, and the images of opulence, wealth and luxury that come up when you search “Tel Aviv“.
■Israel has an illegal stash of hundreds of nuclear weapons.
■Israel, whose government intentionally targets, tortures, and murders civilians, including children, including with chemical weapons, and whose government uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, and whose government is the last entity on Earth carrying out old-style ethnic cleansing and colonization of foreign countries, is the single biggest recipient of US aid, at over three billion dollars a year and huge amounts of lethal weaponry such as attack helicopters and white phosphorous chemical explosives.
■To reiterate, Obama requested more military aid for Israel than any president ever. This is not because Obama and the USA love Jewish people. Obama was recently an accomplice in a literal neo-Nazi-led coup d’etat in Ukraine, and is currently fully supporting the junta-integrated Ukrainian government, which is staffed with several neo-Nazis in high ministries, and which uses neo-Nazi paramilitaries to carry out massacres (and possibly genocide) against people resistant to the junta. The actual reason the US supports Israel is discussed below.
■As Amnesty International has noted, all aid to Israel is illegal under international (and US) law, because Israel is a consistent violator of human rights.


Amnesty International also noted that Israel’s 2009 massacre of Gaza would not have been possible without the illegal funding (money and weapons) and support Israel gets from the USA.


This is also true of the current massacre Israel is committing in Gaza.


However, in a way, that is good news.


That means US citizens can STOP the massacres.


If we stop our money and weapons-flow to Israel, which is illegal anyway, we stop Israeli terrorism! All we have to do is stop committing a crime, and we will stop more crimes! That’s great news.


Here is a previous example of how this has worked: When the USA cut its funding for Indonesia’s genocide against East Timor, which the USA was funding almost exclusively, Indonesia was forced to stop and withdraw. All it took was cutting off our illegal flow of money and weapons to the criminals.


The same thing would happen if we cut our illegal funding for Israel’s genocides and acts of terrorism, ethnic cleansing, colonization, and annexation against Palestine.


But since the USA is an anti-democratic country, the only way to stop US plutocrats from using our money to fund Israeli terrorism is to force it through massive, non-violent pressure.


One way it happens is when it becomes too politically costly for the plutocracy to keep funding genocide and terror, meaning the costs of their illegal support outweigh the benefits, as in Indonesia. In that case, massive publicity and indigenous resistance accomplished the goal.


But Israel is the USA’s main imperial – and nuclear – base for controlling the Middle East, which US planners, in 1945, called the greatest material prize in world history, due to the oil and gas. Thus, it might require more, as in non-violently making our country into a democracy so that people control their own institutions and money, and thus the way we operate as a society and interact with the world.


Last note: To be clear, Israel is a legal state, but only within the borders allotted to it by the United Nations – the Pre-1967 borders, which existed before Israel started eating away, through terror, ethnic cleansing, colonization, and annexation, at the areas reserved by the United Nations for Palestinians, as well as areas of other countries, such as Syria (the Golan Heights).


Per international law, US domestic law, and common sense, Israel doesn’t deserve any support until it abandons isolationism and accepts that it can’t steal other people’s countries, and stops blockading and withdraws its soldiers and settlers, all there illegally, from those countries.


Israel is, militarily, the most powerful country in the Middle East, by far. Removing our support for the Israeli government (which we are legally required to do) will not put Israelis in danger. It will pressure the Israeli government to stop doing what endangers Israelis, which is committing aggressive acts against Israel’s neighbors.


If Israel ends its status as a consistent violator of human rights, decolonizes Palestine, and respects its neighbors, it could be a pleasure – and legal – to work with and support Israel.


Germany, Japan, and South Africa went from being the most reviled countries on Earth to being some of the most admired. Maybe Israel could undergo the same transformation, but not unless we, US citizens, help by ceasing to enable Israeli terrorism and war crimes by illegally supporting them.

igbo2011: I love the way you think, I wish more people had your mindset.

So do I, igbo2011, so do I!!

thoth: ......

If the attack(if there was actually one and not just a collaborative sham) has achieved anything at all, it can only be said that it eliminated any benefit that Nairaland can offer to its users whom are mostly Nigerians and Africans in the sense of enlightenment and relegated it to an empty, uninformative website where fiddle minds that are alienated from there own reality play light tricks on each other for amusement.

....

thoth, you are the man! If only people really did understand the things at stake, the potential of Nairaland and the very disturbing possibility that "those people" have set Nairaland on their sights.....but as usual, our misinformed and unelightened people do not see if from that angle but rather trivialise such with jokes and playful banter...

All I can say is God save Africa!

NairaMinted: What does the 4th actually mean now?

http://stormcloudsgathering.com/the-ndaa-explained-in-3-minutes

Day off from work, beer, barbeque and wave your silly flags like good Americans....meanwhile another one of your freedoms just mysteriously disappeared!


Happy celebrations to the yanks anyway!

Will old posts and pictures ever be recovered?

I have my suspicions but who do y'all think was behind it?

Putin named Times’ International Person of the Year

Published time: December 30, 2013 18:11
Edited time: December 30, 2013 18:50

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Mihail Metzel)

One of Britain’s most influential newspapers has named Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘Man of the Year.’ The Times awarded the title because Putin "succeeded in one of his most enduring ambitions: to bring Moscow back to the international high table."

According to the newspaper, it was the Syrian insurgency that “propelled the president back into the front ranks of effective world statesmen,” when he managed to steer the West away from military intervention. He then used the escalating conflict to boost Russia's clout on the international stage.

“The narrow, but achievable and worthy aim of taking apart President Assad’s chemical arsenal was a face-saver for the West. And it established Mr Putin as a Middle East player once again; for Arab leaders and the Iranians he was suddenly the man who knew how to head off Western-led regime change,” The Times said.

Putin’s approach of rejecting the use of force and promoting political dialogue and compromise has proved fruitful in the Middle East. Syria, in its turn, has agreed to relinquish its stockpile of chemical weapons amid accusations that Damascus used sarin gas against rebel forces. The Russia-brokered deal cut short Washington’s intention to use military force against Syria in retaliation for the alleged attack.

"In Syria the world community had to make a joint and fateful decision. It was either the continuation of the degradation of the world order, the rule of the right of might, the right of the fist, the multiplication of chaos. Or to collectively take responsible decisions," Putin said earlier this month while addressing the Federal Assembly.


https://rt.com/files/news/21/af/b0/00/putin.jpg
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (AFP Photo / Pool / Anatoly Maltsev)

Apart from his key diplomatic victory in Syria, one of President Putin's largest achievements in 2013 came when he "wrestled the EU to the ground on Ukraine,” according to The Times. However, Russia's decision to invest US$15 billion in 'brotherly' Ukraine and grant a generous $7 billion gas discount was pragmatic and based on economic facts, Putin stressed at his annual press conference. The leader noted that Russia expects a five percent return on bond investments, stating that if Ukraine abandons Russia entirely for the EU, it would become an "appendage" to the European economy and would see a sharp drop.

The Times mentioned that Putin also "claims the laurels for releasing people - from the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky to the Pussy Riot performers.” President Putin has pardoned the former oil tycoon after a decade of imprisonment, citing humanitarian reasons.

The two jailed Pussy Riot members, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who were serving two-year terms for hooliganism, were also released under a massive amnesty earlier this month. Both were sentenced over their ‘punk prayer’ performance in a Russian Orthodox Christian cathedral. The prisoners' release was applauded by the international community and human rights groups.

Taking a short break from praise, The Times moved on to mention Putin's lack of success in dealing with terrorism in the Caucasus. However, the paper added that the recent bombings might be used to consolidate both Russian and international support, as a pre-Sochi crackdown on Islamic radicals in the region is underway.

Putin was chosen as ‘Man of the Year’ by Russia’s independent Levada Center for the sixth year in a row on Saturday. He was also a nominee for Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ award, though that title was ultimately given to Pope Francis, who is known as the ‘People’s Pope, on December 11.

Putin graced Time magazine’s front cover with the same title in 2007, saying the year had been his “most successful yet.” Former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden came in second, for having “pulled off the year's most spectacular heist.” Earlier this month, Foreign Policy voted Edward Snowden as being the top ‘Global Thinker’ of 2013. The move was clearly backed by RT online readers, 55 percent of whom said in a poll at the time of publishing that the whistleblower deserved the title.

Syrian govt evacuates 5,000 from town besieged by Islamist rebels

Published: Dec 30, 2013, 06:21 AM

The Syrian government evacuated around 5,000 people on Sunday from a town near Damascus where Islamist rebel fighters executed dozens of civilians two weeks ago, Syrias state news agency reported.
Government forces continued to battle Islamist rebels from the Al-Nusra Front and the Army of Islam in the town of Adra, located northeast of the capital. The town, which has a population of 20,000, was captured in mid-December by jihadist rebel groups.
Many of the civilians killed were members of the Alawite and Druse sects, communities which stand in support of President Bashar Assad, who himself is an Alawite.
Syrian troops surrounded the town following the rebel invasion.
Minister of social affairs Kinda Shammat stated on Sunday that more than 5,000 people were evacuated from the town.
"The citizens who have been evacuated are now in a safe haven as the ministry formed a relief operations' room with the cooperation of Damascus countryside governorate to offer them the basic relief aid," he said in a statement to SANA news agency.
An Adra resident earlier told RT that he escaped from the town under a storm of bullets. He later contacted his colleagues, who described how the executions were carried out by the militants.
They had lists of government employees on them, the man said. This means they had planned for it beforehand and knew who works in the governmental agencies. They went to the addresses they had on their list, forced the people out, and subjected them to the so-called 'Sharia trials.' I think thats what they call it. They sentenced them to death by beheading.
The government in Damascus tried to draw the UNs attention to the events in Adra. The Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a letter of complaint to the United Nations on Monday, saying that more than 100 people were massacred by the Al-Nusra Front and the Islam Brigade.
Both the Adra massacre and the latest Aleppo bombing have signaled an escalation of violence in the war-torn country ahead of the UN-mediated and continuously postponed peace talks on Syria, which are now set to take place in Geneva on January 22.
More than 100,000 people have died during the three-year uprising in Syria, according to UN estimates.

By 2030, there are gonna be an estimated 30,000 of these babies operational in the skies of the US. Time for some to familiarize themselves.

DRONE SURVIVAL GUIDE

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TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BIRDWATCHING

Our ancestors could spot natural predators from far by their silhouettes. Are we equally aware of the predators in the present-day? Drones are remote-controlled planes that can be used for anything from surveillance and deadly force, to rescue operations and scientific research. Most drones are used today by military powers for remote-controlled surveillance and attack, and their numbers are growing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicted in 2012 that within 20 years there could be as many as 30.000 drones flying over U.S. Soil alone. As robotic birds will become commonplace in the near future, we should be prepared to identify them. This survival guide is an attempt to familiarize ourselves and future generations, with a changing technological environment.

This document contains the silhouettes of the most common drone species used today and in the near future. Each indicating nationality and whether they are used for surveillance only or for deadly force. All drones are drawn in scale for size indication. From the smallest consumer drones measuring less than 1 meter, up to the Global Hawk measuring 39,9 meter in length.

ORDER THE DRONE SURVIVAL GUIDE ON ALUMINIUM PAPER

English/Pashto edition. Offset printed on Chromolux ALU-E mirrored paper. Size 48 x 33 cm. EUR 10 / USD 15 incl. shipping. Order via paypal or send an e-mail for international money transfer. Due to the increased interest after the Gizmodo article, Popular Science, and The Verge, organizing orders and shipping may take longer than usual.

Read the FAQ.

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ABOUT THE DRONE SURVIVAL GUIDE

The guide contains tactics for hiding from drones and interfering with the drones’ sensors, collected from various online sources. Health Ranger’s intelligence analysis of military drones: payloads, countermeasures and more’, by Mike Adams and ‘The Al-Qaida Papers - Drones’, Associated Press, Feb 2013. To keep this document widely available it can be downloaded in .pdf or .doc format. Send a new translation to us and receive a free printed Drone Survival Guide. All translations will be shared here. The Drone Survival Guide is collected and translated as a form of civil initiative, not for profit and without government or commercial funding and/or support.

Also see the FAQ

https://www.dronesurvivalguide.org/flare01.jpg

A REFLECTIVE FORM

One of the techniques for misleading a drone's camera is putting reflective material on the rooftops of houses or cars (glass, mirror) to try to reflect sunlight into the drone's camera, making this poster a useful tool to interfere with the drone's sensors. On a more associative level the mirrored material reminds us that drone surveillance is ultimately people watching people. In a way we are looking at ourselves through sophisticated mirrors.


DISCLAIMER This document is for information purposes only, with the intent of free distribution of publicly available information. We do not condone violent or destructive behavior against people or property in any way or form. All content may be freely shared, adapted, and translation for non-commercial purposes.




See more on http://www.dronesurvivalguide.org/

Pharaoh9: gerreout if u hv nothing to say! U won't condemn it cos it's normal thing in islamic contries

And what exactly do you have to say genius?

Click like if you feel Iraq was safer and far more stable when it was under Hussein before the yankees came to "liberate and win hearts and minds"

Zastava M70, 7.62x39mm, (1970 - Present) The Zastava M70 was the Yugoslavian variant of the Russian AK-47 (later AKM), however, it utilized a strengthened lower receiver, more akin to the RPK than the AK-47/AKM. It was most widely used and seen in the Wars in the 1990s of the former Yugoslavian republics - Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro (Slovenia and Macedonia were not a major combatants in the fighting).
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/7/74/Zastava_M70B1.jpg/400px-Zastava_M70B1.jpg

Zastava M70AB2 - 7.62x39mm (1970 - Present) folding stock rifle
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/2/2c/Zastava_M70_AB2.jpg/400px-Zastava_M70_AB2.jpg

Zastava M85, 5.56x45mm The Zastava M85 is a compact carbine manufactured by the Yugoslavian Zastava company, similar to the AKMSU mentioned above, although with an underfolding stock instead of a side-folder, a three-holed handguard and is chambered for 5.56x45mm.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/7/7e/M85_5_12.jpg/400px-M85_5_12.jpg

Zastava M92, 7.62x39mm. Very similar to the Zastava M85 but chambers 7.62x39mm instead of 5.56x45mm. Note the curved magazine.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/3/35/ZastavaM92.jpg/400px-ZastavaM92.jpg

Norinco Type 56, 7.62x39mm. The Chinese Type 56 assault rifle (manufactured by China North Industries Corporation, or Norinco)
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/b/b4/ChineseType56.jpg/450px-ChineseType56.jpg
Norinco Type 56 (fixed stock variant) with under-folding bayonet ("pig sticker" which was standard on PLA-issue Type 56s - 7.62x39mm

^^This rifle is commonly used by the Nigerian army and this is the model that the OBJ (the DICON patented version of the AK rifle) is designed after.

Norinco Type 56-1 7.62x39mm (under-folding stock variant)
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/a/a1/Type56S.jpg/450px-Type56S.jpg

Norinco Type 56-2 7.62x39mm(side-folding stock variant)
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/8/8d/Type56-2.jpg/450px-Type56-2.jpg
^^This is the most commonly used AK rifle of the Nigeria Police Force.

Norinco Type 84S 5.56x45mm. The Type 84 rifle is nearly identical to the Chinese Type 56 (seen above), but it is chambered in 5.56x45mm /.223 Remington
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/4/48/NorincoType84SRifle.jpg/500px-NorincoType84SRifle.jpg

Norinco Type 84S - 5.56x45mm Underfolder Model
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/7/75/NorincoType84SFolder.jpg/500px-NorincoType84SFolder.jpg

Continued:

AKMSU, 7.62x39, Chopped and shortened version of the AKM, made to resemble the AKS-74U except that it is still a 7.62x39mm gun. AKMSU was not produced in large quantities in the Soviet Union; however, many other countries, including Yugoslavia, massively built their own versions.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/c/c4/AK-Krinkov.jpg/450px-AK-Krinkov.jpg

AK-101, 5.56x45, (1994 - Present) Modern Russian AK rifle full size.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/d/dc/AK101.jpg/450px-AK101.jpg

AK-102, 5.56x45, (1990s - Present) The AK-102 is a modern day AK that is the carbine version of the AK-101
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/1/18/AK102.jpg/450px-AK102.jpg

AK-103, 7.62x39, (1994 - Present) Modern Russian AK rifle full size.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/2/21/AK103.jpg/500px-AK103.jpg

AK-104, 7.62x39, ( - Present) Modern Russian AK rifle carbine
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/f/f4/AK104.jpg/440px-AK104.jpg

https://static.dnaindia.com/images/cache/1939775.jpg

Mikhail Kalashnikov poses with the very first production AK-47 rifle

Most people use the generic name of AK-47 for any model of Kalashnikov but little do they know that there have been several models and modifications on the original AK-47 over the years. Some changes have been with the mechanics of the rifle itself. Some has been with the type of ammunition or cartridge size.Some have been with the length of the barrel, etc

Original AK-47,7.62x39. (1949 - Present) This was manufactured using a milled receiver. Note the large groove above the magazine well
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/5/57/AK-47_type_II_Part_DM-ST-89-01131.jpg/400px-AK-47_type_II_Part_DM-ST-89-01131.jpg

AKS-47, 7.62x39 (1949 - Present) Basically the same as the AK-47, but the rear-trunion is altered with a swiveling mechanism to allow for the under-folding stock
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/d/d0/Aks47e.jpg/400px-Aks47e.jpg

AKM, 7.62x39 (1959 - Present) The improved version of the AK-47, featuring a number of refinements such as a stamped receiver (as opposed to the milled receiver of the original AK-47), a slant compensator on the tip of the barrel (to reduce recoil), an improved gas tube (without vents), and use of lighter materials to reduce weight and simplify construction.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/7/71/AKMRifle.jpg/450px-AKMRifle.jpg

AKMS, 7.62x39 (1959 - Present) Basically the same as the AKM, but the rear-trunion is altered with a swiveling mechanism to allow for the under-folding stock. The AKMS nomenclature also indicates that the rifle is not a milled receiver variant and has the AKM style of gas block, top cover, barrel assembly, front sight, and appropriate forearm furniture.
https://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/d/d0/AKMS.jpg/450px-AKMS.jpg

RIP Kalashnikov: 20 facts you may not have known about AK-47 and its creator
Published time: December 23, 2013 23:05


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AFP Photo / Luis Robayo


Fail-safe, simple to use and cheap to produce – the world’s most popular weapon, AK-47, will long remain a monument to its late ‘father,’ Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died in Russia on Monday aged 94.

1. Mikhail Kalashnikov, who was a tank commander during World War II, began his career as a weapons designer after a shoulder injury during the Battle of Bryansk. While in hospital in 1942, he overheard wounded soldiers complaining about Soviet rifles and decided to change that.

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Senior Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov as he designed his AK-47 assault rifle. (RIA Novosti)
2. The first Kalashnikov rifle was produced in 1947, bringing its creator the Stalin Prize and the Order of the Red Star. The AK-47 has been the standard issue assault rifle of the Soviet and then Russian army since 1949.

3. Durability, low production cost, availability and ease of use are the features, which assured AK-47 global success. Kalashnikov’s creation performs in sandy or wet conditions that jam more sophisticated weapons. The designer called it a “symbol of the creative genius” of the Russian people.

4. The AK-47 has made it into the Guinness Book of Records as the most widely spread weapon in the world, with 100 million Kalashnikov rifles currently in use.

5. Military and special forces in 106 countries around the globe from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe are now armed with AK-47s.

6. Russia not only distributes the Kalashnikov rifles all over the world, but also licensed its production in over 30 other countries, including China, Israel, India, Egypt and Nigeria.

7. It is believed that AK-47s have caused more deaths than artillery fire, airstrikes and rocket attacks combined. An estimated quarter of a million people are gunned down by bullets from Kalashnikovs every year.

8. But Mikhail Kalashnikov himself never experienced self-reproach about the blood spilled with the help of his invention as he created AK-47 for protection. “I sleep well. It’s the politicians, who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence,” he said in 2007.

https://rt.com/files/news/21/9d/b0/00/kalashnikov-7.jpg
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan displays a AK47 gun transformed to a guitar at Vienna's U.N. headquarters September 11, 2007. (Reuters / Herwig Prammer)

9. Relative cheapness has always been one of the most important advantages of AK-47. The average global price of the assault rifle was estimated at $534 in 2005, according to Oxford University economist Phillip Killicoat. Though in African countries the price of AK-47 is on average $200 cheaper.

10. Osama bin Laden always had a Kalashnikov rifle with him during his video appearances. According to some reports, it was the US, which gave the Al Qaeda founder his first AK-47 to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

https://rt.com/files/news/21/9d/b0/00/kalashnikov-6.jpg
Osama Bin Laden (Reuters / Hamid Mir / Editor / Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn)

11. During the Vietnam War, many American soldiers gave up their M16s for the more reliable Kalashnikov rifles, which they picked up from dead enemies. Even now, the US marines carry AK-47 magazines with them because of how common the weapon is.

12. The image of AK-47 appears on the flag of Mozambique as well as coats of arms of Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso (1984-97) and East Timor. The Kalashnikov rifle is also present on the flag of Lebanese militant organization, Hezbollah.

13. The parents in some African states name their babies ‘Kalash,’ which is another nickname for the Kalashnikov assault rifle, according to a documentary by Russia’s Channel One.

14. Russia’s top basketball player, Andrey Kirilenko, born in the city of Izhevsk, which hosts the Kalashnikov rifle factory, has played under No.47 in the NBA and was nicknamed ‘AK-47.’

15. Egypt has immortalized the AK-47 by erecting a giant monument, portraying a barrel and bayonet of a Kalashnikov rifle at the Sinai Peninsula.

16. A gold coated Kalashnikov assault rifle was recovered by US troops from the weapon collection of former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein.

17. Coins dedicated to Mikhail Kalashnikov and his creation were issued not only in Russia, but also in such a peaceful place as New Zealand, which marked the rifle’s 60th birthday with special two-dollar pieces. They came in cases shaped after the AK-47 magazine.

18. French newspaper, Liberation, has named AK-47 the most important invention of the XX century, with the Russian rifle leaving the atomic bomb and space flight behind.

19. Mixing vodka, absinth, lemon, cinnamon and sugar is the recipe for the Kalashnikov shot drink. There’s also a Kalashnikov vodka brand, which has been sold in bottles resembling the shape of an AK-47 since 2004.

20. Colombian artist, Cesar Lopez, has transformed a dozen of AK-47s into guitars, with then UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan, getting one of the musical instruments as a gift in 2007.

https://rt.com/files/news/21/9d/b0/00/kalashnikov-5.jpg
Malian army paratrooper Ousmane Sangare, aged 26, holds an AK-47 assault rifle in Gao north of Bamako (AFP Photo / Joel Saget)

Pharaoh9: stop lying! Saudi Arabia is sponsoring them while the West sells weapon and get paid like Russia

Do you understand your own statement at all? Please read it again

thoth: As usual the terrorist are not to blame and somehow following the chronological order of events someone here has between the cracks of then and now; spun out "reforms" as the ultimate cause of this conflict.
Judging from the length of the post i am not surprised that you did not read it.

My thoughts exactly! I wondered what brought about his statement when the article was clearly about the acts committed by the terrorists..sorry...freedom fighters. I just didnt want to join issues