TV News LIES

"During war there are no civilians," that’s what “Yossi,” an Israeli military (IDF) training unit leader simply stated during a round of questioning on day two of the Rachel Corrie trials, held in Haifa’s District Court earlier this week. “When you write a [protocol] manual, that manual is for war,” he added.

For the human rights activists and friends and family of Rachel Corrie sitting in the courtroom, this open admission of an Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians -- Palestinian or foreign -- created an audible gasp.

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.

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A closely divided federal appeals court in San Francisco has dismissed a lawsuit seeking damages from a private company that worked with the CIA as part of its "extraordinary rendition" program. The court ruled Wednesday that the government's decision to invoke the "state secrets" privilege means that the case cannot go forward.

Five foreign plaintiffs who were allegedly transported by the CIA to countries such as Egypt and Morocco for interrogation had sued Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary, which provided flight planning and logistical support services. The five men said that they were tortured by foreign intelligence services working with the CIA and that Jeppesen was a critical player in the agency's rendition program.

George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, plans to announce on Tuesday that he is giving $100 million to Human Rights Watch to expand the organization’s work globally. It is the largest gift he has made, the largest gift by far that Human Rights Watch has ever received, and only the second gift of $100 million or more made by an individual this year, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

“We’re seeing noticeably fewer charitable gifts at the $100 million level from individuals reported than we did just a few years ago,” said Patrick Rooney, the center’s executive director. “Between 2006 and 2008, an average of about 13 gifts a year of that size by individuals was reported. In 2009, it dropped to six, and this year, we know of only one other.”

A federal judge has agreed with the government that it can indefinitely hold at Guantánamo an Afghan man whom military intelligence says belonged to an anti-American cell near Kandahar. Judge John Bates' ruling, his first on a Guantánamo habeas corpus petition, left the so-called government win-loss scorecard at 16-38 in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

That means that judges have ruled more than twice as often for the release of detainees at Guantánamo, rather than holding them. But in this case Bates rejected Shawali Khan's unlawful detention lawsuit in a one-page order released Friday afternoon. His opinion was not released but a court order said an unclassified version would be released ``at a later date.''

A report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) found that violent confrontations between Jewish residents and their Palestinian neighbours had risen rapidly, but that Israeli police have largely ignored Palestinian complaints.