Hundreds arrested for swarming NATO HQ in Belgium

PressTV

Police in Belgium have arrested some 483 peace activists from hundreds of protesters, who tried to break into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels.

The Sunday demonstration organized by the Belgian Association Action for Peace was called to protest NATO intervention in Afghanistan and Libya, and nuclear arming.

The activists crossed fields and sought to climb over fences leading to the NATO compound but were stopped by the five to six hundred police officers who were deployed to counter the protesters.

"We neither want the anti-missile shield, nor intervention by NATO in Libya or Afghanistan, nor nuclear bombs that are illegal in our country," a spokesman for Action for Peace, Benoit Calvi said.

Demonstrators most of them in their twenties, came from 10 European countries including Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, and Sweden.

"A military alliance that intervenes all over the world and has nuclear weapons is a threat to world peace," Action for Peace said.

The protest came ahead of next month’s NATO summit in Chicago. 

89 sieverts per hour measured in soil near Columbia River in Washington — Worst contamination just feet from groundwater

ENENews

Hanford officials have settled on a plan to clean up what may be the most highly radioactive spill at the nuclear reservation.

It depends on calling back into service the 47-year-old, oversized hot cell where the spill occurred to protect workers from the radioactive cesium and strontium that leaked through the hot cell to the soil below.

Radioactivity in the contaminated soil, which is about 1,000 feet from the Columbia River, has been measured at 8,900 rad per hour [89 sieverts per hour]. Direct exposure for a few minutes would be fatal, according to Washington Closure. [...]

In the 1980s, cesium and strontium spilled inside the hot cell, according to a 1993 report that referenced the spill. Germany needed a heat source to use for tests of a repository for radioactive waste, which emits heat, and the cesium and strontium were being fabricated into the sources.

“This was concentrated material,” said Mark French, the Department of Energy’s project director for Hanford cleanup along the Columbia River. [...]

It migrated down in a open square shape, with the worst contamination down to five or six feet deep, McBride said. There is not evidence that it has reached the ground water which is about 54 feet below the ground there and about 42 feet below the bottom of the hot cell [...]

Read the report here

"Israel & Saudi Arabia Are Much More Dangerous Enemies To The US Than The Iranians Are!" CIA Agent

Civil lawsuit filed against NATO in Belgium regarding bombing in Libya

Washington Post

BRUSSELS — Attorneys have filed a civil lawsuit in Belgium accusing NATO of killing 13 civilians, including 3 children, by bombing a residential compound of a former government official in Libya.
Marcel Ceccaldi, a Paris-based lawyer, said Thursday he also has asked the Brussels District Court to send two experts to Libya to assess physical and psychological damage from the attack near Tripoli in June so that he can determine what monetary compensation to seek from NATO.

The military alliance is based in Brussels, and its spokeswoman, Carmen Romero, said Thursday that all NATO air strikes in Libya are aimed at military targets and that great care is taken to avoid civilian casualties. Western air forces have been bombing Libya for nearly 5 months but have failed to dislodge Moammar Gadhafi’s regime.

Ceccaldi said that although international organizations such as NATO enjoy diplomatic immunity in criminal cases, they fall under the jurisdiction of Belgian justice in civil suits.

“We have brought an action before the Brussels (civil court) against NATO for our client who ... has lost his wife and three children in a NATO bombardment,” Ceccaldi said. “He wishes to be recognized as a victim and to receive moral and material reparations for what he has undergone.”

Ceccaldi and Belgian lawyer Ghislain Dubois are representing Khalid el Hamidi, a retired Libyan general and member of the government’s Revolutionary Council whose home was destroyed by two bombs on June 20 at 2:30 a.m. The explosions demolished the two houses in a compound in the town of Surman, 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Tripoli. Thirteen people died, including three children, Hamidi’s relatives and household help.

At the time, NATO acknowledged it had targeted the compound but described it as a “command and control” center. Ceccaldi said it was a residence in a quiet civilian neighborhood and was therefore not a legitimate target under the Geneva Convention on the rules of war.

Gaza flotilla to set sail Monday despite numerous setbacks

Haaretz
By Amira Hass

An activist stands in front of the "Stefano Chiarini"
ship, during a demonstration against the Greek authorities'
ban on Gaza-bound ships, July 2, 2011.
Photo by: Reuters

Activists say all operational ships will be ready to depart, but exact number is yet unknown.

The organizers of the Gaza-bound flotilla said Sunday that all operational ships will set sail on Monday, despite the numerous delays the flotilla activists had encountered in the past week.

The decision to depart on Monday was made following several days of deliberations on the subject, and the exact number of ships due to sail is still unknown.

In contrast to recent reports, most of the Gaza flotilla activists are still participating.

Moreover, activists in several countries of origin of the ships participating in the flotilla such as Canada and Belgium held protests in support of the Gaza flotilla and against the Greek government, which had issued an order to bar the ships from leaving Greek ports.
Gaza flotilla July 2, 2011 (Reuters)

Eight of the ten ships due to participate in the Gaza flotilla were delayed over the weekend in various Greek ports, following an order by the Greek government to bar the departure of the vessels.

The activists as well as members of the leftist opposition in Greece accused the Socialist government of caving in to Israeli pressure. Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis said that the Greek government is preventing the departure of the vessels in order to avoid a ‘humanitarian disaster’ which will result from a violent confrontation with the Israeli navy.

The foreign minister also promised that he will continue to negotiate with the UN in order to find a solution to the flotilla crisis.

The Greek ban applies to all Greek and foreign vessels in Greek ports heading to Gaza.