Cynthia McKinney Reportedly Freed by Israelis

The former Georgia congresswoman who was detained by Israeli forces when the ship in which was traveling attempted to defy a blockade of Gaza has been released. Cynthia McKinney, a longtime Democrat before becoming a Green Party presidential candidate, is now on her way back home, according to her mother, Leola McKinney. “We finally got word that she was released,” Leola McKinney said late Sunday afternoon. “We don’t know what time she is supposed to fly out. All we know is that they took her to the airport. I would be more relieved when I know she’s on the flight, but I am relieved that she’s away from there.” Cynthia McKinney has been held by the Israelis since last Tuesday. She and other members of the activist group Free Gaza Movement said they were trying to deliver food and humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The detention marked the second time since December that McKinney was detained by Israeli authorities. In the previous episode, McKinney’s vessel collided with an Israeli naval ship as it ignored the blockade.

Somebody’s Watching You, Lancaster, Pa.

By the end of the month, the moderately sized city of Lancaster, Pa., will be the most heavily monitored community in America. The 55,000-resident city will have 165 cameras watching residents and visitors, and a non-profit, private group, the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition, will do the surveilling.  It’s not that Lancaster is a crime-ridden community. After all, there have been only two killings this year and 109 incidents of aggravated assault, Lancaster Police Lt. Todd Umstead told The Philadelphia Inquirer. But crime is up from last year. Some have lauded the security efforts as an important step toward a utopian crime-free community, while others have blasted the idea as obscene government intrusion into people’s lives. The cameras, which are hidden inside of black bubbles hung from white street lights, swivel, pan and zoom, and they are “powerful enough to make out a face or a license plate a block or more away,” according to the Inquirer.

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was not among the 21 activists released by Israel Tuesday. McKinney and the others were taken into custody Tuesday as the ship they were on attempted to defy a blockade of Gaza to deliver supplies. The Greek-registered Arion was seized in the Mediterranean, 23 miles off the Gaza coast. On Wednesday Israeli authorities released an American filmmaker and a Danish human rights activist, according to freegaza.org, the web site of the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the voyage opposing the blockade. Several other passengers, including McKinney, of Georgia, and 1977 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Maguire, who co-founded a group that worked for peace in Northern Ireland. It isn’t the first time that McKinney has had an encounter with Israeli forces. In December, a small boat on which she was traveling collided with an Israeli naval vessel. “We are definitely going to go [back] even if we have to paddle across,” Greta Berlin, a Free Gaza Movement spokeswoman, told reporters in Cyprus. Spokesman Darby Holladay said the U.S. embassy has been in touch with Israeli authorities. “We understand that the passengers are safe and accounted for,” he said. Israel’s blockade of Gaza has been in effect since 2007.

The bloodshed in Gaza is flowing has been flowing at an alarming rate, a leading human rights groups says in a new report. Much of the bloodletting has been committed by Israeli troops during a winter offensive, according to Amnesty International, which says they killed hundreds of unarmed civilian adults and children, broke laws and committed war crimes during the onslaught. “Hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks carried out using high-precision, air-delivered bombs and missiles and tank shells. Others, including women and children, were shot at short range when posing no threat to Israeli soldiers,” the group says in its 117-page exposé. But the socio-political group Hamas and other Palestinian groups have inflicted their share of pain too, Amnesty International says. The human rights group says that they committed war crimes by firing hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, killing three Israeli civilians, injuring scores and driving thousands from their homes, according to the report. Amnesty International wants both the Israelis and Palestinians to permit independent investigations into the 22-day conflict, which spanned December and January. Israeli officials denounced the report’s findings. “The slant of their report indicates that the organization succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organization,” said a Israel Defense Forces news statement. “The Amnesty report ignores a critical aspect of Operation Cast Lead — Hamas consistently, deliberately and routinely violated international law, specifically the prohibition against the use of ‘human shields.’”

When it comes to the perpetual raging conflict in the Middle East, President-elect Barack Obama wants his presidency to succeed where all others in recent memory have failed. “When you see civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli, harmed, under hardship, it’s heartbreaking. And obviously what that does is it makes me much more determined to try to break a deadlock that has gone on for decades now,” he told ABC’s “This Week.” He rejected the notion that he has been reticent to address the hostility between Palestinians and Israelis, saying that he is not yet the president, and that jumping into the fray full force would be inappropriate. “But what I am doing right now is putting together the team so that on Jan. 20, starting on day one, we have the best possible people who are going to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process as a whole, that are going to be engaging with all of the actors there, that will work to create a strategic approach that ensures that both Israelis and Palestinians can meet their aspirations,” he said. So, will he piggyback President George Bush’ policies and practices on the region? “I think that if you look not just at the Bush administration, but also what happened under the Clinton administration, you are seeing the general outlines of an approach,” he said.

 A day after Israelis raided the Gaza Strip, even ramming the boat occupied by former Georgia Democrat Cynthia McKinney, the African Union Israel’s actions, calling on the United Nations Security Council to force the Jewish state to back down. “The (AU) Commission strongly condemns the ongoing air raids on the Gaza Strip by Israel since 27 December,” the union said in a statement. “This massive and disproportionate attack constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law and will further aggravate the suffering of the civilian population, which, as a result of the siege imposed by Israel, has been faced by shortages of food, medicine and fuel.” The African Union urged the Security Council and members of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet “to fully assume their responsibilities toward the civilians in the Gaza Strip by compelling Israel to an immediate ceasefire.” It also pleaded with the nations of the world to increase medical and humanitarian aid to victims of the attacks. On Monday, McKinney, the 2008 Green Party candidate and the first African-American woman elected to Congress from the state of Georgia, joined more than a dozen high-profile leaders who headed to the region aboard a medical supply ship on a humanitarian mission. The yacht, owned by the U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement, collided with an Israeli gunboat, which had fired machine guns into the water to stop the vessel’s progress, FOX News reported. At least 360 Palestinians, including more than 50 civilians, have been killed in the raids, according to officials.

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney headed to Gaza Monday, part of a group of activists going to provide medicine to victims in the war-ravaged region. McKinney, the first Black woman to represent Georgia, ran as the Green Party candidate for president after losing her congressional seat in 2006. McKinney’s father, former Georgia state Rep. Billy McKinney, said her mother did not want her to go. “But I think that certain people have missions in life and you can’t deter them,” he said. The trip to Gaza was organized by the Free Gaza Group, which launched its 66-foot yacht called “SS Dignity” from Cypress. The effort defies an Israeli blockade. The supplies McKinney and others are transporting to the area are for people wounded from Israeli bombings against targets in Gaza, in retaliation for rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns. Israel’s aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip continued for a third day on Monday. By Monday, the death toll rose to 364, with some 1,400 reported wounded, according to Palestinian medical officials.