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.’”