Month: January 2010

The noble “international community” which is currently scrambling to send its “humanitarian aid” to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it now aims to reduce. Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti’s people to move (in former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s phrase) “from absolute misery to a dignified poverty” has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies. Full article.

The history really defines the response and the vulnerability of Haiti to the earthquake. One of the most obvious ways it does that is the reason why the people got to the hillsides where they were most vulnerable to the earthquakes. They got there because they or their parents or grandparents were pushed out of Haiti’s countryside, where most Haitians used to live. And they were pushed out of there by policies thirty years ago, when it was decided by the international experts that Haiti’s economic salvation lay in assembly manufacture plants. And in order to advance that, it was decided that Haiti needed to have a captive labor force in the cities. So a whole bunch of aid policies, trade policies and political policies were implemented, designed to move people from the countryside to places like Martissant and the hills – hillsides that we’ve seen in earthquake photos. Full article.

This is incredible.

Brandon Neely, a former Guantanomo Prison Guard, decided to join Facebook and upon signing up, begun searching for former army acquaintances. He came upon the profile of Shafiq Rasul, a former prisoner and decided to send him a message. To his astonishment, he received a reply.

The initial message spun into a longer conversation, eventually resulting in a face-to-face meeting. Full article and video.

Haiti, the Western hemisphere’s most destitute country, has just experienced a crippling blow in the form of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake, centered just 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, has devastated sections of the city and knocked out important infrastructure, including telephone communications. It is the worst earthquake in 200+ years in the region. Full article.

Shaker Aamer was cleared for release from Guantánamo by a military review board in 2007. Difficulties securing his release appear to hinge on questions about whether he should be sent back to Saudi Arabia, the country of his birth, or to the UK, where his British wife and four children live, but is also apparent that the US authorities have continued to regard him with suspicion, despite clearing him for release.

This, essentially, is because he has been the most vocal opponent of the human rights abuses inflicted on prisoners in the “War on Terror,” and as I mentioned during a speech outside the US embassy yesterday (report and photos here), I believe that it’s possible that his release in the UK — where he would be able to speak freely, unlike in Saudi Arabia — would be embarrassing for the US government because of his extensive knowledge of the abusive regime at Guantánamo, and embarrassing for the British government, because of his claims (which are making their way through the UK courts) that British agents were complicit in his abuse when he was held in US custody in Afghanistan, before his transfer to Guantánamo. Full article.

The president claimed that the United States “has never fought a war against a democracy.” But he failed to mention that CIA operations have subverted democracy and overthrown legitimately elected governments in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Chile (1973) and other countries. Full article.

The media have been swamped with reports about the attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now dubbed the “underwear bomber,” failed in his alleged attack, close to 300 people were spared what would have been, most likely, a horrible, violent end. Since that airborne incident, the debates about terrorism and how best to protect the American people have been reignited. Meanwhile, a killer that has stalked the U.S. public, claiming, by recent estimates, 45,000 lives annually—one dead American about every 10 minutes – goes unchecked. That’s 3,750 people dead – more than the 9/11 attacks – every month who could be saved with the stroke of a pen. This killer is the lack of adequate health care in the United States. (Amy Goodman)

Full article here.

Howard Zinn is an American historian, social critic, and activist. He is best known as author of the best-seller “A People’s History of the United States.” He spoke at Boston University on November 11, on the subject of American “Holy Wars.” Watch here.

A member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family was found innocent on Sunday of the torture and rape of an Afghan in a case that embarrassed the Gulf Arab emirate and raised questions over human rights. Full article.

What we don’t know will hurt us, and quite possibly on a more devastating scale than any Qaeda attack. Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was as cunningly breached as airline security at the Amsterdam airport. And without reform, another massive attack on our economic security is guaranteed. Now that it can count on government bailouts, Wall Street has more incentive than ever to pump up its risks – secure that it can keep the bonanzas while we get stuck with the losses. Full article.

My new strategy begins like the old, with “shock and awe,” but this time let us “saturate” the cities and the villages of Yemen not with explosives and incendiaries, but rather with food, potable water, clothing, medicines and even money. For a change, let our policy be one of supporting life rather than causing death. Phase Two of our offensive will target the cities and villages with payloads of books, tools and building supplies to construct homes, hospitals and schools. For a change, let our policy be one of healing and of construction rather than of causing injury and destruction. Full article.