Author: mara.ahmed

“Media reports indicate that 27 civilians were killed, including women and children and many more were injured,” Kucinich’s press release notes, adding, “The U.S. government has an obligation to protect civilians under international law. As Secretary of Defense, you have an obligation to ensure that all military operations conducted in Afghanistan are conducted in accordance to such laws.” Kucinich writes, “Please provide information about the events leading up to the air strike, including the name of the person who granted authority to US Special Forces helicopters to conduct the aforementioned airstrike, the name of the person who ordered the airstrike, a detailed description of how it was determined that the civilians traveling by minibus were Taliban insurgents, and the protocol for ordering this airstrike and all other airstrikes.” Full article.

We have no problem condemning atrocities done to women abroad, yet too many of us in the United States ignore the oppression on our doorstep. We’re suffering under the mass delusion that women in America have achieved equality. Full article.

Our debt to Haiti stems from four main sources: slavery, the US occupation, dictatorship and climate change. These claims are not fantastical, nor are they merely rhetorical. They rest on multiple violations of legal norms and agreements. Full article.

Late on the evening of June 9 that year, three prisoners at Guantánamo died suddenly and violently. As news of the deaths emerged the following day, the camp quickly went into lockdown. The authorities ordered nearly all the reporters at Guantánamo to leave and those en route to turn back. The commander at Guantánamo, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, then declared the deaths “suicides.” In an unusual move, he also used the announcement to attack the dead men. “I believe this was not an act of desperation,” he said, “but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.” Read more.

how our awful wars affect us.

awful, awful, awful…

Nato confirmed that it fired on Sunday on a group of vehicles that it believed contained fighters, only to discover later that women and children were in the cars. Full article.

“My worry is that younger people who do not find the mosque a satisfying experience, and women who find it a hostile environment, will drift away from the mosque,” said Abdullahi An-Na’im, a specialist in Islamic law at Emory University School of Law. “That means the mosque will become the exclusive domain of a very archaic understanding of Islam.” Full article.

Pls join us in writing to NATO Command to let them know that if they continue to kill Afghan babies and children, they will only create more terrorists. An apology alone won’t appease those who have suffered such profound loss. These military attacks are not making us safer; in fact, they are inspiring more people to take up arms against our troops. Pls send letter.

Coalition forces and the Afghan government are low-balling the number of families driven out of their homes by fighting in Helmand province and are failing to provide them with adequate care, an Afghanistan human rights advocate says. Full article.

Ilham Moussaid, a 21-year-old Muslim woman who describes herself as “feminist, secular and veiled”, is running for the far-left New Anti-Capitalist party (NPA) in the south-eastern region of Avignon. But, despite her insistence that there is no contradiction between her clothing and her political role, Moussaid’s candidacy in the regional vote due in March has angered other feminists and politicians. Full article.

A village elder in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. As the US mounts attacks in Helmand province and the civilian death toll rises, the rest of the country braces itself for more US military involvement. Full article.