Author: mara.ahmed

tariq ali rocks.

After the 9/11 attacks, we were told the solution to terrorism was to have citizens spy on each other, and not to, say, elect a competent government. That’s when TIPS (Terrorist Information and Prevention System) was born, an initiative to recruit one million volunteers in 10 cities across the country that encouraged them to report suspicious activity that might be terrorism-related. An investigative political journalist, Ritt Goldstein, observed in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald that TIPS would provide America with a higher percentage of “citizen spies” than the former East Germany had under the notorious Stasi secret police. Full article.

we finally get to hear from the man himself – goldstone interviewed by bill moyers. watch interview.

Hersh considers the worsening situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the principal test of the Obama presidency, which will require the cooperation of the top military brass. Obama must face up to the military, Hersh said. “He’s either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon.” If he doesn’t, according to Hersh, “this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency.” Full article.

The blasts, one from a car bomb and the other possibly a truck bomb, targeted the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad Governorate in central Baghdad. Both buildings are close to the Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry, which were blown up in August, killing 132 people and wounding up to 600. Security had been tightened sharply across Baghdad in the wake of the earlier blasts, which eroded confidence in the Iraqi government’s security gains ahead of national elections in January. The explosion at the Governorate was about 500 metres from the site of the Foreign Ministry blast. Full article.

After hearing testimony from 27 victims and expert witnesses, the tribunal ruled that Vietnamese Agent Orange victims and their families are entitled to full compensation from the US government and the companies that manufactured and supplied the chemical. The judgment also requires the defendants to restore the environment to pre-war conditions and remove all traces of dioxin from Vietnam. Additionally, it concluded that the Vietnamese State should be compensated for the costs of caring for victims and restoring the environment. Full article.

Aid agencies describe the situation as catastrophic, warning that recruitment is on the rise. The children go through a terrifying ordeal. Almost immediately they are trained to kill. One tactic favoured by the militia is to force the child to murder a member of his own family.

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, 27, of the Royal Logistic Corps, said the presence of British forces in one of the world’s poorest countries was making the situation worse. “It is distressing to disobey orders, but when Britain follows America in continuing to wage war against one of the world’s poorest countries, I feel I have no choice,” he told anti-war protesters at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. Full article.

LOVE him…

Washington, DC, October 22, 2009 – On behalf of a coalition of U.S. and international musicians, including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Tom Morello and Jackson Browne, the National Security Archive today filed a series of FOIA petitions requesting the full declassification of secret U.S. documentation on the strategy of using music as an interrogation device at Guantanamo and other detention centers. Full article.

PhD economist Faber states: How am I so sure about this final collapse? Of all the questions I have about the future, this is the easiest one to answer. Once a society becomes successful it becomes arrogant, righteous, overconfident, corrupt, and decadent … overspends … costly wars … wealth inequity and social tensions increase; and society enters a secular decline. [Quoting 18th century Scottish historian Alexander Fraser Tytler:] The average life span of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years progressing from “bondage to spiritual faith … to great courage … to liberty … to abundance … to selfishness … to complacency … to apathy … to dependence and … back into bondage.” Where is America in the cycle? It is most unlikely that Western societies, and especially the U.S., will be an exception to this typical “society cycle.” The U.S. is somewhere between the phase where it moves “from complacency to apathy” and “from apathy to dependence… Full article.

If technology has transformed warfare into a spectacle of shock and awe, its contribution to the cause of dissent has been no less remarkable. It has enabled solidarities across borders and facilitated networks and forums dedicated to impartial communication of ground realities beyond the sanitized projection of mainstream news. True, technological advances have not brought an end to either occupation, but it has certainly helped alternative voices and views to be heard. Full article.

What is important here is that the judge is saying that violations of war crimes can be committed by private people or corporations,” says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He said Ellis’s ruling is “an affirmation of the precedent set by CCR thirty years ago” when it brought the first successful Alien Tort suit in 200 years “that those who engage in violations of fundamental human rights abroad can be held liable in the US.” Full article.