Category: activism

When respondents were asked what they consider to be the biggest threat to the nation of Pakistan, 11 per cent of the population identified the Taliban fighters, who have been blamed for scores of deadly bomb attacks across the country in recent years.

Another 18 per cent said that they believe that the greatest threat came from neighbouring India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan since partition in 1947.

But an overwhelming number, 59 per cent of respondents, said the greatest threat to Pakistan right now is, in fact, the US.

Full article.

“By far the most reliable way to be criminalized by poverty is to have the wrong-color skin. Indignation runs high when a celebrity professor encounters racial profiling, but for decades whole communities have been effectively “profiled” for the… suspicious combination of being both dark-skinned and poor, thanks to the “broken windows” or “zero tolerance” theory of policing popularized by Rudy Giuliani, when he was mayor of New York City, and his police chief William Bratton.” Full article.

“We profess to being shocked at one or another of these outlandish crimes, but the shock wears off quickly in an environment in which the rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of t…he nation’s entertainment. The mainstream culture is filled with the most gruesome forms of misogyny, and pornography is now a multibillion-dollar industry — much of it controlled by mainstream U.S. corporations”. Full article.

Already, Barack Obama has approved adding 20,000 more active duty troops to the 1,473,900 already on duty. Without public protest, the escalation of the war in Afghanistan is certain to continue. However, if the people who poured into the streets to… protest Bush’s war are truly opposed to war, then they should also make an appearance in those same streets now that the war is Obama’s. Full article.

The Taliban may have been decapitated in Pakistan, but their success is not about the leadership of any one man. Full article.

When ill-conceived military adventures look doomed, their advocates tend to grow more strident about honour, especially if it can be upheld to the last drop of other people’s blood. Richard Nixon’s “peace with honour” primarily co…nsisted of devastating Cambodia in addition to Vietnam; for some years now, maintaining honour in Afghanistan has amounted to little more than the Talibanisation of nuclear-armed Pakistan. Full article.

Tortured Logic – a Project of the ACLU: Send this video to Attorney General Holder and demand that he appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate those who committed and authorized torture — wherever the evidence leads. Watch video.

Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” the affidavit states. He “intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis.” It reports that Blackwater “employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms of Iraqis and other Arabs, such as ‘ragheads’ or ‘hajis.’” And it notes that Blackwater intentionally recruited individuals from the former Yugoslavia because of their violent anger towards Muslims. Full article.

“The big gatherings have come and gone, the vigils are a shell of what they used to be, and it just seems like an empty gesture,” Noble says. “If people don’t know by now what years of war are doing to this country, I don’t know what to say. It strikes me that nothing is outlandish anymore.” Full article.

Bill Moyers interviews investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill about Blackwater — in this clip Scahill tells the incredible story of armed Blackwater troops being sent into New Orleans on the order of Blackwater CEO Erik Prince in the aftermath of Katrina.

There are many police and law enforcement officials who are concerned with the growing trend of using military-experienced mercenaries to train and work with local police officers in the United States. Full article.