Category: activism

The Fort Laramie Treaty once guaranteed the Sioux Nation the right to a large area of their original land, which spanned several states and included their sacred Black Hills, where they were to have “the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of the land.

However, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills, President Ulysses S. Grant told the army to look the other way in order to allow gold miners to enter the territory. After repeated violations of the exclusive rights to the land by gold prospectors and by migrant workers crossing the reservation borders, the US government seized the Black Hills land in 1877. Full article.

The regime has arrested Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, daughter of the former president, who spoke at a pro-Mousavi rally, along with 4 other members of that family. This step is typical of an old Iranian ruling technique, of keeping provincial tribal chieftains in check by keeping some of their children hostage at the royal court. It is widely suspected that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a multi-billionaire who is well connected politically, is funding and aiding the reform movement’s protests. Full article.

very moving…

“What I think the policies of the Obama administration over the past five months show is that we need independent political movements in this country that cannot and will not allow themselves to be co-opted by the Democratic Party–that don’t function as partisan movements for the promotion of one of the two corporate parties, but rather keep as their primary focus ending U.S. wars of aggression around the world, fighting for single-payer health care and fighting for the rights of working-class people and the poor in this nation.” Full article.

“In a vote that should go down in recent histories as a day of shame for the Democrats, on Tuesday the House voted to approve another $106 billion dollars for the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and increasingly Pakistan). To put a fine point on the interconnection of the iron fist of U.S. militarism and the hidden hand of free market neoliberal economics, the bill included a massive initiative to give the International Monetary Fund billions more in U.S. taxpayer funds.” Full article.

pankaj mishra on pakistan: “The Obama administration should consider the possibility that, as Graham Fuller, the CIA’s former station chief in Kabul puts it, few Pashtuns “will long maintain a radical and international jihadi perspective once the incitement of the US presence is gone.” Full article.

A non violent movement turns violent when the Peru govt cracks down on protesters. Dozens of people have been killed in clashes between indigenous people and police in Peru. The Indians have been protesting against laws which will open up communal jungle lands and water resources to oil drilling, logging and mining.

“If the United States, as President Obama says, doesn’t want a permanent presence in Afghanistan, why allocate a billion dollars to build this fortress like embassy, similar to the one in Baghdad, in Islamabad, Pakistan? Another one in Peshawar. Having an increase in mercenary forces. Expanding the US military presence there.” JEREMY SCAHILL

this interview provides amazing insight into what is going on right now.

for example, did the bombing in peshawar have anything to do with the fact that the u.s. govt was in negotiations with the hotel’s owners to either purchase or sign a long-term lease to the facility to house a new american consulate in peshawar?

watch this must-see interview!

a huge humanitarian crisis in pakistan – the “war on terror” exacts a high price. it’s the poor who end up paying it – both here in the u.s. and abroad.

obama’s stance on habeas corpus must change.

habeas corpus (protection against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment) must be restored according to the american constitution.

“Guantanamo at Home”: Muslim American Syed Fahad Hashmi Held in 23-Hour Solitary Pretrial Confinement. Watch the video.

I. DOMESTIC POLICY:

1. habeas corpus which protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment must be reinstituted. this is not debatable. no groundwork is necessary to prepare the american public ever so gently to dump the military commissions act. if we don’t act urgently to protect our constitutional rights we might lose them forever. the stripping away of habeas corpus is unconstitutional, against the rule of law and opposed to american values.

to illustrate the concept of indefinite detention as it exists today (and we are not just talking about detainees held in guantanamo, we are also talking about americans being held on american soil, for years, sometimes in solitary confinement, without the hope of a trial), i am attaching a video. it contrasts obama’s speech in cairo with real life here in the u.s. i hope u will watch it.

so far obama’s reaction has been to change the term “indefinite detention” to “prolonged detention” which means nothing. for a straightforward understanding of what obama has proposed on the subject of habeas corpus, i am attaching another video.

u know, pakistani lawyers, with the support of the pakistani public, were able to stand up to a u.s. backed military dictator and demand the restoration of the constitution. inspite of imprisonment and torture, they were successful. they even got the chief justice reinstated. as an american citizen, is it too much to ask that we demand the same from the man we elected president, without any further delays or new legal “regimes”?

2. dealing with the patriot act and its vile effects on american civil liberties must be a priority. as a candidate obama emphasized government transparency and accountability. however, as president he dismissed an investigation into the national security agency’s wiretapping of american citizens. the reason was “harm to national security” (same argument as bush) but obama went further and made the u.s. govt immune from suit under ANY federal statute in cases of illegal spying. this sharp curtailment of our civil liberties needs to be reversed. it does not require a slow and gradual shift in paradigm to give people back rights which are provided by the constitution.

3. healthcare reform was based on two important premises: (1) a mandate for all americans to obtain health insurance (that’s the only way to lower cost, just like we do with auto insurance) and (2) a public health insurance option. people r not even talking about the mandate anymore – i guess we’ve already lost on that. if we give up on the govt healthcare option, we will have achieved absolutely nothing!

4. torture: i am tired of talking about this one. all i can say to those who say we must move on, look to the future, forgive and forget – without some accounting of what happened we will not be able to move forward. without truth, there can be no reconciliation.

there is obviously much more on the domestic front – the economy, the environment, our energy policy, education, etc. i elaborate on the first 3 because w/o those rights we will be too scared, too sick or too detained to fight for anything else.

II. FOREIGN POLICY:

1. my first concern is obama’s escalation of the war in afghanistan. as a strong proponent of satyagrhaha u will share my deep concern for the use of violence to try and contain violence. it is a ridiculous idea and i expect a man of obama’s intelligence to understand that. if we had a longer collective memory, we would recognize the repetition of the exact same cycle over and over again. for example, if we go back to the vietnam war we will see that the same failed strategies used to fight a counterinsurgency there are now at work in pakistan:

(1) military war combined with a war to “win the hearts and minds” of the people,
(2) use of air raids to force villagers to move away from guerilla areas into america-friendly south vietnamese cities (in pakistan, up to 3 million villagers have been displaced from taliban-controlled swat, many of them have moved in urban slums),
(3) using the vietnamese refugee generation to destroy villages and cut down the vietcong recruiting base, thereby creating enormous resentment (in pakistan, the army has been put in the impossible position of fighting its own civilians, with the result that retributive terrorist attacks have intensified in urban areas),
(4) relying on intelligence provided by american political scientists who have absolutely no understanding of the people, history and culture of countries very different from their own. (graham greene’s “the quiet american” says everything there is to be said on this subject).

covert military support of the mujahideen came back to haunt us on 9/11. using the invasion of kuwait as an excuse to install our military in saudi arabia, after the first gulf war, didn’t help either. the more violence we put into the system, the more violence we will reap. extremism doesn’t exist in a vacuum. it is not incomprehensible evil. there is always some context.

the american occupation of afghanistan should end as soon as possible. it is a joke to call it a “legit” war. american presence is only wreaking more havoc and it will come to haunt us at some point. there is no intelligent or humane reason to invest in war. we need to get out now.

2. stopping further israeli settlements cannot achieve a two-state solution in the middle east. the palestinians live on tiny bits and pieces of land in gaza and the west bank. those areas are not large or contiguous enough to form a state. but the most urgent need is for food and medicine, something that obama does not even mention. the blockades must be lifted at once to allow humanitarian aid to enter gaza. this is not a complex, long standing, intractable political dispute – we are talking about food, medicine and housing which is being wilfully blocked.

there is a lot more but i think i will end here.

President Obama came to Cairo amidst a massive security crackdown and heaping praise on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called “a stalwart ally” and a “force for stability and good in the region.” We hear from former presidential candidate Ayman Nour, one of Egypt’s best-known dissidents and the chairman of the Al-Ghad Party. Nour was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2005 and recently injured in an attack he says is linked to elements of Mubarak’s ruling party. Democracy Now! producer Anjali Kamat spoke to Nour in Cairo earlier this year. Watch video.