Category: activism

the afghanistan war, now extended to pakistan: brain power with the benefit of historical knowledge or brute military power?

“Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald’s new book, “Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story”: Thirty years in the making, this deeply researched book is bursting with overlooked facts and unauthorized insights. Through their erudition, prescience and passion, Gould and Fitzgerald have provided us with an urgent and necessary history, one that pierces through the haze of misinformation that has, for far too long, obscured the guiding light of an authentic past.” Full article.

i feel sick. unless there’s a trial, there’s no way to try and make this stop. we r still in iraq and in afghanistan (possibly in pakistan). there r still detainees who have been incarcerated with no trial in sight. we have to deal with this now!

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged. Full article.

“Obama knows that resolving Kashmir is a critical piece of the “Af-Pak” strategy; he even mooted a renewed push for negotiations during his campaign for president. But in office he has been faced with a massive Indian lobbying effort warning that his special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, would be shunned by Delhi if his brief included Kashmir.” Full article.

“Widespread killings, injuries and damage to homes could undermine popular support needed for the US-backed Pakistan army campaign and possibly generate sympathy for the insurgency.” Full article.

“Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies.” RETIRED US ARMY COL. RALPH PETERS. Full article.

preventive detention = thought policing = orwell’s 1984

In Closed-Door Meeting With Rights Groups, Obama Suggests He’ll Use ‘Preventive Detention’

Just when you think President Obama’s policies on war, civil liberties and Guantanamo couldn’t possibly look any more like the Bush/Cheney regime’s than they already do, the administration goes ahead and proves you dead wrong. In a meeting Wednesday with several human rights groups including the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights Watch, Obama said he was “mulling the need for a ‘preventive detention’ system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried,” according to two participants in the “private session.” Full article.

what???

Senate Votes To Block Funds For Guantanamo Closure

WASHINGTON — In a rare, bipartisan defeat for President Barack Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to keep the prison at Guantanamo Bay open for the foreseeable future and forbid the transfer of any detainees to facilities in the United States. Full article.