Category: politics

Extreme ideologies flourish when democratic institutions are abused and people are used as cannon fodder by the elite for their selfish interests. Pakistan is in a mess because its elite and liberals have flirted with democracy and fundamentalism just to keep itself in power. Full article.

something else people should know about what we call “terrorism” in the u.s.

Terrorism according to U.S. legal code is “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets.” Now imagine if Loughner’s last name was Muhammad, or if Loughner was a convert to Islam. Elected officials would be using yesterday’s attack as further proof that American Muslims need to be watched closer and that we aren’t doing enough to stop such attacks. And no doubt, the media would be discussing the looming danger of homegrown terrorism. Full article.

The US has stepped up its drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, a new report by a Pakistani Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) says.

The Islamabad-based NGO, Conflict Monitoring Center, revealed the details of the deaths by US drone attacks in its annual report.

The report gives detailed accounts on how the CIA killed innocent people merely on the suspicion of being militants.

In 2010, the CIA carried out an unprecedented 132 drone attacks in tribal areas, claiming the lives of 938 people, it said. Full article.

does anyone (except for cindy sheehan of course) give a hoot about the six people killed by a u.s. drone yesterday? hillary clinton takes the trouble to “strongly condemn” salman taseer’s death and all the liberal pakistanis r up in arms. what about this? why is this not equally effed up?

more on the latest drone assassinations here.

Obama administration officials r trying their best to stop the prosecution of the Bush Six. They fret that “the fact that this complaint targets former administration legal officials may reflect a ‘stepping-stone’ strategy designed to pave the way for complaints against even more senior officials” and bemoan Spain’s “reputation for liberally invoking universal jurisdiction.” Full article.

context.

this is what a drone attack does. 700-900 pakistani civilians were killed by drones in 2009, an equal or larger number in 2010. why don’t these people count?

salman taseer’s murder is reprehensible, as murder is; the blasphemy laws r preposterous and should be repealed; but taseer was no human rights activist or hero. he was widely hated in pakistan (esp lahore) for his financial corruption and political chicanery. let’s get real.

This silence in the face of the accumulating evidence that Israel plans to launch Operation Cast Lead 2 is a devastating form of criminal complicity at the highest governmental levels, especially on the part of countries that have been closely aligned with Israel, and also exhibits the moral bankruptcy of the United Nations system. Full article.

interview with UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (i.e drone attacks). from oct 2009 but still v relevant as these targeted killings have been escalated since. more here.

The innocent victims of America’s secret drone war have become “unpeople”, in the words of the historian Mark Curtis – those whose lives are seen as expendable in the pursuit of the west’s foreign policy goals. Killed via remote control, they remain unseen and unremembered. Full article.

“Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 36, was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital yesterday after inhaling massive amounts of tear-gas during the weekly protest in Bil’in, and died of poisoning this morning. She was the sister of Bassem Abu Rahmah who was also killed during a peaceful protest in Bil’in on April 17th, 2010.” — happy new year palestine.

Full article.

Described as Indian’s most famous political prisoner, Dr. Binayak Sen is known as the “physician of the poor.” He spent many years working as a doctor in the rural-tribal areas of Chhattisgarh in central India and reported on unlawful killings of indigenous people by the police and private militias. On Friday, Dr. Sen was sentenced to life in prison. More here.

In the democratic world, Israel’s armed domination of the Palestinians is unique. It didn’t used to be, but now it is one-of-a-kind. This country’s occupation of Palestinian territory is the last bastion of colonialism in the free world.” Full article.