Category: politics

Cultural Cleansing in Iraq: Why did the invasion of Iraq result in cultural destruction and killings of intellectuals? Convention sees accidents of war and poor planning in a campaign to liberate Iraqis. The authors argue instead that the invasion aimed to dismantle the Iraqi state to remake it as a client regime. Post-invasion chaos created conditions under which the cultural foundations of the state could be undermined. The authors painstakingly document the consequences of the occupiers’ willful inaction and worse, which led to the ravaging of one of the world’s oldest recorded cultures. Get more info or order book here.

Pape asserts that “offensive military action rarely works” against terrorism, so, in his view, the solution to the problem of terrorism couldn’t be simpler: withdraw. Pape’s “nationalist theory of suicide terrorism” applies not just to Hamas and Hezbollah but also to Al Qaeda; its real goal, he says, is the removal of the U.S. military from the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim countries. Pape says that “American military policy in the Persian Gulf was most likely the pivotal factor leading to September 11”; the only effective way to prevent future Al Qaeda attacks would be for the United States to take all its forces out of the Middle East. Full article.

As the media focuses on the fact that the suspect in the failed Times Square bomb plot is a Pakistani Muslim. What about the man who first noticed the smoke rising from the SUV? A street vendor, a Muslim immigrant from Senegal, says he first sounded the alarm and helped stop the plot. Watch interview.

On 27 July 2002 Khadr was shot at least twice in the back, once in the leg and had been blinded in one eye by shrapnel. He was unconscious for almost a week and was near death. Yet by 12 August 2002 he had been transferred to Bagram detention facility and was being interrogated while still confined to a stretcher. This speaks volumes about the lack of concern showed for the 15-year-old boy’s welfare by his captors. Indeed both interrogators testifying yesterday appeared to feel sorry for Omar Khadr. Full story.

some context: “Afghanistan is a country where 70% of the population has never seen a doctor or a nurse in their lives. It is a country where there is no safe water. It is a country where there is malnutrition. But on top of it, it is a country that, after this last aggression of 2001, 2002, has seen problems it has never experienced before: prostitution and AIDS. AIDS was an unknown phenomenon, as prostitution was, in Afghanistan. And now in Kabul you have prostitutes, and health authorities are starting to be concerned with a possible spread of HIV, which would be a tremendous tragedy in a country without medical infrastructure or without the possibility to look after patients.” (Dr Gino Strada) – More here.

let’s contextualize: Ali Abunimah takes an in-depth look at the arrest in New York of a Pakistani-American with alleged connections to al-Qaeda. Full interview here.

At the start and at the finish of the Hashmi case, tricks of the theatre have been used to make a human being look terrifying to an audience. By the extreme conditions in which he was restrained, he was made to seem like a dangerous animal, so ferocious that only the tightest and thickest chains could prevent him from eating us alive. By the layers of isolation which kept him from communicating with the outside world, his words were made to seem so poisonous, so hateful and powerful, that if they could be heard they would knock down walls and devastate cities. And at the end, the protection accorded to those who would determine his innocence or guilt made it appear that he belonged to a movement so vast and so mighty that it had more power than the greatest criminal gangs to strike down its enemies wherever they might hide. Full article.

Reports are emerging suggesting that secret US military intelligence aircraft were used to find and locate Faisal Shahzad, the man accused of attempting to set off a crude car bomb in Times Square. The CBS affiliate in New York reported today: “In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.”

The post at 5:34 PM was titled “Army Intelligence Planes Led To Suspect’s Arrest.” But then at 6:21 PM, the article’s title was changed to “Total Time Of Investigation: 53 Hours, 20 Minutes: Faisal Shahzad In Custody After Nearly Fleeing United States.”

The paragraph about the Army planes was deleted from the CBS story. Full article.

Mikey Weinstein, whose Military Religious Freedom Foundation originated the protest over Franklin Graham’s involvement in the Pentagon event, said his group doesn’t get involved in issues beyond the armed forces. But he called it an “extremely huge mistake” for any branch of government to put its imprimatur on Franklin Graham, whom he calls an “Islamophobe, an anti-Muslim bigot and an international representative of the scourge of fundamentalist Christian supremacy.” As for Obama’s reported promise to “look into” the Pentagon’s decision, Weinstein said: “Our strongest hope is he was saying it the same way that somebody smiles and says, ‘Yes,’ to crazy Aunt Bertha in the attic, ‘Of course, we’ll bring up milk and cookies for the Martians who visit you each night.’ ” Full article.

Anyone hearing about central India’s ongoing epidemic of farmer suicides, where growers are killing themselves at a terrifying clip, has to be horrified. But among the more disturbed must be the once-grand poobah of post-invasion Iraq, U.S. diplomat L. Paul Bremer. In issuing Order 81, Bremer didn’t order Iraqi farmers to march over to the closest Monsanto-supplied shop and stock up. But if Monsanto’s experience in India is any guide, he didn’t need to. Full article.

three years in PRE-TRIAL solitary confinement! that’s the reality american muslims face. rather than focus on making fun of prophet muhammad as the key to restoring our civil liberties, how about some good old habeas corpus?

Syed Fahad Hashmi has been held in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement for nearly three years. The government’s case rested on the testimony and actions of an old acquaintance of Hashmi’s who turned government informant after his own arrest. The 30-year-old American citizen’s trial was due to begin today in New York but on Tuesday Hashmi pleaded guilty to one count of material support to a foreign terrorist organization. In a Democracy Now! exclusive we speak with his brother and his former college advisor. Video here.

“We now believe that Monsanto has control over as much as 90 percent of seed genetics. This level of control is almost unbelievable,” said Neil Harl, agricultural economist at Iowa State University who has studied the seed industry for decades. “The upshot of that is that it’s tightening Monsanto’s control, and makes it possible for them to increase their prices long term. And we’ve seen this happening the last five years, and the end is not in sight.” At issue is how much power one company can have over seeds, thefoundation of the world’s food supply. Without stiff competition,Monsanto could raise its seed prices at will, which in turn could raise the cost of everything from animal feed to wheat bread and cookies. Full article.

Keith Sadler, 53, a 15 year homeowner at the corner of Broadway and Fremont, decided that enough was enough and no one else had stood up to do something about this and that the loss of his own home was the best place to stand. “It’s time people should come together as a community to defend what is already theirs. I think we’ve already been shown that simply asking or hoping for change isn’t going to make it happen.” He held a press conference on Sunday night with several supporters in attendance, where he announced that he was not leaving voluntarily and the police would have to enter the house on their own and physically remove him. There are five people, all from the Toledo area, who are taking the stand with him. There are also supporters who have come form as far away as Florida to show their support and several even camped out in Keith’s yard over night, in spite of the rain. Full article.

Ed Murrow told his generation of journalists bias is okay as long as you don’t try to hide it. So here, one more time, is mine: plutocracy and democracy don’t mix. Plutocracy is the rule of the rich – political power controlled by the wealthy.

Plutocracy is not an American word but it’s become an American phenomenon. Back in the fall of 2005, the Wall Street giant Citigroup even coined a variation on it, plutonomy, an economic system where the privileged few make sure the rich get richer with government on their side. By the next spring, Citigroup decided the time had come to publicly “bang the drum on plutonomy.”

And bang they did, with an “equity strategy” for their investors, entitled, “Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer.” Here are some excerpts:

“Asset booms, a rising profit share and favorable treatment by market-friendly governments have allowed the rich to prosper…[and] take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last 20 years…”

“…the top 10%, particularly the top 1% of the US– the plutonomists in our parlance– have benefited disproportionately from the recent productivity surge in the US…[and] from globalization and the productivity boom, at the relative expense of labor.”

“…[and they] are likely to get even wealthier in the coming years. [Because] the dynamics of plutonomy are still intact.”

And so they were, before the great collapse of 2008. And so they are, today, after the fall. While millions of people have lost their jobs, their homes, and their savings, the plutonomists are doing just fine. In some cases, even better, thanks to our bailout of the big banks which meant record profits and record bonuses for Wall Street.

Now why is this? Because over the past 30 years the plutocrats, or plutonomists — choose your poison — have used their vastly increased wealth to capture the flag and assure the government does their bidding. Remember that Citigroup reference to “market-friendly governments” on their side? It hasn’t mattered which party has been in power — government has done Wall Street’s bidding.

Don’t blame the lobbyists, by the way; they are simply the mules of politics, delivering the drug of choice to a political class addicted to cash — what polite circles call “campaign contributions” and Tony Soprano would call “protection.”

This marriage of money and politics has produced an America of gross inequality at the top and low social mobility at the bottom, with little but anxiety and dread in between, as middle class Americans feel the ground falling out from under their feet. According to a study from the Pew Research Center last month, nine out of ten Americans give our national economy a negative rating. Eight out of ten report difficulty finding jobs in their communities, and seven out of ten say they experienced job-related or financial problems over the past year.

So it is that like those populists of that earlier era, millions of Americans have awakened to a sobering reality: they live in a plutocracy, where they are disposable. Then, the remedy was a popular insurgency that ignited the spark of democracy.

Now we have come to another parting of the ways, and once again the fate and character of our country are up for grabs.

So along with Jim Hightower and Iowa’s concerned citizens, and many of you, I am biased: democracy only works when we claim it as our own.

complete interview with jim hightower here.

Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand. The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable: the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the insurance companies that deny us health care when it’s profitable, the banks that take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands miles away. They are right here in front of us. (Mike Prysner)