musaafer:

Israel announced that they are cutting telecommunications to and from Gaza. This means that it is only going to get worse. Massacres happen this way. Genocide happens this way. 

If they weren’t going to commit heinous war crimes that they didn’t want the rest of the world to know, they wouldn’t need to cut any connection Gaza has with the outside world. They wouldn’t have to mute the Palestinian people if what they are doing was acceptable morally or legally. 

thepeoplesrecord: Obama victory infuriates Pakistan drone victimsNovember 9, 2012 The roars celebrating the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama on television give Mohammad Rehman Khan a searing headache, as years of grief and anger come rushing back. The 28-year-old Pakistani accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack a month after Obama first took office. “The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected,” he told Reuters in the capital, Islamabad, where he fled after the attack on his village in South Waziristan, one of several ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border. “Since yesterday, the pressure on my brain has increased. I remember all of the pain again.” In his re-election campaign, Obama gave no indication he would halt or alter the drone program, which he embraced in his first term to kill al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan without risking American lives. Drone strikes are highly unpopular among many Pakistanis, who consider them a violation of sovereignty that cause unacceptable civilian casualties. “Whenever he has a chance, Obama will bite Muslims like a snake. Look at how many people he has killed with drone attacks,” said Haji Abdul Jabar, whose 23-year-old son was killed in such a bombing. Analysts say anger over the unmanned aircraft may have helped the Taliban gain recruits, complicating efforts to stabilize the unruly border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. That could also hinder Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2014. Obama authorized nearly 300 drone strikes in Pakistan during his first four years in office, more than six times the number during the administration of George W. Bush, according to the New America Foundation policy institute. Since 2004, a total of 337 U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,908 and 3,225 people. The institute estimates about 15 percent of those killed were non-militants, although that percentage has declined sharply to about 1-2 percent this year. Washington says drone strikes are very accurate and cause minimal civilian deaths. The Pakistani government says tens of thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in the fight against militants. Many were civilians caught in suicide bombings. Others were killed by the Pakistani army. “NO DIFFERENCE” Getting accurate data on casualties and the effects of drones is extremely difficult in the dangerous, remote and often inaccessible tribal areas. The Taliban often seal off the sites of strikes. While the aerial campaign has weakened al Qaeda, its ally, the Pakistani Taliban, remains a potent force despite a series of Pakistan army offensives against their strongholds in the northwest. Seen as the biggest security threat to the U.S.-backed Pakistani government, that faction of the Taliban is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across Pakistan, and a number of high profile attacks on military and police facilities. “We are amazed that Obama has been re-elected. But for us there is no difference between Obama and Romney; both are enemies. And we will keep up our jihad and fight alongside our Afghan brothers to get the Americans out of Afghanistan,” said Pakistan Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan. On Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed the gates of a military base in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, killing at least one soldier and wounding more than a dozen people. Pakistanis were largely indifferent in the run-up to Tuesday’s election, expecting little change to the drone attacks regardless of whether Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney won. “Any American, whether Obama or Mitt Romney, is cruel,” Warshameen Jaan Haji, whose neighborhood was struck by a drone last week, told Reuters on the eve of the election. “I lost my wife in the drone attack and my children are injured. Whatever happens, it will be bad for Muslims.” Pakistani politician Imran Khan, a vocal critic of U.S. drone strikes, said he believed Obama stepped up the attacks in his first term so he wouldn’t look weak on national security. “I think Obama essentially has an anti-war instinct,” he told Reuters. “Without the worry of being re-elected, he will de-escalate the war, including the use of drones. This is positive.” But for Mohammad Khan, who is not related to the former cricketer, the damage is already done. The February 2009 drone attack that destroyed his home left him as the main provider for 13 family members, forcing him to move to Islamabad and work with a real estate company. “When the Sandy hurricane came, I thought that Allah would wipe away America,” he said. “America just wants to take over the world.” Source Stop the illegal drone wars now! Thousands are dying at the hands of the US government every day. 

thepeoplesrecord:

Obama victory infuriates Pakistan drone victims
November 9, 2012

The roars celebrating the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama on television give Mohammad Rehman Khan a searing headache, as years of grief and anger come rushing back.

The 28-year-old Pakistani accuses the president of robbing him of his father, three brothers and a nephew, all killed in a U.S. drone aircraft attack a month after Obama first took office.

“The same person who attacked my home has gotten re-elected,” he told Reuters in the capital, Islamabad, where he fled after the attack on his village in South Waziristan, one of several ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border.

“Since yesterday, the pressure on my brain has increased. I remember all of the pain again.”

In his re-election campaign, Obama gave no indication he would halt or alter the drone program, which he embraced in his first term to kill al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan without risking American lives.

Drone strikes are highly unpopular among many Pakistanis, who consider them a violation of sovereignty that cause unacceptable civilian casualties.

“Whenever he has a chance, Obama will bite Muslims like a snake. Look at how many people he has killed with drone attacks,” said Haji Abdul Jabar, whose 23-year-old son was killed in such a bombing.

Analysts say anger over the unmanned aircraft may have helped the Taliban gain recruits, complicating efforts to stabilize the unruly border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. That could also hinder Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

Obama authorized nearly 300 drone strikes in Pakistan during his first four years in office, more than six times the number during the administration of George W. Bush, according to the New America Foundation policy institute.

Since 2004, a total of 337 U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,908 and 3,225 people.

The institute estimates about 15 percent of those killed were non-militants, although that percentage has declined sharply to about 1-2 percent this year. Washington says drone strikes are very accurate and cause minimal civilian deaths.

The Pakistani government says tens of thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in the fight against militants. Many were civilians caught in suicide bombings. Others were killed by the Pakistani army.

“NO DIFFERENCE”

Getting accurate data on casualties and the effects of drones is extremely difficult in the dangerous, remote and often inaccessible tribal areas. The Taliban often seal off the sites of strikes.

While the aerial campaign has weakened al Qaeda, its ally, the Pakistani Taliban, remains a potent force despite a series of Pakistan army offensives against their strongholds in the northwest.

Seen as the biggest security threat to the U.S.-backed Pakistani government, that faction of the Taliban is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across Pakistan, and a number of high profile attacks on military and police facilities.

“We are amazed that Obama has been re-elected. But for us there is no difference between Obama and Romney; both are enemies. And we will keep up our jihad and fight alongside our Afghan brothers to get the Americans out of Afghanistan,” said Pakistan Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed the gates of a military base in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, killing at least one soldier and wounding more than a dozen people.

Pakistanis were largely indifferent in the run-up to Tuesday’s election, expecting little change to the drone attacks regardless of whether Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney won.

“Any American, whether Obama or Mitt Romney, is cruel,” Warshameen Jaan Haji, whose neighborhood was struck by a drone last week, told Reuters on the eve of the election. “I lost my wife in the drone attack and my children are injured. Whatever happens, it will be bad for Muslims.”

Pakistani politician Imran Khan, a vocal critic of U.S. drone strikes, said he believed Obama stepped up the attacks in his first term so he wouldn’t look weak on national security.

“I think Obama essentially has an anti-war instinct,” he told Reuters. “Without the worry of being re-elected, he will de-escalate the war, including the use of drones. This is positive.”

But for Mohammad Khan, who is not related to the former cricketer, the damage is already done.

The February 2009 drone attack that destroyed his home left him as the main provider for 13 family members, forcing him to move to Islamabad and work with a real estate company.

“When the Sandy hurricane came, I thought that Allah would wipe away America,” he said. “America just wants to take over the world.”

Source

Stop the illegal drone wars now! Thousands are dying at the hands of the US government every day. 

today I wish I could give these kids more than candy—I wish I could tangibly give them the love, respect and empathy they deserve as human beings, the love respect and empathy Americans deliberately and knowingly deny them

today I wish I could give these kids more than candy—I wish I could tangibly give them the love, respect and empathy they deserve as human beings, the love respect and empathy Americans deliberately and knowingly deny them

Reprieve’s Founder Clive Stafford Smith has asked Barack Obama for a guarantee that an international protest march through North West Pakistan will not be hit by the CIA’s Predator drones. This blog started back when I began fully waking up to the horror of Barack Obama’s systematic campaign of slaughter abroad. That waking up process matured into political radicalization, while at the same time all of these events and actions were symptomatic of a larger personal awakening. The content of this blog has also matured and taken on hues of a more spiritual philosophy I did not initially expect it to take. But now I very soberly dedicate this moment to expressing my full and complete solidarity with these protestors. My whole heart is with you. In every sense this tumblr is about peace for everyone without exception. 

Reprieve’s Founder Clive Stafford Smith has asked Barack Obama for a guarantee that an international protest march through North West Pakistan will not be hit by the CIA’s Predator drones.

This blog started back when I began fully waking up to the horror of Barack Obama’s systematic campaign of slaughter abroad. That waking up process matured into political radicalization, while at the same time all of these events and actions were symptomatic of a larger personal awakening. The content of this blog has also matured and taken on hues of a more spiritual philosophy I did not initially expect it to take. But now I very soberly dedicate this moment to expressing my full and complete solidarity with these protestors. My whole heart is with you.

In every sense this tumblr is about peace for everyone without exception. 

cf. here and here Mr Emmerson, a leading London barrister and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, said America is facing mounting global pressure over its use of UAVs and he is preparing a report for the next session of the Human Rights Council in March. The issue, he insists, will “remain at the top of the UN political agenda until some consensus and transparency has been achieved”. American UAV strikes, most notably in Pakistan and Yemen, have shot up since Barrack Obama came to power. Estimates state that while there were 52 such strikes during George W Bush’s time, this number has risen to 282 over the past three and a half years, with officials justifying it has international “self defence” against a stateless enemy. Mr Emmerson said it was time for the US to open itself up to scrutiny as to the legality of such attacks. While it remains nigh on impossible for observers to establish the truth on the ground in many of areas, each strike is visually recorded and videos could be passed to independent assessors, he explained. “We can’t make a decision on whether it is lawful or unlawful if we do not have the data. The recommendation I have made is that users of targeted killing technology should be required to subject themselves, in the case of each and every death, to impartial investigation. If they do not establish a mechanism to do so, it will be my recommendation that the UN should put the mechanisms in place through the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and the Office of the High Commissioner”, he said. He continued: “The Obama administration continues formally to adopt the position that it will neither confirm nor deny the existence of the drone program, whilst allowing senior officials to give public justifications of its supposed legality in personal lectures and interviews. In reality the administration is holding its finger in the dam of public accountability. There are now a large number of law suits, in different parts of the world, including in the UK, Pakistan and in the US itself, through which pressure for investigation and accountability is building.” Recently Wajid Shamsui Hasan, Pakistani High Commissioner, said the US strikes “violated” his country and encouraged extremism while last month Navi Pillay, UN Commissioner on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict said she was “seriously concerned” by reports of civilian deaths in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. Mr Khan, who heads the Pakistan Movement for Justice party (PTI) intends to join a rally in Miranshah, North Waziristan, next month to protest against the US’s policy of using drones to target suspected militants, when civilians get caught in the crossfire. “During the last session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June many states, including Russia, China and Pakistan called for an investigation into the use of drone strikes as a means of targeted killing. I was asked by these states to bring forward proposals on this issue and I am working closely on the subject of drones with Christof Heyns the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution. The issue is moving rapidly up the international agenda,” explained Mr Emmerson, who has called for the “end to the conspiracy of silence”…

cf. here and here

Mr Emmerson, a leading London barrister and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, said America is facing mounting global pressure over its use of UAVs and he is preparing a report for the next session of the Human Rights Council in March. The issue, he insists, will “remain at the top of the UN political agenda until some consensus and transparency has been achieved”.

American UAV strikes, most notably in Pakistan and Yemen, have shot up since Barrack Obama came to power. Estimates state that while there were 52 such strikes during George W Bush’s time, this number has risen to 282 over the past three and a half years, with officials justifying it has international “self defence” against a stateless enemy.

Mr Emmerson said it was time for the US to open itself up to scrutiny as to the legality of such attacks. While it remains nigh on impossible for observers to establish the truth on the ground in many of areas, each strike is visually recorded and videos could be passed to independent assessors, he explained.

“We can’t make a decision on whether it is lawful or unlawful if we do not have the data. The recommendation I have made is that users of targeted killing technology should be required to subject themselves, in the case of each and every death, to impartial investigation. If they do not establish a mechanism to do so, it will be my recommendation that the UN should put the mechanisms in place through the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and the Office of the High Commissioner”, he said.

He continued: “The Obama administration continues formally to adopt the position that it will neither confirm nor deny the existence of the drone program, whilst allowing senior officials to give public justifications of its supposed legality in personal lectures and interviews. In reality the administration is holding its finger in the dam of public accountability. There are now a large number of law suits, in different parts of the world, including in the UK, Pakistan and in the US itself, through which pressure for investigation and accountability is building.”

Recently Wajid Shamsui Hasan, Pakistani High Commissioner, said the US strikes “violated” his country and encouraged extremism while last month Navi Pillay, UN Commissioner on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict said she was “seriously concerned” by reports of civilian deaths in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia.

Mr Khan, who heads the Pakistan Movement for Justice party (PTI) intends to join a rally in Miranshah, North Waziristan, next month to protest against the US’s policy of using drones to target suspected militants, when civilians get caught in the crossfire.

“During the last session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in June many states, including Russia, China and Pakistan called for an investigation into the use of drone strikes as a means of targeted killing. I was asked by these states to bring forward proposals on this issue and I am working closely on the subject of drones with Christof Heyns the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution. The issue is moving rapidly up the international agenda,” explained Mr Emmerson, who has called for the “end to the conspiracy of silence”…

FREE B. MANNING NOW:

the choice before the government of the united states of America: will it  return to the revolutionary values it was founded on, or will it lurch off the precipice dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark. I say it must turn back, I ask President Obama to do the right thing, the US must release its witch hunt of wikileaks, it must dissolve its FBI investigation, the US must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters, the US must pledge before the world that it will not pursue jounrlaists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful, they must be no more foolish talk about prosecuting any media organization whether it be be wikileaks or the NY times, the US war on whistleblowers must end. 

What makes our NDAA lawsuit a struggle to save the US constitution | Tangerine Bolen

I am one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives the president the power to hold any US citizen anywhere for as long as he wants, without charge or trial.

In a May hearing, Judge Katherine Forrest issued an injunction against it; this week, in a final hearing in New York City, US government lawyers asserted even more extreme powers – the right to disregard entirely the judge and the law. On Monday 6 August, Obama’s lawyers filed an appeal to the injunction – a profoundly important development that, as of this writing, has been scarcely reported.

In the earlier March hearing, US government lawyers had confirmed that, yes, the NDAA does give the president the power to lock up people like journalist Chris Hedges and peaceful activists like myself and other plaintiffs. Government attorneys stated on record that even war correspondents could be locked up indefinitely under the NDAA.

Judge Forrest had ruled for a temporary injunction against an unconstitutional provision in this law, after government attorneys refused to provide assurances to the court that plaintiffs and others would not be indefinitely detained for engaging in first amendment activities. At that time, twice the government has refused to define what it means to be an “associated force”, and it claimed the right to refrain from offering any clear definition of this term, or clear boundaries of power under this law.

This past week’s hearing was even more terrifying. Government attorneys again, in this hearing, presented no evidence to support their position and brought forth no witnesses. Most incredibly, Obama’s attorneys refused to assure the court, when questioned, that the NDAA’s section 1021 – the provision that permits reporters and others who have not committed crimes to be detained without trial – has not been applied by the US government anywhere in the world after Judge Forrest’s injunction. In other words, they were telling a US federal judge that they could not, or would not, state whether Obama’s government had complied with the legal injunction that she had laid down before them.

To this, Judge Forrest responded that if the provision had indeed been applied, the United States government would be in contempt of court.

I have mixed feelings about suing my government, and in particular, my president, over the National Defense Authorization Act. I voted for Obama.

But the US public often ignores how, when it comes to the “war on terror”, the US government as a whole has been deceitful, reckless, even murderous. We lost nearly 3,000 people on 9/11. Then we allowed the Bush administration to lie and force us into war with a country that had nothing to do with that terrible day. Presidents Bush and Obama, and the US Congress, appear more interested in enacting misguided “war on terror” policies that distract citizens from investigating the truth about what we’ve done, and what we’ve become, since 9/11. [Read]

cf. here

theneighbourhoodsuperhero:

Omar Khadr, a sixteen year old Guantanamo Bay detainee weeps uncontrollably, clutching at his face and hair as he calls out for his mother to save him from his torment. “Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi (Oh Mother, Oh Mother),” he wails repeatedly, hauntingly with each breath he takes.

The surveillance tapes, released by Khadr’s defence, show him left alone in an interrogation room for a “break” after he tried complaining to CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) officers about his poor health due to insufficient medical attention. Ignoring his complaints and trying to get him to make false confessions, the officers get frustrated with the sixteen year old’s tears and tell him to get himself together by the time they come back from their break.

“You don’t care about me. Nobody cares about me,” he sobs to them.

The tapes show how the officers manipulated Khadr into thinking that they were helping him because they were also Canadian and how they taunted him with the prospect of home (Canada), (good) food, and familial reunion.

Khadr, a Canadian, was taken into US custody at the age of fifteen, tortured and refused medical attention because he wouldn’t attest to being a member of Al Qaeda, even though he was shot three times in the chest and had shrapnel embedded in his eyes and right shoulder. As a result, Khadr’s left eye is now permanently blind, the vision in his right eye is deteriorating, he develops severe pain in his right shoulder when the temperature drops, and he suffers from extreme nightmares.

He has been incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, suffering extremely harsh interrogations and torture (methods), and is now 25 years old.

When America has concentration camps, it’s okay

I really encourage everyone to watch this(!): Glenn Greenwald (with the passion, competence and moral clarity that define his public persona) blows the whistle on the corruption saturating the US ‘national security’ apparatus. 

Out of everything we know the US government actively does—from assassinating US citizens and innocents to harassing anyone who dares to expose the truth about its activities—the destruction of American privacy and of citizens’ protections against government intrusion makes the following eminently clear:

the Obama administration, the national legislature, the attendant bureaucracies, and sadly much of the federal judicial system-are so seeped in corruption, so disgustingly inept at protecting even the most primitive norms of human justice, that any rational human being must conclude that she has nothing of worth invested in the system—and that she has everything to gain from seeing its complete destruction. 

Revolution is now: it starts in your heart, it starts by looking at all humans as your brothers and sisters (including the poor brown ones ‘all the way over there’), it starts by releasing cognitive dissonance and committing yourself to seeking out and believing only the truth, and releasing the fear of calling out the lies even when they come from the cool, well spoken Important Faces of The Government. It starts by taking seriously the suffering of all those who suffer, and committing yourself to fighting for a world where an injury to one is an injury to all. 

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

(This was a year ago) hypocrisy doesn’t get any more painful, but it’s good to see a journalist make one of the henchman choke on it

AP writer Matthew Lee and Reuters reporter Arshad Mohammed pwned State Department Spokesman Mark Toner on the Human Rights Abuse of Bradley [Breanna] Manning.

800 days without trial For every depraved idiot still set on knowledgeably voting for Obama in the upcoming “election”: here is a white person suffering under the cruelty of the current regime, here is the pathological response supporters of an American hero get from the police state. Moral monstrosity is the only fucking thing history will remember of this era. thepeoplesrecord: Army admits to investigating Breanna Manning supporters July 09, 2012 The US Army has confirmed that they are investigating the Bradley Manning Support Network, an international activism group that advocates on behalf of the imprisoned accused whistleblower. A letter from the US Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) dated May 18, 2012 has been published to the Web in which Susan Cugler, the director of the Army’s Crime Records Center, responds to a Freedom of Information Act request for information pertaining to any internal files which may involve the Bradley Manning Support Network. “A search of the USACIDC file indexes revealed that an active investigating is in process with an underdetermined completion date,” acknowledges Cugler. The memorandum just about ends there, however, with the Army refraining from revealing any more details into the advocacy group that backs the accused whistleblower who is alleged to have distributed classified materials to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks site. The Army invokes specific subsections of the Freedom of Information Act to brush off the FOIA request, essentially freeing itself from releasing any details of their investigation on the grounds that the release“could reasonably be expected to endanger [the] life or physical safety” of those discussed in the military’s files. Manning, a 24-year-old private first class with the US Army, has been behind bars for nearly 800 days without trial. Military prosecutors have charged PFC Manning with aiding the enemy due to the alleged leaking of classified materials, a charge that could send him to prison for life if he is convicted. Her attorneys are in the midst of a heated legal debate to hear the government’s accusations, fighting on behalf of the soldier that the materials she is accused of releasing did not have any detrimental implications for national security. Last week, attorneys for Manning were awarded permission to view some of the military’s documents that they intend to use against the soldier. Source More from The People’s Record’s Wikileaks series

800 days without trial

For every depraved idiot still set on knowledgeably voting for Obama in the upcoming “election”: here is a white person suffering under the cruelty of the current regime, here is the pathological response supporters of an American hero get from the police state. Moral monstrosity is the only fucking thing history will remember of this era.

thepeoplesrecord:

Army admits to investigating Breanna Manning supporters

July 09, 2012

The US Army has confirmed that they are investigating the Bradley Manning Support Network, an international activism group that advocates on behalf of the imprisoned accused whistleblower.

A letter from the US Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) dated May 18, 2012 has been published to the Web in which Susan Cugler, the director of the Army’s Crime Records Center, responds to a Freedom of Information Act request for information pertaining to any internal files which may involve the Bradley Manning Support Network.

“A search of the USACIDC file indexes revealed that an active investigating is in process with an underdetermined completion date,” acknowledges Cugler. The memorandum just about ends there, however, with the Army refraining from revealing any more details into the advocacy group that backs the accused whistleblower who is alleged to have distributed classified materials to Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks site.

The Army invokes specific subsections of the Freedom of Information Act to brush off the FOIA request, essentially freeing itself from releasing any details of their investigation on the grounds that the release“could reasonably be expected to endanger [the] life or physical safety” of those discussed in the military’s files.

Manning, a 24-year-old private first class with the US Army, has been behind bars for nearly 800 days without trial. Military prosecutors have charged PFC Manning with aiding the enemy due to the alleged leaking of classified materials, a charge that could send him to prison for life if he is convicted. Her attorneys are in the midst of a heated legal debate to hear the government’s accusations, fighting on behalf of the soldier that the materials she is accused of releasing did not have any detrimental implications for national security. Last week, attorneys for Manning were awarded permission to view some of the military’s documents that they intend to use against the soldier.

Source

More from The People’s Record’s Wikileaks series