fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Carlos Latuff

10:49 PM

14-11-12

548

my heart is breaking for Gaza

solidarity with the people of Palestine 

peace and relief to all those suffering

05:39 PM

14-11-12

206

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. 

04:55 PM

09-11-12

278

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

10:44 PM

31-10-12

8

canadian-communist:

Anti-Drone Protesters Set off on Historical March in Pakistan, Despite Threats

Anti-drone peace protesters from the United States, Pakistan and around the world set off from Pakistan’s Islamabad on Saturday, at the start of a two day march heading into South Waziristan, a region in Pakistan heavily bombarded with US drones.

The march, organized by former cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, formed a long vehicle convoy, including hundreds of Pakistanis and dozens of US activists represented by the anti-war group CODEPINK.

The group plans to march to the edge of Pakistan’s tribal belt on Saturday and then head to the village of Kotkai in South Waziristan to hold a demonstration on Sunday.

According to CODEPINK, rumors continue to circulate that local militants are planning to attack the march, and the US embassy has said that it cannot guarantee that drones will not strike during the march, but the group decided to forge on anyway, expressing the importance of protesting the murder of innocent civilians by US drones in the region.

When asked about the serious security risks, Dianne Budd, a medical doctor from San Francisco, and CODEPINK activists answered, “Of course I’m concerned about our security, but I am even more concerned about the security of the people of Waziristan who face constant threats and terror from the drones flying above their heads twenty-four hours a day.”

Khan has continued to emphasize that he has been assured by South Waziristan tribal leaders that the march would not be attacked.

“A huge welcome is awaiting us,” Khan said before the vehicle caravan began its journey. “The government is making efforts to sabotage the march because it fears the support we will get from the people.”

Khan, however, added that the prospect of entering the tribal area might not be possible, and that the marchers would hold their rally wherever they may have to stop.

“This is a peace march, an effort for peace in Pakistan on our part … We are not going to fight anyone,” Khan said as he launched the motorcade, which had around 150 vehicles, from Islamabad.

Khan has maintained that he expects some 100,000 to join the rally.

Leaving with the caravan of protesters, Shahzad Ahmed, a 19-year-old college student told Associated Press, “This is the convoy of peace and that is why am in it. Imran Khan is leading us to peace and peace is the key to stability in the country.”

“It feels great. I’m hoping that what it will show is that the Pakistani people and American people and even the people in the tribal areas want peace,” said Joe Lombardo, a representative of the U.S. group.

James Ricks, another U.S. activist, said he was going along with the convoy despite the danger. “I am taking this risk because my government is committing international war crimes and we want to stop this,” he said.

“We also feel this march will put significant pressure on the Obama administration to come clean about these drone attacks, to recognize how inhumane and counterproductive they are,” said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin. “We will continue to find ways to protest these barbaric assassinations until they finally end,” she added.

Source

10:48 PM

08-10-12

471

paki-pride:

Protest in Pakistan against US Drone attacks.

According to research:

Around 346+ Drone Strikes on Pakistan by the US in the last 8 years.

At Least 2570+ Deaths due to the strikes.

Estimates say 881+ of those who died are innocent civilians.

This is why they are protesting

More on drones

11:51 AM

07-10-12

316

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. 

12:19 AM

07-10-12

7

In Pakistan there are 800,000 people playing Russian Roulette. They do it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s not a voluntary game. Someone else holding the gun, refusing to tell how many projectiles there are in the chamber, or even who the weapon is currently aimed at.

According to a report published today by Stanford University and New York University, CIA drones are inflicting this terror on the communities of Waziristan, in North-West Pakistan. The report, originally commissioned by Reprieve, warns that the United States’ drone campaign is terrorizing the men, women and children who live in the region night and day. Nobody in the region knows who the drones are targeting or what some CIA informant has to say to place a target on someone. Those living underneath the constant presence of circling Predators are left helpless, with no known means of keeping themselves or their families safe.

The CIA suggests that no innocent people are dying in their drone campaign, a claim that I find beyond improbable - I met at least one innocent youth, the 16-year-old Tariq Aziz, three days before he was killed. Regardless, there are 800,000 innocent victims of this illegal, undeclared drone war, the rest of the Waziristan population.

One local resident described the sound of the drones as a horror washing over the community, leading “children, grown-up people… to scream in terror.” This constant fear, according to the Stanford report, leads to widespread “psychological trauma among civilian communities.” Parents, fearful of attracting the attention of the Predators - or, more accurately, the drone operators sitting behind a computer thousands of miles away in Nevada - refuse to allow their children to congregate in groups of more than two or three. “The children are crying and they don’t go to school. They fear that their schools will be targeted by drones,” reported one parent.

More on war crimes

08:45 AM

25-09-12

18

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”…

06:44 AM

20-08-12

6