The Largest Minority

July 2nd, 2008 by evmonk

I was reading this profile of Rush Limbaugh from the upcoming NYTimes mag and came across something odd. Not only does Limbaugh follow Olbermann’s lead in referring to his counterpart Bill O’Reilly as a real-life Ted Baxter, he also has good things to say about the rhetorical powers of Christopher Hitchens. This struck me as somewhat odd, considering Hitchens is a Marxist/Atheist who is famous for, among countless other controversial remarks, his convincing assessment of Henry Kissinger as a war criminal.

Anyway, this led me to an article and video Hitchens produced for the August ‘08 issue of Vanity Fair where he gets waterboarded. It’s an interesting enough video, which I threw on YouTube when I realized VF doesn’t allowed embedding.

Kudos to Hitchens for putting his aging, booze-saturated body under such duress. Although he taps out kind of quickly, don’t you think? (Not that I’d last any longer.) And what’s up with that music? Is that Enya?

Kaj Larson of Current TV, a former Navy Seal, submitted himself to a far more extensive and violent waterboarding session 2 summers ago. Plus Kaj’s video has more diverse, interesting commentary. Check it out by clicking below.

June 12th, 2008 by D.C.

The right of habeas corpus has returned to the detainees of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. The high court of the United States, by a vote of 5-4, overthrew a law that George W. Bush forced through Congress in 2006.

The 2006 law allowed for a limited review by a U.S. appeals court in Washington of the military’s designation of the prisoners as “enemy combatants.” It took away their right to a hearing before a U.S. district court judge to challenge their confinement.

This is a great step towards detainees gaining the rights that they deserve. Some have been imprisoned without trials and there is even rumor of abuse within the prisons. These terrorism suspects are people just like anyone else. They deserve to have the same rights as all other people, because they are people, just like you and me. Daila Hashad, Amnesty International’s human rights program director, comments on the court decision:

“The Supreme Court did the right thing. Everyone has the right to challenge why they’re being thrown in prison, to hear the charges against them and to answer to that,”

“It’s a real shame that in the 21st Century, we’ve taken such a step backward in the Bush Administration, to say we have the right to throw someone in jail and throw away the key — but no longer.”

I fully agree with Hashad. President Bush had no right to take away the rights of terrorist suspects. It almost seems like Bush wanted to bring the United States back to the time of the Cold War (McCarthyism anyone?). You can’t deny specific people commonly held rights. That is the sign of a tyrannical mind at work. The whole point of a free society is so that everyone is represented equally under the law. With Bush that seems to have ‘gone out the window.’

The high court decision was dissented by four judges. Of these four judges two were conservatives appointed by Bush ( Justices John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito) and the other two were conservatives Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Scalia’s dissent showed his extreme conservatism on the matter when he stated:

“Today, for the first time in our nation’s history, the court confers a constitutional right to habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war,”

First of all, the label of ‘alien enemies,’ denotes they are guilty before having a trial. Since there has been more than one detainee released from Guantanamo Bay, this is a huge oversight. Secondly, even if there is an ‘ongoing war,’ (which I personally would not call a war) doesn’t a prisoner of war retain rights? Doesn’t the U.S. government have to abide by rules when imprisoning people during war? Even members of the Nazi party after World War II were given a trial.  

All people have the right to a fair trial, and everyone is supposed to be equal underneath the law. When the equality is broken and the scales of power are tipped in favor of a person, or an agenda (such as the ‘war on terror’), the whole basis of the law crumbles. In the decision passed down by the high court, the framework to restore the law to it’s rightful position in society, which was on the brink of destruction by the hands of Bush, was reborn.

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June 4th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

By tossing out the possibility of having direct diplomacy with Iran, John McCain has shown that he is in favor of more of the same failed strategies which lead nations to war. War is not the last option to the US and AIPAC, it’s the only option. The US and Israel are committing “crimes against peace” under the UN Charter and Nuremberg Principles with rhetoric that prepares the groundwork for moving against Iran militarily. Outright lies and “what if” scenarios are irresponsibly catapulted into the public to validate imperialist dreams of nuclear annihilation.

Part 2 of this video can be found here

Outside the Western corporate media bubble, it is clear that the US and Israel have been the true threats to peace in the region by making conflict unavoidable. Despite the glaring historical failure of their policies, both countries remain in denial - consistently patting each other on the back to affirm that they’re sane while the rest of the world is unreasonable. And this intentional ignorance is not confined to just the ultra-right wing of both nations. Listen to the following excerpt from Barack Obama to AIPAC and tell me it doesn’t sound like it was lifted from John McCain’s speech.

Read the rest of this entry »

June 3rd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Pakistan has threatened to turn over 6 members of a US-supported terrorist group to Iran. The group, known as Jundullah, operates on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Iran, and has carried out a number of violent attacks on Iranian army facilities and officers inside the country.

below is an older video from The Young Turks describing the relationship between Jundullah and the US government

Jundullah, which is supported by the United States, has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan. US intelligence officers have said they are working to block the extradition of the 6 Jundullah members to Iran, where they could face execution if found guilty of espionage (terror suspects actually get a trial in Iran).

The capture of the Jundullah members is seen by intelligence sources in the region as another indication that Pakistan’s new government is distancing itself from the U.S. and U.S. intelligence operations in the country.

Other such steps by Pakistan in recent days include an accord between Pakistan’s government and militant tribal leaders in the country’s Swat Valley region where Taliban figures are believed to be hiding.

The CIA has denied direct ties with Jundullah, despite the fact that US officials have admitted that intelligence officers frequently meet and advise the group. Iran also claims to have “proper documentations” linking the United States with other terrorist activity inside its borders, particularly an April 12th bomb attack at a mosque in Shiraz that killed 14 people.

There is little doubt that the United States is supporting an organization which carries out terrorist activity in Iran, and yet they still have the audacity to threaten Iran with war, claiming that they are the main threat to peace in the region?

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June 2nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The US has been operating “floating prisons” for the detention of suspects held without trial in the so called “war on terror” in order to conceal their numbers and locations. An analysis of the operation of prison ships, set to be published this year by the human rights organization Reprieve, has been compiled from the statements of the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners themselves.

The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate’s story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. “One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo … he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo.”

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s legal director, said: “They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights. By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been ‘through the system’ since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them.”

Reprieve says that the US may have used up to 17 ships since 2001. The report also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since President George Bush declared in 2006 that the practice had stopped.

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May 29th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

South African archbishop Desmond Tutu was sent to Gaza earlier this week by the UN Human Rights Council to lead a long-awaited investigation into the shelling of a Palestinian house in Beit Hanoun by Israeli security forces, in which 19 members of a the same family were killed in November 2006. Archbishop Tutu was sent only days after the incident in 2006 to conduct the inquiry, but was denied a visa by the Israeli government who said the council would politicize the issue by criticizing Israel.

Tutu and his team visited Beit Hanoun on Wednesday to interview witnesses of the attack. In 2006, the Israeli military drastically reduced their ’safety’ margins, despite being warned of an inevitable increase in Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries. This resulted in 19 members of the Athamna extended family being killed by Israeli tank shells as they slept. Tutu will prepare a report to present to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

All 19 of those killed were asleep in their house when the shells struck early in the morning. 14 of the 19 Athamna family members killed were women and children. As the family poured out of their house they were hit by six or seven waves of Israeli shells. The massacre came only a day after the Israeli military had ended an illegal six-day incursion into the town, which had left another 50 Palestinians dead.

After much delay and obstruction, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Archbishop Tutu was finally granted a visa to enter through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Tutu said the 2006 incident was a “violation of human rights in the fact that civilians were targeted,” and also came out against the current Israeli blockade on Gaza, which he said had turned the occupied territory into a “desolate and scary” place.

The blockade, which has resulted in shortages of fuel and basic goods, is a form of collective punishment which Tutu has described as another “gross violation of human rights”. Tutu also said that from his experience in South Africa as an anti-apartheid activist, that “peace came when former enemies sat down to talk”.

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May 28th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

As Crooks and Liars points out, Kiffiyehs are worn by nearly everybody in the middle east, even Western troops, to protect them from the sun and sandstorms. Hell, they’re even popular amongst Israeli Jews (and Meghan McCain it turns out). Affiliating such a common article of clothing with terrorism is like saying that shoes are terrorist-related apparel because bombers happen to wear them too.

The kind of proud ignorance which allows Malkin to publicly state that “Palestinian = terrorist” must finally be confronted in this country rather than catered to, and Dunkin’ Donuts should be held responsible for vindicating such vitriolic hatred and bigotry.

If the most important meal of the day for you is a deep-fried ring of dough and sugar, then please consider boycotting Dunkin’ Donuts and frequenting another doughnut place. Hell, maybe even find yourself a healthier breakfast alternative, like a bag of chips and a smoke.

May 27th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Gareth Porter takes a look at the evidence the US has that Iran is training “insurgents”, and goes on to explain why no progress will be made as long as the US continues to insist that those oppressed by its illegal actions recognize the legitimacy of its occupation.