"Solidarity is not measured by numbers; it’s not about how many people came to a pro-Palestine demonstration. It is about why those people came. Fighting alongside fifty Israelis who are truly committed to the Palestinian cause is, therefore, much more important and valuable than marching in the shadow of thousands of Israelis who think Palestine is merely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
On its Facebook page, the 15 July Jerusalem march was titled in Hebrew “Marching for the independence of Palestine” while the Arabic version read, “Together towards the liberation of Palestine.” There is a huge difference between liberation and an “independent state.” Freedom for Palestinians means much more than establishing a bantustan in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The inconsistency in the Arabic and Hebrew wording is telling but it is neither new nor rare for “leftist” Israeli organizations to address the Palestinian public in a different language and tone to that used for addressing the Israeli public.
Of the hundred or so Palestinians who attended the march, many may have joined because of the false perception that the aim of this march was to demand freedom, rather than to call for bogus “independence.” In addition, members of the Palestinian popular committees of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, whose neighborhoods face house demolitions and a silent, grinding process of ethnic cleansing, say that they felt they had no option but to join the march in order to draw attention to their struggle. But their plight was exploited by the organizers to advertise the march as a “joint struggle,” to score political points and serve their public relations purposes." - Budour Youssef Hassan, More here.
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Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Dennis Kucinich is Only 1 Out of 10 Members of Congress Who Opposes the FBI Witch Hunt Against Peace Activists.
July 25, 2011
The Honorable Eric HolderAttorney General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Re: Investigation of Midwest Anti-War Activists
Dear Attorney General Holder:I am writing to express my concern over reports about the investigation that the Department of Justice has been conducting of anti-war activists in several cities including Minneapolis and Chicago. I do not want to interfere in your investigation in any way, but there are two aspects of it that cause me great concern. I am hoping that your answers to my questions will resolve my concerns.
The first aspect is that the investigation appears to have begun, as early as April of 2008, with the assignment of an undercover agent to infiltrate the meetings of anti-war groups and individuals who were planning protests and demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis that summer. The introduction of an undercover agent into meetings of anti-war groups would normally be cause for concern in isolation, but it is especially worrisome in the context of other efforts during the previous administration to stifle legitimate anti-war dissent including, as disclosed last month, that the Bush White House had asked the CIA to investigate Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who was a strong critic of the Iraq War. Why was an undercover agent assigned to infiltrate groups that were planning peaceful protests at the Republican National Convention? And, if the justification for that assignment was to determine whether any violent activities were being planned, why was that undercover operation continued after the Convention was over?
The second aspect is that the focus of the investigation appears to be whether these small, local groups have somehow provided "material support or resources" to foreign terrorist organizations. This suggestion defies credibility. What possible "material support or resources" could these small, local groups provide to foreign terrorist organizations? And, what contacts could they have conducted that would justify an investigation in which seven houses were searched and 23 individuals were subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury?
The statute that prohibits "material support or resources" to foreign terrorist organizations is very broad and unclear. It has been amended several times in response to judicial decisions that have found its provisions to be unconstitutionally vague or overbroad. While the Supreme Court provided some guidance in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, that clarification did not exist until June 21, 2010.
Holder clarified the scope of conduct that could be prosecuted under the statute. However, almost 90% of the time period subject to your investigation occurred prior to that clarification. During those 26 months, the controlling legal authorities included the 2007 and 2009 decisions of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Humanitarian Law Project v. Mukasey, which did not allow prosecution of individuals who provided "training," or "expert advice or assistance," or "service" to those organizations. If that is the nature of the conduct that you are investigating, is it fair to bring criminal charges for acts that were viewed by some courts as lawful at the time they were committed?
One of the biggest problems with vague criminal statutes is the opportunity they provide for differential enforcement.
The Washington Post and other news sources have reported that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, former White House security adviser Frances Townsend, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have publicly expressed their support for the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq (MEK), an organization that has been on the foreign terrorist list of the State Department since 1997. They spoke in support of the MEK, in Paris last December, at a rally organized by an international group that lobbies for the MEK. Can their public advocacy truly be "independent," within the meaning of the Holder decision, if it is solicited by an organization that lobbies for the MEK?
I fully support their constitutional rights to express their opinions on this issue and any others. But, I don't understand why their support of a foreign terrorist organization goes unchallenged by law enforcement, while anti-war activists are targeted with FBI searches and grand jury subpoenas. Is there any distinction that justifies the different treatment of these two groups other than the fact that one of them is composed of prominent people who support the wars conducted by two successive administrations and the other is composed of ordinary people who do not?
It has been reported recently that "the MEK has spent millions of dollars on lobbyists, PR agents and communications firms to build up pressure on Secretary Hillary Clinton to take the group off of the terrorist list." In Holder, the Department of Justice, under both your direction and that of Attorney General Mukasey, argued that it was a felony to file an amicus brief on behalf of a foreign terrorist organization, or even to engage in public advocacy on behalf of such an organization, unless that advocacy was totally "independent" of the organization. How do you reconcile those arguments with the total absence of attention paid to lobbying activities in support of the MEK? How do you reconcile that inaction with the apparent overkill that had been directed at the anti-war activists in Minneapolis and Chicago?
A federal prosecutor has tremendous power and resources. Because of that, he has a concomitant obligation to exercise that power with judgment and discretion. Is it good judgment to direct the overwhelming resources of the federal government onto small, local groups and individuals whose primary interest is peace? Is it good judgment to investigate them under a vague and broad statute whose text and interpretations have changed numerous times over the past decade? Is this really the best use of Department of Justice personnel?
Sincerely,
Dennis J. Kucinich
Member of Congress
Cc Robert S. Mueller, III
Patrick J. Fitzgerald
Monday, July 25, 2011
Show #36 Notes: All The News We Got To...or Didn't Get To.
African-American Mother Faces More Jail Time than Drunk Driver Who Killed Her Son. democrcaynow.org
A grieving African-American mother in Georgia is facing the potential of more time in prison than the drunk driver who struck and killed her child and then fled the scene. Raquel Nelson lost her four-year-old son while trying to shuttle him across a five-lane highway, along with two of her other children. Jerry Guy, a partially blind man who has admitted to having consumed alcohol and painkillers beforehand, hit the young boy with his vehicle. The child later died of his injuries. Nelson and her daughter were also struck and suffered injuries. An all-white jury has convicted Nelson of homicide by vehicle in the second degree, jaywalking and reckless conduct. She could serve up to three years in prison. Meanwhile, the drunk driver, Guy, who was previously convicted of two hit-and-runs in one day in 1997, was initially charged with hit and run, first degree homicide by a vehicle and cruelty to children. But the charges were later dropped to simply hit and run. Guy served a six-month jail term and will spend the remainder of his five-year sentence on probation.
O-Bomb-Yuh’s complete war record. Kasmaproject.org
Among other things, since taking office Obama has:
- Started a covert, drone war in Yemen
- Started a war in Libya without congressional approval
- Escalated the war in Afghanistan
- Sharply increased drone attacks in Pakistan
- Continued the occupation of Iraq, in spite of saying otherwise
- Escalated the proxy war in Somalia by launching drone strikes
- Sold $60 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia
- Secretly deployed US special forces to 75 countries
- Signed an agreement for 7 military bases in Colombia
– Touted nuclear power, even after the disaster in Japan
- Opened up deepwater oil drilling, even after the BP disaster
- Did a TV commercial promoting “clean coal”
- Defended body scans and pat-downs at airports
- Signed the Patriot Act extension into law
- Continued Bush’s rendition program
In 2007, then-Senator Obama said: “If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.”…
In 2011, President Obama did not find his shoes to join the massive protests in Wisconsin.
Here’s a partial history of Obama’s dealings – listed (roughly) chronologically, most recent first:
• Obama’s approval ratings across the Arab World are 10% or less, according to a Zogby study of about 4,000 people.
• CIA Exhales: 99 Out of 101 Torture Cases Dropped.
• U.S. millions fund world’s newest army, South Sudan, despite worries of its human rights abuses, including killings, most recently in April when hundreds of civilians were killed or wounded by the U.S. ally.
• The Obama administration is expanding its drone war to Somalia, which makes six countries where the United States is using drones to conduct lethal attacks: Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen (read). Also, the US is supplying drone aircrafts to Uganda and Burundi to help them fight in Somalia (read).
• Obama Admin Warns of “Fines and Incarceration” if U.S. Citizens Set Sail with Gaza Aid Flotilla.
• Obama still not advocating for gay marriage.
• “Yet tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding,” Obama trumpeted in his speech announcing his plan to withdraw some U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Given that George W. Bush had about half as many troops in Afghanistan as Obama will after the withdrawals, this claim is disingenuous. But what takes Obama’s assertion to the level of Orwellian, is that he makes this claim while he has started new wars in Libya and Yemen, has escalated drone strikes in Pakistan, has ramped up the U.S. proxy war in Somalia, and has begun funding the new army in South Sudan.
• Just prior to Obama’s speech on withdrawing some troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $14.2 million contract to a Turkish company to construct an eight-building barracks complex for 12,000 troops at Bagram Air Field. Completion date is scheduled for fall of 2013.
• Former CIA Director Hayden: Obama follows in Bush’s footsteps on War Powers in Libya. In a campaign marked by stinging criticism of President George W. Bush’s alleged executive excess, then-candidate Obama wrote: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” Yet Obama is now claiming authority to bomb Libya.
• Obama overruled 2 top lawyers on War Power in Libya.
• Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and eight other congress members file lawsuit against Obama for taking military action in Libya without first seeking congressional approval, an apparent violation of the 1973 War Powers Resolution.
• Noam Chomsky: “Both Bush and Obama are terrified of the Arab spring. And there is a very sensible reason for that. They don’t want democracies in the Arab world. If Arab public opinion had any influence on policy, the US and Britain would be tossed out of the Middle East. That’s why they are terrified of democracies in the region”.
• Whistleblowers Suffer More than Ever Under Obama (read).
• Obama’s support of the repressive monarchy of Bahrain: The Obama administration approved $200M in military sales to Bahrain in run-up to violent crackdown. Bahrain crown prince meets with Obama in DC - Officials reaffirm the strong US commitment to Bahrain.
• Chicago Tribune editorial writer: Obama and the pursuit of endless war – starting new fights and prolonging the old ones.
• FBI to Expand Domestic Surveillance Powers as Details Emerge of Its Spy Campaign Targeting Activists. The F.B.I. is giving its agents new leeway to infiltrate organizations, search household trash, use surveillance teams and search databases in domestic investigations. FBI agents will now be able investigate people and organizations “proactively” without firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity.
• As chaos engulfs Yemen, the U.S. is diabolically intensifying a secret campaign of airstrikes, according to the New York Times.
• Over 2,600 Activists Arrested in U.$. Protests since Obama took office.
• Pentagon to consider cyber attacks an 'act of war'.
• Obama signs Patriot Act extension into law.
• U.S. kills Bin Laden hours after NATO killed Gadhafi’s son and 3 grandchildren. Obama administration refuses to accept the Palestinian unity deal which brought Hamas and Fatah together.
• Obama approves of armed Predator drone strikes in Libya.
• WikiLeaks: Obama administration tried to stymie U.N. probe of possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
• “Don’t Punish the Poor” Economist Jeffrey Sachs Slams Obama-GOP Budget Deal.
• Obama’s military action in Libya contradicts his words from 2007: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation”.
• Obama Administration Approves Fourth Gulf Deepwater Drilling Permit.
• Obama Defends Detention Conditions for Bradley Manning.
• Obama Approves Indefinite Detention Without Trial.
• America’s secret plan to arm Libya’s rebels: Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi . This is the same Saudi Arabia who in the same week declared all protests illegal.
• Obama honors George H.W. Bush with Medal of Freedom. ”We celebrate an extraordinary life of service and of sacrifice”.
• Obama’s $3.7 Trillion Budget Calls for Military Spending Increases and Deep Cuts to Social Service Programs (read). Obama Budget Proposal: Cuts To Target Working Poor, Middle Class & Students.
• Obama heaps praise on Ronald Reagan: Reagan advanced “the cause of freedom, democracy and security around the world” (read), and Reagan was a man with a “unique ability to inspire others to greatness”.
• The Obama administration has publicly confirmed it is continuing the Bush-era policy of opposing the return of Haiti’s ousted former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was overthrown in a 2004 U.S.-backed coup.
• Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans.
• The Obama administration is telling federal agencies to take aggressive new steps to prevent more WikiLeaks embarrassments.
• Obama Gives ‘Lump of Coal’ to Polar Bears.
• Obama administration readies indefinite detention order for Guantanamo detainees.
• Big Brother gets bigger under Obama. The FBI is building a database with the names and certain personal information, such as employment history, of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents whom a local police officer or a fellow citizen believed to be acting suspiciously.
• Obama Flip-Flop: FCC Vote Could End Net Neutrality.
• Obama’s VP Joe Biden likens WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to a “high-tech terrorist”.
• Obama calls WikiLeaks “deplorable”.
• Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Law Will Target Activists.
• Obama reaches agreement with congressional Republicans to extend Bush’s tax-cuts for the wealthy.
• The Obama administration has abandoned its effort to persuade Israel to renew a settlement construction freeze.
• Obama administration orders government workers not to read WikiLeaks cables – even from home.
• Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe.
• The Obama administration launched a full-bloodied assault on Wikileaks
• Obama proposes salary freeze for 2 million federal workers – excluding those in the military[NOTE: Obama said the salary freeze would save $28 billion over 5 years -- that amount is about what the U.S. spends on war every 2 weeks.]
• Obama stands by controversial air security screening methods – says body scans and pat-downs necessary .
• Obama Administration Child Soldiers Are O.K., if They Fight Terrorists.
• Obama Administration Claims Unchecked Authority to Kill Americans Outside Combat Zones.
• The US is building a $12 billion super military base on the Pacific island of Guam. Another $200 million will go for upgrades to U.S. base in Diego Garcia.
• U.N. votes 187-2 to end Cuba trade embargo – U.S. and Israel lone dissenting votes.
• WikiLeaks Docs Raise Questions of Obama Policies — Despite Obama’s public commitment to eschew torture, U.S. forces turned detainees over to Iraqi forces even after signs of abuse.
• Obama administration pushing for wider role of CIA in Pakistan – efforts rebuffed by Islamabad.
• Obama administration to sell $60 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia (read). The sale, which is the largest overseas deal in U.S. history, is part of a strategy spearheaded by the George W. Bush administration and expanded by President Barack Obama.
• Obama administration lifts deepwater drilling moratorium.
• Report: White House squelched reports of BP oil spill estimates.
======================================================================
The CIA is using a secret facility in Somalia for counterterrorism as well as an underground prison. Democracy Now.org
In a new investigative report published by The Nation magazine, independent journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill reveals the CIA is using a secret facility in Somalia for counterterrorism as well as an underground prison in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Scahill says the CIA is training a new Somali force to conduct operations in the areas controlled by the militant group, Al Shabab, and in Mogadishu. While a U.S. official told The Nation that the CIA does not run the prison, he acknowledged the CIA pays the salaries of Somali agents.
Justice Dept Drops 99 of 101 Cases Against the u.$ CIA for Abuse and Torture
Democracynow.org U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced the Justice Department will launch full criminal investigations into the deaths of two prisoners killed in CIA custody, including one who died at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But Holder said no criminal probes will occur in 99 other cases of alleged torture, abuse and murder reviewed by federal prosecutors. The criminal probes were announced on Leon Panetta’s last full day as CIA director. Panetta will be sworn in as a Defense Secretary today. The Senate on Thursday confirmed Gen. David Petraeus to become the new CIA director.
Britain Loses Bid to Dismiss Mau Mau Case. democracynow.org
The British government has lost a bid to throw out a lawsuit over the repression of the Kenyan struggle for independence against colonial rule. A British court ruled a group of veterans of Kenya’s resistance movement can proceed with a lawsuit seeking compensation for human rights abuses during the Mau Mau rebellion of 1952 to 1960. More than 100,000 Kenyans are believed to have been killed in the British crackdown.
Equality and Global Alignments by Prairie Fire. llco.org
“To tell the workers in the handful of rich countries where life is easier, thanks to imperialist pillage, that they must be afraid of ‘too great’ impoverishment, is counter-revolutionary. It is the reverse that they should be told. The labour aristocracy that is afraid of sacrifices, afraid of ‘too great’ impoverishment during the revolutionary struggle, cannot belong to the Party…” — V. I. Lenin, Speech on the Terms of Admission into the Communist International July 30 (1)
“Taking the entire globe, if North America and Western Europe can be called ‘the cities of the world’, then Asia, Africa and Latin America constitute ‘the rural areas of the world’. Since World War II, the proletarian revolutionary movement has for various reasons been temporarily held back in the North American and West European capitalist countries, while the people’s revolutionary movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America has been growing vigorously. In a sense, the contemporary world revolution also presents a picture of the encirclement of cities by the rural areas. In the final analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples who make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s population.” — Lin Biao, Long Live the Victory of People’s War! (2)
The first eight words of Mao’s Selected Works are “Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?” Marxism is revolutionary science. Marxism applies science to the task of reaching communism. And communism is nothing less than total human liberation, the end of all oppression. Mao called the question of friends and enemies the question of first importance. If an organization can’t answer this question correctly, then everything else is moot. If one’s class analysis is off, then one won’t be able to make communist revolution anyways. Visions of social revolution mean nothing, they are merely utopian dreams, if they are not based in material analysis. Only by understanding the material basis for revolution, only with a correct class analysis, will one be able to align the necessary social forces to bring the proletariat to power in order to begin socialist construction, to begin the long march toward communism. In order to understand who can and cannot be aligned against imperialism and aligned in favor of socialism, it is necessary to ask: who will benefit and who won’t under socialism? Those social forces that do benefit from socialism will fall on the side of revolution. Those that do not will not. This is basic materialism.
A grieving African-American mother in Georgia is facing the potential of more time in prison than the drunk driver who struck and killed her child and then fled the scene. Raquel Nelson lost her four-year-old son while trying to shuttle him across a five-lane highway, along with two of her other children. Jerry Guy, a partially blind man who has admitted to having consumed alcohol and painkillers beforehand, hit the young boy with his vehicle. The child later died of his injuries. Nelson and her daughter were also struck and suffered injuries. An all-white jury has convicted Nelson of homicide by vehicle in the second degree, jaywalking and reckless conduct. She could serve up to three years in prison. Meanwhile, the drunk driver, Guy, who was previously convicted of two hit-and-runs in one day in 1997, was initially charged with hit and run, first degree homicide by a vehicle and cruelty to children. But the charges were later dropped to simply hit and run. Guy served a six-month jail term and will spend the remainder of his five-year sentence on probation.
O-Bomb-Yuh’s complete war record. Kasmaproject.org
Among other things, since taking office Obama has:
- Started a covert, drone war in Yemen
- Started a war in Libya without congressional approval
- Escalated the war in Afghanistan
- Sharply increased drone attacks in Pakistan
- Continued the occupation of Iraq, in spite of saying otherwise
- Escalated the proxy war in Somalia by launching drone strikes
- Sold $60 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia
- Secretly deployed US special forces to 75 countries
- Signed an agreement for 7 military bases in Colombia
– Touted nuclear power, even after the disaster in Japan
- Opened up deepwater oil drilling, even after the BP disaster
- Did a TV commercial promoting “clean coal”
- Defended body scans and pat-downs at airports
- Signed the Patriot Act extension into law
- Continued Bush’s rendition program
In 2007, then-Senator Obama said: “If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.”…
In 2011, President Obama did not find his shoes to join the massive protests in Wisconsin.
Here’s a partial history of Obama’s dealings – listed (roughly) chronologically, most recent first:
• Obama’s approval ratings across the Arab World are 10% or less, according to a Zogby study of about 4,000 people.
• CIA Exhales: 99 Out of 101 Torture Cases Dropped.
• U.S. millions fund world’s newest army, South Sudan, despite worries of its human rights abuses, including killings, most recently in April when hundreds of civilians were killed or wounded by the U.S. ally.
• The Obama administration is expanding its drone war to Somalia, which makes six countries where the United States is using drones to conduct lethal attacks: Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen (read). Also, the US is supplying drone aircrafts to Uganda and Burundi to help them fight in Somalia (read).
• Obama Admin Warns of “Fines and Incarceration” if U.S. Citizens Set Sail with Gaza Aid Flotilla.
• Obama still not advocating for gay marriage.
• “Yet tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding,” Obama trumpeted in his speech announcing his plan to withdraw some U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Given that George W. Bush had about half as many troops in Afghanistan as Obama will after the withdrawals, this claim is disingenuous. But what takes Obama’s assertion to the level of Orwellian, is that he makes this claim while he has started new wars in Libya and Yemen, has escalated drone strikes in Pakistan, has ramped up the U.S. proxy war in Somalia, and has begun funding the new army in South Sudan.
• Just prior to Obama’s speech on withdrawing some troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $14.2 million contract to a Turkish company to construct an eight-building barracks complex for 12,000 troops at Bagram Air Field. Completion date is scheduled for fall of 2013.
• Former CIA Director Hayden: Obama follows in Bush’s footsteps on War Powers in Libya. In a campaign marked by stinging criticism of President George W. Bush’s alleged executive excess, then-candidate Obama wrote: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” Yet Obama is now claiming authority to bomb Libya.
• Obama overruled 2 top lawyers on War Power in Libya.
• Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and eight other congress members file lawsuit against Obama for taking military action in Libya without first seeking congressional approval, an apparent violation of the 1973 War Powers Resolution.
• Noam Chomsky: “Both Bush and Obama are terrified of the Arab spring. And there is a very sensible reason for that. They don’t want democracies in the Arab world. If Arab public opinion had any influence on policy, the US and Britain would be tossed out of the Middle East. That’s why they are terrified of democracies in the region”.
• Whistleblowers Suffer More than Ever Under Obama (read).
• Obama’s support of the repressive monarchy of Bahrain: The Obama administration approved $200M in military sales to Bahrain in run-up to violent crackdown. Bahrain crown prince meets with Obama in DC - Officials reaffirm the strong US commitment to Bahrain.
• Chicago Tribune editorial writer: Obama and the pursuit of endless war – starting new fights and prolonging the old ones.
• FBI to Expand Domestic Surveillance Powers as Details Emerge of Its Spy Campaign Targeting Activists. The F.B.I. is giving its agents new leeway to infiltrate organizations, search household trash, use surveillance teams and search databases in domestic investigations. FBI agents will now be able investigate people and organizations “proactively” without firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity.
• As chaos engulfs Yemen, the U.S. is diabolically intensifying a secret campaign of airstrikes, according to the New York Times.
• Over 2,600 Activists Arrested in U.$. Protests since Obama took office.
• Pentagon to consider cyber attacks an 'act of war'.
• Obama signs Patriot Act extension into law.
• U.S. kills Bin Laden hours after NATO killed Gadhafi’s son and 3 grandchildren. Obama administration refuses to accept the Palestinian unity deal which brought Hamas and Fatah together.
• Obama approves of armed Predator drone strikes in Libya.
• WikiLeaks: Obama administration tried to stymie U.N. probe of possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
• “Don’t Punish the Poor” Economist Jeffrey Sachs Slams Obama-GOP Budget Deal.
• Obama’s military action in Libya contradicts his words from 2007: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation”.
• Obama Administration Approves Fourth Gulf Deepwater Drilling Permit.
• Obama Defends Detention Conditions for Bradley Manning.
• Obama Approves Indefinite Detention Without Trial.
• America’s secret plan to arm Libya’s rebels: Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi . This is the same Saudi Arabia who in the same week declared all protests illegal.
• Obama honors George H.W. Bush with Medal of Freedom. ”We celebrate an extraordinary life of service and of sacrifice”.
• Obama’s $3.7 Trillion Budget Calls for Military Spending Increases and Deep Cuts to Social Service Programs (read). Obama Budget Proposal: Cuts To Target Working Poor, Middle Class & Students.
• Obama heaps praise on Ronald Reagan: Reagan advanced “the cause of freedom, democracy and security around the world” (read), and Reagan was a man with a “unique ability to inspire others to greatness”.
• The Obama administration has publicly confirmed it is continuing the Bush-era policy of opposing the return of Haiti’s ousted former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was overthrown in a 2004 U.S.-backed coup.
• Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans.
• The Obama administration is telling federal agencies to take aggressive new steps to prevent more WikiLeaks embarrassments.
• Obama Gives ‘Lump of Coal’ to Polar Bears.
• Obama administration readies indefinite detention order for Guantanamo detainees.
• Big Brother gets bigger under Obama. The FBI is building a database with the names and certain personal information, such as employment history, of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents whom a local police officer or a fellow citizen believed to be acting suspiciously.
• Obama Flip-Flop: FCC Vote Could End Net Neutrality.
• Obama’s VP Joe Biden likens WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to a “high-tech terrorist”.
• Obama calls WikiLeaks “deplorable”.
• Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Law Will Target Activists.
• Obama reaches agreement with congressional Republicans to extend Bush’s tax-cuts for the wealthy.
• The Obama administration has abandoned its effort to persuade Israel to renew a settlement construction freeze.
• Obama administration orders government workers not to read WikiLeaks cables – even from home.
• Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe.
• The Obama administration launched a full-bloodied assault on Wikileaks
• Obama proposes salary freeze for 2 million federal workers – excluding those in the military[NOTE: Obama said the salary freeze would save $28 billion over 5 years -- that amount is about what the U.S. spends on war every 2 weeks.]
• Obama stands by controversial air security screening methods – says body scans and pat-downs necessary .
• Obama Administration Child Soldiers Are O.K., if They Fight Terrorists.
• Obama Administration Claims Unchecked Authority to Kill Americans Outside Combat Zones.
• The US is building a $12 billion super military base on the Pacific island of Guam. Another $200 million will go for upgrades to U.S. base in Diego Garcia.
• U.N. votes 187-2 to end Cuba trade embargo – U.S. and Israel lone dissenting votes.
• WikiLeaks Docs Raise Questions of Obama Policies — Despite Obama’s public commitment to eschew torture, U.S. forces turned detainees over to Iraqi forces even after signs of abuse.
• Obama administration pushing for wider role of CIA in Pakistan – efforts rebuffed by Islamabad.
• Obama administration to sell $60 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia (read). The sale, which is the largest overseas deal in U.S. history, is part of a strategy spearheaded by the George W. Bush administration and expanded by President Barack Obama.
• Obama administration lifts deepwater drilling moratorium.
• Report: White House squelched reports of BP oil spill estimates.
======================================================================
The CIA is using a secret facility in Somalia for counterterrorism as well as an underground prison. Democracy Now.org
In a new investigative report published by The Nation magazine, independent journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill reveals the CIA is using a secret facility in Somalia for counterterrorism as well as an underground prison in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Scahill says the CIA is training a new Somali force to conduct operations in the areas controlled by the militant group, Al Shabab, and in Mogadishu. While a U.S. official told The Nation that the CIA does not run the prison, he acknowledged the CIA pays the salaries of Somali agents.
Justice Dept Drops 99 of 101 Cases Against the u.$ CIA for Abuse and Torture
Democracynow.org U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced the Justice Department will launch full criminal investigations into the deaths of two prisoners killed in CIA custody, including one who died at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But Holder said no criminal probes will occur in 99 other cases of alleged torture, abuse and murder reviewed by federal prosecutors. The criminal probes were announced on Leon Panetta’s last full day as CIA director. Panetta will be sworn in as a Defense Secretary today. The Senate on Thursday confirmed Gen. David Petraeus to become the new CIA director.
Britain Loses Bid to Dismiss Mau Mau Case. democracynow.org
The British government has lost a bid to throw out a lawsuit over the repression of the Kenyan struggle for independence against colonial rule. A British court ruled a group of veterans of Kenya’s resistance movement can proceed with a lawsuit seeking compensation for human rights abuses during the Mau Mau rebellion of 1952 to 1960. More than 100,000 Kenyans are believed to have been killed in the British crackdown.
Equality and Global Alignments by Prairie Fire. llco.org
“To tell the workers in the handful of rich countries where life is easier, thanks to imperialist pillage, that they must be afraid of ‘too great’ impoverishment, is counter-revolutionary. It is the reverse that they should be told. The labour aristocracy that is afraid of sacrifices, afraid of ‘too great’ impoverishment during the revolutionary struggle, cannot belong to the Party…” — V. I. Lenin, Speech on the Terms of Admission into the Communist International July 30 (1)
“Taking the entire globe, if North America and Western Europe can be called ‘the cities of the world’, then Asia, Africa and Latin America constitute ‘the rural areas of the world’. Since World War II, the proletarian revolutionary movement has for various reasons been temporarily held back in the North American and West European capitalist countries, while the people’s revolutionary movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America has been growing vigorously. In a sense, the contemporary world revolution also presents a picture of the encirclement of cities by the rural areas. In the final analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples who make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s population.” — Lin Biao, Long Live the Victory of People’s War! (2)
The first eight words of Mao’s Selected Works are “Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?” Marxism is revolutionary science. Marxism applies science to the task of reaching communism. And communism is nothing less than total human liberation, the end of all oppression. Mao called the question of friends and enemies the question of first importance. If an organization can’t answer this question correctly, then everything else is moot. If one’s class analysis is off, then one won’t be able to make communist revolution anyways. Visions of social revolution mean nothing, they are merely utopian dreams, if they are not based in material analysis. Only by understanding the material basis for revolution, only with a correct class analysis, will one be able to align the necessary social forces to bring the proletariat to power in order to begin socialist construction, to begin the long march toward communism. In order to understand who can and cannot be aligned against imperialism and aligned in favor of socialism, it is necessary to ask: who will benefit and who won’t under socialism? Those social forces that do benefit from socialism will fall on the side of revolution. Those that do not will not. This is basic materialism.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Putting Black ['Colored'] Faces on Imperial Policies [Domestically and Globally].
by Glen Ford; Black Agenda Report.
"Barack Obama is our son and he deserves our support," declared Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr....By Jones' logic, Condoleezza Rice deserves automatic African American support as "our daughter," and Colin Powell, her predecessor as George Bush's Secretary of State, was due fealty as "our brother."...
The Emil Jones brand of Black politics is based on the assumption that African American aspirations are limited to a simple desire to see Black faces on display in high places, no matter the public policy content of that representation. It is as if emancipation of the slaves could be achieved by moving Ol' Massa out of the Big House, and installing the Black butler in his place, while the conditions of life and labor in the fields remain unchanged. After all, the butler is one of "ours." The slaves should be happy to experience a vicarious freedom, through their "son." Further, it would be downright unfamily-like to pester our own kin about the need for forty acres and a mule per household...
Imperial Obama
African Americans will pay a special, historical price if a corporate-molded Black politician becomes the titular leader of an unreconstructed U.S. imperial state - and, make no mistake about it, Barack Obama is an imperialist. No one but a deep-fried imperialist could describe U.S. behavior in Iraq as "coddling" the Iraqis, as Obama said to an establishment foreign policy gathering in Chicago, late last year...
At his core, Obama is not opposed to U.S. violations of other nations' sovereignty; he simply opposes "dumb wars" - as he told a reporter for the Chicago Reader - meaning, aggressions executed by less-than-bright American Commanders-in-Chief. U.S.-designated "interests," not adherence to international law, are paramount - the fundamental tenet of imperialism...
The Face of Aggression
There was a time not that long ago, when the historic struggles of Black Americans for racial equality, decolonization and peace were admired throughout the African Diaspora and beyond. Especially in what was called the Third World, African Americans were perceived as different than the arrogant, racist "ugly Americans" - the whites that strutted around other people's nations as if they owned them...
It is difficult to imagine such differentiations being made on foreign shores, today...
Colin Powell became the Black face of international piracy, to be succeeded by Condoleezza Rice....
From Beirut to Caracas, Condoleezza Rice is the Black, snarling symbol of U.S. lawlessness...
After two consecutive Black Secretaries of State fronting for a hyper-aggressive U.S. regime, the world no doubt sees Black America in a very different light. African Americans, who care so much for image - some, to the exclusion of all else - should contemplate what the ascension of a Black face to the Oval Office will mean to world perceptions of Black Americans as a group. Would Barack Obama be a worse international criminal than Hillary Clinton? My guess is, they'd function identically, as stewards of empire.
But a Barack Obama presidency would leave an unindelible impression on the planet: The Blacks of the United States have arrived! They, too, are "ugly Americans."
Read more here:
Friday, July 8, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
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