Peace and Justice Post

The United States has been secretly flying armed Reaper drones on bombing missions from a remote civilian airport in southern Ethi­o­pia as part of a rapidly expanding proxy war against in East Africa. The new base is one of a number of new drone bases the Obama administration has built throughout the region in order to wage war from the skies without having to go to Congress or the American people to ask them to commit to another ground war. The Reapers, equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs, have been targeting the militant group al Shabaab in Somalia, and may have used the base for the mission that assassinated US-citizen Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen.

On Thursday, 13 people were killed and several others were injured when the US military launched an attack using a remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle on the outskirts of Bilis Qooqaani town, which is located 448 kilometers (278 miles) southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The US also launched drone strikes on the outskirts of Afmadow city, situated in the middle of the Juba region and 620 kilometers (385 miles) south of Mogadishu, on Thursday. At least 25 people were killed in the aerial attack.

In addition, six people were killed in a non-UN-sanctioned US drone attack on Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.

According to Pakistani officials, two unmanned aircraft fired six missiles at a vehicle traveling through Tura Gula village in the Azam Warsak area on Thursday.

Three people were also killed in attacks carried out by unmanned US aircraft in southern Yemen on Thursday.

A Yemeni government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the drone strikes targeted Shaqra village in Abyan Province. He added that six people were also injured in the aerial attacks.

The US says its remote-controlled unmanned drones only target militants. However, reports have shown that most of the people killed in the drone strikes are civilians.

Socialst Worker, October 27, 2011

Occupy participants hold a General Assembly in the reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza (EKA Photography)

AS MANY as 2,000 people reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza in front of Oakland’s City Hall on Wednesday night, 24 hours after the city’s police and a dozen other law enforcement agencies unleashed a savage assault on the Occupy Oakland encampment in which one demonstrator was critically injured and more than 100 were arrested.

The October 25 attack on the Occupy movement–carried out by one of the most liberal Democrats holding office anywhere in the country, and in a city with a long history of radical political activism–outraged people in Oakland and far beyond. City officials are facing calls to resign, and the police had to retreat when Occupy activists returned on Wednesday night.

Continues >>

As newsrooms across the country shave off staff due in part to slipping ad revenue and corporate media conglomeration, The Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, is rushing to fill the gap. The group has 43 state news websites, with writers in over 40 states. Its reporters have been given state house press credentials and its news articles are starting to appear in mainstream print newspapers in each state. Who funds Franklin and what is its agenda?

The websites started sprouting up in 2009. Some of these new sites go by the moniker “Reporter” as with the Franklin Center’s Wisconsin Reporter that was launched in January as a website and wire-like service. Others have taken the shared name of “Watchdog.org,” or “Statehouse News.” The websites all offer their content free to local press — many of the news bureaus send out their articles to state editors every day. The sites also offer free national stories that media can receive daily by subscribing.

Continues >>

Prime Minister Should Overrule Army’s Objections

Related Materials:

India: Investigate Unmarked Graves in Jammu and Kashmir

India at UNSC: Right foot first

(New York) – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India should override the objections of the army and keep his 2004 promise to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Human Rights Watch said today. The Indian defense establishment has opposed even minor amendments to the law, despite the findings of independent bodies in India and abroad that the law has resulted in numerous serious human rights violations over many years, Human Rights Watch said.

India’s Home Ministry has proposed amendments, but the army insists that it needs the law to operate in what it calls “disturbed areas.” News reports suggest that the army is blocking an effort to present the amendments for a vote during the upcoming winter session of parliament. . .

Continues >>

by Jack A. Smith, Dissident Voice,  October 25th, 2011

The 10th anniversary of Washington’s invasion, occupation and seemingly endless war in Afghanistan was observed October 7, but despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to terminate the U.S. “combat mission” by the end of 2014, American military involvement will continue many years longer.

The Afghan war is expanding even further, not only with increasing drone attacks in neighboring Pakistani territory but because of U.S. threats to take far greater unilateral military action within Pakistan unless the Islamabad government roots out “extremists” and cracks down harder on cross-border fighters.

Washington’s tone was so threatening that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to assure the Pakistani press October 21 that the U.S. did not plan a ground offensive against Pakistan. . .

Continues >>

With Pakistan’s latest offensive in the Khyber Agency leading to violent clashes across several districts, civilians are once again on the move, with large numbers flocking to a refugee camp in the Khyber-Pakhtoonwhah Province.

The spokesman for the provincial “disaster management authority,” which mostly deals with influxes of refugees from the assorted offensives, confirmed that 18,000 people had arrived at the camp seeking aid.

A Khyber government said that the number who had fled the violence was actually quite a bit larger, and was probably above 20,000 including a number of civilians who fled to stay with relatives in the city of Peshawar.

The Khyber Agency is a key part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas as it is the route through which much of NATO’s traffic travels into neighboring Afghanistan. The offensives, meant to protect those supplies, tend to rile up insurgent factions, however, putting the route in even more peril.

Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 24 / Trend, A.Tagiyeva/

The unspoken message is also clear: that the judiciary can expect no help from the government for carrying out their sworn duty to uphold the laws of the land.

The government’s policy to appease the militant religious organizations and Jihadis is continued in the clear cut violation of the constitution and the law. Once again the government has revealed its impotency to fight against growing religious intolerance. The government has also exposed its powerlessness to provide security to its own citizens by sending a judge of the Sessions Court to Saudi Arabia with his family. This was the judge who awarded the death sentences in two cases to Mumtaz Qadri, the assassin of the Punjab Governor, Salaman Taseer. The judge has left for Saudi Arabia along with his family after receiving death threats from extremists.

According to a special prosecutor, Mr Saiful Malook, as reported in Daily Dawn, the death threats have forced Judge Pervez Ali Shah to leave the country along with his family. Malook said the government, on the reports of law enforcement agencies, opted to send him abroad. Judge Pervez Ali, as the Judge of Anti-Terrorist Court, handed down the death sentences to Qadri on October 1, 2011 following a trial that took place behind closed doors in the high-security Adiyala prison in Rawalpindi, Punjab province.

Continues >>