Peace and Justice Post

By Bhanwar Meghwanshi, Countercurrents.org, Sep. 5, 2011

It has now been confirmed that the Anna Hazare-led so-called ‘second freedom struggle’—as some sections of the media have mistakenly chosen to call it—has close links with the RSS. From conceptualizing this media-propelled movement to successfully organizing it, the RSS, it appears, played a key role in it. This being the case, it is imperative to analyse the specific communal character of this self-styled Gandhian movement against corruption.

No movement can be properly understood without taking into account the forces behind it and their underlying objectives. Anna Hazare’s movement has been analysed from several perspectives by both its critics as well as supporters. Thus, it has been asked if the movement was truly a Gandhian one. Was it really politically impartial? Was it democratic? Was it orchestrated by the media? Was it funded by the corporate world? Was it an NGO stunt? Was it all-India in its scope? On all these points there has been heated debate. Yet, lamentably little has been said about whether or not this movement was truly based on the Constitutional principle of secularism and what, in particular, its position has been on the issue of Hindutva.

Continues >>

The real issue is whether the history of Palestine and Israel will be shaped by law and the determination of the global community of nations to treat both sides equally, or by the muscle of a robust Zionism and its American diplomatic partner, notes Rami G. Khouri.

Middle East Online, Sep.5, 2011

BEIRUT — Two major Middle East-related events will take place this month with their epicenter in New York City: the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, and the expected Palestinian bid for the United Nations General Assembly to recognize a Palestinian state in the lands that Israel occupied in 1967. These events will generate intense debate and high emotions — most of which will be highly exaggerated. I will comment on the 9/11 commemorations in my column from the United States next week, and here will discuss the Palestinian bid for UN recognition of statehood — or rather, the hysterical American and Israeli reactions to the bid.

Continues >>

CommonDreams.org, Sep. 3, 2011

Source: Reuters,

WASHINGTON – Documents found in Tripoli detail close ties between the CIA and Libya’s intelligence service and suggest the United States sent terrorism suspects for questioning in Libya despite that country’s reputation for torture, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan Foreign Minister. Koussa defected from now-fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi’s government and flew to Britain on March 30 amid this year’s rebel uprising.(EPA) The Times reported that the files cover the time from 2002 to 2007, when Moussa Koussa headed Libya’s External Security Organization. Koussa most recently had been Libya’s foreign minister but defected from now-fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi’s government and flew to Britain on March 30 amid this year’s rebel uprising.

The newspaper reported that the documents — including some English-language files concerning the CIA and Britain’s MI-6 intelligence agency — were found on Friday at the abandoned office of Libya’s former spy chief by journalists and the group Human Rights Watch.

Continues >>

By Chris Hedges, TruthDig,  Sep. 5, 2011

AP / Sergey Ponomarev

A rebel fighter inspects a house in Tripoli that belonged to Al-Saadi Gadhafi, son of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Here we go again. The cheering crowds. The deposed dictator. The encomiums to freedom and liberty. The American military as savior. You would think we would have learned in Afghanistan or Iraq. But I guess not. I am waiting for a trucked-in crowd to rejoice as a Gadhafi statue is toppled and Barack Obama lands on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit to announce “Mission Accomplished.” War, as long as you view it through the distorted lens of the corporate media, is not only entertaining, but allows us to confuse state power with personal power. It permits us to wallow in unchecked self-exaltation. We are a nation that loves to love itself.

Continues >>

Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Sep. 4, 2011

Today Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports on the arbitrary detention of black-skinned people in Tripoli.

HRW is one of the members of the “Responsibility to Protect coalition” and has been slow to condemn the racist atrocities of the Libyan rebellion and has little to say about the bombing of civilians by NATO in places like Zlitan.

HRW is not to be confused with Human Rights Investigations (HRI) which opposes the NATO bombing, supporting the African Union position on Libya and has worked to expose the racial element to the conflict

The HRW article contains evidence of black Libyans and sub-Saharan guest workers being abused in Tripoli, which have already been widely reported, as well as hopes for an  “embryonic legal system” in Tripoli.

Continues >>

A Manifesto for Axis of Logic … for us all …

2 hours requires too much of your time? After watching this documentary, you will understand that 2 hours from your life is really … much less than a millisecond!

What a Way to Go is a documentary film, written and directed by Tim Bennett and produced by Sally Erickson in 2007. It concludes by offering us a sane path for renewal and hope. – LMB

“What a Way to Go” is a total rejection of the self-destruction paradigm that hard-wires our culture. Brutal honesty is applied to issues of our day.

“But these aren’t just issues of our day; they are issues of the universe because the planet itself is becoming altered before our eyes toward unending extinction. The film makes clear that we are caught in a broken myth of progress and technology, expecting those cultural bulwarks to save us even though they caused the crisis: climate chaos, petrocollapse and individual isolation and despair.”

Continues >>

Stephen Lendman, MWC News, Sep. 3, 2011

Numerous previous articles explained how fear is used in America, notably against Muslims for political advantage.

They’re described as fundamentalists, extremists, terrorists, and fanatics. They’re identified with violence, when, in fact, Islam has common roots with Christianity and Judaism. Their tenets are based on love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not exploitation; and a just, fair society for people of all faiths.

However, you’d never know it from Islamophobic media reports and professional hatemongers, profiting by proliferating lies.

Continues >>

by Anthony Lawson, Dissident Voice,  September 3rd, 2011

This video concentrates on the two major 9/11 issues:  The Unidentified Planes and The Controlled Demolitions.  Nothing else.  It does not mention the NORAD stand–down; the don’t-fly and don’t-go-to-work warnings or the Dancing Israelis or any of the other anomalies and suspicious happenings.  The alleged amateur suicide pilots are not mentioned, either, for obvious reasons, and I do not know what happened to the allegedly hijacked planes or their alleged passengers and crews.

Continues >>

By John Chan, wsws.org,  September 3, 2011

The Chinese government is about to enact legislation to “legalise” the existing police-state practice of secret detention. Individuals simply disappear into the hands of the state security apparatus for months without any contact with friends, relatives or the outside world. The new law is part of broader repressive measures directed at a range of political opponents, from social networking bloggers to Uigher separatists, amid rising social tensions.

A draft amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code released on Tuesday has been sent to the National Peoples Congress (NPC) for approval by the end of September. All of this is supposedly to allow public discussion on an amendment to enhance the “human rights” of suspects and protect privacy. In reality, significant changes expanding the police power of “residential surveillance” are buried in the middle of the draft new Article 73.

Continues >>