Peace and Justice Post

By Rep. Dennis Kucinich, News Wire,  August 17, 2011

The Obama Administration continues to use unmanned drones as a tool of war — a tool that according to the New York Times, the Administration claims has killed 600 militants in Pakistan and no civilians since May 2010. But the math doesn’t add up.

A recent report released by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that at least 2,292 people have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. The Bureau estimates that of that number, over 350 are civilians. A July 2009 Brookings Institution report stated ten civilians die for every one suspected militant from U.S. drone strikes. Yet another study by the New American Foundation concluded that out of 114 drone attacks in Pakistan, at least 32% of those killed by the strikes were civilians.

Continues >>

Hundreds of Palestinians in Area C have their homes demolished by Israeli authorities every year.

Middle East Online, Aug. 18, 2011

Children of the Saed family playing in Khallet Zakariya

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Each year, hundreds of Palestinians in Area C have their homes demolished by the Israeli authorities because they are unable to obtain permits for their buildings, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Area C covers 60 percent of the West Bank with a Palestinian population of about 150,000.

Israel retains military authority and full control over building and planning in Area C: as much as 70 percent of it is inaccessible to Palestinians, classified as Israeli settlement areas, firing zones, or nature reserves.

Continues >>

“The land and sea isn’t something you bought,” explained Kang Ae-Shim. “Why are you selling something that was there long before you were born?”

Kang Ae Shim is a haenyo, one of the legendary Korean women sea divers from Jeju Island who can hold their breath for up to two minutes while foraging the ocean floor for seafood. But today Kang and others are fighting to save their island from the pending construction of a South Korean naval base in Gangjeong village, which threatens to tear apart the age-old sisterhood of the haenyo and destroy the pristine ecology of Jeju’s shores. The government and construction contractors are attempting to stamp out the outcry by arresting, beating, fining, and threatening villagers and activists.

Continues >>

By Glenn Greenwald, uruknet.info, Aug. 18, 2011

Two weeks ago, President Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, excoriated the White House for its reliance on drones in multiple Muslim nations, pointing out, as Politico put it, that those attacks “are fueling anti-American sentiment and undercutting reform efforts in those countries.”  Blair said: “we’re alienating the countries concerned, because we’re treating countries just as places where we go attack groups that threaten us.”  Blair has an Op-Ed today in The New York Times making a similar argument with a focus on Pakistan, though he uses a conspicuously strange point to make his case: Continues >>

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission and the Asian Alliance Against Torture and Ill-Treatment

A group of 26 human rights defenders and organisations, today concluded a five-day regional conclave and formed a unique regional initiative – The Asian Alliance Against Torture and Ill-treatment (AAAT). The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT), Denmark took the lead to organise the foundational meeting of the AAAT, first of its kind in Asia. The meeting was held from 15 to 19 September at the AHRC’s office in Hong Kong.

Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand and Hong Kong were represented in the meeting.

Continues >>

Maan News Agency, Aug. 17, 2011

CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt’s military, which faces growing condemnation for cracking down on critics, on Wednesday sentenced two men to six months in prison each for chanting anti-military slogans, a prosecution official said.

One of the men, 18-year-old activist Hassan Said, was arrested in a central Cairo square on August 2, a day after soldiers and police violently dispersed a weeks-long sit in by activists demanding a civilian government.

The second man was named as 23-year-old Karim Sayid but no further details about when he was arrested were available.

Continues >>

Stephen Lendman, MWC News, Aug. 17, 2011

It begs the question why Israelis put up with lawless governance harming them as well as Palestinians. When will weeks of social injustice outrage arouse them to embrace universal equity?

Why haven’t Martin Luther King’s words hit home that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” In Israel and Occupied Palestine, Arabs and Jews both are harmed. Injustice to anyone denies it to all.

Since the 1980s, destructive neoliberalism plagued Israel like the West. A race to the bottom followed, producing social injustice, inequality, and growing human need. Israelis finally reacted, demanding change, at the same time showing a hint of solidarity with Arab citizens, far more gravely impacted than themselves.

Continues >>

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission, REDRESS Trust UK, and Human Rights Alert, Manipur, India

A draconian legislation like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 and the concept of democracy do not go together. While democracy nurture values of justice, equality and fraternity, laws like the AFSPA are synonymous with injustice, discrimination and hatred. A report that analyses the legislation’s complete incompatibility with India’s domestic and international human rights obligations is released today in India, Hong Kong and London. Human Rights Alert, a human rights organisation working in Manipur, India; REDRESS Trust, a human rights group based in London, UK; and the AHRC, a regional human rights body based in Hong Kong have jointly authored the report.

Continues >>

By Eileen Fleming,  opednews.com, Aug. 18, 2011

I was eyewitness to that day when priests and nuns, atheists, anarchists and a clown were among the 23 arrested by the State and 13 by the Federal Government for nonviolently resisting Nuclear Weapons at the Y-12 Complex in Tennessee.

Federal charges were for trespassing-and I was tempted to join those who crossed under the wire fence as MEDIA when I saw the “photographer’ who had been very busy the preceding few hours snapping photos of our crowd of over 200 nuclear resisters who had come together two days prior for a weekend long celebration of 30 years of The Nuke Resister and Nukewatch.

Continues >>

 Thomas C. Mountain, Foreign Policy Journal, August 17, 2011

Just exactly what influence Omar “The Secret Minister” Suleiman retains over the military junta that rules Egypt is a question of utmost importance for those who live on the banks of the Nile River. With a résumé including 20 years as head of Egyptian Intelligence, he is not someone anyone of those who helped bring about the downfall of Mubarak can afford to ignore.

He was the CIA’s go-to man when it came to doing the Agency’s dirty work in the Middle East, as well as being the liaison with Israel, and was reported to be in contact with Mossad on an almost daily basis.

Suleiman is infamous for enforcing the blockade of Gaza, saying he wanted the Palestinians there to “be hungry but not starving” in punishment for supporting Hamas; hungry as in a 40% level of malnutrition-related disability rates amongst Gaza’s children.

Continues >>