Peace and Justice Post

By Gareth Porter, Consortium News,  April 8, 2011

Editor’s Note: Under pressure from U.S. neoconservatives to continue at least some form of the Iraqi occupation, the Obama administration is signaling that it is willing to maintain a significant military presence there after the scheduled troop departure at the end of this year.

The neocons want this continued toehold in Iraq both for the future projection of U.S. power in the region and to sustain the image of their “surge” victory, but there is strong popular opposition inside Iraq to allowing any American troops to stay, as Gareth Porter reported for the Inter Press Service:

President Barack Obama has given his approval to a Pentagon plan to station U.S. combat troops in Iraq beyond 2011, provided that Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki officially requests it, according to U.S. and Iraqi sources.

But both U.S. and Iraqi officials acknowledge that Maliki may now be reluctant to make the official request. Maliki faces severe political constraints at home, and his government is being forced by recent moves by Saudi Arabia to move even closer to Iran.

And it is no longer taken for granted by U.S. or Iraqi officials that Maliki can survive the rising tide of opposition through the summer.

As early as September 2010, the White House informed the Iraqi government that it was willing to consider keeping between 15,000 and 20,000 troops in Iraq, in addition to thousands of unacknowledged Special Operations Forces. But Obama insisted that it could only happen if Maliki requested it, according to a senior Iraqi intelligence official.

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Thousands of Egyptian activists press ruling military council on promised reforms, justice.

Middle East Online, April 8, 2011

By Samer al-Atrush – CAIRO

Protests have been held regularly since Mubarak was toppled Tens of thousands of Egyptian activists massed in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square on Friday to demand that former regime officials be purged and put on trial, including ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Draped in Egyptian flags, Muslims were joined by Christians as they gathered for weekly prayers in a protest dubbed the “Day of Trial and Cleansing” to press the ruling military council on promised reforms and justice. Muslim cleric Safwat al-Higazi, who led the prayer, called for Mubarak to face criminal charges. “We don’t only want to try him for the millions (of dollars) but also for the blood,” he told the crowd. “We want to try him just as he tried the people in state security courts, but we want a popular trial.” Continues >>

AFP – An Egyptian protester shows spent bullets and a blood-stained sheet at Tahrir Square in Cairo on April …

CAIRO (AFP) – Several hundred protesters who held an overnight sit-in in Cairo’s Tahrir square after a deadly military crackdown stayed on on Sunday after the army backed down on a threat to disperse them.

The protesters, who blocked the square with a charred army truck, barbed wire and beams, chanted against military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who has been in charge since president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February.

“The people demand the toppling of the field marshal,” they chanted, after spending a nervous night waiting for the army to carry out its warning that it would enforce a three-hour pre-dawn curfew.

Soldiers, backed by riot police, had dispersed an overnight protest in the iconic square before dawn on Saturday, with one protester shot dead.

The military later warned that it would clear out remaining protesters, keeping the demonstrators on edge throughout the night as the countdown began for the curfew.

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Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Syria on Friday and were again met by violent crackdowns from security forces, particularly in the city of Daraa where rights groups report forces opening fire into massive crowds of demonstrators.

At least 37 protesters were killed nationwide, and 25 of those in Daraa alone. Several hundred others were also wounded. The toll is the one of the worst since protests began in Syria, but the enormous size of the rallies suggests that each crackdown only strengthens the resolve of the protesters.

On the other hand, Syria’s state-run TV claimed that 19 security forces members were killed by “gunmen” affiliated with the rallies. The government has been accusing the protesters of being “armed gangs” rather than reformists, but this is the first specific claim of police deaths from them.

Though the accuracy of the claims could not be confirmed, it has raised concerns among human rights groups that the sudden announcement will be used as a pretext for even more violent measures against calls for reform. Already early Saturday there were reports of forces firing on funerals for the slain.

International  Solidarity Movement, April 9, 2011

Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine.

The latest round of Israeli massacres committed against the people of Gaza has resulted in the brutal killings since Thursday afternoon of sixteen, including a mother and daughter, 4 children and an elderly man. Over the last 5 days, Gaza City has been bombed by Apache helicopters and F16 and E15 fighter planes. These terrible massacres come only one day after a statement issued by the disgraced Ehud Batak, the Israeli Minster of War, in which he calls upon his generals to intensify the attack against Gaza .

The slow motion genocide itself has killed more than 600 patients so far. We condemn in the strongest possible terms these heinous crimes and reiterate our call upon all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it.

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By Dan Wooding, Christian News Today, April 7, 2011

LAHORE, PAKISTAN — Asia Bibi, the 45-year-old Christian mother of five who has been condemned to death under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy law, is gravely ill in her solitary confinement cell in Sheikhupura district jail, and there are growing concerns for her life.

Asia Bibi

According to Jibran Khan, writing for Asia News (www.asianews.it), “The Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy on false evidence is sick with chickenpox, because of the appallingly unhygienic conditions she is being kept in.”

Haroon Barket Masih, president of the Masih Foundation, which is providing legal and financial assistance to Ms. Bibi, has issued a statement which said, “Asia Bibi was diagnosed with chicken pox. She has been kept in solitary confinement for more than three months. We have expressed concern about her health, because she spends 24 hours a day locked in the cell.

“She needs medical care, hygienic and healthy conditions. She fell ill with chickenpox because of the dirty environment, and being unable to clean her room or bed sheets on which she sleeps. Despite her ill health she spends her time fasting and praying for everyone, She neglects her health and prays for everyone else. She is concerned about the current situation in Pakistan. We are trying to arrange a medical examination, and to ensure acceptable hygienic conditions. Until now she has had no medical care.”

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M&C News, Apr 6, 2011,

Anti-corruption campaigner says he will continue to ‘fast until death’ as campaign inspires millions to stage their own protests

Jason Burke in Delhi, The Guardian, April 7, 2011

 

Anna Hazare said he felt a little weak but refused to end his ‘fast until death’. Photograph: AP

A 73-year-old Indian anti-corruption campaigner has refused to end his “fast until death” despite government concessions on his demands for a powerful new body to stamp out graft in the country.

Anna Hazare ended his third day of hunger strike on Thursday saying he had lost weight and “felt a little weak” but could continue without food for at least another week.

Hunger strikes – which invoke the memory of those undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi – are popular political tactics in India and are frequent features of public life. However, this most recent campaign against corruption has mobilised millions of Indians. Hazare’s Facebook page has more than 80,000 friends and supporters mobbed the Jantar Mantar observatory, the site of his hunger strike, in central Delhi on Thursday.

Tens of thousands also joined the protests, ranging from hunger strikes to candlelit vigils in cities around the country including Mumbai, Lucknow and Jaipur. A number of Bollywood stars have also come out in support of Hazare, a former soldier and veteran social activist.

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See also, INDIA: A responsible government will listen to the people

Arab Dictators & Western Complicity

By Henry Pelifian, OpEdNews.com, April 6, 2011

Although the age we live in is often marked by apathy towards the missteps of government by many in our society sometimes when those mistakes, blunders and lapses become great or intolerable people take action.  Avoiding violence is paramount and it may be accomplished by a peaceful revolution.

Our American story on this subject begins in1846 when a man was jailed in Massachusetts for failing to pay his poll tax.  At that time Americans were fighting in the Mexican War.  Slavery at the time existed and a minority of Americans advocated the abolition of slavery.  The man who was jailed was Henry David Thoreau.  He refused to pay his poll tax and was jailed.  If a relative had not paid the tax for him he would have remained in jail longer than one day.  He spent a night in jail behind “walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light.”

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