Peace and Justice Post

Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University

Immanuel Wallerstein | Commentary No. 222, December 1, 2007

The United States is going through two sets of debates among presidential candidates, one set each for Democrats and Republicans. These debates usually have journalists as conveners and questioners, and the journalists seek to force the candidates to commit themselves on supposedly difficult choices. These “difficult” choices are regularly formulated in ways that they are media traps, sometime maliciously so.

A typical example occurred on Nov. 14 at a Democratic debate presided over by Wolf Blitzer. He posed the question, “Are human rights more important than American national security?” Obviously, the answer Blitzer was forcing was the pseudo-patriotic one that national security took precedence over everything else. Bravely, Richardson voted for human rights. But Dodd, Biden, and Clinton all said it was obvious that national security was the primary consideration. And Obama said the two considerations are complementary. Kucinich was cut off from answering.

No one said the question was an absurd one, in two different ways. First of all, was it a question about foreign policy? Or was it a question about U.S. internal policy? Blitzer and the candidates assumed it was a question about foreign policy, at the moment a question about U.S. policy in Pakistan. One person tried to shift the ground to internal policy, but he was not allowed to do this.

Continued . . .

Salon.com, December 13, 2007

The Senate Judiciary Committee has just approved contempt citations for Josh Bolten and Karl Rove, citing the president’s chief of staff and former top political advisor for failing to comply with subpoenas issued as part of the committee’s investigation of the firing of U.S. attorneys last year.

Republicans Arlen Specter and Charles Grassley joined 10 Democrats in voting in favor of the citations.

But before anybody gets in line to watch the sort of “frog-marching” that Joseph Wilson has long anticipated, it’s probably worth mentioning that the citations are meaningless unless they survive a vote on the Senate floor, and they’re probably meaningless even then.

Even assuming that the full Senate approves the citations, any prosecution under them would be handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia. At least until Jan. 20, 2009, the prosecutors in that office serve at the pleasure of George W. Bush, whose people have already declared that the office “would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case.”

Information Clearing House
By RAWA

12/12/07 “ICH” — — The US and her allies tried to legitimize their military occupation of Afghanistan under the banner of “bringing freedom and democracy for Afghan people”. But as we have experienced in the past three decades, in regard to the fate of our people, the US government first of all considers her own political and economic interests and has empowered and equipped the most traitorous, anti-democratic, misogynist and corrupt fundamentalist gangs in Afghanistan.

In the past few years, for a thousand times the lies of US claims in the so-called “War on terror” were uncovered. By relying on the criminal bands of the Northern Alliance, the US made a game of values like democracy, human rights, women’s rights etc. thus disgracing our mournful nation. The US created a government from those people responsible for massacres in Pul-e-Charkhi, Dasht-e-Chamtala, Kapisa, Karala, Dasht-e-Lieli, 65,000 Kabulis and tens of mass graves across the country. Now the US tries to include infamous killers like Mullah Omer and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar into the government, which will be another big hypocrisy in the “war against terror”.

Keep reading . . .

After the invasion of Iraq, the US government claimed that women there had ‘new rights and new hopes’. In fact their lives have become immeasurably worse, with rapes, burnings and murders now a daily occurrence.
By Mark Lattimer
Thursday December 13, 2007
The Guardian

They lie in the Sulaimaniyah hospital morgue in Iraqi Kurdistan, set out on white-tiled slabs. A few have been shot or strangled, some beaten to death, but most have been burned. One girl, a lock of hair falling across her half-closed eyes, could almost be on the point of falling asleep. Burns have stretched the skin on another young woman’s face into a fixed look of surprise.

These women are not casualties of battle. In fact, the cause of death is generally recorded as “accidental”, although their bodies often lie unclaimed by their families.

Continued . . .

Axis of Logic, December 11, 2007

“In my mind, if the world had more people like you who care about poor people like us, middle class people who are struggling, this world would be fantastic,” — Ruth Lisa

“We approach every major oil company and every OPEC nation each year to ask that a small slice of their record profits go to help the poor. Only one oil company – CITGO – and only one nation – Venezuela – stepped up to the plate to offer a helping hand.”

Joseph P. Kennedy, Chairman
Citizens Energy

CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program Launched in Boston

BOSTON, Dec 10, 2007: — The Chairman, President and CEO of CITGO Petroleum Corporation, Alejandro Granado, Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph P. Kennedy II and the Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Bernardo Alvarez, announced today the beginning of the 2007-2008 CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program aboard a CITGO tanker carrying fuel that will benefit thousands of Massachusetts residents this winter. This is the third consecutive year the program has operated in the city.

Continued . . .

The Nation,

truthdig | posted December 12, 2007 (web only)

By Robert Scheer

When the CIA destroyed those prisoner interrogation videotapes, was it also destroying the truth about 9/11? After all, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, the basic narrative of what happened on that day–and the definition of the enemy in this war on terror that George W. Bush launched in response to the tragedy–comes from the CIA’s account of what those prisoners told their torturers. The commission was never allowed to interview the prisoners, or speak with those who did, and was instead forced to rely on what the CIA was willing to relay.

On the matter of the existence of the tapes, we know the CIA lied, not only to the 9/11 Commission but to Congress as well. Given that the Bush Administration has for six years refused those prisoners any sort of public legal exposure, why should we believe what we’ve been told about what may turn out to be the most important transformative event in our nation’s history? On the basis of what the CIA claimed the tortured prisoners said, President Bush launched a “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT), an endless war that threatens to bankrupt our society both financially and morally.

Keep reading . . .

China View, December 12, 2007

  KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — Five Palestinian militants were killed and four Israeli soldiers wounded during a large-scale Israeli military operation in southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and Israeli army said Tuesday.     Palestinian residents of al-Fakhari village, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, said that 30 Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers stormed the village at predawn in the day.

    Mahmoud Abu Tahha, a 55-year-old resident, said a column of tanks and personnel armored vehicles stormed the village before dawn as bulldozers cleared up the ground of roadside bombs.

Keep reading  . . . 

AlterNet.com, December 12, 2007
By Alex Jung

The Geneva conventions aren’t the only humanitarian standards the United States ignores. Under the Bush administration, the United States routinely commits human rights violations within its borders, according to a new report by the U.S. Human Rights Network.

The USHRN, a coalition of over 250 social justice and human rights organizations, published its report to challenge the findings of a self-assessment the U.S. government filed with the U.N. Committee on Ending Discrimination (CERD) last April.

The United States ratified human rights standards from the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 1994 (meaning they have the force of domestic law), but according to the USHRN, has failed to live up to them.

Keep reading . . .

Source: AP

By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer AP – Wednesday, December 12, 2007

JERUSALEM – Israel became the world’s fourth largest defense exporter in 2007, surpassing Britain, with $4.3 billion in signed contracts, officials said Tuesday amid efforts to tighten controls on the nation’s arms sales to banned countries or groups.

Israel exports mostly radar systems, drones and anti-tank missiles to India, Turkey, Britain, the United States and other Western nations, defense officials said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

But Israel has earned a questionable reputation for the small percentage of its sales _ usually of shells, rifles and ammunition _ that go to war-torn countries, analysts said.

Continued . . .