Peace and Justice Post

CommonDreams.org, October 1, 2007

by Michael N. Nagler

As of this writing a nonviolent movement is still in crisis in Burma, despite what the regime there would have us believe. In 1988 over 3,000 students were killed – massacred would not be too strong a word – when they protested the military takeover of their country. Their courageous, charismatic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, though she had faced down rifle squads in at least one critical confrontation (superbly dramatized in Beyond Rangoon, with Patricia Arquette), and won an overwhelming electoral victory, was not able to prevail over the regime, which has kept her under house arrest and basically pillaged the country for these nineteen years.

Commentators are noting, correctly, several features of the uprising today: it is a massive, disciplined outpouring. It relies on the immense prestige of religious orders in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the regime), and – among other differences between now and 1988 – the world is watching.

Keep reading . . .

rinf.com, October 2, 2007

Official Account of 9/11 a “Joke” and a “Cover-up”

September 23, 2007 – Seven CIA veterans have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and have called for a new investigation. “I think at simplest terms, there’s a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke,” said Raymond McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates during the seventies. “There are a whole bunch of unanswered questions. And the reason they’re unanswered is because this administration will not answer the questions,” he said. McGovern, who is also the founder of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity), is one of many signers of a petition to reinvestigate 9/11.[1]

During his 27-year CIA career, McGovern personally delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, their Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many other senior government officials. Upon retirement in 1990, McGovern was awarded the CIA’s Intelligence Commendation Medallion and received a letter of appreciation from then President George H. W. Bush. However, McGovern returned the award[2] in 2006 in protest of the current George W. Bush Administration’s advocacy and use of torture.

Keep reading . . .

Dissident Voice, October 1st, 2007

By Rohini Hensman

Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2 provides a fitting occasion to launch a global satyagraha — defined by him as ‘truth-force’, a non-violent struggle using the power of the truth — against imperialism. Such a struggle is urgently needed today, given the carnage being inflicted by imperialism in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the threat of even greater carnage in Iran. Support for the people of these countries needs to be stepped up to a higher level globally if the continuing holocaust is to be halted.

Continued . . .

AFP, 2 October 2007

WASHINGTON – Embattled private security firm Blackwater USA has been involved in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq since 2005, according to a US congressional report released ahead of hearings on the company Tuesday.

Citing company information, the report by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also said that although Blackwater’s security contract with the US State Department in Iraq says it can only use force defensively, Blackwater had fired first in more than 80 percent of the incidents.

The report issued Monday said that according to the company’s incident reports, “Blackwater has been involved in at least 195 ’escalation of force’ incidents since 2005 that involved the firing of shots by Blackwater forces.”

It noted that because Blackwater guards are usually shooting from moving vehicles and do not stop to count casualties, the company itself has reported 16 casualties in all the incidents since 2005, and 162 cases of property damage.

Blackwater has been under close scrutiny due to a shooting on September 16 involving company guards in a crowded Baghdad square that killed at least 10 Iraqis.

Nearly two weeks after the bloody shootout, the circumstances remain unclear, with Iraqis angry and indignant and the country’s leader having demanded Blackwater’s expulsion.

The House committee plans to hold a hearing on Tuesday into Blackwater’s role as a private military contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Information Clearing House

By Paul Craig Roberts

10/01/07 “ICH” — — Shame has vanished from Western “civilization.” Hypocrisy has taken its place.

On September 28, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown could be heard on National Public Radio decrying the use of violence against democratic protesters by the government in Burma. Brown declared the British people’s revulsion over the violence inflicted by the Burmese government on its people. But Brown said nothing about the violence the British government was inflicting on Iraqis and Afghans.

George W. Bush also struck the blameless pose when he declared: “The world is watching the people of Burma take to the streets to demand their freedom, and the American people stand in solidarity with these brave individuals.”

Bush and Brown do not have the same sympathy for the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan. Neither Bush nor Brown stand in solidarity with those who are demanding their freedom from foreign occupation by American and British troops. Indeed, Bush and Brown, as commanders in chief, are on a killing spree that makes the government in Burma look extremely restrained by comparison.

Why were British soldiers sent to kill Iraqis and Afghans? September 11 had nothing whatsoever to do with the UK. No doubt but that the corrupt Tony Blair was paid off to drag the British people into Bush’s Middle East war for American/Israeli hegemony, but Brown has done nothing to terminate Bush’s use of the British military as mercenaries.

Keep reading . . .

The Time, October 1, 2007

Young men from Myanmar who helped to inform the rest of the World through their blogs

By Kenneth Denby in Rangoon

Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause.

Since last month Ko Latt, 28, his friends Arca, Eye, Sun and Superman, and scores of others like them have been the third pillar of Burma’s Saffron Revolution. While the veteran democracy activists, and then the Buddhist monks, marched in their tens of thousands against the military regime, it is the country’s amateur bloggers and internet enthusiasts who have brought the images to the outside world.

Keep reading . . .

Middle East Online

First Published 2007-10-01, Last Updated 2007-10-01 14:59:34 A double suffering Amnesty urges international community to help Palestinian refugees, armed groups to stop targeting them. LONDON – Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Iraq have been ill-treated, with many of them abducted, tortured and murdered by armed Shiite Muslim groups, Amnesty International said in a report published Monday. The London-based human rights group issued an urgent appeal to the Shiite-led Iraqi government, US-led coalition and international community to take concrete steps to protect the Palestinians. “Palestinian refugees in Iraq have been subjected to gross human rights abuses including abduction, hostage-taking, unlawful killing, torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of armed militia groups,” it said. The groups are reportedly linked to some political parties and religious groups, it said. Palestinians are targeted, it said, because they are seen to have received “preferential treatment” from the ousted dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni like most of them, or they are suspected to support Sunni insurgents. Keep reading . . .

Telegraph.co.uk,  October 1st,  2007

By Tim Shipman in Washington

The American air force is working with military leaders from the Gulf to train and prepare Arab air forces for a possible war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Neocons seek to justify action against Teheran   Iranian president Ahmadinejad An air warfare conference in Washington last week was told how American air chiefs have helped to co-ordinate intelligence-sharing with Gulf Arab nations and organise combined exercises designed to make it easier to fight together. Gen Michael Mosley, the US Air Force chief of staff, used the conference to seek closer links with allies whose support America might need if President George W Bush chooses to bomb Iran. Pentagon air chiefs have helped set up an air warfare centre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where Gulf nations are training their fighter pilots and America has big bases. It is modelled on the US Air Force warfare centre at Nellis air force base in Nevada. Jordan and the UAE have both taken part in combined exercises designed to make sure their air forces can fly, and fight, together and with American jets. The conference was long-planned to discuss developments in air warfare technology, but the question of possible hostilities involving Iran was discussed. Bruce Lemkin, the American air force deputy under-secretary for international affairs, said: “We need friends and partners with the capabilities to take care of their own security and stability in their regions and, through the relationship, the inter-operability and the will to join us in coalitions when appropriate… “On its most basic level, it’s about flying together, operating together and training together so, if we have to, we can fight together.” While it is unlikely that America’s Gulf allies would join any US air strike against suspected nuclear targets in Iran, their co-operation might be required to allow passage of warplanes though their airspace. American defence officials are also keen that Iran’s Arab neighbours prepare to deal with any Iranian attempt to target them in return. Lt Gen Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein, who is special assistant to the chief of staff of the Jordanian armed forces, said “concern at Iran’s attempt to establish itself as a regional superpower” had led to greater co-operation, “not just at the inter-service level but also at the political level”. He said the new air warfare centre had allowed them to “exchange information and exercise together”. But Air Chief Marshal Sir Glen Torpy, the head of the RAF, voiced the fear of many British officials that America is too devoted to military solutions. He said: “In an environment like this, we always focus on the part that the military can play in solving security and foreign policy problems, but the military will rarely, if ever, be the solution.”