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U.S. leaves legacy of English speakers, damaged souls
By Pam Bailey
Abdul was just 20 years old when he drove his father to the medical clinic one day for an exam. He dropped his father off, then left to run a few errands, saying nonchalantly that he would be back by the time the tests were done. But..he never showed up at the clinic. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air. His family agonized over what had happened to the young man, who – as the oldest son -- had worked as a laborer to support his parents and siblings in the wake of his father’s disability. The family fell into debt as a result, and his brother fell ill. It was more than a year later when the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) informed them that Abdul was alive, but in prison, being held indefinitely, without formal charge or trial.
That incident could have been one of the infamous “disappearances” of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal regime in the 1970s, for which he was condemned, indicted and tried for human rights violations. However, this incident occurred in 2005, in Pakistan. The jailer that kidnapped Abdul Halim Saifullah off the streets of Karachi, then imprisoned him without a word to anyone, access to a lawyer or trial, was the United States. It wasn’t until 2007 that his family was finally told where their son was being held – the infamous Bagram prison, the largest detention facility in the world and known as "Afghanistan's Guantanamo." In January of this year, Afghan investigators accused the U.S. Army of abusing detainees at Bagram, including torture.
Abdul's story was told by his father to a CodePink delegation that traveled to Pakistan to publicize the consequences of U.S. drone attacks in the war-torn region of Waziristan. Many organizations and individuals who have suffered at the hands of Americans sought an “audience” with the group, hoping the participants would advocate for their cause when they returned home. One of those organizations was the “Justice Project Pakistan,” modeled after and mentored by the UK’s Reprieve. JPP advocates for the most vulnerable of prisoners – primarily those facing the death penalty or who are detained beyond the rule of law in secret prisons. Included among the latter are 37 Pakistanis – one as young as 16, who was seized in circumstances similar to Abdul’s at the age of just 14. Although the U.S. handed Bagram over to the Afghan government in September, the transition did not include prisoners from other countries, such as Pakistan, of which there are 52. (A side note: It also did not include more than 600 Afghans who were detained after the agreement was signed in March; they all remain in U.S. custody.)
Sarah Belal, an Oxford-trained lawyer and director of JPP, interpreted for a group of men whose brothers and sons are being held in Bagram. According to the men, some of the prisoners had been visiting Afghanistan for work or education, but others were in their hometowns in Pakistan. Many Americans do not realize that for years, the United States has been running “search-and-seize” operations in Pakistan as well, detaining these nationals for years without formal charge or trial. The longest has been there since 2002.
When Belal asked the men how long they had waited, thinking their relatives were dead, before learning from the ICRC that they were in Bagram, the answers ranged from six months to as long as two years.
“Some have no idea why their son or brother was taken,” Belal said. “Others say their relative was mistaken for someone else, but they haven’t been released. No formal charges are ever filed, except for a label in an Excel sheet given to the Pakistani government, such as ‘suspected member of Taliban’ or ‘IED (improvised explosive device) manufacturer’. ”
Once they learn of their loved ones’ whereabouts, the families are allowed to see them only by video conference, once every two months. They must travel to Islamabad, a long distance for many who live in more distant regions of Pakistan. When they arrive, poor Internet connections often mean the trip is for naught. When they do talk, or send letters, the prisoners are not permitted to discuss how they were seized or under what conditions they are being held.
“We have been told by the few detainees who have been released that when there are first interned in Bagram, the prisoners are exposed to extreme temperatures, and the floors of their cages are covered with two feet of water,” Belal told the CodePink delegates. “It is one to two months before the ICRC is allowed to see them, and then they are moved to their ‘regular’ quarters.” Their lawyers are never allowed direct access.
The Pakistani prisoners are held together, in one big cage divided into small cubicles with only one open toilet for all 37. Teenagers are mixed with the adults. Fazal Karim, who was abducted in 2003 when he was traveling cross country for a business trip, was held in solitary confinement for the past five years. In 2011, the Pakistani embassy in Kabul announced that Fazal had been cleared for release. However, today, he is still in Bagram, with no explanation.
“The Pakistani government has been no help,” the father of 16-year-old Hamidullah Khan told the group through Belal. “We are Pakistani citizens, but we totally on our own, at the mercy of the United States.”
JPP has filed a petition with the Pakistani government on behalf of 10 of the detainees, including Abdul Halim Saifullah and Hamidullah Khan. In October 2011, a Pakistani justice ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to visit its citizens in Bagram. In February of this year, the High Court in Lahore directed the government of Pakistan to negotiate with the U.S. for the return of the detainees. However, no concrete results have yet been achieved, and on Sept. 25, the JPP proposed a draft memorandum of understanding which would, once signed by the U.S. and Pakistan, order the safe return of Pakistani citizens held in Bagram. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 16.
Prisoners’ cases are reviewed behind closed doors every six months, and even when they are told they will be released, it can take weeks or longer before it becomes reality.
“What is unsettling,” Belal said, “is that prisoners often come home speaking fluent English cuss words – with an American accent.”
Life in Waziristan, 2012 “AD”
By Leah Bolger
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)…increased use of anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant drugs…suicide. These are all issues that are plaguing American combat soldiers, and which the American media has reported on widely.
Yesterday the CODEPINK delegation to Pakistan heard directly from the victims of U.S. combat drones. We listened intently to the stories of these men who describe their lives in terms of “Before Drones” and “After Drones,” in much the same way that Americans refer to their lives “since 9/11.”
Imagine having up to 6 drones circling overhead 24 hours a day, making an incessant, constant buzzing sound that never ceases. The sound the drones make creates a deep-seated psychological fear—a sort of emotional torture. The lives of these people have changed completely, their culture and way of life destroyed.
This is a communal society, whose families of 60 to 70 people live in the same compound. The women cook together, the families eat and sleep together. Weddings and funerals are huge gatherings of friends and family—or at least they used to be. Now, “After Drones (AD)” everything has changed. Children aged 5 to 10 no longer go to school. Men are afraid to gather in groups of more than 2 or 3. Weddings, which used to be joyous affairs with music, dancing, and drumming, are now subdued events with only close family members present. And most sadly, since funerals have been the target of drone attacks, they are now small gatherings as well.
Because of cultural norms, the deaths of women are not reported. It is considered offensive to discuss the names, or take photographs of women, yet one stalwart journalist, Noor Beharam, has risked his life repeatedly to try to document the deaths of women and especially children. He believes that 670 women have been killed by drone strikes, and has taken photos of more than 100 children. Their bodies are often unrecognizable as human after the strikes. He showed us one photo of a man holding torn pieces of a woman’s dress that he found in the trees, in an attempt to document his wife’s death.
The Waziris are now raising a generation of children with psychological and emotional scars without an education. The use of Xanax is startling high, and suicide, which is a societal and religious taboo, is shocking. Seventeen Waziris have killed themselves due to the emotional terror of the U.S. drone program. This is something that is unheard of in this culture. Families are becoming displaced and moving to more urban areas in an attempt to avoid popular “strike areas.” The Pakistani Army has moved in and won’t allow them to cross into Afghanistan to visit their relatives there, though the entire region is Pashtun, and part of their cultural and historical heritage.
The U.S. government has created enemies where there were none. We have been told repeatedly about the concept of revenge, which is a dominant social force in Waziristan. The children of this region will remember what we have done to them, and their children, and their children. We have also been told repeatedly that the only way to possibly stop this spiral is to stop the drones. Just stop. These people will not accept monetary compensation even if it were offered, which it isn’t. They don’t want an apology, which they view as insincere. They just want us to stop the drones, so they can return to their “Before Drones” lives.
Leah Bolger is President of Veterans For Peace.
Drone Opposition Breaks Through the Corporate Media Ceiling
Americans ignore 'great risks,' travel to Pakistan to protest US drone strikes
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_
NBC News
American activists in Pakistan to protest U.S. drone strikes
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/05/
CNN
CODEPINK to Protest Drones in Pakistan
http://www.usnews.com/news/
US News
American protestors join Pakistan protest against drone attacks to 'apologise on behalf of those with a conscience'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
The Daily Mail Online
Imran Khan braves march into Pakistan's Taliban heartland
http://www.independent.co.uk/
The Independent
The folly of drone attacks and U.S. strategy
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/04/
CNN
US Peace Activists Challenge Ambassador in Pakistan About Drones
http://www.commondreams.org/
Common Dreams
Delegation of American Activists Confronts US Drone Strike Policy in Pakistan
http://dissenter.firedoglake.
FireDogLake
Americans Press U.S. Ambassador for End to Drone Strikes in Pakistan, and the Ambassador Responds
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
The Huffington Post
Power of Pink: women hungry for drone protest
http://www.smh.com.au/world/
The Sydney Morning Herald
U.S. Ambassador Acknowledges Need to Compensate Drone Victims, and Admits They Exist
By Robert Naiman
Islamabad, Pakistan -- Sometimes, when some people insist that it's impossible to put some urgent problem on the table for discussion and redress, you have no choice but to undertake flamboyant action. Call it "propaganda by nonviolent deed."
On Wednesday, as a member of a U.S. peace delegationto Pakistan organized by Code Pink, I delivered a petition from more than 3,000 Americans to Acting U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Hoagland calling for an end to the CIA drone strike policy in Pakistan.
I also delivered a letter from Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Wolf, Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Jody Williams, Tom Hayden, Patch Adams, Glenn Greenwald, Juan Cole and other prominent Americans, including former U.S. government officials, calling for an end to the drone strikes. The letter concludes:
U.S. Civilians Try to Inform U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan About Pakistan
This is the letter I sent to Ambassador Richard Hoagland after he met with the Codepink Delegation for Peace on October 3 stating that American policies are what have made Pakistan dangerous for Americans. -- Ann Wright
October 5, 2012
Ambassador Richard Hoagland
US Embassy
Islamabad, Pakistan
Dear Ambassador Hoagland,
Thank you and your staff for meeting with our American delegation for peace on October 3.
As you mentioned, your meeting with us demonstrates one of the strengths of American society-freedom of speech to criticize policies of one’s government.
-
We fully appreciate the United States warning about travel for Americans to Pakistan.
Assange Labeled an 'Enemy' of the US in Secret Pentagon Documents
By Dave Lindorff
An investigative arm of the Pentagon has termed Wikileaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange, currently holed up and claiming asylum in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for fear he will be deported to Sweden and thence to the US, and his organization, both “enemies” of the United States.
Assange Labeled an 'Enemy' of the US in Secret Pentagon Documents
By Dave Lindorff
An investigative arm of the Pentagon has termed Wikileaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange, currently holed up and claiming asylum in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for fear he will be deported to Sweden and thence to the US, and his organization, both “enemies” of the United States.
Assange Labeled an 'Enemy' of the US in Secret Pentagon Documents
By Dave Lindorff
An investigative arm of the Pentagon has termed Wikileaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange, currently holed up and claiming asylum in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for fear he will be deported to Sweden and thence to the US, and his organization, both “enemies” of the United States.
Americans in Pakistan Meet Families of Victims Obama Says Don't Exist
Thirty-two U.S. peace activists, including 6 members of Veterans For Peace are taking part in a peace delegation to Pakistan organized by the anti-war group Code Pink.
See video: http://vimeo.com/50666774
Wednesday the delegation met with U.S. Charge d'Affaires Richard Hoagland. U.S. peace activist Robert Naiman asked about reports of secondary attacks on rescuers of drone victims. Ambassador Hoagland denied that rescuers are targeted, but not that strikes are launched on the same location just struck minutes before.
Hoagland also said that he agreed with President Obama that the number of civilian deaths was near zero, but later seemed to contradict himself when he said that number he believed was accurate was in "two digits." When asked to be more specific as to whether that number was closer to 10 or 99, he declined.
Americans' Calls to End Drone Strikes Delivered to US Embassy Pakistan
Letter signed by Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Wolf, Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Tom Hayden, Patch Adams, other prominent Americans; 3,000 petition signatures from US citizens delivered to Acting Ambassador Richard Hoagland;
Hoagland disputes allegations U.S. drone strikes target civilian rescuers
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-3 October 2012-Today a group of US peace advocates delivered a letter to the US embassy in Islamabad signed by twenty-six leading US authors, film directors, professors, activists, and a Nobel Peace laureate, calling upon US authorities to end US drone strikes in Pakistan, and to bring US drone strike policy into compliance with US and international law. The letter, which was organized by the US group Just Foreign Policy can be found online at http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/1312.
CODEPINK Peace Delegation now in Pakistan, Meeting with Victims of Obama's Drone Strikes
Children and Drones
from children...
“oh please!...
stop killing us!...
we’re just children!...
you killed the others!...
you killed our mother!...
you killed our father!...
and then our sister!...
and our brother!...
and for what?!...
our family’s dead!...
you blew them apart!...
our father’s smart head!...
our mother’s sweet heart!...
all they did was work hard!...
our father plowed the fields!...
our mother cooked our food!...
sister’s wounds were healed!...
and brother’s pigeon cooed!...
now they’re dead and gone!...
and it’s all because of you!...
why do you kill like this?!...
we don’t even know you!...
but you still kill us dead!...
yes this is what you do!...
so what is life to you?!...
even we know better!...
than to be like you!...
stop what you do!...
stop killing us!...
you did enough!...
you killed so much!...
just stay away from us!”...
Image from Ashley.
Text from sallysense.
The Buzz on Drones
Civilian Casualties From Drone Attacks in Afghanistan
October 1, 2012
Editor Note: Even as the United States has withdrawn from Iraq and has begun to wind down the Afghan War, the lethal reach of the U.S. military has been extended into other countries through drone aircraft. What is less known is the full human and political costs.
By Ray McGovern
Several friends of mine are among the 35 American activists assembling in Pakistan in recent days in an effort to seek ground truth on the impact of U.S. drone strikes on civilians there. I will be holding them and their Pakistani hosts and co-travelers in the Light, as my Quaker friends like to say, and will now try to do my part in what follows to put this dangerous journey in perspective.
Veterans For Peace Now in Pakistan Opposing Drone War
Seven Members of Veterans For Peace are part of a 40-member delegation organized by Code Pink now in Pakistan through October 10th. VFP members Leah Bolger, Dave Dittemore, Bill Kelly, Jody Mackey, Rob Mulford, and Ann Wright are meeting with drone victims' families, elected officials, tribal elders, and residents of South Waziristan, where U.S. drone strikes have killed thousands, while injuring and making refugees of many more. Code Pink's Medea Benjamin is an associate member of VFP.
The relentless drone war continued with a U.S. drone strike in the Mir Ali area on Monday, reportedly killing three unidentified people.
At the same time, the Pakistani media is full of accounts of the U.S. delegation and their planned participation in a march to the heaviest hit areas, a story also appearing in British and other world media. The English language Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports:
"ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan said that a 30-member foreign delegation had reached Islamabad on Sunday which would participate in PTI’s 'peace rally' in South Waziristan, DawnNews reported.
"The PTI Chairman Imran Khan said that people who do not want peace are against PTI peace rally.
"Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Khan said Mehsud, Burki and Bhittani tribes of Waziristan have welcomed the peace rally. The tribal leaders had also assured the security of the participants of the rally, he added.
"He complained that the government was not issuing visas to the foreign journalists and human right’s activists who wanted to attend the rally.
"Speaking on the occasion, US citizen Ann Wright, who is a former diplomat and military woman, said most of the American people were against drone attacks.
“'Drone attacks are illegal and criminal. We request the people of Pakistan to raise their voice against them. We will go to Waziristan to apologise to the relatives of those killed by drones,' said Ms Wright, who is also the spokesperson for the Anti-War Movement.
"She said the US had been violating the sovereignty of Pakistan. 'There is travel warning for the US citizens but we have come here and will go to the places where our government does not want us to go,' she said.
Other US citizens who have reached here to take part in the PTI rally include Paki Wieland, a social worker (Massachusetts); Linda Wenning, a graduate from the University of Utah; Lorna Vander Zanden and Pam Bailey (Virginia); Jolie Terrazas, Judy Bello, Katie Falkenberg, Daniel Burns and Joe Lombardo (New York); Barbara Briggs, Tighe Barry, Sushila Cherian, Dianne Budd and Toby Blome (California); Leah Bolger, Tudy Cooper and Michael Gaskill (Oregon); Medea Benjamin, Jody Tiller and Alli McCracken (Washington DC); Anam Eljabali (Illinois), Patricia Chaffee (Wisconsin), Joan Nicholson (Pennsylvania), Robert Naiman and JoAnne Lingle (Indiana); Rob Mulford (Alaska), Lois Mastrangelo (Massachusetts) and Billy Kelly (New Jersey).
"Meanwhile explaining the route of the rally, the PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said thet the march will start from Islamabad’s Blue Area and will proceed towards Balkasar, Talagang, Mianwali and DI Khan on October 6.
"On October 7, the rally will gather at Tank and then head towards South Waziristan where a public meeting will be held at Kot Kai, he added."
Veterans For Peace President Leah Bolger reports that, in addition to Ann Wright, Bill Kelly, Rob Mulford, and herself took part in the press conference representing VFP. Wright was introduced by Khan and spoke about the purpose of the delegation, and answered questions from the press. Bolger reounts:
"Ann did a fantastic job of describing the purpose of the delegation and responding to reporters' questions which included asking us if we were concerned for our own safety, given the strong anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. She was very candid in saying that we were opposed to the policies of our own government which we consider to be illegal and immoral, and that as citizens of the United States we apologized for the deaths of Pakistanis because of the drone strikes. She went on to say that the U.S. government does not want us to be here in Pakistan, but that despite official State Department warnings not to travel here, we are determined to meet with the people who have been harmed by our government, and in our name."
Rob Mulford sent in this comment:
"Love is the seed from which the flower of peace grows. Prior to coming to Pakistan, I was often asked by friends, family, loved ones the rhetorical question: why, what do you hope to accomplish, what is the efficacy? Sometimes when put on the spot I struggle for answers grounded in the technical without seeing the ubiquitous truth. I am here to say 'I love you' to a people who have for too long and too often been wrongly vilified. But words are empty without action. The warmth of tacit contact, the handshake, the hug, the reflection of an other's beauty in ones own eyes, and openly sharing one's own vulnerability. This is peace.
"Peace requires courage. Saturday we met with the anthropologist / filmmaker Samar Miniallah Khan. Samar, a Pashtun, tirelessly and courageously works to comfort and protect some of the most venerable people on the face of the earth, women and children who have had no part in the making of a world where they suffer. Her documentary 'Women Behind the Burqa' may just be the most powerful statement that I have ever seen in opposition to war. It needs to be seen by everyone in the United States, shown in schools, to those who govern, and on the popular media. It lays bare the lie that 'we' (US military forces) are involved involved in protecting women.
"Drones are robot assassins, murders. They are not tools of the just."
Pam Bailey reports on her blog:
"Monday evening, I will fly from New York City to Abu Dhabi, and then on to Islamabad. On Oct. 6, I and about 30 others from the United States and the UK will join PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or 'Movement for Justice') Chairman Imran Khan on a convoy into South Waziristan, the 'no-man’s land' along the border with Afghanistan where extremists hide and U.S. drones most often strike.
"Before founding the PTI party in 1996, Khan played international cricket for two decades (at 39, Khan led his teammates to Pakistan’s first and only World Cup victory in 1992) and became a much-beloved philanthropist, including the founding of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre. Foreign Policy magazine described him as 'Pakistan’s Ron Paul.'
"The original plan was for the convoy to penetrate deep into North Waziristan, the heart of the unrest and military response, allowing us to visit the families caught in the crossfire at 'Ground Zero.'
"However, after threats of suicide attacks were received, the plan was revised to limit the convoy to South Waziristan – a path that the Hakimullah Mahsud-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, or the Pakistani Taliban) has pledged to protect. The question now is whether the Pakistani government will allow the convoy to go ahead. In light of Khan’s criticism of the Pakistani government’s tacit complicity with the U.S. drone attacks, several international journalists already have been denied visas. Stay tuned."
Veterans For Peace member Ray McGovern, not on the trip, provides context here.
VFP is part of a coalition organizing an online petition in support of banning weaponized drones. VFP members are delivering over 16,000 signatures on the petition to those they meet with in Pakistan: PDF.
In addition, Veterans For Peace is a member organization of UNAC (the United National Antiwar Coalition, a U.S. group), and Leah Bolger represents VFP on the UNAC Administrative Committee. Joe Lombardo and Judi Bello, also part of the delegation to Pakistan, are also UNAC Administrative Committee members. UNAC has just released a statement opposing the use of drones: PDF.
Participants are available for interviews by email and phone, and in-person after the trip.
Veterans For Peace was founded in 1985 and has approximately 5,000 members in 150 chapters located in every U.S. state and several countries. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by the United Nations, and is the only national veterans' organization calling for the abolishment of war.
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Talk Nation Radio: How Drones Appear from the Receiving End
Rafia Zakaria, a Pakistani-American writer, reports on how drones look from thousands of miles away from the desks at which they are "piloted." Zakaria is a columnist for the English-language Pakistani newspaper Dawn, a blogger for Ms. Magazine and for Human Rights Now, and a director for Amnesty International USA. Drones will not look the same to you after listening to her.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Engineer: Christiane Brown.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download or get embed code from Archive.org or AudioPort or LetsTryDemocracy.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
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Are Drones Moral Killing Machines? NY Times National Security Journalist Says Yes
By Dave Lindorff
Are weaponized drone aircraft more moral than the more traditional killing machines used in warfare? In an opinion published in Sunday’s New York Times, the paper’s national security reporter, Scott Shane, argues that they are.
Pakistan reopens NATO supply routes to Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani leaders on Tuesday ended a seven-month blockade on Afghanistan-bound NATO supply routes through their country, a long-awaited move that hinged on Washington's acquiescence to Islamabad's demand for an apology for the deaths of two dozen Pakistani soldiers killed by errant U.S. airstrikes last fall.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she had called her Pakistani counterpart, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, on Tuesday and issued an apology for the soldiers' deaths: "We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again."
One Nobel Laureate Blasts Another -- And They’re Both Americans
By Dave Lindorff
There are two US presidents who have won the Nobel Peace Prize. Now one of those Nobel laureate leaders is accusing the other, though without naming him, of actions that qualify as war crimes and impeachable crimes against the US Constitution.
Drones of Love
By Gary Lindorff
Let us bomb your neighborhood,
Let us target your neighbor
Out of our love and concern –
Not you, not your children.
Drones of love!
Won’t you love us
After the dust settles?
After the evil has been exploded?
After the crater in the market-place
Has been filled in and paved
We will explode our way into your hearts!
We might miss our intended target;
Pakistan and the U.S. Left
By Rafia Zakaria, DAWN
LAST week saw another episode in the petulant saga of sulks and ‘sorry’ that is the Pakistan-US relationship.
A drone hovering over the tribal areas shot a Hellfire missile and took out an Al Qaeda operative, the number two on the list of important targets whose collective elimination is to mean an eradication of terrorism. Yahya Al-Libi had been living in the Dattakhel area, and was identified last year by US officials as one of the five people who could have succeeded Osama bin Laden.
The names of the 10 other people who died in the attack remain unknown.
A Killer In the White House
By John Grant
“No, Charlotte, I’m the jury now. I sentence you to death.”
The roar of the .45 shook the room. Charlotte staggered back a step.
“How c-could you?” she gasped.
“It was easy.”
- Mickey Spillane, I, The Jury
Turnabout is Fair Play: Proud to Be an Extortionist!
By Yasmeen Ali
Lahore -- US Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ), the chair and ranking minority member respectively of the Senate Armed Services Committee, say the US must not pay $5000 per truck as demanded by Pakistan, for supplies being shipped through this country to American troops in Afghanistan. McCain went further, calling the Pakistni demand “extortion.”
Petition seeks injunction for Pakistani Air Force to shoot down drones over Pakistan
PESHAWAR: A Pakistan-based legal charity has sought court injunctions for the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to shoot down American drones flying into the Pakistani airspace in a lawsuit.
Foundation for Fundamental Rights has filed two petitions before the Peshawar High Court on behalf of victims of the drone strike carried out on March 17 last year.
The petitions cite the federation of Pakistan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence among others as its respondents. One of the petitioners is Noor Khan, the surviving son of Malik Daud Khan, who was the head of a North Waziristan Jirga and was killed along with 50 other tribal elders and notables by CIA operated drones last year.
On March 17, 2011, a US drone fired missiles, brutally killing 50 people, including Khan, five members of the Khasadar force, and a small child.
The Unworthy Victims of US Drones Attacks
By NEWS Unspun
Many victims of acts of terrorism or state aggression receive the sympathy they deserve from the international media. In the case of certain aggressors however, the victims are 'unworthy'. On behalf of these victims, our media has little interest in consulting with experts on terrorism or international relations. Nor do they speculate about what the punishment or international response should be to the attackers.
Real Politics Must be in the Streets: The Constitutional Crimes of Barack Obama
By Dave Lindorff
As we slog towards another vapid, largely meaningless exercise in pretend democracy with the selection of a new president and Congress this November, it is time to make it clear that the current president, elected four years ago by so many people with such inflated expectations four years ago (myself included, as I had hoped, vainly it turned out, that those who elected him would then press him to act in progressive ways), is not only a betrayer of those hopes, but is a serial violator of his oath of office. He is, in truth, a war criminal easily the equal of his predecessor, George W. Bush, and perhaps even of Bush’s regent, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Let me count the ways:
