Rights and Democracy:

B'Tselem strikes back
by B'Tselem

and Palestinian human rights organizations

The Terror-Industrial Complex
by Chris Hedges
The conviction of the Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui in New York last week of trying to kill American military officers and FBI agents illustrates that the greatest danger to our security comes not from al-Qaida but the thousands of shadowy mercenaries, kidnappers, killers and torturers our government employs around the globe.

The bizarre story surrounding Siddiqui, 37, who received an undergraduate degree from MIT and a doctorate in neuroscience from Brandeis University, often defies belief. Siddiqui, who could spend 50 years in prison on seven charges when she is sentenced in May, was by her own account abducted in 2003 from her hometown of Karachi, Pakistan, with her three children—two of whom remain missing—and spirited to a secret U.S. prison where she was allegedly tortured and mistreated for five years. The American government has no comment, either about the alleged clandestine detention or the missing children.

Siddiqui was discovered in 2008 disoriented and apparently aggressive and hostile, in Ghazni, Afghanistan, with her oldest son. She allegedly was carrying plans to make explosives, lists of New York landmarks and notes referring to “mass-casualty attacks.” But despite these claims the government prosecutors chose not to charge her with terrorism or links to al-Qaida—the reason for her original appearance on the FBI’s most-wanted list six years ago.

Venecia Lonis, 4, who suffers from malnutrition, is weighed at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Aid workers fear hunger is worsening in rural Haiti after at least 26 children died of conditions exacerbated by a lack of nutrition, raising concerns that a grave food crisis may be brewing following four devastating tropical storms. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Sitting in air-conditioned comfort, cans of Coke and 7-Up within reach as they watched their screens, the ground controllers gave the order to strike under the cover of darkness. There had been no declaration of war.  No advance warning, nothing, in fact, that would have alerted the "enemy" to the sudden, unprecedented bombing raids.

 

Flight 253: Intelligence Agencies Nixed State Department Move to Revoke Bomber's Visa
by Tom Burghardt
Rightist demagogues, as they are wont to do, prattle-on how they, and they alone, can "keep America safe"--by shredding the Constitution. Waging a decades-long psychological war against the American people, corporatist thugs embedded within the National Security State assure us that secrecy, deceit and imperial adventures that steal other peoples' resources are the one true path to national prosperity and universal happiness.

But what happens when those charged with protecting us from attack, actually aid and abet those who would kill us, and then handsomely profit from our slaughter in the process?

 

“The TRUTH” sometimes motivates people

to take desperate measures to hide from it!
by Friends of Saanich Inlet

The CanWest Cowichan Citizen newspaper is freely distributed to the public twice weekly. Various newsstands in Mill Bay/Malahat, Shawnigan Lake and Cobble Hill (Electoral Areas - A, B and C respectively) were raided and stripped of all Citizen papers because this edition (Published Wednesday, February 3, 2010 ) carried Friends of Saanich Inlet article “Thousands not part of the process” by Paul Devoe.

 

What group would be motivated enough to steal newspapers to prevent information from reaching public? What group would benefit most from lack of public purview of presented information (in the article)? What was so sensitive in this letter that such extreme measures were taken? If so, was a nerve touched within these special interest group(s) thus invoking such a reaction?

Not only have they taken away pertinent information out of public view but they have committed a criminal act with this theft of advertising dollars from people who have invested in the papers. In doing so, they have tampered with the freedom of the press.

Obviously a corrective action would be to expose these perpetrators more and bring them to justice -- You decide!

The article “Thousands not part of the process” published in 'The Citizen' Feb 03, 2010;

link: http://www2.canada.com/cowichanvalleycitizen/news/story.html?id=871a1ad6-9391-4e16-92e5-a1a46b7db589

Britain, You Better Wake Up

by Gilad Atzmon

The more I read about the Chilcot inquiry the more disturbed I am. The fallacy imbued in the heart of British ‘democracy’ is staggering. While some commentators are concerned with questions to do with the legality of the war, the most crucial issue here is actually the disappearance of ethical judgment from our public and political life. Rather than being concerned with morality and ethics British politicians are concerned with legalism.

 

In other words, if someone would manage to prove that the war was ‘legal’ then the murdering of a million and a half Iraqis would be well justified. Let’s all face it, our politicians are corrupted to the bone.

In fact the Chilcot inquiry is in itself a pretty disturbing concept. As George Monbiot pointed out a few days ago in the Guardian CIF, in the world of British ‘official inquiries’, it is the government that appoints its members and sets its terms of reference.

 

“It's the equivalent of a criminal suspect being allowed to choose what the charges should be, who should judge his case and who should sit on the jury”.

They're Letting the People Die

by Ezili Danto
They're letting the people die. We see the food and water that the world has sent to Haiti, but the World Relief Organizations who have been entrusted to distribute the world's aid to Haiti's suffering earthquake victims are letting it just stockpiled. Tell the world, PLEASE. They're letting the people die.


Ezili's Response:

Kouraj my sister. The only ones we can count on are ourselves. Give me your location, we've trucked some food and water down from the DR, if some is still left, I'll try and get it to your location.

Ezili Dantò.

Gaza in Plain Language