February
5
2010
This email just in from the BRussells Tribunal: A blogger in Baghdad, Hiba Al-Shamaree, has been arrested by Iraqi security forces.
The email included a post from another blogger, Layla Anwar.
“Following my previous post here (on the tribunal site), I just received fresh information regarding Hiba Al-Shamaree, the fellow Iraqi woman writer/blogger who has been kidnapped/arrested by the Iraqi forces on the 20th of January 2010 in the Sayyediya neighborhood in Baghdad.
“Her sister has just updated her blog with the following.”
“Hiba Al-Shamaree is arrested and detained by Baghdad’s security forces on the charges of supporting the Iraqi Resistance (through her writings), she will be presented to the Criminal/Penal Court…
“I am now authorized by Hiba to reveal her true identity to you.
“Her name : Hanan Ali Ahmad Al Mashadani
Age : 33 years old
Profession: Doctor in Ophthalmology
“The charges pressed against her : Inciting to violence and supporting the Resistance and according to informed sources this is a charge that falls under the clause of Terrorism as per the Iraqi law.
“Hiba lived in Amman with us, but she insisted on going to Baghdad on a humanitarian mission/assignment, for a project financed by an Indian NGO called HMOK and which dealt with deaf and mute Iraqi children. Hiba was working as a consultant for this Indian NGO.
“They discovered her pen name Hiba Al Shamaree because when they arrested her she had her laptop with her which they confiscated and they saw the articles she has been posting on her blog.”
The tribunal ended their email with this plea:
PLEASE, THIS IS AN URGENT PLEA –THEY WILL DESTROY HER. THEY WILL PUT HER THROUGH THE MOST HORRENDOUS OF TORTURES, including RAPE. I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. I KNOW.
The BRussells Tribunal is a group of “intellectuals, artists and activists who denounce the logic of permanent war promoted by the American government and its allies, affecting for the time being particularly one region in the world: the Middle East. It started with a people’s court against the PNAC (the right-wing Project for a New American Century) and its role in the illegal invasion of Iraq, but continued ever since. It tries to be a bridge between the intellectual resistance in the Arab World and the Western peace movements.”
February
3
2010
Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist was convicted Wednesday of charges that she tried to kill Americans while detained in Afghanistan in 2008. The Associated Press reported that Siddiqui, 37, was convicted on two counts of attempted murder, though the crime was not found by the jury to be premeditated. She was also convicted of armed assault, using and carrying a firearm, and assault of U.S. officers and employees.
The three-week trial made it sound like Siddiqui, who U.S. authorities had previously described as an al-Qaida sympathizer, had suddenly appeared in Afghanistan where she was arrested and then interrogated by Afghan and U.S. officials. (It was during that interrogation that Siddiqui allegedly staged her attack using a rifle a U.S. officer had left unattended in the room.)
The truth is Siddiqui had been “disappeared” in Pakistan by Pakistani intelligence forces in 2003 (She likely was picked up because U.S. intelligence agencies were saying she had terrorist links).
A report in the Pakistani press said that Siddiqui and her kids, then 7, 5, and 6 months old, had been seen being detained by Pakistani authorities. Days later, a spokesman for Pakistan’s interior ministry and two unnamed U.S. officials confirmed that she was in custody and being interrogated. Several days later, however, Pakistani and American officials apparently changed their minds, saying it was unlikely she was being held.
Siddiqui’s mother, Ismet, has said that a few days after Siddiqui’s disappearance, a man on a motorcycle arrived at her house and told her Aafia was being held and that she should keep quiet if she ever wanted to see her daughter and grandchildren again.
Interestingly enough, on July 7, 2008, only a few weeks before Siddiqui’s arrest in Afghanistan, Yvonne Ridley, an award-winning British journalist and patron of Cage Prisoners, a human rights organization, had sparked an uproar by calling a press conference in Islamabad to demand that the United States hand over an unidentified female prisoner being held at the U.S.-run Bagram prison in Afghanistan.
Ridley said the woman, whom she called the “Gray Lady of Bagram,” had been held in solitary confinement for years. And while no one knew for sure the identity of that prisoner, Ridley said she thought it was Siddiqui. Several former U.S. captives have also reported that a female prisoner, known only as prisoner 650, was being held in Bagram. And according to news reports, the former captives said she had lost her sanity, and cried all the time.
Ridley had written previously about “Prisoner 650″ and her four-year ordeal of torture and repeated rapes, saying that her cries had prompted the male prisoners to go on a hunger strike. And, at the Islamabad press conference, Ridley said she called her a “Gray Lady” because she was almost a “ghost, a specter whose cries and screams continue to haunt those who heard her.”
At her trial in New York, Siddiqui said she had been tortured and held in a secret prison before her detention. AP reported that she said charges that she attacked U.S. personnel who wanted to interrogate her were “crazy.” “It’s just ridiculous,” Siddiqui told the court.
And it is ridiculous. More likely this woman has been charged, and now convicted, of these crimes to cover up years of U.S. torture. The United States will never regain a position of trust in the world as long as a miscarriage of justice like this is unchallenged and uncorrected.
January
25
2010
The latest slogan for oil giant Chevron is “We’re in the human energy business.” And Amazon Watch, representing indigenous people in rainforest communities in Ecuador, is happy to hear that. Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch, recently wrote a letter to Chevron CEO John Watson, explaining why.
“I write to you on behalf of Amazon Watch to express our hope that as Chief Executive of Chevron Corporation you will have the fortitude and vision to genuinely address the most painful and immediate challenge facing your company – the Ecuador disaster.
Our hope is that you will not miss this critical opportunity to resolve the human and environmental tragedy in Ecuador and transform Chevron into the responsible 21st century energy company professed in ‘The Chevron Way’ and in your ‘Human Energy’ advertising campaigns.
Your company is currently facing a $27.3 billion financial liability in Ecuador. We ask that you reflect on Chevron’s handling of the Ecuador situation over the course of the last decade. You should remember Chevron’s Annual General Shareholder Meeting in April 2001 – on the eve of the Texaco acquisition – when I delivered to your company a binder, titled “El Dorado,” with more than 500 pages of comprehensive evidence documenting Texaco’s massive environmental contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon. At that meeting, I warned Chevron that by acquiring Texaco the company would not only take on the moral responsibility of rectifying the tragedy in the Amazon, but also assume a very costly financial liability.
Despite increasing shareholder and analyst concern, the growing public demand that Chevron take responsibility for its actions in Ecuador, and the resulting multi-billion liability they have spawned, Amazon Watch has witnessed your company pursue an expensive, ethically questionable, and counterproductive policy with regard to the Ecuador case.
Mr. Watson, as you surely know, the situation on the ground is dire. Thousands of acres of once pristine rainforest have been devastated by oil pollution. More than 30,000 indigenous peoples and campesinos have been left without clean water to drink. Children play beside toxic waste pits.
Young women have been ravaged by stomach and uterine cancer due to poisoned water. As you are well aware, Texaco has admitted to having deliberately released 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the waterways of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and to having left hundreds of abandoned unlined pits filled with crude oil and poison sludge over the course of more than two decades of oil operations. And now, as a direct result, a devastating public health crisis has consumed the region.
We are keenly attuned to Chevron’s public relations strategy with respect to this matter. The basic approach is to consistently blame the contamination of the Amazon on Petroecuador, Ecuador’s National Oil Company. Petroecuador’s poor record of environmental stewardship – largely because it has used an oil production system built by Texaco and designed to pollute – does not diminish Texaco’s responsibility for catastrophic contamination from 1964 to 1990. Texaco’s deliberate dumping dwarfs any subsequent pollution. Rather than continuing to shift the blame to Petruecuador, it is time for Chevron to assume the responsibility for Texaco’s legacy in Ecuador…”
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit group that works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous people in the Amazon Basin. The group created this video showing people in the affected communities urging the Chevron CEO to do the right thing in Ecuador by cleaning up the rainforest contamination.
Amazon Watch has also set up a petition drive to support the rainforest communities’ demands for a clean-up, compensation for health and environmental impacts, and access to health care and potable water for all affected people.
You can sign the petition here: http://chevrontoxico.com/take-action/send-chevron-a-message.html
I first heard of this effort in an email from International Cry, a “free online magazine that provides news, videos, and urgent alerts centered on indigenous people and their struggles around the world to reclaim their lands, defend their traditions, enact their rights, and to quite literally survive.”
Both Amazon Watch and International Cry provide information you’ll seldom see elsewhere, and both groups need our support.
For more information, here is a link to a blog maintained by the team suing Chevron over its human rights problems in Ecuador and elsewhere: The Chevron Pit.
January
15
2010
Non-citizen veterans of Vietnam, both Gulf wars and Afghanistan are being “quietly” deported despite U.S. military promises of citizenship in exchange for fighting for the United States.
Reportedly there are over 3,000 veterans currently incarcerated and under threat of deportation nation wide.
Veterans’ rights activist Jan Ruhman wrote last year on the blog Vetspeak.org:
“American Military veterans who have served our nation in times of war and peace have quietly been deported since 1996 when the Immigration Reform Act (IRA) was passed by the Republican Controlled Congress and “broadly” redefined Aggravated Felony (AG) and took away certain applications for relief. This simple change in the definition of AG in the law has directly affected tens of thousands of veterans who served their nation. Quite simply, they are facing forced deportation or have in fact already been “quietly” and unceremoniously deported over the past 13 years.
“A trail of lies has been uncovered at point of recruitment and in boot camps. Statements concerning U. S. Citizenship being “automatic” were related by many veterans we interviewed. Other veterans, who were more educated, knew different and applied while in the military but then deployed to a combat zone and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) didn’t have their application follow them. Many, who knew they had to apply, simply found that (as is the case with many veterans upon discharge, especially those suffering from PTSD), navigating the “system” is not psychologically or emotionally possible, for them.
“At present, it is estimated that over 3,000 of our fellow veterans are incarcerated and face deportation in Department of Homeland Security/INS Prisons nation wide. They are being processed through court rooms in rented industrials parks that more closely resemble fast food franchises turning out lunch than justice. Many are being held under “mandatory detention” with no option to pay bail to be released while fighting their case.
“Each month the human misery and degradation suffered by these veterans, their families and loved ones continues to grow.”
Nicolas Taborek, a staff writer for the Imperial Valley Press reports on two of those veterans in California:
“After serving six years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Rohan Coombs assumed he had earned American citizenship.
“But today the Jamaican immigrant is one of several military veterans in custody at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in El Centro fighting to avoid deportation.
“Coombs, 42, moved to the United States with his mother when he was 14 and ended up at the facility after serving eight months in prison for a 2008 marijuana distribution conviction. About the time he was expecting to be released from prison, he received some surprising news: despite his military service during the first Gulf War, he was never granted U.S. citizenship. As a non-citizen, he was subject to removal from the country for his offense.
“All this time I was thinking I was a (U.S.) citizen,” Coombs said. “The only time I left this country is when I was in the military…”
“Another veteran detained in El Centro, Fernando Cervantes, 55, moved to the United States from Mexico when he was 7 years old and is facing deportation because he was convicted of possessing less than a gram of methamphetamine with intent to sell.”
Coombs and Cervantes, like many of the veterans being deported, say that the military told them they would automatically become citizens by serving in the armed forces.
Vets’ activist Ruhman, a veteran himself, urges people to contact their local congressional representatives to “demand justice for these patriots.” Ruhman calls the deportations a “failure of U.S. immigration policy” and believes that only a federal law can stop them.
January
4
2010
The morning email brought more news on activists who have been attempting to go to Gaza from Cairo to protest the Israeli blockade, which has been in effect since 2007 and has had a disastrous effect on the people living in Gaza.
Sara Roy, who teaches at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, provides a good description of the Israeli blockade in the January 2009 issue of the London Review of Books:
“Israel’s siege has two fundamental goals. One is to ensure that the Palestinians there are seen merely as a humanitarian problem, beggars who have no political identity and therefore can have no political claims. The second is to foist Gaza onto Egypt. That is why the Israelis tolerate the hundreds of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt around which an informal but increasingly regulated commercial sector has begun to form. The overwhelming majority of Gazans are impoverished and officially 49.1 per cent are unemployed. In fact the prospect of steady employment is rapidly disappearing for the majority of the population.
“The Israeli government sealed all the ways into and out of Gaza. Food, medicine, fuel, parts for water and sanitation systems, fertiliser, plastic sheeting, phones, paper, glue, shoes and even teacups are no longer getting through in sufficient quantities or at all.”
A Democracy Now report Dec. 30th on the march can be seen here:
According to this morning’s news release from the Institute for Public Accuracy, a high-stakes standoff continues today in Cairo, where unprecedented protests have been taking place.
“On New Year’s Eve – shortly after the Egyptian government had prevented buses from taking them to Gaza – hundreds of people, including scores from the U.S., who were attempting to march in Cairo were kicked, punched and dragged into a holding area by plainclothes
Egyptian government forces,” the IPA release said.
Video of some of the arrests can be seen here.
The video was taken by IPA communications director, Sam Husseini, who has been blogging and posting videos about the protest at: http://husseini.posterous.com
The IPA said: “Beginning Dec. 27, 1,300 activists from over 40 countries had been in Cairo attempting to go to Gaza, which has been under siege. Israel has prevented free movement to or from Gaza on its border crossings and has prevented the Gaza port and airport from functioning.
“These 1,300 activists – roughly equal to the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza during the Israeli bombing last year (about 13 Israelis were also killed) – have been prevented by the Egyptian government from going to Gaza through the Rafah crossing in the south of Gaza.
“Protests in Cairo have been ongoing; one took place Monday in front of the Prosecutor’s Office, roughly the equivalent of the Justice Department. This protest included about 40 Egyptians and 40 internationals. On New Year’s Day, several hundred people protested in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo; protests there are virtually unheard of – prohibited by the Egyptian authorities. During protests, people have almost always been penned into areas to prevent their being seen by the general public.”
Recently there have been people marching in protest worldwide over the crippling blockade, including hundreds of Israelis in Tel Aviv. But, so far, Israel has refused to lift its siege.
The IPA is a nonprofit organization that tries “to broaden public discourse… (and) promotes the inclusion of perspectives that widen the bounds of media discussion and enhance democratic debate.” The IPA provides a vital link between journalists and policy analysts and activists.
December
18
2009
Israel gets a lot of bad press these days, and rightfully so given, among many other things, it’s refusal to seriously move forward on a negotiated peace settlement with Palestinians. But sometimes we need to be reminded that Israelis, like a lot of us, don’t necessarily agree with their government.
Today, I found a great reminder of that while scrolling through facebook.
An American grad student posted the following message and video:
“A year ago today, tens of thousands demanded the release of Israel’s youngest prisoners of conscience, the Shministim. These 12th graders courageously chose prison time over serving in the occupying Israeli army, and became heroes to us and the entire world.
“Last Chanukah, just one day after Tamar Katz was released from …solitary confinement, the young Shministim gathered to celebrate and to decide how to thank the 20,000 (and counting) Jewish Voice for Peace members who wrote letters, attended rallies, and wrote articles on their behalf.
“This is the message they carefully wrote together. One year later, as Shministit Or Ben-David sits in prison in Israel, and as Jews around the world prepare to celebrate the last night of Chanukah, it seems appropriate to share it with you again. We can’t imagine a more important message during this festival of lights.”
Shministim means “twelfth-graders” in Hebrew. In Israel, military service is mandatory after high school for young women and young men. The Shministim are Israeli youth who refuse to serve in the army because it enforces Israel’s 40-year occupation of the Palestinian lands.
There is an ongoing campaign in Israel among some high school graduates to sign public letters explaining why they refuse to serve. Many Shministim letters have been written in past years, and dozens of youth have signed the current letter for Shministim 2010. About 100 students signed the refusal letter in 2009.
According to Jewish Voice for Peace, the group that sponsors the Free the Shministi campaign, any “youth who sign the letter face jail terms in Israeli military prisons. Terms range from 21 to 28 days; those who refuse to wear a military uniform while in jail are sent to solitary confinement for the duration of their term.
After completing their sentence, they are then drafted again and if they refuse a second time, as most do, they face the same sentence. This can be a repeated process in which Shministim return home for a few days or longer and are then drafted and then imprisoned. Even through they refuse to serve, they still in a sense ‘belong’ to the military until they receive their discharge papers. A Shministi may never receive these papers, and although the Israeli military may tire of re-calling objectors into prison regularly, without these papers, an objector’s fate is always uncertain.
There is literally no end to the number of times youth might be sent back to jail.”
The Jewish Voice for Peace describes itself as “America’s largest national Jewish grassroots peace group dedicated to reaching a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on the principles of international human rights law.”
The group calls for a U.S. foreign policy based on promoting peace, democracy, human rights, and respect for international law; an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem; a resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem consistent with international law and equity; and an end to all violence against civilians
So, tonight, Or Ben-David, as you sit in an Israeli jail, I hope you know that your courage is an example and an inspiration to people all over the world, and a great reminder to us that all Israelis don’t support oppression. And here’s to brighter Chanukah’s to come. And to the grad student who posted about the Shministim, thank you.
December
16
2009
Today, as the first of President Obama’s 30,000 additional “surge” troops begin to arrive in Afghanistan, it might be useful to take a look at the Bush surge in Iraq.
On Tuesday, a string of bombings killed nine people in two of Iraq’s largest cities, Baghdad and Mosul.
Examiner.com posted a slide show from these attacks here.
Last week, suicide bombings in Baghdad killed 127 people and wounded more than 500. Bombings in August and October, also in Baghdad, killed another 250 people.
According to The Associated Press, in Baghdad on Tuesday, “Three parked cars packed with mines and other bombs exploded within minutes of each other around 7:30 a.m. just outside different entrances to the Green Zone, just as Iraqis were coming to the area for work.”
The blasts killed five people and wounded at least 16.
The AP report said, “Four hours later and 225 miles away, in the northwestern Iraqi city of Mosul, two more car bombs and a roadside mine killed four people. The attacks appeared to target a busy neighborhood and a church, wounding up to 40 people.”
Of course, U.S. officials are quick to point out that violence, nationwide, is at its lowest level since 2003, a statistic that Iraqis may not find very comforting. It’s probably hard for many everyday Iraqis to see how the surge has changed their lives, with at least 386 people killed in bombings since August, let alone, the countless people killed in day-to-day violence.
The good news, for the United States, I suppose, is that Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, doesn’t see the bombings and other daily violence preventing the exit of U.S. troops, who are scheduled to leave by the end of 2011. Of course, that’s good news, too, for most Iraqis.
December
10
2009
Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott said today that he is against expanding the war in Afghanistan. This afternoon he sent out a fundraising email that made his position clear.
In the email, McDermott said, “Last week the President outlined the administration’s policy about the war in Afghanistan.
“I appreciate the time he took to carefully study all of our country’s options and inform our citizens of his plan.
“But at the end of the day, he simply did not convince me that escalating our country’s involvement in the War in Afghanistan is in our national interest…
“There is support in Congress to press for a vote on funding for new troops prior to sending them.
Congressman Jim McDermott
McDermott said he couldn’t support Obama’s troop surge because our country faces no immediate threat from Afghanistan and committing more troops to combat is not in our national interest.
He said: “We should be withdrawing troops from combat, not sending more of them into a conflict that the military cannot solve. At the end of the day, we will wind up with more people, both civilian and military, killed.”
On Dec. 2, right after Obama announced his Afghan surge, McDermott issued the following statement:
“The President’s speech tonight did not convince me that his policy is worth supporting. Last week, I attended a memorial service for seven servicemen from the same striker brigade from Fort Lewis who were killed on the same day in Afghanistan. I will not vote to send another troop to Afghanistan until I’m convinced that this strategy will succeed.
“No matter how many troops we commit, the United States cannot bring about the change necessary to stabilize Afghanistan. This responsibility ultimately falls on the Afghani government and its people, and no outsider can force this change to occur.
“Not only is this war costly in human terms, but it is bleeding our ability to provide for our own people and construct economic recovery and security at home.
“The Bush administration made a fatal mistake when it led us into Iraq and away from finishing the task in Afghanistan, and we have been paying the price ever since. I fear that we are asking our troops to fix a problem of our own making that the military cannot solve alone.”
In the fundraising email today, McDermott said, “Our country’s foreign policy toward the war in Afghanistan is another in a long list of difficult issues that Republicans will use in next year’s mid-term elections. They will also use our support of Health Care Reform and the much-needed jobs and stimulus programs in a desperate attempt to take over the Congress.
“Those of us who are outspoken advocates of progressive issues will be among their prime targets. But we cannot back down on our issues. Instead, all of us need to be ready to fight them next year.”
December
10
2009
Despite mounting public protests across the United States against sending more troops to Afghanistan, there has been little reaction from Congress. Now, there seems to be some rumblings of opposition. Yesterday, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), following a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives released this statement:
“Today, I will begin circulating two privileged resolutions which will trigger debate and votes on a timely withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States makes it Congress’ responsibility to determine whether or not we go to war or stay at war. Consistent with Article 1, Section 8, the privileged resolutions will invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973. I ask for your support of these resolutions, which will be introduced in the House in January.
“Yesterday, with the US Secretary of Defense at his side, the President of Afghanistan declared that his country’s security forces will need financial and training assistance from the United States for the next 15-20 years.
“We cannot afford these wars. We cannot afford the loss of lives. We cannot afford the cost to taxpayers. We cannot afford to fail to exercise our constitutional right to end the wars.
“Please sign onto the privileged resolutions to end the wars and to bring our troops home.
Stand up for the troops. Stand up for the truth. Stand up for the Constitution and Congress’ responsibility.”
Kucinich also sent the following letter to his colleagues under the heading, Require the President to Withdraw from Afghanistan and Pakistan:
“According to ABC News, Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, in a joint press conference with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, remarked that his country’s security forces will need financial and training assistance from the United States for the next 15-20 years. This is especially disturbing since the Administration is already sliding back the timeline the President established only last week. What Mr. Karzai did not say is that would cost U.S. taxpayers an additional $2-3 trillion.
“As President Obama prepares to escalate military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we must reassert our Constitutional prerogative as it relates to war. The United States has been involved in military action both in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the inception of the Obama Administration, despite the fact that the President has never submitted a report to Congress pursuant to Section 4(a) (I) of the War Powers Resolution.
“When Congress returns in 2010, I intend to bring to the floor of the House privileged resolutions reasserting this prerogative. My bills, which would trigger a timeline for a timely withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Pakistan, invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and are intended to secure the Constitutional role of Congress, as directly elected representatives of the people, under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, to decide whether or not America enters into war, continues a war, or otherwise introduces armed forces or materiel into combat zones.
“Despite the President’s assertion that previous Congressional action gives him the authority to respond to the attacks of September 11, 2001, a careful reading of the Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) makes clear that the AUMF did not supersede ‘any requirement of the War Powers Resolution’ and therefore did not undermine Congress’ ability to revisit the constitutional question of war powers at a later date.
“I invite you to join in reasserting Congress’ Constitutional right and obligation in these matters…”
Draft copies of the Kucinich bills can be read here and here.
December
4
2009
Across the United States, there have been more than 100 demonstrations against sending more troops to Afghanistan since president Obama announced his “surge” plans. The demonstrations are in response to a national day of action called by Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, The ANSWER Coalition, National Assembly, National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance, Pledge of Resistance, Voices for Creative Non-Violence, World Can’t Wait, Code Pink and United for Peace & Justice.
And the protests are continuing. On Saturday, Seattle activists are gathering at 2 p.m. in Westlake Park at the urging of ANSWER (The Act Now to Stop War and End Racism coalition). The planned demonstration and protest is also endorsed by The World Can’t Wait, a group that began organizing in opposition to the Bush administration.
ANSWER described its opposition in a statement issued right after Obama said he was sending more troops to Afghanistan:
“The U.S. cannot ‘win’ the war in Afghanistan. It was losing the war when Barack Obama took office. In March 2009, President Obama ordered another 30,000 troops. Rather than reverse the outcome, the U.S. and NATO effort lost even more ground. Now President Obama has ordered another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan…
Bush and Cheney ordered the invasion thinking it would be easy going. They thought Iraq would be easy, too. They were going to wipe out the governments in Iran, Syria and North Korea. This colonial-type fantasy, nourished by ‘great nation’ arrogance and the acquiescence of a caste of corrupt politicians in Congress, set the stage for the current catastrophe of a war without end.
After eight years of war, more than 140 armed insurgent groups of Afghans now exist as a response to the invasion and they control large parts of the country. The people in Afghanistan perceive the occupation as a colonial-type takeover of their country. September 11 was a pretext, but there were no Afghans or Iraqis who hijacked the planes. The people of Afghanistan, like the people in Vietnam, will never accept foreign military occupation in their country.”
Meanwhile, violence in the region continues.
In Rawalpindi, Pakistan, news reports said, militants attacked a mosque near army headquarters, killing at least 36 worshippers, including six military officers, during Friday prayers. Officials said they sprayed gunfire and threw grenades before blowing themselves up.
The Associated Press said, “Violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has escalated since the army launched an offensive in mid-October against Taliban militants in the northwestern tribal area of South Waziristan near the Afghan border.”
In Afghanistan, U.S. Marines launched a major operation today,
According to The Associated Press, “Hundreds of troops from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and the Marine reconnaissance unit Task Force Raider were dropped by helicopter and MV-22 Osprey aircraft behind Taliban lines in the northern end of the Now Zad Valley of Helmand province, scene of heavy fighting last summer.”