politics | Entries tagged with asia western: iraq

'New' Iraq a Nightmare for Women, Minority Groups

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 9, 2011 (IPS) - A United Nations report on Iraq says the human rights situation there remains fragile, and huge development challenges loom as the country transitions out of a near decade-long conflict.

Torture and poor judicial practices are widespread, says the report, released Monday by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

The report claims the 2,953 civilian deaths it attributed to violence in 2010 were mostly carried out by insurgent and terrorist groups.

It stressed that minorities, women and children suffered disproportionately from these abuses.

While there have been improvements in some areas of human rights, many challenges remain and some areas were actually worse off in 2010 than previous war-torn years.

MORE

the_future_modernes

Violence against Women surges when war is done

Rosemary Gonzalez was murdered in 2009, the victim of a war that ended in 1996. One day, 17-year-old Rosemary said good-bye to her mother Betty, walked out of their small house on the outskirts of Guatemala City and was never seen alive again.
Rosemary and Betty lived together in the poor neighborhood of Barcenas, under the constant shadow of violence. Across Guatemala, nearly 5,000 women have been killed in the past decade, attacked for the simple fact of being women. The women of Barcenas know well this fear—they live at the epicenter of this crisis.

In Guatemala, generations of women have faced murderous violence, but at its core is war. Now, the same dynamic is emerging in Iraq.
( Some description of rape and murder and torture under the cut. )

la_vie_noire

Via The Angry Black Woman.

Perspective On 9/11 And The Invasions Of Iraq & Afghanistan.

Infographic: Casualties From The War On Terror, 9/11, And The Invasion of Iraq

The stats breakdown are as follows:

September 11th Victims: 0.28%

American Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq: 0.55%

Afghan Civilian Casualties: 4.39%

Iraqi Civilian Casualties: 94.78%

Also, the comments are pretty... uhmazing.

[Stats were transcribed in TABW blog.]

the_future_modernes

IRAQ, TURKEY, SYRIA

Cooperation Strategic To Protect Tigris and Euphrates

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq / BRUSSELS, March 15, 2011 (IPS) - On a dusty street in the north-eastern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya one recent day, an elderly man sold heaps of tomatoes, fruits and other fresh produce from a makeshift trolley.

But the vendor lamented that the fruits and vegetables no longer come from the once-prolific valleys of Iraq's self-governing Kurdish region, nor fertile regions further south.

Most of his goods are trucked in from Turkey and Iran, Massoud explains, handing over a bag of oranges to a visitor. "We had wars, we had Saddam, and now we have no rain," said Massoud, who did not want to share his real name with the customer.

Although the brief wet season is just beginning, much of northern Iraq has endured several years of drought, compounding water problems that stem from climate change, migration, a growing population and declining water flows in the country's most important rivers -- the Tigris and Euphrates.

Faced with a potentially catastrophic shortage of fresh water, Iraq and the other nations that share the Tigris and Euphrates, emanating in eastern Turkey, must strengthen efforts to protect the waterways, according to a new report. Such cooperation, like the rains, has been in short supply.MORE

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the_future_modernes

Here are a few links. After I've finished with my school day, I'll look for some good articles. For now:

Three older dictators bowing under the stress of freedom demands?

Former Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in grave condition in hospital

Egypt domino effect: Hosni Mubarak 'very sick'

There were reports around the time that Mubarak was being thrown out that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was sick with the stress. I don't see much of those reports anymore so maybe they were rumours...

Al Jazeera English

Live Blog - Libya Finally!

Live Blog - Bahrain

The Guardian:

Middle East protests - Live Which include updates on Iran, Iraq and Algeria plus Yemen.

The Arabist

The Arabist Blog looks interesting.

The LA Times
and they link to the fact that Jordan is still having protests too.

LIBYA: Google map marks protest, violence, deaths

Global Post

Feb 17..Have Yemen protests reached a turning point?:In biggest showing yet, thousands of anti-government protesters turn out in Sanaa

Link to stuff you have seen!

ETA: A cautionary note: Learning from past revolutions

[On Feb 20]: Morocco protests will test regime's claims to liberalism:Facebook groups are calling the country's youth on to the streets of cities including Casablanca, Marrakech, Rabat and Tangier on Sunday to demand constitutional reform and proper democracy

ETA 2 NEw Yorker says Bahraini Protests have been going on since the eighties

The Bahraini opposition—some of whose factions have been influenced by Iran, but which, in total, is by no means a proxy for Tehran—has persisted with its resistance and illegal street protests. The street battles this week are typical of what has been going on in Bahrain, without much attention, on and off since the nineteen-eighties.

Read more Bahrain’s Long Revolution

And One MORE thing: Mass protests as Egyptians mark "Victory Day" (Roundup)

Oh GOD. The last thing I SWEAR /o\ Blogpost by Saudiwoman, which has been recced to me more than once, and was linked to the Guardian page: The Arab Revolution Saudi Update Please note that Saudi Arabia is suspected to be all up in the Bahraini revolution because it fears that its Shia population would be encouraged to start demanding rights.

Saudi Arabia has a Shiite minority concentrated in its eastern oil-producing hub that also complains of discrimination. Any spread of unrest into the world’s biggest oil exporter risks pushing crude prices above the 2 1/2-year high reached this week. Authorities arrested 38 people after clashes involving Shiite pilgrims in the holy city of Medina two months ago.MORE

the_future_modernes

So recently Nicolas Kristof, New York Times columnist who has set himself up as a women's rights crusader, was tackled on the fact that he hinged his stories on whiote poeple who were helping the natives of the various brown citizen majority countries that he reports from: Texas in Africa has the story in white man's burden

Back in May, @viewfromthecave tweeted that The Kristof was taking questions from readers to be answered via YouTube. This is the question I asked:

Your columns about Africa almost always feature black Africans as victims, and white foreigners as their saviors.

There was more to it than that, but I can't find the original post. At any rate, the gist of the question was, "Why not feature more of the work that Africans are doing to solve their countries' problems?"

And, lo and behold, Kristof answered. NYT Picker thankfully has the transcript for those of us on dial-up connections:
This is a really important issue for a journalist. And it's one I've thought a lot about.

I should, first of all, from my defensive crouch, say that I think you're a little bit exaggerating the way I have reported. Indeed, recently, for example, among the Africans who I have emphasized, the people who are doing fantastic work are the extraordinary Dr. Dennis Mukwege in the Congo, Edna Adan in Somaliland, Valentino Deng in Sudan, Manute Bol in Sudan, and there are a lot of others.

But I do take your point. That very often I do go to developing countries where local people are doing extraordinary work, and instead I tend to focus on some foreigner, often some American, who’s doing something there.

And let me tell you why I do that. The problem that I face -- my challenge as a writer -- in trying to get readers to care about something like Eastern Congo, is that frankly, the moment a reader sees that I'm writing about Central Africa, for an awful lot of them, that's the moment to turn the page. It's very hard to get people to care about distant crises like that.

One way of getting people to read at least a few grafs in is to have some kind of a foreign protagonist, some American who they can identify with as a bridge character.

And so if this is a way I can get people to care about foreign countries, to read about them, ideally, to get a little bit more involved, then I plead guilty.

As NYT Picker aptly notes, the persons to whom Kristof refers have either not been mentioned in his print columns or are typically only mentioned briefly.Texas in Africa proceeds to fisk this white liberal racist BS as it deserves

I am extremely pissed at this BS meself, so have a linkspam of women in their own countries, being all awesome without some white saviours anywhere near them.

INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS Women Join Forces for Political Equality

PORT-LOUIS , Jul 14, 2010 (IPS) - "Instead of moaning all the time, why don’t you create your own (political) party?" some men asked Brigitte Rabemanantsoa Rasamoelina, a female politician from Madagascar. She accepted the challenge and in February formed Ampela Mano Politika, a political party which started with only 22 female members and now has over 5,000 female members ... and 10 men.

With female political representation standing at only 3.75 percent in Madagascar, a women’s lot is very precarious, says Rasamoelina.

And so too is the situation for many women in most of the Indian Ocean Islands. Female political representation is a mere three percent in Comoros, 18 percent in Mauritius and 23.5 percent in the Seychelles.

It is one of the reasons why Rasamoelina and 30 other women from the Indian Ocean Islands, gathered recently in Mauritius to identify ways to attain parity among men and women in politics in an event organised by the Indian Ocean Commission and Women in Politics (WIP).MORE

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the_future_modernes

Depending on a Global Workplace: Interview with American activist Eric Nicholson

Can you please contextualize the work you do, in what has become a global system of agriculture?
We are now importing the majority of the food we eat. The overwhelming majority of workers who harvest the food we eat in the United States are not from this country. And many if not most of the workers employed in the fields in the United States are displaced farmers from their own countries (mostly Mexico but not exclusively.) So we’re seeing that many of the same pressures and challenges that are facing farmers in the US are the very same ones that are displacing small farmers in the global South and resulting in them coming in search of employment to the United States, Canada, Australia, and European Union. At the same time, farmers and sometimes their spouses in the US are looking for second jobs in more urban settings.

When Vietnam entered the global market with coffee we saw an unprecedented exodus of coffee farmers out of eastern Mexico. When NAFTA was signed, mass exodus of corn farmers – so we see a direct correlation between these international trade policies and agricultural practices and kind of the global crisis of agriculture that we’re facing.

Within that context you look at agriculture in the United States and pretty much anyone born in this country has no aspirations to work in the fields. And I think if we’re honest with ourselves, the reason is because we all know the conditions are not good, the pay is pretty bad, and there’s really no benefits. As a result we have depended on immigrant workers to come up and do the work that we haven’t wanted to do. And so if you look at the history of the United Farm Workers, we’ve had workers literally from around the world as members – from Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Yemen, African Americans and of course, Mexicans, Central Americans, and the internationalization of the work-force continues. We now have workers working under contract from Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, and it’s very much become a global workforce that is harvesting the food we eat.MORE

One Year since the Bagua Massacre: New Actors Facing a State in Crisis – by Raúl Zibechi

“The rainforest is not for sale”, was one of the most-repeated choruses in the marches across Peru commemorating the first anniversary of the Bagua massacre. 34 people died and 200 were wounded when Alan García’s government decided to clear out the Awajun people who were blocking roads in the Amazon in protest of the indiscriminate exploitation of the forest. Thousands of Awajun had been demonstrating for two months and were about to abandon the so-called Curva del Diablo, but before they had a chance to do so they were attacked by rifles on land and by air.

Ten indigenous people were killed at the Curva del Diablo. They later retaliated, causing the death of 23 police officers. The location of one of the protestors, Major Felipe Bazán Caballero, remains unknown. All signs indicate that the minister of the interior, Mercedes Cabanillas, gave the order to open fire. A year later, no one has been found guilty of the tragedy. Shortly after the repression, four of the legislative decrees that had provoked the demonstrations were revoked and, on May 19, parliament approved the Consultation Law, which dictates that locals must be consulted before any projects to exploit community resources are approved. These are two substantial victories for the movement.

But, in addition to their legal triumphs, the indigenous people who make up the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), which brings together around 1,500 communities, obtained the recognition of Peruvian society as new and decisive actors in national political life. This is a symbolic act. On June 5, the father of the missing Major Felipe Bazán, travelled to the Curva del Diablo, near Bagua and the Ecuadorian border, one thousand kilometers northeast of Lima, to embrace indigenous people as they participated in a memorial act, baptizing the site as the “Curva de la Esperanza”.
MORE

Time to Value Women's Unpaid Work

SANTIAGO - The time has come for Latin American countries to put an economic value on the work that women do as they take care of households, children and the elderly, says ECLAC, the United Nations regional economic agency.
MORE

Haitian peasants march against Monsanto Company for Food and Seed Sovereignty- By La Via Campesina

On June 4th about ten thousand Haitian peasants marched to protest U.S.-based Monsanto Company’s ‘deadly gift’ of seed to the government of Haiti. The seven-kilometer march from Papaye to Hinche—in a rural area on the central plateau—was organized by several Haitian farmers’ organizations that are proposing a development model based on food and seed sovereignty instead of industrial agriculture. Slogans for the march included “long live native maize seed” and “Monsanto’s GMO & hybrid seed violates peasant agriculture.”MORE

CZECH REPUBLIC: Women Resist All-Male Cabinet

PRAGUE, Jul 7, 2010 (IPS) - Women’s rights campaigners say the Czech Republic’s new government has effectively told women they have no relevance to the country’s future after the new cabinet was formed – without a single female minister.

Despite a record number of women elected to parliament in elections in May and pre-election pledges by party leaders that they wanted more women in politics, women’s rights activists said they had been given a "slap in the face" after the make-up of the new cabinet was finally agreed last week. MORE

'Save Us From These Bankers, Fast'

BRUSSELS, Jul 5, 2010 (IPS) - Besieged by bankers opposed to regulation of their sector, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have taken an unusual step. A cross-party alliance has called for an international campaigning organisation to concentrate on remedying the flaws of the financial services industry with the same tenacity that Amnesty International focuses on victims of torture and Greenpeace on toxic chemicals and whales.

The call -- signed by 70 of the Parliament's 736 elected members -- was prompted by concerns over how the financial lobby had marshalled its ample resources over the past few years in a bid to dilute legislation drafted in response to the global economic crisis. According to the MEPs, the pressure they have been placed under by the financial industry is so intense that it represents a threat to democracy, especially as public interest groups have generally lacked the means or the expertise to mount a robust counter- offensive to the banks' efforts
MORE

I could get behind this 110%!

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the_future_modernes

Gods and Monsters

( Greek gods analogy to explain American military's murder of civilians )

Ceremonial Evisceration

Both incidents elicited shock and anger from critics of American war policies. And both incidents are shocking. Probably the most shocking aspect of them, however, is just how humdrum they actually are, even if the public release of video of such events isn't. Start with one detail in those Afghan murders, reported in most accounts but little emphasized: what the Americans descended on was a traditional family ceremony. More than 25 guests had gathered for the naming of a newborn child.
In fact, over these last nine-plus years, Afghan (and Iraqi) ceremonies of all sorts have regularly been blasted away. Keeping a partial tally of wedding parties eradicated by American air power at TomDispatch.com, I had counted [13] five such "incidents" between December 2001 and July 2008. (A sixth in July 2002 [14] in which possibly 40 Afghan wedding celebrants died and many more were wounded has since come to my attention, as has a seventh [15] in August 2008.) Nor have other kinds of rites where significant numbers of Afghans gather been immune from attack, including funerals [16], and now, naming ceremonies. And keep in mind that these are only the reported incidents in a rural land where much undoubtedly goes unreported.

Similarly, General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, recently expressed surprise at a tally since last summer of at least 30 Afghans killed and 80 wounded at checkpoints when US soldiers opened fire [17] on cars. He said [18]: "We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." Or consider 36-year-old Mohammed Yonus, a popular imam of a mosque on the outskirts of Kabul, who was killed in his car [19] this January by fire from a passing NATO convoy, which considered his vehicle "threatening." His seven-year-old son was in the back seat.

[20]Or while on the subject of Reuters employees, recall [21] reporter Mazen Tomeizi, a Palestinian producer for the al-Arabiya satellite network of Dubai, who was killed on Haifa Street in central Baghdad in September 2004 by a US helicopter attack. He was on camera at the time and his blood spattered the lens. Seif Fouad, a Reuters cameraman, was wounded in the same incident, while a number of bystanders, including a girl, were killed. Or remember the 17 Iraqi civilians infamously murdered [22] when Blackwater employees in a convoy began firing in Nissour Square in Baghdad on September 16, 2007. Or the missiles regularly shot from US helicopters and unmanned aerial drones into the heavily populated Shiite slum of Sadr City back in 2007-08. Or the Iraqis regularly killed at checkpoints [23] in the years since the invasion of 2003. Or, for that matter, the first moments of that invasion on March 20, 2003, when, according to [24] Human Rights Watch, "dozens" of ordinary Iraqi civilians were killed by the 50 aerial "decapitation strikes" the Bush administration launched against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the Iraqi leadership, missing every one [25] of them.

( There's so much that it makes no sense to bold. )

Its a convincing analogy I must say, and dear GOD I had NO idea that so many people had been killed like this. I am feeling extremely sick at the moment and the fact that this is what my tax dollars are paying for, and all that the news is reporting on is PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ARE GETTING GOOD WAGES OMG OMG ALERT ALERT HOW DARE THEY NOT TAKE STARVATION WAGES OUR TAX DOLLARS!!!!!! But then as that asshole that Diane Sawyer put on to justify the Wikileaks video said, its just the Fog of War. eh? ANd aren't we Americans lucky that we are the ones creating that Fog from afar, instead of living smackdab in teh middle of it.

the_future_modernes

Collateral Murder Uncut Version

April 03, 2010 — Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths ocurred. Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting documents on April 5th 2010 on http://collateralmurder.com

Global Vocies:Kyrgyzstan: The “Archived” Revolution

The roots of the present revolution are various: South vs. North clash (Bakiev is from the South, the rebels are from the North), corruption and suppressive government (in recent years Kyrgyz people witnessed all forms of oppression from closings of the newspapers [ENG] to independent journalists' murders [EN]), Russia's Great Game interest, Ortega-y-Gasset'ian “revolt of the masses” etc). Whatever the real reasons of the Kyrgyz revolution of 2010 are it is important to note that it was overwhelmingly immediate, furious, bloody and… well-documented.

The role of the new media changed slightly this time compared to other dramatic events (like the protests in Moldova or Iran). Blogs and Twitter didn't serve as serious means of public mobilization since the Internet penetration rate is relatively small in Kyrgyzstan ( just 15 percent in 2009). However, new media were agile enough to cover all the main events giving detailed footage of initial protests in Talas, rampage in Bishkek and looting that followed. At the same time, new media were efficiently used by the opposition attracting the attention of international community and shifting public opinion to the side of the protesters. The opposition leader Roza Otunbaeva (@otunbaeva), for instance, registered her account as soon as she became the head of the provisional government. On the other day, son of president Bakiev, Maxim opened a LiveJournal account to express the pro-government point of view.

As Gregory Asmolov concluded [RUS], it was not “journalists 2.0″ who were the most efficient in covering Kyrgyz events but the “editors 2.0″. Bloggers who both knew the region and were outside the country to see the big picture and collected the photographs, videos and Twitter confessions. Two most informed bloggers in this situation were people outside the country: US-based Yelena Skochilo (a.k.a. LJ user morrire) and Kazakhstan-based Vyacheslav Firsov (a.k.a. lord_fame). They managed to assemble the most complete collections of photos, videos and timelines

Trinidad & Tobago: Election Fever

With one action, the prorogation of Parliament, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister thrust the country into election mode. (The constitution of the twin island republic states that from the moment Parliament is dissolved, a general election must be held in no fewer than 35 days and no more than 90). As the news broke, the blogosphere was rife with speculation that the move was made to pre-empt a no-confidence motion against Manning that had been scheduled for debate today in the House of Representatives, as well as to avoid the fallout over the report of the Uff Commission of Enquiry into the Construction Sector, which was critical of the modus operandi of the state-owned Urban Development Corporation of T&T (UDeCOTT) - which is not to say that bloggers are not asking other critical questions, some even as basic as “When?

Trinidad and Tobago girls, politics, sports, technology, carnival, and lifestyle, however, starts with the “Why?”:

Why now? Why would the Prime Minister risk losing Government with not even 3 years of his five-year term behind him?
Why? Why when the country can still call on record revenue and a commanding majority in Parliament?

The analysts are pinning it on the no-confidence motion; or Calder Hart. But as Chris Rock asked when speaking on the Columbine shootings, “Whatever happened to crazy?”
It's quite possible Manning is just a nut. A lunatic.

MORE

RIGHTS-US: Love Without Borders – Or Papers

Cuba:Old Havana reaches out to the hearing impaired

Peru: Ongoing Mining Strike

Palestinian Christians barred from Jerusalem for Easter

Our Bodies are shaking now: Rape follows Earthquake in Haiti

Bolivia: Polarization persists:Regional elections confirm political split between the western highlands and eastern lowlands

Guatemala: Despite change to Penal Code, poor, indigenous Guatemalans lack resources to bring discrimination cases to trial.

South Korea insists it atomic program is for energy only

la_vie_noire

Iraq video sets off renewed protests

Journalist advocacy groups called for the reopening of an investigation into the 2007 killing of a Reuters photographer and his driver after the WikiLeaks website released classified video footage on Monday of a 2007 helicopter attack in Baghdad which killed 12 people.

"This footage is deeply disturbing," said Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

"The video also confirms our long-held view that a thorough and transparent investigation into this incident is urgently needed," Simon added.

The video shows the camera feed from an Apache helicopter

gunship as it performs an air strike on a group of men milling around an empty Baghdad street.

The video also shows the helicopter firing on a van that arrived at the scene and was attempting to evacuate the only visible survivor of the first attack. The attack wounded two children who were inside the vehicle. Among those killed were Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.

[...] But after US ground forces arrive and find wounded children in the van the helicopter attacked, the helicopter pilots blame the Iraqis.

"Well it's their fault for bringing kids into a battle," says one.

"That's right," says another.

"I know that two children were hurt, and we did everything we could to help them. I don't know how the children got hurt," Major Brent Cummings, the executive officer of the battalion who launched the attack, told the Washington Post after the incident.

Priceless. That's all I can say.

Killings of Iraqi journalists: US says they were not war crimes

Oh. "The problems of journalism" I see. If this were the case of American civilians killed mindlessly by Iraqi soldiers...

U.S. Military Releases Redacted Records on 2007 Apache Attack, Questions Linger

The conclusions? According to an investigation by the 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, the aircrew “accurately assessed that the criteria to find and terminate the threat to friendly forces were met in accordance with the law of armed conflict and rules of engagement.” The report concluded that the attack helicopters positively identified the threat, established hostile intent, conducted appropriate collateral damage assessment and received clearance to fire.

What’s more, the military indirectly blamed the reporters for being in the company of “armed insurgents” and making no effort to identify themselves as journalists. An investigating officer with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 2nd Infantry Division, concluded that “the cameramen made no effort to visibly display their status as press or media representatives” and added that “their familiar behavior with, and close proximity to, the armed insurgents and their furtive attempts to photograph the Coalition Ground Forces made them appear as hostile combatants to the Apaches that engaged them.” A long telephoto lens, the officer says, could have been mistaken for a rocket-propelled grenade.

It’s also clear, however, that the military quickly figured out that they had inadvertently killed two Reuters employees, and that two children had been seriously wounded in the incident. During “sensitive site exploitation,” members of the ground unit recovered cameras and media cards from the scene, and were able to identify pictures shot by a Reuters employee at a coalition news conference.

the_future_modernes

Listening Post / Listening Post - Yemen news coverage

Media coverage of Yemen and terrorism, Macau ten years since the handover of Macau to China.

Listening Post / Listening Post - Copenhagen Climate Summit / Iranian blogosphere

Media coverage of the Copenhagen climate summit and news seeping out of Iran through its blogosphere

Listening Post / Listening Post - Italian media / Egyptian blogosphere

Silvio Berlusconi, Rupert Murdoch and the media in Italy and an extended interview with renowned blogger Wael Abbas on the Egyptian blogosphere

the_future_modernes

Shakesville explains:

In a new Iranian resistance movement, men are posting pictures of themselves wearing women's head scarves as a political statement in support of Majid Tavakoli, who, days after his arrest for anti-government protesting, was pictured in published news photos wearing a chador, the "black head-to-toe garment worn by Iranian women." The photo was also juxtaposed with a decades-old image of the first president of Iran in its post-revolutionary iteration, Abolhassan Banisadr, who was accused of wearing a women's head scarf to try to evade arrest. Tavakoli has no links to Banisadr, with the exception of their both having been accused of dressing as women to escape authorities (and both of the images being generally regarded as faked propaganda).

The story from CNN:
(CNN) -- A new anti-government movement has sprung up among protesters in Iran -- and now among their supporters in other countries -- with men posting pictures of themselves on the Internet wearing women's head scarves as a political statement.

The movement began in recent days as an online backlash after the arrest of one anti-government protester, Majid Tavakoli. The day after his arrest, an Iranian news agency published a picture of Tavakoli dressed in a chador, a black head-to-toe garment worn by Iranian women.

The government claimed the man had been caught wearing the garment in an attempt to hide himself and avoid arrest, but opposition bloggers insisted that the photo published by the semi-official Fars news agency had been manipulated.

...

A blog that focuses on religion and politics in the Muslim world -- Spittoon.org -- interpreted the juxtaposition as being an attempt by the authorities "to humiliate [Tavakoli, using] an old practice by the government to prove to the public that the opposition leaders are 'less than men,' lacking courage and bravery."

One commentator on that site wrote, "It is ironic how [the] head scarf, which was traditionally seen as a symbol of women's oppression ... is now being used by men to show membership in a liberation movement."

A Facebook page created Friday night for Tavakoli exhorts supporters to "condemn the state media's behavior towards Majid Tavakoli," and "act in solidarity ... to affirm his status as a known symbol of integrity."

The page adds that the invitation to wear a head covering is "without connotations to hijab as a religious practice," and that the group's leaders are "against any kind of forced or imposed hijab."

Hijab refers to religiously sanctioned dress for men and women in Islam.

Thus the new protest also speaks to the societal aspect of Iranian women being forced to accept a dress code, according to Dabashi.

...

"We Iranian men are late doing this," Dabashi said. "If we did this when rusari was forced on those among our sisters who did not wish to wear it 30 years ago, we would have perhaps not been here today."MORE

the_future_modernes

xposted

Iran and Israel hold first talks since 1979

The Israeli press is reporting that around a fortnight ago Iran and Israel held direct talks in Cairo. They discussed the idea of a nuclear free Middle East.
Israel indicated that in principle, once comprehensive peace is established, it would be ready to discuss proposals for a nuclear free Middle East. Iran assured Israel that it does not seek to endanger Israel.

This seems to be the first time that the State of Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran have held direct talks. The reports come hot on the heel of other reports regarding Iran's willingness to sign a draft agreement proposed by the IAEA, which affords international recognition of Iran's rights to enrich uranium under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and at the same time eases concerns about Iran's potential ability to produce a nuclear bomb.
This is a short diary covering this breaking story.MORE

the_future_modernes

US ammunition blamed for Iraqi cancer hike - 12 Oct 09

Doctors in Iraq are recording a shocking rise in the number of cancer victims south of Baghdad. Sufferers in the province of Babil have risen by almost tenfold in just three years.

Locals blame depleted uranium from US military equipment used in the 2003 invasion. But the link has been difficult to prove, prompting them to demand an investigation.

In this part of Iraq 500 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2004. That figure rose to almost 1,000 two years later.

In 2008, the number of cases increased sevenfold to 7,000 diagnoses. This year, there have so far been more than 9,000 new cases ... and the number is rising.

Al Jazeera's Mosab Jasim reports

the_future_modernes

Juan Cole:Top Things you Think You Know about Iran that are not True

But on this occasion, I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some things that people tend to think they know about Iran, but for which the evidence is shaky.

Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US

Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war in modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.

Reality: Iran's military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.

Belief: Iran has threatened to attack Israel militarily and to "wipe it off the map."

Reality: No Iranian leader in the executive has threatened an aggressive act of war on Israel, since this would contradict the doctrine of 'no first strike' to which the country has adhered. The Iranian president has explicitly said that Iran is not a threat to any country, including Israel.

Belief: But didn't President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten to 'wipe Israel off the map?'

Reality: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that "this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" (in rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Qods bayad as safheh-e ruzgar mahv shavad). This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all.MORE

Iran: More accomplished in one day of negotiations than in 8 years of threats

Here are two stories from the last 24 hours which provide an interesting and glaring contrast:
McClatchy, reporting on yesterday's meeting with Iran in Geneva:
Iran also pledged that within weeks it would allow the inspection of a previously covert uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom, and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, announced that he'd head to Tehran to work out the details.

Eli Lake, The Washington Times, this morning:
President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.
The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.
Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs.

In addition to agreeing to allow full inspections of its Qom facility, Iran yesterday also did this:
Iran agreed in principle Thursday to ship most of its current stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be refined for exclusively peaceful uses, in what Western diplomats called a significant, but interim, measure to ease concerns over its nuclear program. . . .
Under the tentative uranium deal, Iran would ship what a U.S. official said was "most" of its approximately 3,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be further refined, to 19.75 percent purity. That is much less than the purity needed to fuel a nuclear bomb.
French technicians then would fabricate it into fuel rods and return it to Tehran to power a nuclear research reactor that's used to make isotopes for nuclear medicine.

Steve Hynd explains why Iran's willingness to agree to this process was both so surprising and so significant. MORE<./a>

Roll Out The Aluminum Tubes

In the days after the successful talks between Western powers and Iran, which yielded more in one day than eight years of threats by the Cheney Administration, those who profit off of belligerence and confrontation with the world had clearly circled the wagons and planted their stories in the nation's newspapers. If people got the idea that Iran was moving toward cooperation, why, what would the foreign policy "establishment" that thrives off of conflict and military deployment do? Where would the next enemy be found? It's very bad for business.

So out came the links. Helene Cooper typed up the fears of anonymous officials wondering if the agreements in the first round of talks, including a deal where Iran would ship its enriched uranium to Russia to ensure that it would be used for peaceful purposes, were just a tactic by the Iranians to "buy time." Practically the same article popped up in the LA Times, as "experts and government officials" questioned whether the timeline for IAEA inspectors to visit the recently revealed facility at Qom represented another stall tactic. Amid this suspicion, neocon emeritus Elliott Abrams surmised that Iranians would not oppose a military attack on their own country, because there's nothing dissidents enjoy more than bombs raining on their heads (the reformers don't want sanctions either, it will hurt ordinary Iranians rather than the ruling regime).MORE

the_future_modernes

Human Rights in Afghanistan, Can the Election Make a Difference? and an Underground Railroad for Iraqi Women

The official line coming out of last week's election in Afghanistan was that it was a democratic 'success'. Was it? We talk to independent journalist Anand Gopal and Human Rights Watch researcher Rachel Reid. But how realistic is the prospect of change regardless of the outcome of the Afghan vote? Afghan journalist Syed Abdul Rahim, and Women for Afghan Women Board member Esther Hyneman join J Alexander Thier from the Rule of Law Center of Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace and Sonali Kolhatkar, co-director of the Afghan Women’s Mission and co-author of the book, “Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence.
Then, while President Obama's declared an end date for Americans in the Iraq war, will it ever be that simple for Iraqis? We talk to Yanar Mohammed, President of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraqand Yifat Susskind, communications director at MADRE who are helping women survive in the mess that is today's Iraq.
And another installment of Brave New Film's brilliant series, Rethink Afghanistan -this time the focus is on security. Also, thanks to InCounter Productions for video in tonight's show.

the_future_modernes

Keith Olbermann: Blackwater - Black Illegal Deeds? 09/05/2009 Part 1

Keith Olbermann: Blackwater - Murder, Inc. 08/05/2009 Part 2

Full Article here

Meantime: Hillary Clinton demands accountability for war crimes...in Kenya

( Read more... )

Quite. The above, of course, is not the only thing that Secretary Clinton has been ignoring:

More detainee victories and what a majority of Congress tried to do

( Read more... )

Do as we say, not as we do.

shikoneko

( The 86-3 vote demonstrated widespread support for increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan. )The Senate added an amendment to its bill aimed at blocking the lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union that seeks the release of photos showing U.S. military personnel abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The provision would exempt the photos from the Freedom of Information Act.
Lawmakers, echoing concerns voiced by Obama, said release of the photos would only inflame world opinion and endanger troops’ lives.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, had planned an amendment yesterday designed to force Chrysler to give its dealerships more time to shut down. She dropped her effort after winning assurances in a letter from Chrysler Vice Chairman and President James Press that the dealerships would receive “fair and equitable value for virtually all of their outstanding vehicle and parts inventory.”

Guantanamo Bay
Earlier this week, the Senate cut from the bill an Obama request for $80 million to begin shutting down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Democrats joined Republicans, who had been pressing the case for weeks, in saying the White House hadn’t adequately explained what it intends to do with the 240 suspected terrorists held at the center.
Obama reiterated yesterday his commitment to close the prison. In a speech in Washington, he also said some of the detainees would be tried in federal courts and likely end up in U.S. prisons, which he said are secure enough to assure public safety. He said he would develop legal procedures to deal with prisoners who can’t be tried yet are too dangerous to release.
The bill would fund Obama’s plans announced earlier this year to send the additional troops to Afghanistan. His plan will bring the total number of troops there to 68,000 by year’s end.
It would also provide various types of economic and development aid to the nation, including $10 million to train Afghan women to become judges, prosecutors and police officers charged with investigating crimes there against women. Afghan authorities are investigating three suspected poison gas attacks on schoolgirls by Taliban militants who oppose female education.
“No female victim of violence will ever come forward if she believes she has no system in place or resources to help her,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat.

Other Spending
Other provisions would pay for pandemic flu programs, anti- piracy efforts at the Navy, and the Essential Air Service, which subsidizes flights to small towns. The bill would also provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with an additional $500,000 to cover expenses associated with confirmation hearings to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
Obama has called the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan the toughest of his presidency. Although the House’s debate on its version of the war-spending bill included criticism of his policies in the region, few senators addressed the issue. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin was the only Democrat to oppose the war bill. Senators Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, and Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders also voted “no.”
“While the president clearly understands that the greatest security threat to our nation resides in Pakistan, I’m concerned about his strategy regarding Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Feingold said in a statement. “Sending 21,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan could actually push Taliban and other fighters across the border and end up further destabilizing Pakistan.”
( The 86-3 vote demonstrated widespread support for increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan. )
Source [s]

the_future_modernes

A serious debate about torture has been rocking the United States political scene. The options seem to be: don't prosecute, have a truth commission or prosecute to teh fullest extent of the law. Personally I believe that the US has an obligation to follow its own treaties and constitution and prosecute every single soul, from Pres Bush downwards. Has anyone been following this debate? What do you think?

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Discussion of All Things Political

Entries tagged with asia western: iraq

Sigh

War and Women

War on Terror

Water woes, feeding kids through tech and healthcare by women

so as we all know, parts of north africa and western asia are exploding

Women in politics and the economy around the world.

Good morning politics members, and here is the latest news

It's just collateral damage though, aint it?

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a selection from the listening post

On our heads, Iranian government!!!!

Hope? Please????????

US War Crimes?

Propoganda and Iran

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Blackwater...neo Christian Crusaders

Senate Approves $91.3 Billion War Spending Bill

Torture.

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