SIRATYST (Stuff I Read and Thought You Should Too) -- “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” (Calgacus, as quoted by Tacitus, Agricola 30-31)"
Saturday, February 29, 2020
On Hanging from the Blades of a Bulldozer: Al-Naem is Every Palestinian - by Ramzy Baroud
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On Hanging from the Blades of a Bulldozer: Al-Naem is Every Palestinian - Palestine Chronicle:
EXCERPT:
Why should Palestinians take their punishment and accept their perpetual humiliation, besiegement, and victimhood as if they are subhumans incapable of engaging with the most basic human instincts, that of self-defense, sacrifice, and self-preservation?
Naem must have joined the Great March of Return at some point, which, at its peak, was the largest collective non-violent mobilization anywhere in the world.
Tens of thousands of besieged Gazans took part in that inspiring spectacle, starting on March 30, 2018, where they have gathered every single week facing Israeli snipers with nothing but their bare chests and resounding chants.
Yet over 300 of these protesters were killed in the first year alone. Among the thousands who were injured, hundreds of lost limbs, becoming physically disabled for life.
While Gazans continue to reel under the horrific impacts of the Israeli siege, one can only imagine the kind of inadequate medical attention these wounded men, women and children have received.
The fact is,
Naem is Gaza. He is every Palestinian man, woman, and child in that tragic place. He is also every Palestinian man, woman, and child standing at an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, hoping to be granted entry to their jobs, schools,
hospitals or back home. Naem is every prisoner held unlawfully in
Israeli prisons, tortured and humiliated as a punishment for demanding
the most basic rights for his people.
EXCERPT:
Why should Palestinians take their punishment and accept their perpetual humiliation, besiegement, and victimhood as if they are subhumans incapable of engaging with the most basic human instincts, that of self-defense, sacrifice, and self-preservation?
Naem must have joined the Great March of Return at some point, which, at its peak, was the largest collective non-violent mobilization anywhere in the world.
Tens of thousands of besieged Gazans took part in that inspiring spectacle, starting on March 30, 2018, where they have gathered every single week facing Israeli snipers with nothing but their bare chests and resounding chants.
Yet over 300 of these protesters were killed in the first year alone. Among the thousands who were injured, hundreds of lost limbs, becoming physically disabled for life.
While Gazans continue to reel under the horrific impacts of the Israeli siege, one can only imagine the kind of inadequate medical attention these wounded men, women and children have received.
The fact is,
Naem is Gaza. He is every Palestinian man, woman, and child in that tragic place. He is also every Palestinian man, woman, and child standing at an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, hoping to be granted entry to their jobs, schools,
hospitals or back home. Naem is every prisoner held unlawfully in
Israeli prisons, tortured and humiliated as a punishment for demanding
the most basic rights for his people.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
‘Same Web of Corruption’: Pro-Assange Protesters Rally Outside Jail Holding Manning, Hammond - Sputnik International
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‘Same Web of Corruption’: Pro-Assange Protesters Rally Outside Jail Holding Manning, Hammond - Sputnik International:
Activists protested outside the Virginia jail holding whistleblower Chelsea Manning on Wednesday, as the judge in the extradition hearing for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange in London rejected pleas to intervene in Assange’s treatment in Belmarsh Prison.
Activists protested outside the Virginia jail holding whistleblower Chelsea Manning on Wednesday, as the judge in the extradition hearing for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange in London rejected pleas to intervene in Assange’s treatment in Belmarsh Prison.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
UK minister who approved Trump’s request to extradite Assange spoke at secretive US conferences with people calling for him to be “neutralized” - New Cold War: News and Analysis of the Multipolar World
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UK minister who approved Trump’s request to extradite Assange spoke at secretive US conferences with people calling for him to be “neutralized” - New Cold War: News and Analysis of the Multipolar World:
EXCERPT:
The AEI has access to the highest levels of the US intelligence community. Guests at the events Javid attended included two former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and two sitting directors of the National Security Agency (NSA). In 2018, President Trump’s then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster spoke alongside Javid. Any discussions between the British minister and the intelligence chiefs have remained secret.
The CIA made clear that it is “working to take down” WikiLeaks after the latter published the largest-ever leak of classified CIA material in 2017. It was recently revealed that the CIA was provided with audio and video of Julian Assange’s private meetings, including privileged conversations with lawyers, in the Ecuadorian embassy by a Spanish security company. The NSA has also been extensively exposed by WikiLeaks.
EXCERPT:
The AEI has access to the highest levels of the US intelligence community. Guests at the events Javid attended included two former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and two sitting directors of the National Security Agency (NSA). In 2018, President Trump’s then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster spoke alongside Javid. Any discussions between the British minister and the intelligence chiefs have remained secret.
The CIA made clear that it is “working to take down” WikiLeaks after the latter published the largest-ever leak of classified CIA material in 2017. It was recently revealed that the CIA was provided with audio and video of Julian Assange’s private meetings, including privileged conversations with lawyers, in the Ecuadorian embassy by a Spanish security company. The NSA has also been extensively exposed by WikiLeaks.
Monday, February 24, 2020
Sunday, February 23, 2020
WE ARE HERE TODAY FOR JULIAN ASSANGE.-- Roger Waters in London at Stop the Extradition of Julian Assange Event
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via Craig Murray's blog
WE ARE HERE TODAY FOR JULIAN ASSANGE.
But I have four names on this piece of paper.
The First and last of course is Julian Assange, A Journalist, a courageous shiner of light into the dark places from which the powers that be would dearly like to have us turn away.
Julian Assange. A name to be carved with pride intoany monument to human progress.
Julian is why we are here today, but this is no parochial protest. We are today part of a global movement, a global movement that might be the beginning of the global enlightenment that this fragile planet so desperately needs.
Ok. Second Name. Sent to me by my friend VJ Prashad.
Second name is Aamir Aziz, Aamir is a young poet and activist in Delhi involved in the fight against Modi and his rascist Citizenship law.
Everything Will Be Remembered
Kill us, we will become ghosts and write
of your killings, with all the evidence.
You write jokes in court;
We will write ‘justice’ on the walls.
We will speak so loudly that even the deaf will hear.
We will write so clearly that even the blind will read.
You write ‘injustice’ on the earth;
We will write ‘revolution’ in the sky.
Everything will be remembered;
Everything recorded
This out pouring of the human spirit from India is taking place in a time of revolt, when the fetters of propriety are set aside.
As we meet here in London, across the Atlantic in Argentina thousands of women are taking to the streets to demand the legalization of abortion from President Fernandez.
It’s not just Argentina. This last year we have seen major protests erupt across the whole world against neoliberal/fascist regimes. In Chile, The Lebanon, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti,France and now, of course also in Bolivia fighting the new US imposed military dictatorship there.
When will we see the name of England appended to that noble list? I sense the scratching of heads in drawing rooms across the home counties, “What’s he talking about, the man’s a bloody pinkopervert, bloody anti semite, what’s he talking about? We don’t live in a dictatorship, this is a free country, a democracy, with all the finest traditions of fair play, pah!”
Well, I’ve got news for you Disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells. We’d like to think this is a free country, but are we really free? Why, when Julian Assange is brought to the dock in the tiny magistrates court inside Belmarsh prison are so many seats occupied by anonymous American suits, whispering instructions into the attentive ear of the prosecution’s lead barrister, James Lewis QC?
Why?
Because we don’t live in a free country, we live in a glorified dog kennel and we bark and/or wag our tails at the bidding of our lords and masters across the pond.
I stand here today, in front of the Mother of Parliaments, and there she stands blushing in all her embarrassment. And just upstream from here is Runnemede, where in 1215, we, the English, laid out the rudiments of common law. Magna Carta, ratified in 1297 article 29 of whichgave us Habeus Corpus. Or did it? It stated:
“The body of a free man is not to be arrested, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way ruined, nor is the king to go against him or send forcibly against him, except by judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
Sadly, Article 29 is not enforceable in modern law. Magna Carta is only an idea, and in this propaganda driven modern world, it provides no check in principle to Parliament legislating against the rights of citizens.
We do however have an extradition treaty with the USA and in the first paragraph of article 4 of that treaty it states. “Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense.” Julian Assange has committed no crime but he has committed a political act. He has spoken truth to power. He has angered some of our masters in Washington by telling the truth and in retribution for the act of telling the truth they want his blood.
Yesterday in front of Battersea Power Station I did a TV interview for SKY news to promote this event, there was no visual link, so my only contact with the lady asking me questions was via an ear bud on a curly wire. I learned something about telling truth in the phrasing of her questions to me. She came at me like some crazed Don Quixote every question laced, thick with the smears and innuendo and the false accusations with which the powers that be have been trying to blacken Julian Assange’s name. She rattled off the tired, but well prepared narrative, and then interrupted constantly when I made reply. I don’t know who she is, she may mean well. If she does, my advice would be to stop drinking the Kool-aid, and if she actually gives a fig for her chosen profession get her sorry ass down here and join us.
So England. I call upon our prime minister,Boris Johnson, to declare his colours, does he support the spirit of Magna Carta? Does he believe in, democracy, freedom, fair play, free speech, and especially the freedom of the press? If the answer to those questions is yes, then come on Prime Minister be the British Bulldog you would have us all believe you are? Stand up to the bluster of American hegemony, call off this show trial, this charade, this kangaroo court. “The evidence before the court is incontrovertible.” Julian Assange is an innocent man. A journalist doing very important work for “we the people” by exposing the crimes of powerful sociopaths in the corridors of power.
I call on you to free him today.
I cannot leave this stage without mention of Chelsea Manning, who provided some of the material that Julian published.
Chelsea has been in a federal prison for a year incarcerated by the Americans for refusing, on principle, to give evidence to a grand jury specifically convened to make an example of Julian Assange. What courage. They are also fining her $1,000 a day. Chelsea yours is another name to be carved in pride, I’ve been reading the latest on your case, it looks as if your legal team are finding light at the end of the tunnel, please god, you get out soon back to your loved ones, you are a true hero.You exemplify the bulldog spirit that I was talking about a few moments ago.
Also Daniel Hale
Daniel is a whistle-blower you may not know yet. He was in a great documentary movie National Bird, made by my good friend Sonia Kennebeck. He was part of the US drone program targeting Afghans in their own country from some mobile command center in Navada. When his stint in the USAF was over. Daniel’s good heart refused to edit out the burden of remorse he carried and he very bravely decided to tell his story. The FBI/CIA have pursued Daniel remorselessly ever since and he is now in prison awaiting trial. Daniel’s is another name to be carved in pride. Those of us who have never compromised our liberty in the cause of freedom, who have never picked up the burning torch and held it trembling over the crimes of their superior officers, can only wonder at the extraordinary courage of those who have.
There are other speakers here, so I will make way, I could stand here all day railing against the dying of the light should we not stand Bulldog like, with arms linked, ranks closed in front of our brother and comrade Julian Assange. And when the lackies of the American Empire come to take him, to destroy him and hang him in the hedge as a warning to frighten future journalists, we will look them in the eye and steadfast with one voice we will intone.
“Over our dead fucking bodies.”
Roger Waters Feb 22nd 2020
Friday, February 21, 2020
Palestinian Prisoner Khalida Jarrar in her own Words: The Age of Freedom Will Come - Politics for the People
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Palestinian Prisoner Khalida Jarrar in her own Words: The Age of Freedom Will Come - Politics for the People:
By Ramzy Baroud
Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian feminist, a lawyer, educator and an
elected parliamentarian. Over the years, she came to symbolize
Palestinian popular resistance in the occupied West Bank, enraging the
Israeli occupation authorities that arrested her repeatedly.
Despite her failing health, as she is suffering from multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia, the 57-year-old feminist leader was thrown in jail, and placed in solitary confinement on many occasions.
After her release from prison in February 2019, she was rearrested in October, and is currently held under a precarious Israeli law known as ‘administrative detention’. This law is inconsistent with international law and the most basic requirements of fair trial in democratic countries, as prisoners are incarcerated for prolonged periods, without charge or due process.
Between her release and re-arrest, Jarrar contributed a Foreword to my latest book, These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons. Expectedly, her articulated message was that of the strength of character, determination, courage, and hope.
[AT THE ABOVE LINK] are excerpts of Jarrar’s Foreword, where she urges people around the world to “carry and communicate” the stories of Palestinian prisoners so that “someday, the walls of every prison may come tumbling down, ushering in the age of Palestinian freedom.”
By Ramzy Baroud
Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian feminist, a lawyer, educator and an
elected parliamentarian. Over the years, she came to symbolize
Palestinian popular resistance in the occupied West Bank, enraging the
Israeli occupation authorities that arrested her repeatedly.
Despite her failing health, as she is suffering from multiple ischemic infarctions and hypercholesterolemia, the 57-year-old feminist leader was thrown in jail, and placed in solitary confinement on many occasions.
After her release from prison in February 2019, she was rearrested in October, and is currently held under a precarious Israeli law known as ‘administrative detention’. This law is inconsistent with international law and the most basic requirements of fair trial in democratic countries, as prisoners are incarcerated for prolonged periods, without charge or due process.
Between her release and re-arrest, Jarrar contributed a Foreword to my latest book, These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons. Expectedly, her articulated message was that of the strength of character, determination, courage, and hope.
[AT THE ABOVE LINK] are excerpts of Jarrar’s Foreword, where she urges people around the world to “carry and communicate” the stories of Palestinian prisoners so that “someday, the walls of every prison may come tumbling down, ushering in the age of Palestinian freedom.”
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Monday, February 17, 2020
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Saturday, February 15, 2020
Friday, February 14, 2020
Free All Political Prisoners –- Including Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning | Black Agenda Report [PLEASE READ!]
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Free All Political Prisoners –- Including Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning | Black Agenda Report: Julian Assange and his protégés have made common cause with Black revolutionaries in their zeal to lay bare the dictatorial nature of the omni-pervasive national security state and the sheer, racist barbarity of the U.S. imperial project.
“A huge struggle must be launched to claim the means of human expression.”
“A huge struggle must be launched to claim the means of human expression.”
Released At Last: Welcome Home, Move 9 Member Chuck Africa! | PopularResistance.Org
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Released At Last: Welcome Home, Move 9 Member Chuck Africa! | PopularResistance.Org: Imprisoned since he was only 18, Charles Sims Africa was finally released from Pennsylvania's SCI Fayette on Feb. 7. The youngest and the last of the MOVE 9 to be paroled, Chuck, now 59 and recovering from cancer, was first eligible for parole in 2008 — after 30 years of incarceration.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Israel-Palestine issue is glaring example of how some people have rights and some people don’t - Roger Waters to RT — RT World News
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Israel-Palestine issue is glaring example of how some people have rights and some people don’t - Roger Waters to RT — RT World News: Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, facing a campaign to deplatform him from SXSW after a pro-Israel group got his ads pulled from Major League Baseball, told RT the accusations of antisemitism are a distraction from human rights.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
Sunday, February 09, 2020
Friday, February 07, 2020
Thursday, February 06, 2020
Sunday, February 02, 2020
MoA - Those Who Have Visions ...
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MoA - Those Who Have Visions ...
The former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt once famously said:
It is similar to this Lebanese 'Vision for Peace' for a brighter
future for the people in North America which foresees some split of
territory between natives and colonial settlers.
bigger
Trump, his Zionist donors and the U.S. media seem to have trouble
understanding that. They will be educated by those who continue to stand
up for the rights of the Palestinian people.
The former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt once famously said:
People who have visions should go see a doctor.Yesterday U.S. President Donald Trump published a Vision for Peace, Prosperity, and a Brighter Future for Israel and the Palestinian People. The paper refers to 'vision' 28 times.
It is similar to this Lebanese 'Vision for Peace' for a brighter
future for the people in North America which foresees some split of
territory between natives and colonial settlers.
bigger
Trump, his Zionist donors and the U.S. media seem to have trouble
understanding that. They will be educated by those who continue to stand
up for the rights of the Palestinian people.
Posted by b on January 30, 2020 at 11:29 UTC | Permalink
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