Other interesting reactions to Joel Pollak's zany oped in the Washington Post are surfacing. Many refute his characterization of a standard Arabic textbook, Al-Kitaab, as propagandistic. Far from being based on facts, his piece exposed the currency of anti-Arab bias. Even esteemed outlets like the Post drop the evidentiary standards for gobbly-gook such as Pollak's.
Pollak, a research assistant for prolific torture advocate Alan Dershowitz, was recently called a "precocious neo-con" by Phillip Weiss. The journalist dismissed Pollak's analysis as "condescending" out-dated Orientalism.
The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias hit back at Pollak with a sharp, satirical riff applauding his courage to "speak truth to weakness and stand up for the view that as narrow a range of opinions as possible should be expressed in America." [The comments section of his blog are quite illuminating as well -- one commenter used the book at the US Military's Defense Language Institute.]
These comments mirror our own QuiQui's introduction to his piece. She warned you "might get a kick out of this alarmist, and I must say ridiculous, dangerous, and outrageous article." That is, his arguments would be laughable if they were not so potentially destructive -- only because absurdist vilification has been the name of the game in the Bush administration. We laughed at Bush and his silly mumblings...
Pollak's analysis -- like Bush's imagined WMDs claims -- falls apart at the seams. One commenter on Yglesias's blogs argued:Pollak is basically trying to cow Middle East studies departments by calling for more governmental oversight. This threat is based on a total disregard for facts:
Out of Pollak's smoke-and-mirrors show, one thing is clear: Pollak is more than an innocent student hoping to learn Arabic. The Washington Post failed to pick up on his agenda.
1. Al-Kitaab's 3 maps either DO show Israel or come from the WWI period -- before Israel even existed.
2. The passage on Nasser that Pollak refused to recite because it was "propaganda" translates as follows (p. 338):
"Gamal Abdel Nasser was born in Egypt in 1918 and spent his childhood in Alexandria where his father worked in the post office. When his mother died, his father sent him to his uncle in Cairo. After his graduation from high school, he joined the Egyptian army and became an officer. He and a group of young officers called the 'Free Officers' ejected King Faruq from Egypt on 23 July 1952 and thus Egypt became a republic. In 1954 Abdel Nasser became the first president of Egypt, and remained president until his death in 1970. Afterwards, Anwar al-Sadat assumed the presidency of Egypt. Nasser's most noted achievements included the nationalization of the Suez Canal, the United Arabic Republic, and the High Dam in Aswan."
Not sure how that's supposed to turn loyal Americans into west-hated fanatics.
He is a rabidly pro-Israel activist who plants suspicion of all things Muslim and Arab in every shadow. For instance, on his blog, he actually suggests that Harvard Law School is promoting Jihad. Why? It sponsored an Islamic finance forum. Like one of Pavlov's dogs, Pollak waters at the mouth with images of terrorism when he hears the word "Islamic." In the paranoid style of an Islamophobe, Islamic activities necessarily imply terrorism connections:Shari'a-compliant funds must apparently donate money to charity to compensate for investments in non-shari'a-compliant enterprises. These charitable funds (zakat) have on several occasions been linked to terror funding networks.
Maybe Pollak should be spending more time studying the Al-Kitaab textbook and less time dreaming up Islamist conspiracies. "Zakat," despite his junior attempt at translation, does not refer to the "charitable funds" of Pollak's concerns. Zakat means "almsgiving" and is one of the pillars of Islam. It refers to donations, not the organized charity groups Pollak is thinking. A simple Wikipedia search could have helped.
There is something more ludicrous about his argument. American politicians have on occasion ripped off the public. So let's have a panel on corruption in every conference on American politics. Or how would Pollak react to the argument that the many occasions of Israeli espionage in the United States means there should be a panel on Israeli spying during forums about US-Israel relations (though Israeli espionage in the US is a vastly under-discussed topic).
That the Washington Post gave voice to such a amateurish attempt at hatemongering, supported by deceptive distortion of a book too many are familiar with (and therefore was so easily refutable), is disappointing.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Joel Pollak Takes on Arabic Textbook and Loses
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Baker-Christopher Fu*king With Plans To Bomb Iran
Or may be not.
The two led a bipartisan commission to review the decision process and authority to take the country to war, which also means committing atrocities against another nation. They are recommending a change to current practices, which allow the president to go to war at the drop of a hat, especially with a cowardly congress that will approve war spending retroactively with little to no oversight, just in time for the new hunting season: Destination Iran.
Well, may be not, a new law to redefine war launching powers is proposed for 2009. So Iran might be fucked either way. The decision for the US to attack Iran has been decided in Tel Aviv and at AIPAC headquarters in Washington, and implementation is pending the end of the current news cycle of presidential elections upon mass media’s request. So after November 4th, it’s game time baby, unless there is a recount in Florida, in which case Rupert Murdoch may ask for another delay, but certainly before inauguration day in late January. So most likely in December, I guess those bombs will be painted red and wrapped in green ribbons.
The proposed law is by no means in upheaval, its strongest change is perhaps a clarification of semantics. It continues to empower a psychotic president to launch attacks, after “consulting with” some members of congress, allow him or her 30 days before a vote of approval takes place in congress, and should that fail, our brave representatives begin a long war of attrition of litigations, resolutions, and counter resolutions. Bush & co. thought, or at least sold America on thinking that a war in Iraq can be completed within a comparable timeframe; the way I see it, as far as the war crew is concerned, business as usual.
The other big factor to remember, is how easy it is for one person to take the country to war when you have White House-prepackaged propaganda and fear mongering habitually aired in place of news and a cowardly, complicit and complacent congress that is unwilling to go against the will of a misinformed public or a corporate propaganda machine.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's Day
** Samira's testimony to B'Tselem
Three small kids bury their mother today in Gaza. They spent the better part of last night locked into a room together, just after they saw the explosion of their front door that killed their mother, and observing soldiers cover her body with a rug. At 11 pm, after six and a half hours of taking care of her younger siblings in a locked room, the 12-year-old daughter Samira was let out and ran next door for help.
Ironically, I read Julia Ward Howe's "Mother's Day Proclamation" immediately after reading about Samira and her mother, Majdi Abd al-Raziq al-Daghma. Mother's Day was meant to be a call for peace, for pacifism and laying down of arms:
The "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.
When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Originally the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, this building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.
Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become.
Mother's Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Myanmar
10,000 people are dead today in Myanmar. 24 million people are living in disaster zones.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of people being made homeless, the security forces killed 36 people rioting when the roof blew off a prison.
Watch the BBC video images of the storm here.
If you're like me and had to look up Myanmar to find out that it is also called Burma, and that it is where Ang San Suu Kyi is from and lives under house arrest, now's your chance to learn about it. Kind of like learning about the Ninth Ward.
The Burmese government has refused emergency disaster aid from the US (which is stupid-- people are dying. kind of like how new york refusing money from the gulf was stupid.) I'm curious as to the reason they give for the refusal, and whether it's related more to the US's sanctions on Burma and interference in Burmese affairs, or whether it's because of the havoc we tend to cause in the world. I'm inclined to think it is most likely due to the previously existing strained relationship.
Eventually I hope that we are able to help, and I wish we actually had money to help with and that it wasn't all dumped into destroying Iraq. Check out this site: how fast can you spend 3 trillion dollars, which is the amount spent on the Iraq War. It takes a long time! 3 trillion dollars would be health care for us and disaster aid for New Orleans AND Burma, and much more.
**For more on Burma, see Quiqui's post and pictures.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Please Plagiarize This Letter. Seriously.
(no really, it's better than the last one.) use whatever you want, just please write or fax something to:
Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
Fax: (703) 299-3339
RE: The Unjust Imprisonment of Dr. Sami Al-Arian
Your Honor,
I am writing to request that you restore some degree of integrity to the justice system of our country by releasing Dr. Sami Al-Arian in this month of April 2008. The plea agreement that was agreed to by both Dr. Al-Arian and the US Government in April of 2006 stipulated his release and expedited deportation on 11 April 2008. As you can see, this date has passed.
Dr. Al-Arian's case has made me lose a great deal of faith in the justice system of our country. It used to be the one branch of government that I was taught to believe was governed by principles. It turns out that this same justice system is willing to keep a man in prison for two and a half years after a jury of his peers failed to convict him of a single charge. It also kept him in prison, most of that time in cruel solitary confinement in a maximum security facility, before he was ever brought to trial. He was the lone pretrial detainee in that facility.
This is not the justice system that I grew up respecting. This is nothing more than a racially motivated abuse of justice for political ends.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia have abused the grand jury process to keep Dr. Al-Arian detained more than a year beyond his original sentence. They continue to threaten further action with this latest court order seeking his testimony. This must not be permitted.
The plea agreement removed all standard language that would allow the government to pursue cooperation. Florida prosecutors have admitted, on the record, Dr. Al-Arian explicitly requested non-cooperation, and that they agreed to his request.
Dr. Al-Arian has been on a hunger strike since the 3rd of March. For the first 18 days, he abstained from both food and water. Since then, he has only taken water. He has lost 35 pounds and his life is in danger. His release is therefore requested not only on legal grounds, but humanitarian grounds as well.
The case of Dr. Sami Al-Arian has drawn international attention, and has dealt a severe blow to the United States of America’s domestic human rights record. Dr. Al-Arian is the most prominent political prisoner in the United States, and the only one currently on hunger strike. His release may restore some level of respect for our institutions in the world view, as well as at home. Only with the expedited release of Dr. Al-Arian can some measure of integrity be restored to our justice system.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Puppy-Killing US Soldier=Your Neighbor
It puzzles me why the soldier-throwing-puppy-off-cliff video has drawn far more outrage across the internet than any single video of US soldiers in Iraq committing indiscriminate murder. Perhaps this video, of American troops essentially behaving like assholes, (or children someone made the very poor choice to hand guns and who are drunk on power, or frat boys who would be much better served by being given scissors to run around with) can put the puppy video into a tiny bit of perspective.
At least in part, the sentiment that causes us by and large to focus on the puppy-over-the-cliff, as opposed to indiscriminate disregard for human dignity, property and life, may be due to the fact that many of us know people who have gone to Iraq. Take the town of Killeen, Texas for instance. Stars line the walls of the high school for the hundreds of parents who are in Iraq, they've had to dig an entire new cemetary, and 200 widows have been created by the war since 2003.
We know these people, they're our neighbors. How can we reconcile these images with our own communities, and as such, our own identities? Is it really possible that the victimizers are in fact also victims?
I've written before that I have little faith in human nature, and that each and every one of us is capable of the worst nightmarishly horrible violations, if only given the power, and the ability to think of others as subhuman.
The towns, though, that continue burying their young people who come home in boxes, understandably prefer to believe that their sacrifice is for something worthwhile, something that in the national imagination is inarguably above our value as individuals:Everyone believed that US troops should remain in Iraq to protect America from terrorists, to honour the dead, such as Gary, and to complete the job... even one whose definition was becoming less certain.
"You want to know why small-town America is losing so many of its people in Iraq?" he asked, his voice quivering. "It's because small-town America still believes in this country, still believes in fighting for the freedom to worship whichever God you believe in. Our young men and women - like Gary - have been sacrificing their lives for this for 200 years. This is America."
If we are to remove the ideology from the equation, and gain a practical understanding of what is happening and what our government is sending people to die for, we must, in fact we NEED, to be listening very carefully to these people.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Dr. Al-Arian Transfered to Custody of Immigration Authorities on Friday
Dr. Al-Arian's hunger strike continues; he has lost 34 pounds. Please contact the Attorney General:
Attorney General Michael Mukasey
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
To the Attorney General:
I am writing to request that you restore some degree of integrity to the justice system of our country by releasing Dr. Sami Al-Arian on 11 April 2008, as agreed to by both Dr. Al-Arian and the US Government in April of 2006.
Dr. Al-Arian's case has made me lose a great deal of faith in the justice system of our country. It used to be the one branch of government that I was taught to believe was governed by principles. It turns out that this same justice system is willing to keep a man in prison for two and a half years after a jury of his peers failed to convict him of a single charge.
This is not the justice system that I grew up respecting.
I demand that:
1. Dr. Al-Arian was promised release and expedited deportation in 2006. This must be honored immediately.
2. The Department of Justice must cease abusing it's power through continual grand jury subpoenas and new criminal charges.
3. Given Dr. Al-Arian's hunger strike, there are serious concerns about his health. He must be released and allowed to return to his family for humanitarian reasons.
4. Dr. Al-Arian's imprisonment, and the US Government's abuses of power, have come to the attention of the entire world. His release may restore some level of respect for our institutions in the world view, as well as at home.
PLEASE ALSO CONTACT
1. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Immigration Field Office
Vincent Archibeque
Acting Field Office Director
2675 Prosperity Avenue
Fairfax, VA. 22031
Phone: 703-285-6200
2. Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
Fax: (703) 299-3339
UPDATE:
Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
April 12, 2008
Dr. Al-Arian Placed in Punitive Detention
VIRGINIA-- At 1 a.m. on Saturday, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was moved by hostile prison guards from a regular holding cell at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, Maryland, to the "Special Housing Unit." The SHU is an extremely punitive and restrictive section of the prison where inmates are placed in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, usually in freezing temperatures.
Prisoners are normally moved there for violating prison rules. However, in the case of Dr. Al-Arian, he has always been placed there without reason or any explanation. In the SHU, prisoners are subjected to continuous, deafening alarm sounds and have little contact with the outside world. With no medical supervision, this is an extremely dangerous place for Dr. Al-Arian to be during his hunger strike, which is on its 41st day. Dr. Al-Arian was also held in solitary confinement for 37 months before and during his trial. This was a deliberate attempt by the government to break him down physically and psychologically and to prevent him from preparing for his trial.
Amnesty International has written several letters decrying the prison conditions of Dr. Al-Arian, calling his treatment "gratuitously punitive" and "inconsistent with international standards for humane treatment."
The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace urges all conscientious individuals and organizations to contact the Howard County Detention Center and call for humane treatment of Dr. Al-Arian. We also call on media outlets to cover these abuses, which so far have received no attention.
TAKE ACTION
Call the Howard County Detention Center and ask that Dr. Al-Arian be removed from the Special Housing Unit, where he does not belong, and that the prison ensures he is given proper medical treatment during his hunger strike. The number is (410) 313-5200.
see the Free Sami Al-Arian website for more information.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
One Hot Petition
CLICK HERE to read and sign the petition to free Sami Al-Arian in accordance with the plea bargain agreed upon by both Dr. Al-Arian and the US government, which scheduled his release date as 7 April 2008.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Ha ha... Illegal Prison Camps are So Funny!
The "ethnic" guys who spent all night trying to find White Castle made a new movie in which they do something more miraculous than find the fast food chain in New Jersey. They escape from Guantanamo Bay.
Though I laughed at the parody of airport security and American xenophobia, I am caught in the classic conundrum over slapstick humor forays into serious, timely issues -- and America's extra-territorial holding pen/torture booth for "suspected illegal combatants" is no laughing matter. Does the commentary get lost in the sauce? Probably. Though I may see it because I still do not believe pre-judging art is a good idea. but I am well aware this will be just another vapid cultural product from the nation that so easily forgets it is in war.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
This Could Happen to Anyone- Get It? His Rights Are Our Rights.
CONTACT: http://judiciary.house.gov/Contact.aspx
It has been requested recently that letters urging Dr. Al-Arian's release be sent to Judge Gerald Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, to Attorney General Michael Mukasey and to congressional leaders.
Supporters are also being asked to write letters directly to Dr. Al-Arian.
Please write:
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
(202) 307-6777 Fax
askdoj@usdoj.gov
Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, DC 20530-0001
House Judiciary Chair:
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
john.conyers@mail.house.gov
Senate Judiciary Chair:
Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
To contribute to Dr. Al-Arian's legal defense, please send checks to:
National Liberty Fund
P.O. Box 1211
24525 E. Welches Road
Welches, OR 97067
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Dr Al-Arian: GUILTY (Despite Being Found Not Guilty by A Jury of Your Peers)
Dr Sami Al-Arian, who has been imprisoned by the United States Judicial System since 2003, held in prison long before his trial and long after a grand jury failed to find him guilty of even a single charge against him, is now in danger of suffering irreversible kidney failure.
Law Professor Peter Erlinder writes:This is Dr. Al Arian’s third hunger-strike during his 5 years of imprisonment. The first was in 2005 and lasted 140 days on liquids only, before he was permitted the lawyers of his choice. In early 2006 he drank only water for 60 days, when the court refused to require the Bush-administration to honor their “no grand jury cooperation” promise, the first time. Now, he is refusing all food and liquids was transferred to the prison hospital on March 5. But he is not getting necessary medical treatment.
As of Monday, March 10, Dr. Al Arian has not received any intravenous liquids, and he is in danger of irreversible renal failure - yet another kind of torture, that could be ended with proper medical care. If Dr. Al Arian dies, AUSA Kromberg will have accomplished his stated “mission”, so the question is, will anybody else respond, before it is too late?
In 2005, I stood in front of a class made up of students from eight or nine different countries. We all had to present news articles, and my article covered the verdict of the jury in the trial of Dr Sami Al-Arian. He was not found guilty of a single charge brought against him by the government, I said. The government spent millions of dollars trying to make a case against Dr Al-Arian over a six month trial, I said. Dr Al-Arian's lawyers, when it came their turn to argue, stood and said simply that clearly, the government has failed to make a case against this man, whose only crime is saying what he believes. The jury found him not guilty on many of the charges, and hung on the rest, I said.
I fully expected him to be released. After all, a man found not guilty by a jury of his peers can't possibly stay in prison, right?
This was the same class in which a woman from Turkey asked me to speak as a citizen of the US to the human rights abuses of the US government, because this was of great concern to her as other governments worldwide look to the US for leadership. I was unclear as to whether she was talking about abuses within the States or outside.
She was talking about within. I wonder if the people who were in that class have any idea that the topic of my article is, in fact, still in prison, and threatened with kidney failure a few weeks before his scheduled release date.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
The Status Quo
Despite my living in Israel during the past few weeks of insanity particularly in Gaza, I might as well be observing it from the States.
A mini war, dubbed a holocaust (Shoah) by Israel's Deputy Defense Minister, took place in Gaza and life just went on as usual here in most of Israel. Actually calling it a 'war' implies that two proper, equal armies were fighting each other. It is critical to remember that this is not the case.
What we are observing is the slaughter of hundreds of indigenous people who have been crowded onto a small area in their homeland and practically starved by a nearly complete ongoing border closure. The slaughter is perpetrated by highly destructive, precise and advanced weaponry that killed 114 people in the West Bank and Gaza during the week of February 28th, most of whom were civilians.
In contrast, one Israeli has been killed by the rockets coming from the Gaza Strip since last May. These rockets are imprecise, primitive in comparison, and about as destructive as a metal pipe falling out of the air can be.
Now, the eight students who were killed in Jerusalem were killed by an East Jerusalem resident who picked up a gun. While tragic, the event does not change the unequal nature of this conflict.
Life around me hasn't really changed much in a tangible sense, except for that I read the news. My neighbors watch the Hebrew news that plays and replays Israeli kids in Sderot running for shelter when sirens go off, contributing to a sense of fascination with fear built off of the one Israeli killed by these Qassem rockets since last May. However, next door to the carnage in Gaza, and a school shooting in Jerusalem, I haven't felt in an immediate sense the effects of violence. (In fact, the violence I've felt the most in the past few weeks came not from events in Israel or Palestine, but from UNC where the student body president was recently found murdered.) Considering my life pattern and the life pattern of all those around me, nothing has become particularly extraordinary. I might as well be observing from the States.
And this is precisely the point I want to get across with this post: life in Israel goes on largely as usual while the Israeli army maintains a continual war of varying scale on the entire Palestinian population just on the other side of its borders. This is the status quo.
I've visited the West Bank several times over the past year. Every time I go, someone connected to the people I visit has been killed. Once it was a 16 year old boy at the Qalandia checkpoint. Once, two university student activists were assassinated by Apache helicopters in the middle of the night. Always you might hear the shrill whistles of the kids who spot the army approaching.
The raids into peoples homes are always happening. Some of these are raids into the homes of militant activists, such as this one in Gaza when 'targeted killings' resumed. The wanted member of Islamic Jihad was killed, and so was his granddaughter, an 8-day old infant, who was shot in the head. As Mohammad pointed out, this is normal in Gaza.
As I mentioned in an earlier post about a 12-year-old Egyptian girl who was apparently shot by a sniper from the Israeli border, these specific shootings of children directly in the head by Israeli soldiers are not likely to be accidents, especially if they occur during a home raid at close range. Why is it difficult for some Kabobreaders to believe that these are not accidents? Is it difficult for you to believe that human beings are not above killing children? I wish that I, too, had more faith in humanity. But humanity has proven time and again that we are perfectly capable of the most despicable of crimes. I see no reason to have more faith in the mercy of an Israeli soldier raiding a home in Gaza than in that of the East Jerusalem resident who shot up the Jerusalem school. There is no such thing as a moral army.
A few days ago, I would have said that in all likelihood the latest victims of the carnage in Gaza will be buried, and Israelis will go on living their very normal lives while Gaza starves. Now, with the Jerusalem shooting and the ensuing restrictions on movement in the West Bank and Jerusalem, there looms a frightening cycle of reprisal violence that I sincerely hope does not ensue. There may be more violence that reaches Israelis, or there may not be. However, there is certainty that violence will continue to infiltrate the everyday lives of Palestinians, even if it does not make headlines.
If I may quote Will, settler-colonial projects beget violence. I would add to that statement and point out that settler-colonial projects beget violence of great inequality.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Sami Al-Arian's Nightmare Continues
Yesterday, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was informed he will be called to testify before a third grand jury. Having passed the 5th year anniversary of his imprisonment, the government continues to hold him despite their inability to prosecute him.
After a lengthy trial in which he was not found guilty, the government is keeping him as a "material witness," which Dr. Al-Arian's lawyers argue is in direct contravention to an agreement they struck last April. Holding material witnesses can be an arbitrary exercise in prosecutorial power (giving them the ability to detain those they have no evidence again). He thus refuses to testify, and has engaged in hunger strikes that cost his health severely. With this announcement, he decided to go on another strike.
Dr. Al-Arian is clearly a political prisoner being punished for nothing more than the substance of his ideas and activism. His imprisonment is a sham, again showing that the American "justice" system is flawed by ethnic bias. The court's ideological orientation values Islamophobic alarmism and anti-Palestinianism over the US Constitution (i.e. while giving money to the Israel army can be a tax write-off, giving money to Palestinian militant groups, as he was charged with, is illegal). This explains this case's contradictions of the law's premises of due process and fair treatment.
See his website
Help the campaign to free him
Monday, March 03, 2008
U.S. Creates More Terrorists
From CNN.com:
The United States today used precision missiles to strike a "known terrorist target" in southern Somalia, a U.S. military official said. The strike destroyed two houses killing three women and three children, a local official told CNN
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Speaking of a Whiner... or Weiner, that is
Vogue magazine had a big write-up of Hillary Clinton's "Traveling Chief of Staff," Huma Abedin (Fadi referenced her in the last post and Nimr was all over that too). If Vogue didn't look like it reeks of perfume samples, I might actually pick a copy up just to find out more about her.
From what google can tell me, Abedin was raised in Saudi Arabia, that beacon of democracy. She is half-Pakistani, half-Indian, and on her cell phone or text messaging half the time I see her on TV (just look for the brown girl behind Hillary). Her role as Clinton's chief donut-retriever makes her one of the most powerful Muslim-Americans in the race -- besides Obama, of course.
Rumors of her having an affair with Hillary aside, there are other rumors circulating that she is sneaking around with that gaydar-inducing Congressman, and arch-Zionut, Anthony Weiner.
She was reportedly seen with the bachelor Weiner going into the Maritime Hotel. What that actually means is up to your dirty mind's speculation. And rumors are not very reliable sources, kind of like some of the comments left on this site.
What this all means is that if Billary wins, we might see a Muslim-American in one of the highest political posts in the White House -- the catch is that it would be just one more Zionut-loving Moozlim in the service of empire.
Then again, maybe she is like Obama, a secret Jihadist infiltrating America from the top... muuuuaaaahhhhhh hhhhaaaaa hhaaaaa!!! Load up on duct tape, Bill Cunningham!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Writings On the Wall-from Caves in From the Basalt Desert in Southern Syira to the Cave-like tunnel at the subway station at Columbus Circle
How does one a sense of the pulse of a city? Sentiments of a people? Hit to the New York City Subway to discover the sentiments of the inescapable "New York Street."
With the artful stroke of the sharpie, here are poetically depicted reactions to Islam and 9/11 on the subway station walls and on corporate in-train ads. the sentiments of the inescapable "New York Street."
The walls of the Columbus Circle stop on the 1, A,C, D, and B
A close up-zeroing in on a reaction to a reaction :
Written on top of "AN" is "Asshole" and to the left of "911" is "DREAM ON, FOOL" and there is a swastika to the bottom right of the "n" in "AN."
And finally, the ever sensitive and astute observation on Islam:
One question: Why did homeboy feel compelled to air out his grievances with God on a flower delivery ad on the 1 train???
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Like Seriously, Thank God for America
While driving home from work today, I heard a really inspirational story on NPR’s "All Things Considered" about a U.S. marine whose dying wish was to have two dogs he found in Baghdad transported to America for his family to care for. Long story short, his grieving family fought against all odds to realize his dream and in the end succeeded. Today, Mumma and Renold (I think that was their names) reside in a cookie cutter suburban town somewhere in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Feel warm inside? Really, you don’t? Ok you heartless bastard, how about this…
Last Thursday, on Valentine’s Day, the SPCA International Baghdad Program (yes, there is such a thing) brought Charlie, a border collie mix, to the U.S after Watson, the active-duty soldier who found him in Iraq, couldn’t bare to give him up. According to Watson, “It’s probably going to be a real shock for him to see such beauty and great monuments after knowing nothing but the slums of Baghdad.” Charlie is currently on route from DC to Phoenix.
Isn’t that cute? I think so! Especially since this is what the doggies really want…
Just ask Nubbs. He currently lives in San Diego. An Iraqi by birth, he was transported to the U.S. after Major Brian Dennis rescued him in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. After finding Nubbs and nursing him back to health, Dennis was dispatched to a military outpost 70 miles away from where Nubbs resided. Nubbs, however, loved Dennis so much that he tracked him across the desert. Though Dennis couldn’t keep him, he was touched enough to arrange for the pup to be transported to the United States (via the "No Buddy Left Behind" initiative). A reunion is currently in the works for the Ellen Degeneres show.
And it doesn’t end there folks….
Eleven other dogs and two cats adopted by service members in Iraq or Afghanistan are in the pipeline for rescue, said Stephanie Scroggs, a spokeswoman for SPCA International. The SPCA will pay about $4,000 per rescue, Scroggs said. She acknowledged that the sum could aid many more stateside animals but said the program also supports the troops. [Washington Post]In fact, Liberty and K-Pot are scheduled to arrive in the United States tomorrow. I can't wait!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Cut Undersea Cables Boost KABOBfest Hits
As counter-intuitive as this may sound, the recent cuts in now five, yes count them, five, underwater cables in the Middle East has led to an increase in KABOBfest hits. KABOBfest senior statistician Chaim Sugarman tracked a nearly 25% increase in daily hits since the cable cuts started mysteriously appearing, all within a week or so.
Given KABOBfest's appeal among American-hating Ay-rabs, such as those running Iran, one would expect hits to this hate-filled packet of binary code to fall. Not so.
While conspiracy theories abound, no one has yet pointed out that KABOBfest has gained the most from this. I am sure some of the Nutty-Buddies who express their anti-KABOBism in our comments regularly will agree with this.
I have my own serious conspiracy theory to toss into the fray. We are finally seeing the handiwork of the US Navy's cadre of anti-terrorism dolphins. As the Guardian reported in 2005:
It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.After they got loose, did they do the only thing they knew to do -- implement their mission?
US Military-trained Dolphins can sniff out excessive hair gel/cheap cologne and kunafa crumbs left in beards.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Have We Entered 2008 or 1984?
Not only can you banned from entering the US for donating money to a Muslim charity a la the Muslim Martin Luther King Tariq Ramadan, but now you can be charged for "ideologically-based violence" in the land of the free and the home of the brave. The stuff of the fictionally-based Orwell political doomsday novel 1984, omnipresent big brother surveillance and thought-crime charges, is no longer contained in the realm of fantasy.
House Bill 1955, known on the hill as "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention" bill, and known in oppositional circles as the thought crime bill, amends the 2002 Homeland Security Act by adding the following provisions:
Enables the Secretary of Homeland Security to:The bill, sponsored and introduced by high-standing California Democrat Jane Harman on April 19, 2007, was passed this past October in the House, and now is awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.
(1) establish a grant program to prevent radicalization (use of an extremist belief system for facilitating ideologically-based violence) and homegrown terrorism in the United States.
(2) establish or designate a university-based Center of Excellence for the Study of Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States.
(3) conduct a survey of methodologies implemented by foreign nations to prevent radicalization and homegrown terrorism.