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3 Jun 2004 @ 14:35, by bkodish. Violence, War
Professor Khaleel Mohammed rejects the fanatical, narrow, antisemitic and anti-zionist political ideology (Islamism) that threatens to become mainstream among Muslims.
For, you see, according to Professor Mohammed, the Koran actually teaches that Israel belongs to the Jews.
The Koran and the Jews More >
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 20 May 2004 @ 09:33, by jazzolog. Violence, War
Clouds come from time to time---
and bring a chance to rest
from looking at the moon.
---Basho
True words always seem paradoxical but no other form of teaching can take their place.
---Lao-Tzu
Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him.
---E.M. Forster
There were 2 photographs that ended the United States involvement in the Viet Nam Civil War. One was of a Vietnamese citizen an instant before his execution by an officer of the army of his country. The other was of a child---a naked little girl running down a road crying. More >
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14 May 2004 @ 06:49, by spells. Violence, War
Copyright 1998-2004
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
The terrible and strange death of Nick Berg
By James Conachy
14 May 2004
The terrible death of Nick Berg in Iraq—beheaded in front of a video camera—has taken place in such strange and suspicious circumstances that it raises deeply troubling questions. Among them is whether American agencies had a direct or indirect hand in the young man’s murder.
Questions immediately arise from the timing and political consequences of his killing. At the height of a massive scandal engulfing the Bush administration, Berg’s death has been exploited by the American government and the US media to launch a counter-offensive against the revelations of systematic US torture in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons. A wholesale attempt is being made to shift American and international public opinion away from the outrage over the criminal character of the US occupation of Iraq and behind the self-serving argument that American forces are needed in Iraq to prevent the country descending into barbarism and chaos.
Were Berg’s murderers being directly paid by the American government, they could not have performed a more timely service for the Bush White House.
Berg’s killing was carried out in the name of al-Qaeda-aligned Jordanian terrorist Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi. Whoever is operating in the name of Zarqawi, they have a proven record of provocative actions that have only helped to prop up the American occupation of Iraq.
On February 9, amid signs that the majority Iraqi Shiite population was on the verge of joining the armed resistance being fought mainly in Sunni Muslim areas, a letter, allegedly authored by Zarqawi, called for Sunnis to provoke a civil war with the Shiites. American officials used the letter to argue that their occupation was the only thing holding Iraq’s religious groups apart. Several weeks later, on March 2, suicide bombings at Shiite mosques in Karbala and Baghdad were blamed on what the US now calls the “Zarqawi network.”
Contrary to the schema outlined by US officials and in Zarqawi’s letter, the bulk of the Iraqi masses spurned sectarianism. The growing unity has been on display in mass demonstrations and joint struggle since the eruption of a Shiite uprising in early April. Even before the torture revelations, the US occupation of Iraq had crumbled into a morass of bloody reprisals against the Iraqi people and growing American casualties. Opposition has been steadily growing in the US and internationally.
The group who carried out the beheading of Berg and then ensured it was broadcast around the globe must have known that it would horrify American and world public opinion and assist the efforts at damage control in Washington.
Further questions are raised by the attempts of the US government to conceal or distort what it knew about Berg himself and the events leading up to his disappearance in Baghdad on April 10. Berg vanished in Iraq just 72 hours after being released from 13 days in US military custody and questioning by the FBI.
Berg has been described by his family and friends as adventurous. He had a limited knowledge of Arabic and an interest in obtaining reconstruction contracts in Iraq for the family telecommunications company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service. In December 2003 he travelled to Iraq and went home on February 1. Among the places the young man inquired for contract work was the Abu Ghraib prison—which he referred to as a “notorious prison for army and political prisoners.” He returned to Iraq in mid-March.
CBS News revealed yesterday that the young man had been on the FBI’s books for at least two years. In 2002, he was interviewed as part of the investigations in the September 11 terror attacks, over the fact his computer password had been used by alleged al-Qaeda terrorist Zaccarias Moussaoui. According to Berg’s family, the FBI was reportedly satisfied the password was obtained during a brief encounter on a bus, when Nick Berg had allowed Moussaoui to use his computer.
On March 7, the pro-Bush website FreeRepublic.com published a list of “enemies” who were opposing the US occupation of Iraq. Among the names, taken from a public list of people who had endorsed a planned March 20 antiwar demonstration on the website of the group ANSWER, was Michael Berg—Nick’s father—and the name of the Berg family company. Such information would be entered into the databases of US intelligence agencies as well.
Berg was seized on March 24, within one week of returning to Iraq, and held incommunicado without charges in a Mosul prison for unspecified “suspicious activities.” His parents in Philadelphia were visited by the FBI on March 31 and asked why their son was in Iraq. Berg reported being interviewed at least three times during his detention by FBI agents and asked whether he had constructed pipe bombs or had visited Iran. He was released on April 6 only after his family filed a federal court case against the US government the day before for illegal imprisonment.
Dan Senor, the Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman in Iraq, claimed this week that Berg had never been detained by US forces, only by Iraqis. This has been exposed to be a lie. Berg’s family has produced an email from Beth A Payne, a US consular official in Iraq, dated April 1. Payne wrote: “I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the US military in Mosul... He was picked up approximately one week ago.”
The chief of the Iraqi police in Mosul has also publicly rejected the claim that Berg was detained by his command. He told a press conference on May 13: “The Iraqi police never arrested the slain American. Take it from me... that such reports are baseless.”
After his release, Nick Berg travelled to Baghdad. His family last heard from him on April 9, when he reported he was looking to leave Iraq via Kuwait as soon as it was safe enough. They have indicated Berg told them he was wary of trying to fly out to Jordan on the grounds it was too dangerous. At the time, much of Baghdad was in engulfed in heavy fighting. Large parts of the city, including the roadways leading to the airport, were under constant attack by the Iraqi resistance and Westerners and Japanese had been taken hostage by various groups.
The last alleged contact with Berg by a US official was on April 10. A State department spokesperson told CBS an American diplomat offered to arrange a flight for him to Jordan. He allegedly refused and restated his intention to travel to Kuwait. His hotel has reported he left early on April 10, saying he intended to be back within a few days.
If the American government is to be believed, no US agency then took any further interest in his activities or well-being until it was apparent he had disappeared. No satisfying answers have been given to obvious questions. Were Berg’s movements in Iraq being monitored by American intelligence? Why was he detained and on whose orders? Was he under surveillance after he was released on April 6? If he was, how did he come to be kidnapped in the centre of Baghdad?
Throughout this week, Berg’s father Michael has repeatedly denounced the Bush administration for complicity in his son’s death. He told Boston radio station WBUR on Tuesday: “[W]hat cost my son his life was the fact the US government saw fit to keep him in custody for 13 days without any of due process or civil rights and released him when they were good and ready. It goes further than Donald Rumsfeld. It’s the whole Patriot Act, it’s the whole feeling in this country that rights don’t matter any more because there are terrorists about. Well in my opinion ‘terrorist’ is just another word like ‘communist’ or ‘witch’ and it’s a witchhunt and this whole administration is just representing something that is not America.”
Yesterday, he told Philadelphia radio: “My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this.” He has also demanded to know whether “it is true that al-Qaeda offered to trade my son’s life for another person,” as is alleged in the video-tape statement of Nick Berg’s killers.
The issues being raised by Michael Berg point to the fact, that at best, the US authorities created the conditions in which his son could be kidnapped by extremists and killed.
The more disturbing possibility that arises from all the evidence that is known is that Berg’s disappearance and subsequent killing was the work of US agencies or pro-US Iraqi factions. One month after he disappeared, Berg was murdered at the most opportune moment for the US government.
Anyone who believes it is unthinkable or outrageous to suggest that the American government would sanction having one of its citizens murdered to shore up its fortunes is underestimating the political situation.
The Bush administration and elements of the American military hierarchy, media and corporate establishment are indictable war criminals. They ordered, directed, propagated or have profited from a criminal war, in flagrant violation of international law. The year since the US-led invasion of Iraq has been marked by further war crimes and atrocities. For significant sections of the American ruling class, everything depends upon preventing opposition to the occupation of Iraq within the American and international working class from developing into a conscious movement for political and social change. To them, the life of 26-year-old Nick Berg would have meant nothing.
See Also:
Behind the demands for Rumsfeld to resign: White House prepares a fallback position to continue Iraq atrocities
[7 May 2004]
Marines pull back from Fallujah: a debacle for American imperialism
[4 May 2004]
Who benefits from the Karbala and Baghdad bombings?
[5 March 2004]
Iraq: A convenient letter from an Al Qaeda terrorist
[17 February 2004]
Top of page
Readers: The WSWS invites your comments. Please send e-mail.
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 12 Mar 2004 @ 10:14, by ming. Violence, War
Around 200 people dead from simultaneous terror bombings of commuter trains in Madrid.
Well, I normally am not of a mind to just mention bad news because it is "news". But I can mention a few things it brings up for me...
It is the next country over, so it doesn't have the same emotional impact for me personally as it would if it were in France, even in Paris. Or in Denmark or in Los Angeles, places that have been home for me. Somehow we will often compartmentalize things, so it somehow doesn't hit the same unless we consider it within "our" territory. Otherwise it feels like "over there", rather than "here".
It is always a tragedy when innocent people die violently and suddenly. But we have weird subjective ways of measuring it. It is the same kind of tragedy for the family and friends for every single person. But if 200 people died in a plane crash, it wouldn't register remotely the same way. Or if 50,000 people die in an earthquake in China, it is a bit unfathomable to try to relate to it, so it easily becomes just another news item. Or if 500,000 people die in Iraq from the side effects of a war carried out to protect oil interests, how do I respond to that? It is bad, but it easily just becomes an abstract number, rather than that number of personal tragedies.
But we're nevertheless surprisingly connected. So if even an apparently small number of people is involved in some dramatic event, we usually know somebody who knows somebody. In my French class this morning, several of the Spanish people present had friends or family members who were there in Madrid and who had been on the next train or the previous train and that kind of thing.
This particular event seems to have a large emotional impact on Spain and on the rest of Europe. A mini 9-11 event. Something that shouldn't be possible. Something we didn't expect where we live. Something that makes us feel more vulnerable. And maybe angry at the perpetrators, even the first possible group identified as the likely perpetrators, whether they actually did it or not. Or maybe more compassionate and solidaric with each other.
My guess would be that this is more related to an apparent al-Qaeda related group, rather than the Basque separatist group ETA.
But I also believe that when deliberate well organized, well planned, and well financed events are carried out, one needs to look carefully at who it benefits. "Follow the money" is one variation of that. Or look at who actually wants the outcome that quite naturally follows from such an event. Which often gives totally different answers than those that follow from who's officially blamed. Did it further the cause of Bin Laden and al-Qaeda and the Taliban that 9-11 happened? No, they were just about bombed into oblivion. And the United States was turned into an oppressive police state with a strengthened military and the willingness to use it anywhere, with little justification, without any need for public support. The Iraq invasion, however, was a godsend for groups like al-Qaeda, who were supplied with another lawless territory to operate out of, and a lot of motivated new recruits, and a lot of easy targets. So, if you follow my logic here, 9-11 was most likely masterminded by folks who wanted to turn the United States into a much more tightly controlled society, and who wanted greatly increased power and resources given to military activities, with greatly lessened checks and balances. You can guess who that might be, but that it would be some guy in a tent in Afghanistan would be a bit farfetched. And the unilateral Iraq invasion was masterminded by folks who wanted to support increased terrorism and lawlessness in the world. And, sure, those might very well be the exact same people, as those objectives can dovetail into each other quite well. But those actions certainly wouldn't be carried out neither by people who want to free muslim areas from outside influences, nor people who want peace and safety and freedom for the common folks anywhere. Unless the planners were extremely mis-informed, uneducated, unprepared and bad at carrying out any objective at all in any organized way. Which I'm quite sure isn't the case.
So, as to Madrid, who's cause would this support? Certainly not the ETA, as everybody hates them now, and large resources now will be applied to wiping them out. No, it would support folks who would like Europe to catch up to the U.S. in terms of population control and general paranoia.
What to do? What regular people can do is at least to use the coming elections to remove the government leaders in their countries who are furthering that agenda by their actions and propaganda. So, say goodbye to Jose Maria Aznar and George W. Bush. More >
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18 Jan 2004 @ 18:19, by bkodish. Violence, War
Thomas Friedman's NY Times Opinion Piece "War of Ideas, Part 4" (Sun. Jan. 18, 2004) where he calls for Israeli withdrawal from the disputed territories demonstrates this Middle East expert's ideologically-based ineptitude in understanding the basis of Arab animosity toward Israel and the Jews.
Jewish residents of the disputed territories of Judea, Samaria and Gaza (collectively known as Yesha) remain for him "fanatical Jews" for their insistence on their legal right to live in the heart of the historic Jewish homeland. The ease with which Friedman equates these Jews and their supporters with the Palestinian Authority's suicide bombers indicates an appalling moral blindness.
Where does Friedman's demonization of the Jews of Yesha come from? More >
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 17 Jan 2004 @ 17:14, by ming. Violence, War
Why would an educated person, a lawyer, and a mother of two choose to strap explosives to her body and go and blow up herself and a lot of random innocent people?
Hanadi Jaradat did just that in October, killing 21 Israelis in Haifa.
Artists Gunilla Skoeld Feiler from Sweden and Israeli born Dror Feiler created an artwork titled "Snow White and the Madness of Truth" for an exhibition in Stockholm, to make people ponder the incomprehensibility of this. On a pool of blood a little sailboat is floating, with a picture of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat as its sail. "When I saw her picture in the paper, I thought she looked like Snow White, that's why I gave that name to the piece" said Gunilla Feiler.
The Israeli ambassador didn't ponder the incomprehensibility of the scenario. He went amock and destroyed the piece the moment he saw it, and subsequently got kicked out of the museum. I suppose that illustrates well another angle of the problem. And it instantly made the art piece much more famous than it could have been otherwise. Anyway, he should probably find himself another line of work. More >
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 14 Jan 2004 @ 03:42, by ming. Violence, War
Via Metafilter, an article, "Terrorism's new Mecca" by Jessica Stern. It examines the causes of terrorism.Several possible root causes have been identified, including, among others, poverty, lack of education, abrogation of human rights, the perception that the enemy is weak-willed. I've been interviewing terrorists around the world over the past five years. Those I interviewed cite many reasons for choosing a life of holy war, and I came to despair of identifying a single root cause of terrorism. But the variable that came up most frequently was not poverty or human-rights abuses, but perceived humiliation. Humiliation emerged at every level of the terrorist groups I studied — leaders and followers.
The "New World Order" is a source of humiliation for Muslims. And for the youth of Islam, it is better to carry arms and defend their religion with pride and dignity than to submit to this humiliation. Part of the mission of jihad is to restore Muslims' pride in the face of humiliation. Violence, in other words, restores the dignity of humiliated youth. Its target audience is not necessarily the victims and their sympathizers, but the perpetrators and their sympathizers. Violence is a way to strengthen support for the organization and the movement it represents. It rings true more than anything else. No, it is not people who "hate freedom". It is people who's family, who's culture, who's religion, who's countries, who's leaders have been humiliated. And it is people who's pride and dignity are more important to them than their lives. It shouldn't be that hard to understand. Stop carrying out programs of organized humiliation. Better yet, help these folks having something to be proud of. More >
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2 Jan 2004 @ 02:00, by gili. Violence, War
In Israel/Palestine there is a grassroots peace movement of Moslems, Jews and Christians. It is the Sulha, or reconciliation.
[link]
It is being led by religious leaders. Those of Hamas and those of the settlers, it seems that by choosing the language of "The Land of the Prophets" and "The Children of Abraham" there is a common ground, literally...From my brief glimpse of the sulha process, I see one state in Israel/Palestine, one state for two nations.
[link]
The common religous roots of the Palestinians and the Jews can be used as a bridge between them. It is a radical idea for me and I am not sure about it. It seems impossible, yet the more I think about it the more sense it seems to make. The two government bodies would be merged. There would be a truth and reconciliation hearings much like in South Africa where people would recieve amnesty for their testimony. The Israeli Defense Forces would be transitioned into providing relief and refugee for the two peoples.
The issue of the Palestinian Right of Return has been the most problematic issue for the negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinians. Israeli society is very much against the Right of Return and sees it as the end of the Jewish homeland.
Yet, the Palestinians need to be heard, their Right of Return must be honored. This is where sulha comes in. This is where the religious and spiritual leaders need to show the rest of the population that peace is possible by coming together. And they are doing just that.
Another related article...
[link]
I want to believe in the one state solution but I am scared to. It seems so simple, yet it is very radical, almost too radical. I do not know...There is so much to forgive...so much suffering...
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 16 Dec 2003 @ 13:45, by ming. Violence, War
Well, I didn't really know what to say about Saddam Hussein being captured, as I'm not sure I believe the whole scenario. But in the spirit of celebration, getting rid of the bad guys, new beginnings, and general unreality, this piece that I received in the mail today seems to capture it well.BAGHDAD (Plausible News Service) -- The apparent arrest of Saddam Hussein brought a traumatic chapter in the millennia-long history of Mesopotamia to an end earlier today, with immediate and wide-ranging effects being felt throughout the country. Flowers spontaneously erupted across vast stretches of Iraqi desert. Power and water service were restored to millions of Iraqi homes, some of which have never had it in the first place.
"My cable is working again! I can get Bravo channel now! They must have arrested Saddam!" cried a jubilant Walid al-Jibra, dancing in the street in front of his formerly bombed-out store, which was found miraculously restored moments after the announcement. Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis alike were seen joyfully embracing in Basra, while a number of children previously thought to have been killed during the invasion were found to be alive and perfectly healthy. Hospitals reported increases in stocks of medicines, "but hey, we don't need them anyway, half our patients just got up and walked away," according to one staffer.
A statement released by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden acknowledged the defeat for the radical Islamic movement signified by the Saddam arrest.
"Oh well, we might as well just hang it up, as you say," said the emaciated terrorist leader on a video broadcast by al-Jazeera television shortly after the arrest announcement. "This just shows that you can't mess around with the ol' US of A."
Troops met the news with relief. "Well, I am sure enough glad that's all over with," said Sgt. Paul Tarbabe of Tuskeegee, as he began packing his gear for the return home. "Just in time, too -- we oughta all be able to get back home for Christmas now. I've got a six-month-old daughter to meet!"
Donald Rumsfeld and senior Pentagon officials have indicated that with Saddam out of the picture, "our work here is finished," as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a press briefing at the Pentagon early this morning. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and other officials, for whom the planning and execution of the Iraq operation has been an obsession for years, intend to retire next week and "set up a think tank in Samoa or someplace like that," Wolfowitz said.
The forecast for Baghdad for today and the foreseeable future is sunny, with bright blue skies, a few fluffy white clouds, warm but comfortable temperatures, and copious birdsong. More >
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9 Dec 2003 @ 19:01, by gsosbee. Violence, War
As a result of my recent experiences as documented in detail on my website at www.sosbeevfbi.com I am certain that the men and women of the fbi and cia (and their affiliates ) actually watch in real time as the Targets of the inhumane assaults described in my site commit suicide. The despicable activities of these fbi and the cia agents, operatives, thugs and assassins must be revealed to the world in order to offer some protection to all of mankind from a phenomena politely referred to as non-consensual human experimentation; in actuality this barbarous United States program is born of devilish minds, and wicked hearts, and is implemented by pathologic personalities of the lowest type. We must stop these confused and pathetic creatures now. Thanks for this forum.
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January 21, 2002: This once great nation, the United States of America, is ruled by thugs, terrorists and assassins who (desperate to consolidate power by going to war at will) regularly and as a matter of course...
...murders, tortures and terrorizes human beings when its corrupt legal process fails to imprison or kill the targets;
...destroys other nations by the use of nuclear, biological, chemical, or conventional weaponry, when the threat of such force fails to subjugate the peoples of the targeted nation;
...wildly labels individuals and nations as criminals and terrorists even as the United States sends professional assassins to kill specific humans and to disrupt political and economic stability in the targeted nations;
...manipulates the global media by use of blackmail, extortion and financial isolation in order to control the daily news broadcasts;
...terrorizes and silences the most viable and credible critics of the United States by the use of a combination of some of the above mentioned methods;
...supports patently corrupt governments when such governments cooperate in the extermination of the targets;
...insures the continuance of the permanent underclass in the world by stocking the prisons and hospitals with people who cannot find work, who cannot gain social standing and who refuse to bow to corrupt and unjust authority;
...abandons any concern for the basic Rights of the majority of the world's population and treats the targets (for death) as no better than discarded refuse.
The failure of the world leaders to stop this tyranny is an indictment of them for the same offenses described above. Geral Sosbee
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Sosbee writes:I pose the following rhetorical question on behalf of the Worldwide Network Of Friends Of The Accused And Terrorized:
What duty do we (you and I, now) owe to all of mankind, to humanity, as we discover that a corrupt and murderous band of thugs and their misguided supporters ( whether private or government sponsored, such as those in the fbi/cia ) systematically, routinely and often ritually threaten, torture, imprison and kill our brothers and sisters around the globe?
Stand up to the tyrants and suffer the consequences ourselves in our time, or slink from all sense of Right and leave the ever worsening task for the next generation which may be even less prepared than we for the slightest of heroic deeds.
History now records for all times our names, each of us, individually, in a real as opposed to a rhetorical sense,and the manner by which we answer the above question.
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See:
[link] More >
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