Category Archives: Gun-violence

Afghanistan car bomb leaves at least 89 civilians dead | World | The Guardian

On and on it goes, down and down they go, why oh, why oh why?

A suicide attacker killed 89 people when he detonated a car filled with explosives in a crowded bazaar in eastern Afghanistan, the bloodiest insurgent attack on civilians for several years.

Dozens more were injured in a blast so big that it brought down the roofs of shops lining the roads, trapping shopkeepers and their customers in the rubble.

“A man in a Toyota SUV was identified by police as a potential attacker, but when they ordered him to stop for checks, he set off the bomb,” the deputy provincial police chief, Nasar Ahmad, told the Guardian. He said all but two of the victims were civilians.

via Afghanistan car bomb leaves at least 89 civilians dead | World | The Guardian.

rubble and dust | Palestine Rose

Dr. Nasser al-Tatar, shining example

of selflessness and humanity,

worked continuous shifts for six days

in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital;

…when he finally went home,

Dr. Nasser al-Tater,

watched as his home

where he had lived for 30 years—

was being bombed into rubble and dust

in less than one minute,

by an American F-16 ‘Falcon Fighter’ jet,

given to Israel by American tax payers…

via rubble and dust | Palestine Rose.

Names of the Victims in Gaza – Continuously Updated | Hummus For Thought

Nour al-Najdi 2004-2014

Relatives and friends carry the body of Nour al-Najdi, 10-years-old, during her funeral in Rafah after being killed by an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 11, 2014. (Photo: AFP – Said Khatib – retrieved from Al Akhbar)

They will try their best to dehumanize the civilians slaughtered by the terrorist government of Israel, but the Internet allows us to, at least, know their names. Here are the names of the first 100 Gazans murdered by the Occupying force in the past 4 days. The list will be updated daily. I’m dedicating the blog’s Facebook page to reporting on Gaza. I apologize for the disproportionate attention given to Palestine, but international pressure is the only way to stop Israel’s government from continuing the ongoing massacre (despite Netanyahu pretending otherwise.) I’m still sharing Middle East-related links of course, not just on Palestine.

via Names of the Victims in Gaza – Continuously Updated | Hummus For Thought.

Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn | Environment | The Guardian

Armageddon on the horizon?

The Euphrates River, the Middle East’s second longest river, and the Tigris, have historically been at the centre of conflict. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein drained 90% of the vast Mesopotamian marshes that were fed by the two rivers to punish the Shias who rose up against his regime. Since 1975, Turkey’s dam and hydropower constructions on the two rivers have cut water flow to Iraq by 80% and to Syria by 40%. Both Syria and Iraq have accused Turkey of hoarding water and threatening their water supply.

“There has never been an outright war over water but water has played extremely important role in many Middle East conflicts. Control of water supply is crucial”, said Stephen.

It could also be an insurmountable problem should the country split into three, he said. “Water is one of the most dangerous problems in Iraq. If the country was split there would definitely be a war over water. Nobody wants to talk about that,” he said.

Some academics have suggested that Tigris and Euphrates will not reach the sea by 2040 if rainfall continues to decrease at its present rate.

via Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn | Environment | The Guardian.

Confronting the Central American Refugee Crisis

Figueroa notes that seven of ten migrants interviewed stated they were fleeing from their countries due to death threats, extortion or the assassination of a relative by gangs or “the narcos.” Criminal groups charge for everything–to sell in the street; to operate an established business, large, medium or small; and extortion is so widespread that they even charge a “quota” of families who receive remittances from relatives in the United States. It is a common practice that the gangs try to recruit minors to act as informants or to sell drugs in the schools and if they refuse they are executed.

via Confronting the Central American Refugee Crisis.

Why Is the Wildlife Services Administrator So Proud? | Elly Pepper’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

While it’s true that the number of predators Wildlife Services does not match the number of birds it kills, this often-repeated statement obscures the real problem: Wildlife Services’ own reporting indicates that it kills 98% of the big carnivores like wolves, foxes, bears, and mountain lions that it interacts with.

The letter asserts that Wildlife Services is “fully transparent about all of [its] work—both lethal and nonlethal.” But examples showing otherwise are endless. A recently leaked audit shows that Wildlife Services recently lost $12 million dollars—it simply can’t find it.  NRDC’s report Fuzzy Math shows that “most economic analyses of predator control done by Wildlife Services …are inconsistent with economic analysis guidelines used by most federal agencies,” and often contain fundamental accounting errors. And, as they’ll tell you themselves, even Reps. DeFazio and Campbell have repeatedly been denied information they’ve requested from Wildlife Services.

The letter states that Wildlife Services is comprised of wildlife professionals who are “fully accountable to Congress and the public, comply with all laws, and are dedicated to preserving native ecosystems.” He can’t be talking about Jamie Olson, who posted pictures on Twitter (taken while on official duty) of his hunting dogs mauling a coyote caught in a leg-hold trap or Russell Files who intentionally captured his neighbor’s dog in multiple leg-hold traps, also while on duty. And he can’t be talking about the supervisors of the former Wildlife Services employees in films like NRDC’s Wild Things and Predator Defense’s Exposed, who were instructed not to report nontarget kills—in the words of one, to “shoot, shovel, and shut up.” So who is he talking about exactly?

via Why Is the Wildlife Services Administrator So Proud? | Elly Pepper’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.

Between A Rock And A Sectarian Bloodbath « The Dish

Joshua Landis offers an ominous prediction about the coming Shiite backlash:

I would not be shocked to see significant ethnic cleansing of Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad should ISIS attack and give the Iraqi Army a run for its money.

After all, the Iraqi army is large, has helicopters, sophisticated intelligence capabilities, tanks, artillery and all the rest. They were caught napping and without esprit de corps, much as the Syrian army was. But capable officers will emerge who will strip down the “power-sharing” fat that the US built and rebuild it based on loyalty to Maliki and Shiism, if most of that has not been done already. This is what happened in Syria, when we saw the Syrian Army unravel at the base during the first year of the Sunni uprising. The Syrian military was quickly rebuilt along sectarian and regional lines to make it much stronger and more loyal, with locally recruited Iranian style National Defense Forces modeled on the Islamic Guard. If Sunnis choose to form such local militias and ally with the Shiite regime, so much the better. If they do not and choose to lay low until they figure out whether ISIS can win in their regions, the Shiites will go it alone and assume all Sunnis are a fifth column.

via Between A Rock And A Sectarian Bloodbath « The Dish.

Hathos Alert « The Dish

A Kagan never disappoints. Several of them are being deployed right now across the neocon triangle to argue for the necessity of another war … to fix the catastrophe their first war created. But this paragraph is so special it deserves a place of its own in the annals of self-awareness:

Rejoining the fight means immediately sending air support; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets; air transportation; Special Operations forces; training teams; and more military equipment back into Iraq. It does not mean re-invading Iraq.

My italics. I’m laughing because the alternative is too painful.

via Hathos Alert « The Dish.

Send Kagan! By self.