Category Archives: human rights

Could I Become the Next Sandra Bland? | Dame Magazine

three White women passed through the full-body scanner at the TSA security line, with no fuss, before they got to us. My mother entered first. She followed protocol: raising her hands, and then stepping out of the scanner when she was asked. The TSA official said she had to search my mother’s hair.

Because the TSA has an ugly, discriminatory history with scrutinizing Black hair, I was expecting a pat down on my long Senegalese twists. But I fully expected them to lay off my mother, whose hair is long, thin, and bone straight. The idea of her being able to hide so much as a pen in her hair is absolutely comical. But there was the TSA guard, with her claws up, ready to work through my mother’s scalp. That’s when my mother did what has now become the unthinkable: She refused.

I watched the TSA guard swell like an airbag with faux-institutional power, and at that moment I forgot myself, and started right through the full body scanner, hearing but not hearing the other TSA officer yelling at me, “Ma’am, ma’am, step back. Step back!” I was not going to let them take my mother from me. I know my anger could cost me my life—we are living in a climate where a Black woman can be brutalized or killed in custody and then blamed for her own death. But that was exactly why I was fuming. My instincts were locked and loaded, a simple chant thrumming in my head: Sandra Bland, Sandra Bland, Sandra Bland.

via Could I Become the Next Sandra Bland? | Dame Magazine.

“There were two young people fighting at the apartment I was…

 This was really wrong and still it goes on – jailing people and holding them for… not being US citizens and???

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“There were two young people fighting at the apartment I was staying in, so the police came. They took all our IDs and saw that my green card had expired, so they took me to jail. It was my fault for not renewing it, but I really thought they’d let me go after a few days. I couldn’t afford a lawyer. When they finally assigned me one, she told me that I was going to have to stay in jail and that it was going to take over a year to sort out. I couldn’t believe it. There were four times that I went in front of the judge: first they presented the case, next they figured out the charges, next they started working on the case, then they made a decision. But there were several months between each court appearance. I had never gotten in trouble before. Just a few misdemeanors when I was younger. But I had to wait in jail for 18 months. It was my fault, though. I should have renewed my green card.”

via “There were two young people fighting at the apartment I was….

Turkey, Germany, the Kurds, ISS – spin, twist, shout and bomb…

Ankara had, in fact, been sponsoring jihadists in Syria up until 2014, however, not single-handedly. It was done with western – including German – knowledge and approval. Recently, it has been pointed out repeatedly that “the locations in Turkey, where IS was recruiting were known to the local population.” The human rights activist Osman Süzen, for example, posed the question, “if the people know how these organizations work, where they meet and how they recruit, does the state not know it as well?”[2] The same rhetorical question could be raised to the German government, not only because, as revealed last year, Turkey is officially a “reconnaissance objective” of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND).[3] One can assume that, since Bundeswehr units are stationed in south eastern Turkey, in Kahramanmaraş, they would also be involved in the common practice of reconnaissance of their area of operations. For years, German police and intelligence services have had under surveillance German jihadists leaving for Syria, usually with the aid of networks in Turkey. Despite its detailed knowledge of the jihadists’ activities in Turkey, Berlin has never interfered in Ankara’s support for IS until it joined the war against IS. In August 2012, the US DIA military intelligence agency bluntly explained, why various western governments have generously approved the Turkish-Saudi aid to IS. A “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria could help isolate the government in Damascus.[4]

via www.german-foreign-policy.com.

We Are Rebels: Western Sahara

Western Sahara, bordering Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Atlantic Ocean, is the last remaining colony in Africa still waiting for its independence. Despite a rich history, the Sahrawi people today find themselves deprived of the fundamental right to have a land on which to live in peace and freedom. In one of the most hostile regions to human life across the planet, Western Sahara is also a rich country; its resources consist of large amounts of phosphates and abundant fish stocks among others.

After the withdrawal of Spain in 1975, neighboring Morocco illegally invaded the territory, forcing its indigenous population, the Sahrawi people, to live under occupation or face exile. Since then, the Sahrawi people have been divided between two lands. Those living in the “Occupied Zone,” endure an occupation violently imposed on them by the Moroccan government. Those who fled during Morocco’s initial attacks reside today in the refugee camps in the Algerian desert or within a narrow strip of barren land. This “Liberated Territory” of Western Sahara is flanked by a wall built by Morocco and armed with a standing military, electronic sensors, and buried landmines.

via We Are Rebels: Western Sahara.

“Serving in the army, you can say that I was a pawn in another…

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“Serving in the army, you can say that I was a pawn in another person’s game. But you can say the same thing about someone that works at JP Morgan. Sometimes it seemed like the elites were playing chess with our lives. They trained me to jump out of planes and kill people. I didn’t have anything against the Iraqis. I wasn’t fighting against them. I was fighting to get home to my family. So was I a pawn? Maybe. But if it weren’t for the higher-ranking people in the military who saw potential in me, and encouraged me to get an education and become a leader, I’d never even have achieved broad enough horizons to ask these types of questions.”

via “Serving in the army, you can say that I was a pawn in another….

Turkish Jets Strike Kurds in Iraq, Islamic State in Syria – The New York Times

{With “friends” like this, America needs no more enemies!} Turkish jets struck camps belonging to Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, authorities said Saturday, the first strikes since a peace deal was announced in 2013, and again bombed Islamic State positions in Syria.

The strikes in Iraq targeted the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, whose affiliates have been effective in battling the Islamic State group. The strikes further complicate the U.S.-led war against the extremists, which has relied on Kurdish ground forces making gains in Iraq and Syria.

A spokesman in Iraq for the PKK, which has been fighting Turkey for autonomy since 1984 and is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and its allies, said the strikes likely spelled the end of the peace process.

“Turkey has basically ended the cease-fire,” Zagros Hiwa told The Associated Press. He said the first wave of strikes launched overnight didn’t appear to cause casualties.

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party, said the strikes amounted to an end of the two-year-old truce. It called on the government to end the bombing campaign and resume a dialogue with the Kurds.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced later on Saturday that he had ordered “a third wave” of raids against the IS in Syria and a “second wave” of strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq, but didn’t provide details on areas hit. He said the operations would continue.

via Turkish Jets Strike Kurds in Iraq, Islamic State in Syria – The New York Times.