Category Archives: terrorism

Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian

On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead withthe trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases. Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva convention.

via Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian.

League of the South Chieftain Talks ‘Race War’ | Hatewatch

“We Southern nationalists do not want a race war (or any sort of war). But if one is forced on us, we’ll participate,” wrote Hill on the LOS website. “Southern whites are geared up and armed to the teeth.”

Such statements may come as a shock, given the fact that the LOS has spent much of the last two years attempting to promote its message to “regular” southerners through the use of mainstream, conservative messaging on issues such as “traditional marriage” and the “demographic displacement of southerners.” Of course, that was never a very honest presentation. After all, Hill is the same man who at a Georgia LOS meeting in 2011 urged his constituents to begin stocking up on AK-47s, hollow-point bullets, and, most remarkably, tools to derail trains.

via League of the South Chieftain Talks ‘Race War’ | Hatewatch.

Tea party may be on verge of becoming a 3rd party | News , World | THE DAILY STAR

Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp, one of Boehner’s strongest critics, said a fierce struggle between establishment Republicans and “grassroots conservatives” is brewing. “The war is on,” he said.

And that likely will show itself in continued infighting within party ranks and between the House and the Senate over pending issues like passing a budget, increasing the nation’s borrowing authority and passing a new use of force agreement for Obama in the battle against ISIS militants.

Robin Lauermann, a political scientist at Messiah College, thinks the “war” Huelskamp speaks of will eventually lead to an open split between tea party Republicans and their more mainstream party colleagues. “I think it continues until you have the fatal error, the fatal decision that does not get made that creates a catastrophe, or the fatal decision that does get made,” Lauermann said.

That could well happen over Obama’s health care program, she said. The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule later this year on the constitutionality of a part of the law. If the court rules against the government, Obamacare could be gutted. While the program isn’t widely popular in the United States, a sufficient number of people have begun to see the benefit and could turn against Republicans. That may force the mainstream to kick out the tea party so that mainstream Republicans can begin to find acceptable replacement legislation.

via Tea party may be on verge of becoming a 3rd party | News , World | THE DAILY STAR.

Tim’s El Salvador Blog: El Mozote and Bill O’Reilly

El Mozote and Bill O’Reilly

Recent stories in The Nation and Huffington Post have criticized Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly, then a young TV reporter for CBS News, for his role when the US government and US mass media turned a blind eye to the 1981 massacre at El Mozote.

via Tim’s El Salvador Blog: El Mozote and Bill O’Reilly.

Marina Cantacuzino: Let’s leave ‘evil’ out of the Anders Breivik case – Commentators – Voices – The Independent

Any of us who attempt to understand evil may be accused, as indeed Gitta Sereny was, of forgiving evil. However, the struggle is not with forgiving but with empathising while maintaining moral integrity. Stephen Cherry, in his fascinating book Healing Agony (Re-Imagining Forgiveness), gets to the heart of the matter when he concludes: “In order to empathise with the cruel and heartless you have to imagine being cruel and heartless yourself.” To realise that evil isn’t so different from us can be a terrifying place to visit. However, since identification and empathy are also given to the victims, therein lies the restorative process.

via Marina Cantacuzino: Let’s leave ‘evil’ out of the Anders Breivik case – Commentators – Voices – The Independent.

Excusing bigotry to run for President?

“I don’t chuck people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view. I don’t drink alcohol, but, gosh, a lot of my friends, maybe most of them, do. You know, I don’t use profanity, but, believe me, I have got a lot of friends who do,” Huckabee said.

“Some people really like classical music and ballet and opera. It’s not my cup of tea. I would like to think that there’s room in America for people who have different points of views without screaming, shouting and wanting to shut their businesses down.”

Such rhetoric is central to Huckabee’s efforts to engage social conservatives.

In recent weeks, Huckabee has picked fights with the White House over President Barack Obama’s friendship with Beyonce Knowles. Huckabee says the Obama daughters should not treat the entertainer as a role model because she is overly sexual.

via News from The Associated Press.

5 Issues More Important Than Miss Lebanon’s Selfie With Miss Israel | A Separate State of Mind | A Lebanese Blog

1 – Our Kidnapped Soldiers in Arsal:

How many months has it been since those soldiers were taken hostage by Islamists? How many days have their parents set up camps, blocked roads and did the impossible to bring attention to their sons? How many of those soldiers have been beheaded already to exert pressure on the country? How many questions of those can you answer without reverting to google?

Just today, two of our soldiers were injured by Israelis in the South. But obviously, that is less important than a selfie.

2 – Tripoli Had Two Explosions Last Week:

Between Charlie, Ahmed and every single Frenchman last week, we have failed to notice that the country lost 9 people in a double suicide attack in Tripoli last week. We didn’t have vigils in Beirut about them. No one protested. I bet few even cared. The news that one of the victims of those attacks was a bonafide hero didn’t even make a dent in our news. We couldn’t even agree on a hashtag to support Tripoli in the explosions. If you’re wondering, the hashtag to support sally is #StandForSally.

3 – No President:

I’m listing this as the issue because it has become so passé. Our parliament failed yet again to elect a president last week. How many times have those been? I personally don’t know so you’re forgiven if you don’t know either. I suppose a country without a president is surely allowed to be panicky about a selfie with the enemy, right?

4 – A Recycled Parliament:

Never since the Civil War has a Lebanese parliament been a space occupying lesion as this one. They’ve been around for more than 5 years now. They will be around for 2 more. They are not passing any laws. They are not serving the country in anything, and if you look at point number 3, they have failed again and again to elect a president. Who cares when Miss Lebanon took a selfie with Miss Israel goddamit!

5 – Rule of Guns:

Yves Nawfal passed away last week because he was shot by people who thought above the law and whose entire lives revolve around guns. A couple of days after Yves’ death, another girl named Eliane Safatly was shot dead by a man who protested with his gun to not being allowed into a night club. Americans have their gun rights protected in their constitution. We can’t even begin to talk about an issue that’s killing our youth one by one. But, again, just look at that traitorous selfie for fuck’s sake!

via 5 Issues More Important Than Miss Lebanon’s Selfie With Miss Israel | A Separate State of Mind | A Lebanese Blog.

Abou Ali Issa: The Lebanese Hero Of The Tripoli Explosions | A Separate State of Mind | A Lebanese Blog

In a few days from now, no one will remember that there were two suicide bombers in Tripoli who targeted innocents, let alone the existence of a man who prevented those terrorists from doing so much more harm hadn’t he sacrificed his own life to save everyone else.

Today, there are hundreds of families in Tripoli and Jabal Mohsen who owe their wholeness to Abou Ali Issa. They owe him the presence of their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. They owe him the sheer relief they felt when their loved ones came back home that day.

Abou Ali Issa’s family, his wife and seven children, did not get that same sense of relief and happiness. Their family will never be whole again, and justice for their father and husband will probably never come.

This is my attempt to make the memory of their father and husband that of a national hero, as it should be, as he is the kind of people who deserve to be paraded around as national symbols, as household names who should never be forgotten, because people like him are rare to come by and they should always be cherished and honored and respected.

May he rest in peace. There are fewer people deserving of such peace.

via Abou Ali Issa: The Lebanese Hero Of The Tripoli Explosions | A Separate State of Mind | A Lebanese Blog.