"Life is simple, we just insist on making it complicated." - Confucius
It’s not just Americans who are participating in these illegal acts. But what makes this more egregious for the U.S. is that our purpose in those regions is to restore some sense of civility. Now you’ve got employees of U.S. contractors in bed with the local mafia and buying kids for sex! That these guys have some kind of immunity from prosecution is morally outrageous. How can men be allowed to get away with rape simply because of location? Rape is a crime no matter where it occurs and it’s important to remember that even prostitution is against the law in Bosnia. The message we’re sending to kids is that it’s okay for America’s representatives to rape children. We talk about the future of the children, helping to build economies, democracy, the rule of law, and at the same time we fail to prosecute cases like this. That is immoral and hypocritical, and if DynCorp is involved in this in any way it should forfeit its contract and pay restitution in the form of training about trafficking.
—Christine Dolan (via warriorsrise)
The Road To Guantanamo
watch this, and i guarantee that you will end up hating the US government (if you don’t already).
(Source: youtube.com)
The Dreyfus Affair:
It’s not simply known as the Dreyfus trial. It’s not the Dreyfus case. It’s the Dreyfus Affair, a scandal that embroiled France and reverberated throughout Europe and the United States. In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a captain in the French army — and a Jew — was falsely accused of selling military secrets to Germany. He proclaimed his innocence and the evidence was weak, but he was court-martialed, convicted for high treason, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. He remained there for years, despite evidence that another man was guilty. The conspiracy against Dreyfus involved forged documents and the stifling of further investigation.
France was divided into Anti-Dreyfusards and Dreyfusards, one of whom was the novelist Èmile Zola. In 1898 he championed Dreyfus’ cause in an open letter to the French president, entitled “J’Accuse.” Zola himself was put on trial, and convicted, for libel. Anti-Semitism raged. And though Dreyfus was retried in 1899, he was found guilty again. The president pardoned him, but it took a civilian court of appeals to clear Dreyfus in 1906, after which he was reinstated and awarded the Legion of Honor. It wasn’t until 1995, however — more than a hundred years since he was first accused, and decades after he’d fought for France in World War I — that the French army publicly stated that Dreyfus was innocent.
(Source: warriorsrise)
Shadia Mansour ft. Dead Prez - Al Kuffiyeh 3Arabeyyeh
(Source: youtube.com, via warriorsrise)
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French…What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct…If they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs… As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.
—Mahatma Gandhi (via warriorsrise)
Rasheed M. Ka’bar, 16 April 1984, Tripoli. Student. Arrested in Nov. ‘80, following unrest at the College of Engineering. Accused of being follower of Sheikh Bishti (Mosque leader, tortured and killed by A. Zadma and Revolutionary Committees.) Sentenced to death by Revolutionary Committees, and executed at the College of Pharmacy, Tripoli. University students forcefully gathered to view execution.
(Source: warriorsrise)
Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once you change your thought pattern, you change your — your attitude. Once you change your attitude, it changes your behavior pattern and then you go on into some action.
—Malcolm X
(Source: warriorsrise)
Italian-occupied Libya
On 3 October 1911 Italy attacked Tripoli, claiming to be liberating the Ottoman Wilayats from Istanbul’s rule.
Despite a major revolt by the Arabs, the Ottoman sultan ceded Libya to the Italians by signing the 1912 Treaty of Lausanne. Tripoli was largely under Italian control by 1914, but both Cyrenaica and the Fezzan were home to rebellions led by the Senussi.
Two years after the treaty was signed, Libya was highly under Italian rule and fighting strengthened once fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, took control of Italy. Later, from 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under Gen. Badoglio waged a punitive pacification campaign. This allowed Gen. Rodolfo Graziani to crush Libyan opposition, ignoring all Italian and international laws.
Italians established concentration camps where over 100,000 Libyan lives were ended. Fighting intensified after the accession to power in Italy of the dictator Benito Mussolini. The Emir Muhammad Idris fled to Egypt in 1922. From 1922 to 1928, Italian forces under General Badoglio waged a punitive pacification campaign. Badoglio’s successor in the field, General Rodolfo Graziani, accepted the commission from Mussolini on the condition that he was allowed to crush Libyan resistance unencumbered by the restraints of either Italian or international law. Mussolini reportedly agreed immediately and Graziani intensified the oppression. Some Libyans continued to defend themselves, with the strongest voices of dissent coming from the Cyrenaica. Omar Mukhtar, a Senussi sheikh, became the leader of the uprising.
After a much-disputed truce on 3 January 1928, the Italian policy in Libya reached the level of full scale war. A barbed wire fence was built from the Mediterranean to the oasis of Jaghbub to sever lines critical to the resistance. Soon afterwards, the colonial administration began the wholesale deportation of the people of the Jebel Akhdar to deny the rebels the support of the local population. The forced migration of more than 100,000 people ended in concentration camps in Suluq and El Agheila where thousands died in squalid conditions. It is estimated by Arab historians that the number of Libyans who died - killed either through combat or mainly through starvation and disease - is at a minimum of 80,000 or even up to one third of the Cyrenaican population.
But Italian historian Gentile wrote that this amount is excessive, and only a few thousands died, mainly of disease (even related to the “Spanish flu epidemy” and consequences) and starvation. After Al-Mukhtar’s capture September 15, 1931 and his execution in Benghazi, the resistance petered out. Limited resistance to the Italian occupation crystallized round the person of Sheik Idris, the Emir of Cyrenaica.
(Source: warriorsrise)
Q&A: The Chechen Conflict
Chechnya has been at war for most of the last 10 years. Low-level violence is continuing, and the republic remains the main source of instability in the volatile Caucasus region.
How long has the Chechen conflict been going on?
Chechnya declared independence from Russia in November 1991, but former Russian President Boris Yeltsin waited until 1994 before sending in the troops to restore Moscow’s authority.
That provoked the first Chechen war, which ended in humiliating defeat for the Russian forces in 1996.
In 1997, the then rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was elected president and Russia recognised his government. But the issue of Chechnya’s independence was not resolved.
On 1 October 1999, Russian Prime Minister (later President) Vladimir Putin sent troops back in after Chechen militants crossed into the neighbouring Muslim region of Dagestan in an unsuccessful attempt to start an armed uprising.
Russia’s “anti-terrorist operation” also followed a wave of apartment block bombings in Moscow and other cities, widely blamed on Chechens.
What do the Chechens want?
Peace and stability are the main priority for most ordinary people.
Rebel fighters want independence, or at least self-rule, and they almost got it after 1996.
With Russian military forces out of the country, Chechens elected their own president in January 1997 - Aslan Maskhadov, the former Soviet artillery officer who had been the main rebel military commander during the war.
Under the peace deal negotiated with Moscow, a decision on Chechnya’s final political status was delayed for five years.
But Mr Maskhadov was unable in peacetime to control his more radical field commanders, such as Shamil Basayev, and the breakaway republic descended into anarchy, becoming one of the hostage-taking capitals of the world.
Are there any prospects for peace?
Not immediately.
Mr Maskhadov was the only man who could and would have represented the rebels in peace talks, and he was killed by Russian forces in March 2005.
It is also doubtful whether Russia can crush the rebels by military force. They have killed a number of key rebel leaders in 2005 and 2006, but Chechnya’s mountainous terrain is well-suited to guerrilla warfare.
The rebels stage small-scale attacks and ambushes on an almost daily basis. These are rarely reported outside Russia.
Are the rebels still capable of staging a major attack?
In October 2005, they carried out a raid on the city of Nalchik, the capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, in which more than 100 people died.
The last major atrocity was the seizure of a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in September 2004, which resulted in more than 300 deaths.
This attack, orchestrated by Shamil Basayev, followed the mid-air destruction of two Russian civilian airliners in August 2004, blamed on Chechen women suicide-bombers. Three months earlier, the rebels had assassinated the pro-Russian Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov.
On the whole, 2005 and 2006 have been quieter than most earlier years of the conflict.
Is there a risk of the conflict spreading beyond Chechnya?
Some Chechen rebel leaders appear to be trying to bring this about.
The most radical of them hope to start a holy war that would result in the creation of an Islamic state in the North Caucasus.
The attack in Beslan, in the republic of North Ossetia, followed an attack on the Interior Ministry in the republic of Ingushetia, in June 2004.
Some of the fighters in both attacks were reported to be not from Chechnya, but from other North Caucasian republics.
An Ingush rebel commander was reportedly killed in the attack on Nalchik.
What is Russia’s policy on Chechnya?
The key word is “normalisation”.
Moscow pinned great hopes on the election of a pro-Russian Chechen president in October 2003 - “a legitimate figure will appear, in whose hands all the mechanisms of power should be concentrated,” as President Vladimir Putin put it.
The election was intended to lead to a phased withdrawal of Russian forces, with local Chechen security forces taking increasing responsibility for security.
Earlier in the year, a new constitution had been passed in a referendum giving Chechnya more autonomy within the Russian Federation.
However, President Akhmad Kadyrov - who was elected after his three strongest rivals were forced to withdraw from the race - failed to unite Chechnya.
His security forces had a reputation for brutality and were widely regarded as a private army.
He was assassinated after nine months in power, when a massive bomb exploded at Grozny stadium during a ceremony marking victory in World War II.
Who is in charge of Chechnya now?
Mr Kadyrov’s successor, Alu Alkhanov, was elected in August 2004. Once again, his strongest rival was prevented from standing and his legitimacy is in question.
But Mr Alkhanov is little more than a figurehead. The most powerful figure in Chechnya is Mr Kadyrov’s son, Ramzan, who became prime minister in March 2006.
He controls an anti-terrorism squad blamed by Russian and Western rights groups for abductions, extra-judicial killings and torture. Mr Kadyrov denies the allegations.
Do the rebels have links with al-Qaeda?
It is possible but unproven.
It has been known for years that Muslim volunteers have travelled to Chechnya to join the fight, reportedly after attending training camps in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
In October 2002 a man suspected of helping to carry out the 9/11 attack told a German court that the alleged leader of the hijackers, Mohammed Atta, had wanted to fight in Chechnya.
One of the main field commanders, until his death in 2002 at the hands of Russian forces, was an Arab called Khattab - a veteran of the Afghan mujahideen war against the USSR.
He was alleged to have been in occasional telephone contact with Osama Bin Laden.
Intercepted telephone calls also led US officials to allege in 2002 that fighters in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, near the border with Chechnya, were in contact with al-Qaeda.
(Source: warriorsrise)
Haiti: The US Occupation, 1915-1934
Responding to near-anarchy in the Republic of Haiti, the United States occupied the nation from 1915 to 1934. During this time, they installed puppet governments, ran the economy, military and police and for all intents and purposes were in absolute control of the country. Although this rule was relatively benign, it was unpopular with both the Haitians and the citizens of the United States and American troops and personnel were withdrawn in 1934.
Haiti’s Troubled Background
Since gaining independence from France in a bloody rebellion in 1804, Haiti had gone through a succession of dictators. By the early twentieth century, the population was uneducated, poor and hungry. The only cash crop was coffee, grown on some sparse bushes in the mountains. In 1908, the country totally broke down. Regional warlords and militias known as cacos fought in the streets. Between 1908 and 1915 no less than seven men seized the presidency and most of them met some sort of gruesome end: one was hacked to pieces in the street, another killed by a bomb and yet another was probably poisoned.
The United States and the Caribbean
Meanwhile, the United States was expanding its sphere of influence in the Caribbean. In 1898, it had won Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain in the Spanish-American War: Cuba was granted freedom but Puerto Rico was not. The Panama Canal opened in 1914: the United States had invested heavily in building it and had even gone to great pains to separate Panama from Colombia in order to be able to administer it. The strategic value of the canal, both economically and militarily, was enormous. In 1914, the United States had also been meddling in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
Haiti in 1915
Europe was at war and Germany was faring well. President Woodrow Wilson feared that Germany might invade Haiti in order to establish a military base there: a base that would be very close to the precious Canal. He had a right to worry: there were many German settlers in Haiti who had financed the rampaging cacos with loans that would never be repaid and they were begging Germany to invade and restore order. In February of 1915, pro-US strongman Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam seized power and for a while it seemed that he would be able to look after US military and economic interests.
The US Seizes Control
In July of 1915, however, Sam ordered a massacre of 167 political prisoners and he was himself lynched by an angry mob that broke into the French Embassy to get at him. Fearing that anti-UScaco leader Rosalvo Bobo might take over, Wilson ordered an invasion. The invasion came as no surprise: American warships had been in Haitian waters for most of 1914 and 1915 and American Admiral William B. Caperton had been keeping a close eye on events. The marines that stormed the shores of Haiti were met with relief rather than resistance and an interim government was soon set up.
Haiti Under US Control
Americans were put in charge of public works, agriculture, health, customs and the police. General Philippe Sudre Dartiguenave was made president in spite of popular support for Bobo. A new Constitution, prepared in the United States, was pushed through a reluctant Congress: according to a debated report, the author of the document was none other than a young Assistant Secretary of the Navy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The most interesting inclusion in the constitution was the right of whites to own land, which had not been permitted since the days of French colonial rule.
Unhappy Haiti
Although the violence had ceased and order had been restored, most Haitians did not approve of the occupation. They wanted Bobo as president, resented the Americans’ high-handed attitude towards the reforms and were indignant about a Constitution that was not written by Haitians. The Americans managed to irk every social class in Haiti: the poor were forced to work building roads, the patriotic middle class resented the foreigners and the elite upper class was mad that the Americans did away with the corruption in government spending that had previously made them rich.
The Americans Depart
Meanwhile, back in the United States, the Great Depression hit and citizens began wondering why the government was spending so much money to occupy an unhappy Haiti. In 1930, President Hoover sent a delegation to meet with President Louis Borno (who had succeeded Sudre Dartiguenave in 1922). It was decided to hold new elections and begin the process of withdrawing American forces and administrators. Sténio Vincent was elected president and the removal of the Americans began. The last of the American Marines left in 1934. A small American delegation remained in Haiti until 1941 to defend American economic interests.
Legacy of the American Occupation
For a while, the order established by the Americans lasted in Haiti. The capable Vincent remained in power until 1941, when he resigned and left Elie Lescot in power. By 1946 Lescot was overthrown. This marked the return to chaos for Haiti until 1957 when they tyrannical François Duvalier took over, beginning a decades-long reign of terror.
Although the Haitians resented their presence, the Americans accomplished quite a bit in Haiti during their 19-year occupation, including many new schools, roads, lighthouses, piers, irrigation and agricultural projects and more. The Americans also trained the Garde D’Haiti, a national police force that became an important political force once the Americans left.
Source: Herring, Hubert. A History of Latin America From the Beginnings to the Present.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
(Source: warriorsrise)
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
