Archive for the ‘war on terror’ Category
Posted by kasama on May 1, 2012
Police disguised as actual people
Kasama has reported several times of the intensified usage of agent provocateurs and political entrapment in the U.S. — specifically charged with encouraging naive people to consider illegal acts and then arresting them for it. This has mainly been deployed against small circles of Muslim people — but is also actively being deployed against parts of the left.
It was sad and infuriating news to hear that five anarchist activists have been arrested in Cleveland on serious charges (reportedly: conspiracy and attempted use of explosive material to damage physical property affecting interstate commerce).
Rhey are being accused of “planning to blow up a bridge.” The most revealing sentence is the following government statement:
“The public was never in danger from the explosive devices, which were controlled by an undercover F.B.I. employee.”
In other words, at the core of this whole thing is an infiltrator and agent provocateur.
In one early account, the activists were (allegedly) first planning to set off some smokebombs to distract attention while banks signs were vandalized. Somehow the alleged plan was switched to damaging an obscure stretch of road crossing federal land.
Hmmmm: How did such a switch to federal land happen? Could it have been the idea of a certain federal officer who wanted jurisdiction for the bust? Could it be that some smoke action was not major enough for him and his bosses? Stay tuned. Obviously, there are many details here that will come to light, and we urge everyone not to assume the truth of any early reports or police claims.
But still a warning: People are being set up by sinister government forces. And from what has been reported, this appears to be one more example. If you don’t know what an “agent provocateur” is — this is a sign: learn about it.
The following appeared in the New York Times.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, civil liberties, police, war on terror | 2 Comments »
Posted by onehundredflowers on March 17, 2012
This was originally posted on Jadaliyyah.
“There is no contradiction between opposing every instance of US meddling in Iran–and every other country–and supporting the popular, democratic struggles of ordinary Iranians against dictatorship. Effective international solidarity requires that the two go hand in hand, for example, by linking the struggles of political prisoners in Iran and with those of political prisoners in the US, not by counterposing them. Iranian dissidents, like dissidents in the US, see their own government as their main enemy. The fact that Iranian activists also have to deal with sanctions and threats of military action from the US only makes their work and their lives more difficult. The US and Iranian governments are, of course, not equal in their global reach, but both stand in the way of popular democracy and human liberation. US-based activists must not undermine the brave and endangered work of Iranian opposition groups by supporting the regime that is ruthlessly trying to crush them.”
Solidarity and Its Discontents
By Raha Iranian Feminist Collective
While building solidarity between activists in the U.S. and Iran can be a powerful way of supporting social justice movements in Iran, progressives and leftists who want to express solidarity with Iranians are challenged by a complicated geopolitical terrain. The U.S. government shrilly decries Iran’s nuclear power program and expands a long-standing sanctions regime on the one hand, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes inflammatory proclamations and harshly suppresses Iranian protesters and dissidents on the other. Solidarity activists are often caught between a rock and a hard place, and many choose what they believe are the “lesser evil” politics. In the case of Iran, this has meant aligning with a repressive state leader under the guise of “anti-imperialism” and “populism,” or supporting “targeted” sanctions.
As members of a feminist collective founded in part to support the massive post-election protests in Iran in 2009, while opposing all forms of US intervention, we take this opportunity to reflect on the meaning and practice of transnational solidarity between US-based activists and sections of Iranian society. In this article, we look at the remarkable situation in which both protests against and expressions of support for Ahmadinejad are articulated under the banner of support for the “Iranian people.” In particular, we examine the claims of critics of the Iranian regime who have advocated the use of “targeted sanctions” against human rights violators in the Iranian government as a method of solidarity. Despite their name, these sanctions trickle down to punish broader sections of the population. They also stand as a stunning example of American power and hypocrisy, since no country dare sanction the US for its illegal wars, torture practices and program of extrajudicial assassinations. We then assess the positions of some “anti-imperialist” activists who not only oppose war and sanctions on Iran but also defend Ahmadinejad as a populist president expressing the will of the majority of the Iranian people. In fact, Ahmadinejad’s aggressive neo-liberal economic policies represent a right-wing attack on living standards and on various social welfare provisions established after the revolution. And finally, we offer an alternative notion of and method for building international solidarity “from below,” one that offers a way out of “lesser evil” politics and turns the focus away from the state and onto those movement activists in the streets.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, feminism, imperialism, Iran, organizing, politics, repression, war on terror, women | Tagged: Ahmadinejad, internationalism, Raha Iranian Feminist Collective, solidarity | 1 Comment »
Posted by onehundredflowers on February 14, 2012
This comes from a report released today by the NYCLU.
NYCLU Analysis Reveals NYPD Street Stops Soar 600% Over Course of Bloomberg Administration
February 14, 2012 — The NYPD stopped and interrogated people 684,330 times in 2011, by far the highest total since the Police Department began collecting data on its troubling stop-and-frisk program in 2002. This represents a 603 percent increase in stop-and-frisks since that year, the first year of the Bloomberg administration, when there were only 97,296 stops.
Of those subjected to NYPD street stops in 2011, nearly nine out of 10 were completely innocent, meaning they were neither arrested nor issued a summons. About 87 percent were black or Latino.
“Last year alone, the NYPD stopped enough totally innocent New Yorkers to fill Madison Square Garden more than 30 times over,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “It is not a crime to walk down the street in New York City, yet every day innocent black and brown New Yorkers are turned into suspects for doing just that. It is a stunning abuse of power that undermines trust between police and the community.”
Under the Bloomberg administration, the NYPD has conducted more than 4.3 million street stops. About 88 percent of those stops – nearly 3.8 million – resulted in no arrest or summons.
“These numbers make clear that illegal stops-and-frisks have become an epidemic in New York City,” said Darius Charney, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is currently litigating Floyd v. City of New York, a federal class action lawsuit challenging the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices. “And the only antidote is meaningful, independent oversight of the Department.”
“I have been stopped, questioned and frisked four times,” said Joseph Midgley, a Picture the Homeless civil rights leader. “Each time I was standing in a public place, committing no crime. Each time, I was asked for an ID, my pockets were searched and I was asked if I had anything illegal on me, which I did not. Each time, the police found nothing illegal, and I was not charged, nor given a ticket. It made me feel profiled, pre-judged and judged. Now that I am homeless, the police harassment has only gotten worse. This form of discriminatory policing is an outrage and should be stopped now.”
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Posted in African American, police, prison, racism, war on drugs, war on terror, youth | Tagged: Latino, NYCLU, stop and frisk | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on February 3, 2012
This piece also appears on Dissident Voice and Cold Warfare.
by Gary Leupp
A recent column by the always insightful Ray McGovern succinctly demonstrates the problem.
The world of science acknowledges matter-of-factly that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. There is simply no evidence for one. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, staffed by specialists on nuclear power and maintaining a tight watch on Iran’s civilian facilities, finds no evidence of a military program. Two successive reports (National Intelligence Estimates) produced (in 2007 and 2010) by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies have declared with confidence that there is no operative weapons program. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and (even) Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak have both recently stated (or let it slip) that Iran is not currently attempting to build nuclear weapons.
But then there is the political world of systematic disinformation. The world of big, bold lies which, as they are constantly repeated, acquire a certain life of their own. Thus the mainstream press and the entire political class in this country refer routinely to “Iran’s nuclear weapons program” as though there obviously were one. As though any questioning of the charge were thoroughly naive.
(By the way: try doing an advanced Google search for the exact phrase “Iran’s nuclear weapons program” and you will call up 4,640,000 results. Try “Israel’s nuclear weapons program”—which we know exists—and you’ll get 533,000. What does this tell you?)
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Gary Leupp, Iran, Israel, war on terror, Zionism | 29 Comments »
Posted by kasama on February 3, 2012
Police-State Kelly must go!
Asad Sadiq of the Bait-ul-Qaim mosque in New Jersey said:
“If you attack Cuba, are all the Catholics going to attack here? This is called guilt by association.”
From Daily Mail
A secret police document shows that the New York City Police Department increased surveillance of thousands of mosques and Muslims.
The revelation contradicts the department’s claim that it does not conduct religious profilingPolice analysts listed a dozen mosques from central Connecticut to the Philadelphia suburbs. None has been linked to terrorism, either in the document or publicly by federal agencies.obtained by the Associated Press
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Posted in civil liberties, Human rights, immigrants, immigration, imperialism, police, religion, repression, war on terror | 1 Comment »
Posted by kasama on January 23, 2012
Chicano antiwar activist Carlos Montes’ next court hearing is Tuesday, January 24.
- Attorney Jorge Gonzalez will present and argue a legal motion to dismiss all charges on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
- This hearing will deal with the FBI-instigated Sheriffs raid, arrest, and prosecution of Carlos.
- Carlos Montes has declared himself “not guilty” on 6 felony charges, dealing with an alleged 42-year old arrest and firearms code violations.
- Montes’ arrest is part of the FBI attack on 23 other antiwar and solidarity activists.
Join the national call-in day. Demand:
“Dismiss charges against Carlos Montes. There is no evidence!”
- President Obama at 202-456-1111
- Attorney General Holder at 202-514-2001
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Posted in >> analysis of news, antiwar, repression, war on terror | Leave a Comment »
Posted by kasama on December 16, 2011
Some of the Iraqi dead
“In their own words… Marines came to view 20 dead civilians as not ‘remarkable,’ but as routine.”
“Troops… grew increasingly twitchy, killing more and more civilians in accidental encounters. Others became so desensitized and inured to the killing that they fired on Iraqi civilians deliberately while their fellow soldiers snapped pictures, and were court-martialed. The bodies piled up… Charges were dropped against six of the accused Marines in the Haditha episode, one was acquitted and the last remaining case against one Marine is scheduled to go to trial next year.”
“That sense of American impunity ultimately poisoned any chance for American forces to remain in Iraq, because the Iraqis would not let them stay without being subject to Iraqi laws and courts, a condition the White House could not accept.”
As the U.S. formally withdraws from Iraq, it leaves behind an army of paid mercenaries, a country on the edge of civil war, hundreds of thousands of mourning families, and the memories of horrific war crimes.
Twenty four civilians were killed in various attacks in Haditha, in 2005, including seven women and three children. No one was punished. Evidence was supposed to have been destroyed. Now the interviews with the soldiers have been discovered and published revealing the events and mentality that murdered Iraqis that day.
These 400 pages lay bare what is usually so hidden (buried along with the bodies) . Here is the reality of U.S. occupations. Here are the actual activities of the ‘boots on the ground” in the town of Haditha — but it is an exposure of the whole larger operation in which the murder of Iraqi people was routine, accepted and “the cost of doing business.”
While the U.S. media talks of soldiers who are so routinely and deceitfully sanitized as “helping the foreign peoples” and “keeping America safe” — the interviews from Haditha reveal what is actually being done.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq was a war of unprovoked aggression, unleashed using a cynical government machinery of complete lies. Iraq was pounded into pieces using a high tech aerial “shock and awe” followed by massive foreign invasion.
Not only were the responsible war criminals Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Powell kept out of court and prison (why no Hague Tribunal for these war criminals?), but their criminal war policies then pursued by a new President Obama (whose main claim to fame was that he opposed the war from the beginning)! And only a few of the lowest soldiers on the ground have even faced the possibility of trial — which is itself a white wash. And their “trials” are (over and over) leading to acquittal. For those cases that become scandals, “prosecution” is the form of official whitewash.
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Posted in Barack Obama, censorship, imperialism, Iraq, Iraq war, military, war on terror | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on November 11, 2011
The following talk was given, Nov. 5, at the first national conference of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, in Chicago. Sundin is a leader in the anti-war movement. Her home was among those raided by the FBI, on Sept. 24, 2010.by Jess Sundin
Sisters and brothers, I’m so glad to be here with you today. I’m honored to speak on the same platform with so many people I respect, whose examples I strive to follow. Not only my friend, Carlos Montes, but also the speakers you will hear later – the families of political prisoners from the Palestinian struggle – Sami Al Arian, Ghassan Elashi and Abdelhaleem Ashqar. These men, like Carlos, have dedicated their lives to the liberation of their peoples and making this world a more just one for all of us.
We are here today because the powers that be will do anything to silence voices for justice. U.S. imperialists have bombed out whole cities, killed, tortured and starved millions of people – all in the pursuit of power and profit. We are here today as those who have raised our voices to oppose imperialist wars. We have organized our communities to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, those directly in the crosshairs of the imperialist war machine.
And yet, they dare to call us the terrorists, to treat us as the criminals. But turning reality on its head cannot save them as their grip on the world slips every day. From the Arab uprisings to Occupy Wall Street, and all points in between, the war criminals are losing ground. They cannot control the will of the peoples of the Middle East or South America, so they make criminals of those here in the U.S. who support self-determination for the world’s peoples.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, antiwar, civil liberties, police, repression, war on terror | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on October 22, 2011
Mark Kennedy << one exposed police infiltrator of environmental groups
Time for self-education and collective discussion on police, disruption, tactics, and what it means to enter serious conflict with powerful forces.
Inform yourself. Be alert without being paranoid. Don’t be naive. Don’t rush into things. Help train others. When suspicious gather facts.
Kasama has run a series of articles on police infiltration: We have documented an important example in Britain, and one FBI infiltrator in Minneapolis (several articles appeared).
Further: In a discussion of the following article, CWM made the important point that not all police infiltrators are agent provocateurs, some are informants. Their profile, activity and goals can be very different. CWM wrote:
“The undercover police are mostly there to gather information and they gravitate towards tasks where there is information.”
While it is true, that gathering information quietly is often the main activity of police agents — it is also true that provocateur activity happens to two levels:
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Posted in >> analysis of news, police, surveillance, war on terror | 9 Comments »
Posted by onehundredflowers on September 24, 2011
Posted in >> analysis of news, civil liberties, ecology, environment, global warming, movies, political prisoners, politics, repression, surveillance, war on terror | Tagged: Daniel McGowan, Earth Liberation Front | 3 Comments »
Posted by kasama on September 21, 2011
Carlos Montes
Kasama received the following from the Committee to Stop FBI repression.
People across the country called into Attorney General Holder and President Obama on August 29, in solidarity with Carlos Montes, a veteran Chicano activist with decades of work in the immigrants rights, antiwar, and social justice movements. Montes is the target of government repression and the FBI’s dirty tricks. When the FBI raided several Midwest homes and served subpoenas on September 24, 2010, Carlos Montes’ name was listed on the FBI search warrant for the Anti-War Committee office in Minneapolis – the organizing center for the 2008 Republican National Convention protests, where Carlos participated.
Then on May 17, 2011, the LA Sheriffs broke down Carlos’ door, arrested him, and ransacked his home. They took political documents, a computer, cell phones and meeting notes having nothing to do with the charges. The FBI attempted to question Montes while he was handcuffed in a squad car, regarding the case of the 23 Midwest anti-war and solidarity activists.
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Posted in police, political prisoners, repression, war on terror | Leave a Comment »
Posted by onehundredflowers on September 19, 2011
Posted in >> analysis of news, civil liberties, cointelpro, organizing, police, political prisoners, politics, surveillance, war on terror, youth | Tagged: Bradley Crowder, Brandon Darby, David McKay, Texas 2 | 3 Comments »
Posted by onehundredflowers on September 15, 2011
Posted in Media, politics, repression, video, war on terror | Tagged: 9/11 | 5 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on September 12, 2011
Attorney General John Ashcroft became a fitting symbol of police-state moves
The following piece by Clark Kissinger hit hard at the changes happening in the U.S. in the wake of 9/11. It gives a flavor of the times, and of the more radical responses.
There was more than just a whiff of fascism in the air.
This piece highlighted the special “Bad Moon Rising” issue of the Revolutionary Worker in July 2003.
The New Domestic Order:
What Has Changed, Why It Changed, and How It Matters
by C. Clark Kissinger
The America that we have known for many generations is quickly disappearing. Yet many do not yet recognize the full extent of what is taking place. People may hear about immigrants being secretly detained, or of a plan to give the Pentagon access to the financial, health and credit card information of every citizen. They may have a sense that the “checks and balances” of government are not working, and that the rule of law is increasingly being replaced by the rule of men — men with an extreme new agenda. They may sense that behind the campaign of “security” and “public safety” this extreme agenda is being implemented. The full picture remains obscure, but many people are deeply troubled.
Vice President Cheney has spoken of a “new normalcy” for America in the context of a war that may last for generations. What are the full dimensions of this, what are the implications, and where is it headed?
Posted in C. Clark Kissinger, capitalism, CIA, civil liberties, far right, fascism, imperialism, military, repression, war on terror | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on September 11, 2011
The following appeared thanks to RT. This and related graphics are available with discussion of methodology.
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Posted in imperialism, military, war on terror | 3 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on September 10, 2011
Thanks to Brad Sigal for suggesting this post, which also appears on OpEdNews.
By Jess Sundin
For ten years, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, have been used as a pretext for endless war — tens of thousands dead in Afghanistan; more than a million killed in Iraq; and a campaign of repression at home, carried out against thousands of Arabs, Muslims, and now, even the peace movement. The road from 9/11 led the FBI to my door, with an early morning raid on my home, and a secret grand jury investigating two dozen peace activists on terrorism charges.
When the Bush Administration used the events of September 11 to justify war against Afghanistan, I joined thousands to march against that war. How many of us knew it would become the longest war in US history? Costing tens of thousands of lives, and nearly 500 billion dollars, this war has lost the support of the majority of Americans. Even so, the Obama Administration continues Bush’s war, making it his own. Under his command, the war has expanded into Pakistan, and the “war on terror” is still offered as justification for aggressive military policies across the globe.
After 9/11, a war was launched on civil liberties inside the US. In an effort to clear the way for endless war abroad, the government created fear of an enemy within. I watched in shame as this unfolded first within Arab and Muslim communities — thousands of immigrants were rounded up and questioned, many detained or deported. This has become a permanent campaign of repression and it has now expanded beyond the Muslim immigrant community.
The PATRIOT Act, with 160 provisions, opened the door for unrestrained spying on American residents and citizens, authorizing the FBI and other agencies to tap our homes, read our emails, and comb through our trash. It laid the groundwork for a network of undercover agents hiding within our own communities, from mosques to peace groups. At the same time, we witnessed massive scale racial profiling, especially at airports, where Muslims, Sikhs, Arabs and South Asians were questioned and searched, sometimes denied boarding onto flights they had paid for.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, antiwar, civil liberties, police, repression, war on terror | 2 Comments »
