THE ARCHIPELAGO: U.S./NATO’s Parting Gift to Afghanistan #AfghanistanTuesday

by Joe Scarry

When I was growing up, we were giving a very searing image of what was wrong with the Soviet Union — and, by contrast, what was supposed to be right about the United States — by a book by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. “The Gulag Archipelago” referred to the chain of prisons throughout the U.S.S.R to which enemies of the state were sent, and from which they never returned. You didn’t have to actually read the book to get the point; the title said it all.

After several years of working with the film about Guantanamo – “The Response” – I’ve become aware that the U.S. also engages in the same practice — setting up places to which enemies of the state are sent, and from which they never return. It’s called “indefinite detention.” And the highly visibly symbol of Guantanamo is just the tip of the iceberg of a chain of prisons and black sites around the world. A huge number of those prisons are in Afghanistan.

We all know the name “Bagram” — the detention site controlled by the U.S. in Afghanistan. But much of the detention of people in Afghanistan is a joint undertaking by the U.S. in combination with the Afghanistan government, which operates the actual sites. As reported in the New York Times, a recent investigation “found evidence of routine human rights abuses and torture at 16 detention centers” in Afghanistan. That’s out of 47 detention facilities, in 22 provinces, that were reviewed. It is these detention centers to which the U.S. consigns prisoners.

(And in case you thought Bagram itself was closing, see “U.S. Super-Sizing Afghan Jail It Promised to Abandon”)

Beyond the question of proven abuse in these sites is the fundamental question: who are the detainees and what are the terms of their detention? Are they civilians? Or P.O.W.s? Or something in-between? Do they have a future? Or is their future indefinite detention?

What is the total number of prisoners held in the detention archipelago set up by the U.S. in Afghanistan? Five thousand? Ten thousand? More?

The U.S. (and its NATO partners) will not be done in Afghanistan until it has undone the damage that it has done by filling an archipelago of prisons — hidden from sight — with the “enemies” that the U.S. wants to make disappear.

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The ARCHIPELAGO is just a part of the larger problem: the urgent need to DEMILITARIZE Afghanistan!

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Why War With Iran Is A Bad Idea and Israel’s Limited Capability

For those in the antiwar movement and those concerned and opposed to any military strike by the United States or Israel against Iran, everyone now needs to push the forces that forcing this potential attack to take place to push back as hard as possible.  This is very serious.  If there isn’t a strong, serious movement against a attack on Iran by the U.S. or Israel. No matter what public opinion is or what the lack of capability happens to be in regards to Israel launching an air attack on Iran on its own, Israel or the U.S. will go ahead and strike Iran this year!!!  This is very serious and a new movement needs to begin to oppose and educate the American public as to why this is such a horrible idea and why an attack on Iran will make the Iraq war look like a Sunday afternoon picnic with perfect sunshine.

Just as yesterday in my last blog post, I am posting a video from Cenk Ugyur of the Young Turks, whom gives a great summary as to why an attack against Iran is a horrible idea and Israel’s limited capabilities on launching such an attack.  Please, click on the play button below and educate yourself and be aware of what could potentially happen before its too late and we all pay the consequences of not paying attention when we should have.  Lets not repeat the same mistakes of 2002 – 2003 with Iraq.  Lets learn and fight back hard against the forces that seek constant warfare, anguish, and despair in this world. Fight back against the neo-conservative movement and show them whose boss!!!  Fight back now!!!!

The Mainstream Media and the Upcoming War Against Iran

The mainstream media, especially in the United States, have sought to build up to so called threat against Iran and its nuclear technology program.  In my previous blog post on 12/19/2011, I wrote that war against Iran is imminent for the following reasons, according to the propaganda campaign:

We, the United States, must support regional security in the Middle East and stand by our long standing ally, Israel, for her protection and security against a dangerous and growing threat of the Iranian regime.

We must prevent the proliferation of Iran’s nuclear technology and stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, endangering American and international security.

Now, the American media is seeking to build up the so-called threat from Iran by bringing up the question as to whether Iran is planning an attack on the United States.  Cenk Ugyur of the Young Turks recently put up an excellent video clip on CNN’s revamping the threat from Iran and the lack of creditability behind the report.  To watch the video, please click the play button below:

The Eighth Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair 2012

It’s that time of year again and we are thrilled to invite you and your organization to become a part of the Eight Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair on Saturday April 28, 12 pm to 5 pm, at Brooklyn College.

Through workshops on current events, music, arts activities, discussion groups, video presentations, information tables, and performance, we encourage all to develop a vision of a country where all people can enjoy their human and civil rights and lead lives of dignity and fulfillment.

Last year’s Peace Fair drew over 2000 visitors. The Peace Fair is FREE and open to the public.

The theme of this year’s fair : Ending War, Promoting Peace

YOU and YOUR ORGANIZATION can take part in the following ways:

• host an information table (can sell materials related to your organization)
• endorse the Fair and help spread the word
• place an ad in the program to publicize your organization while supporting this incredible event

Registration is open!

If you are interested in registering for a table, endorsing the event and/ or placing an ad in the program, download your Peace Fair Registration Forms.

Deadline for placing your ad in the program is April 18. It’s a simple and you can pay online.

Spread the word and download Save the Date! flyer.

This year we are proud to announce that we will have two featured speakers.

Featured Speakers

• Jeremy Scahill, investigative journalist, author and Democracy Now! correspondent
• Capt. Paul Chappell, Iraq War Vet and author

Performances by Rude Mechanical Orchestra and more upcoming voices for peace

Workshops and discussions on budget cuts, verterans’ needs, conflict resolutions, working for peace & more

Music, arts, spoken word, poetry, informational tables, button making, storytelling, activities for children.

If you have any questions please email: peacefair@brooklynpeace.org or call 718-624-5921.

Brooklyn Peace Fair 2012

Sponsored by:Brooklyn For Peace 41 Schermerhorn St., PMB 106 Brooklyn, NY 11201 718–624–5921 peacefair@brooklynpeace.org

Co-sponsored by: Brooklyn College Student Center E. 27th Street and Campus Raod Brooklyn, NY 11210

http://www.brooklynpeace.org/brooklynforpeace/committees/peace-fair/pf-2012/peace-fair-2012-pre-event.htm

Raising the question of peace outside churches of all faiths

From John Dear, S.J., at the National Catholic Reporter:

Last summer, 85-year-old Mennonite peace activist Peter Ediger decided to take his passion for peace to the churches in Las Vegas, where he lives. Peter works for Pace e Bene, the Franciscan nonviolence program. Like many of us, he’s concerned that the churches in the United States are ignoring, if not blatantly rejecting, the nonviolence of Jesus. So he wrote to area churches and announced that he would visit a different church every Sunday morning, keep vigil outside as parishioners entered and then join their worship service. During his vigil, he would hold up a large sign asking them about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount commandment, “Love your enemies.”

His one-man satyagraha campaign has been going on for six months now. When I heard about it, I called him to find out how it’s been and what he’s learned. He sent me a journal of his experiences.

From the start, he wanted to avoid self-righteousness, anger or violence, he wrote. “I hope I’m going in a spirit of love and less out of a spirit of judgment,” he wrote.

Read the rest here. 

Road to Damascus… and on to Armageddon?

Syria is the next Libya, or so we are told by the mindless pundits. But while these same talking heads fail to report on the carnage and aftermath of the American led regime change in Libya, they also prove their remarkable ignorance by not acknowledging Russia and China’s much cozier relations with Syria.

Diana Johnstone of Counterpunch has a wonderful analysis of the possible implications of  humanitarian intervention–aka regime change–in Syria:

What if pollsters put this question to citizens of the United States and the European Union :

“Which is more important, ensuring disgruntled Islamists freedom to overthrow the secular regime in Syria, or avoiding World War Three?”

I’ll bet that there might be a majority for avoiding World War III.

But of course, the question is never framed like that.

That would be a “realistic” question, and we Westerners from the heights of our moral superiority have no time for vulgar “realism” in foreign policy (except the eccentric Ron Paul, crying out in the wilderness of Republican primaries).

Because, in the minds of our political ruling class, the United States has the power to “make reality”, we need pay no attention to the remnants of whatever reality we didn’t invent ourselves.

Read the rest here. 

The War Frenzy of Netanyahu, Gingrich, Romney and Santorum

By Alan Gilbert from his blog Democratic Individuality:

Throughout the Weimar period, the German army and industry prepared to remilitarize rapidly. That apparatus was quick to become large and effective. Those Germans not suppressed by Hilter – some students, intellectuals, peasants, white collar workers – were revved on war and racism; to repeat and undo, as Heidegger insisted at Locarno in 1929 and again, on the 25th anniversary of his high school graduation at Konstanz in 1934, what had been done in World War I. See here. Hitler became powerfully armed by the middle 1930s, capable of waging renewed war, and struck quickly. Hitler had allied fascist regimes in Italy, Spain and Japan. And except for Russia, he prepared to fight :powers” that were amazingly disarmed (As the Soviets found out in trying to make an alliance with England just before signing the Molotov-Ribbertrop pact, England had few forces initially to put into the fray; France fell swiftly and its resistance to Vichy came largely from below…See here).

Today in Iran, a big resistance movement – those who participated in the green revolution – still exists, strengthened by the successes of Arab spring. Zeal for expansionary power is constrained to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (Sepah) called in the West the revolutionary guard, and the wretched Islamic leadership. As Paul Pillar demonstrates sadly below, there are two major powers who have behaved thuggishly in the Middle East: waged aggressions and brutalized colonized peoples. If the song being sung by Netanyahu and AIPAC were right, Iran would be one of them. But it isn’t. They speak only of themselves as the rogues they identify with others; it is the United States and Israel who have waged almost continual aggression and occupation. The United States rings Iran with 45 bases. See here. Iran has none in the local area, let alone in Europe or the Western hemisphere. Israel has some 300 nuclear weapons and a modern army with ideologues – rabbis – who praise the “justice” of slaughtering gentile children (perhaps the Revolutionary Guard to a higher power…). Seehere. Israel is using a phony Iranian “radical” group – MEK -to carry the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. These are murders of civilian, acts of aggression. Do the thugs who currently run Israel really look in the mirror and think they are exempt from such attacks (likewise, as other periods speed to catch up, Obama, Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum with the American use of drones)?