Channel 4. 2007
A very well made film. Fiction, but too close to the truth to be comfortable. I can’t believe this film hasn’t gone viral. Are people even scared of watching a spoof? C’mon folks. Share this widely.?
Musings by Shahidul Alam
A very well made film. Fiction, but too close to the truth to be comfortable. I can’t believe this film hasn’t gone viral. Are people even scared of watching a spoof? C’mon folks. Share this widely.?
UNTIL 1971 Pakistan was made up of two parts: west and east. Both Muslim-dominated territories were born out of India?s bloody partition 24 years earlier, though they existed awkwardly 1,600km apart, divided by hostile Indian territory. Relations between the two halves were always poor. The west dominated: it had the capital, Islamabad, and greater political, economic and military clout. Its more warlike Pashtuns and prosperous Punjabis, among others, looked down on Bengali easterners as passive and backward. Continue reading “The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide.”
They did it once and look where they got us. Do not let the hawks lead us into another meaningless slaughter. Their profit must not come at the cost of our peace.
Regarding the facts:
Talking Points?from Phyllis Bennis, Director, New Internationalism Project Institute for Policy Studlies
Tom Hayden ? A Call for Forceful Diplomacy?http://www.pdamerica.org/component/k2/item/1809-tom-hayden-a-call-for-forceful-diplomacy
McClatchy News Service, ?To some, US case for Syrian gas attack, strike has too many holes,???http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/02/201027/to-some-us-case-for-syrian-gas.html#.Uid-LFcpg_g
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, ?Which Syrian Chemical Attack Account Is More Credible????http://www.fair.org/blog/2013/09/01/which-syrian-chemical-attack-account-is-more-credible/ Continue reading “Syria: Stop another senseless war”
Living in the majority world, we have learnt to expect Western hypocrisy. We are used to the rhetoric on democracy accompanying active support of pliant dictators.? We see Western governments preaching human rights, while actively engaging in torture.? Assisting state machineries involved in torture. We see the deification of dissidents in non-Western countries, while Western dissidents are vilified, tortured, sometimes killed. We see extrajudicial killings being approved by presidents, because it is more cost-effective.
With the persecution of??Snowden?however, they appear to have given up the pretense. No longer are they concerned with appearing to be moral. A US citizen is being victimized because he believes in the core principles of his nation?s constitution. His crime lies in being patriotic. For putting public interest before state servitude.
Snowden?is indeed guilty. He spoke the truth. He protested against injustice. He upheld the rights of the common citizen. It is a guilt I would be proud to share. He should wear it as a badge of honour.
Snowden?is doing precisely what the founding fathers of the United States would have wished him to do. The spying by NSA is an assault on all of us who genuinely believe in democracy. A belief many have died for.
From the ashes of this witch hunt, many more Snowdens will surely rise.
Shahidul Alam
Dhaka
22nd August 2013
Stephen Dupont, Jack Picone and Tim Page are other photographers who are expressing their solidarity
Related links:
Father of Edward?Snowden?issues open letter to Obama denouncing ?Orwellian surveillance programs?
Australian film director Paul Cox denounces US-led manhunt of EdwardSnowden
Deepa Mehta also protests
On June 10, 2013, 30-year-old Iraq War veteran Daniel Somers killed himself after writing a powerful letter to his family explaining his reasons for doing so.
?My mind is a wasteland filled with visions of incredible horror, unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with all of the medications the doctors dare give,? reads the letter, which Somers? family allowed?Gawker?to?publish. Somers went on to reveal the source of his pain: Continue reading “Forced to Participate In War Crimes”
The US frequently refuses extradition requests where, unlike with Snowden, it involves serious crimes and there is an extradition treaty
By Glenn Greenwald Information Clearing House
August 07, 2013 “Information Clearing House?- “The Guardian” –?President Obama today?canceled a long-scheduled summit?with Russian President?Vladimir Putin?in part because the US president is upset that Russia defied his?personal directive?to hand over?Edward Snowden?despite the lack of an extradition treaty between the two nations. That means that US media outlets will spend the next 24 hours or so channeling the government’s views (excuse the redundancy) by denouncing the Russian evil of refusing extradition. When doing so, very few, if any, establishment media accounts will mention any of these cases: Continue reading “Do as I say, not as I do”