“France and Race: A Question of identité”

Colonialism, Consequences: Conflict, War-made migration, fallout — one example in the West

Excerpt, minor edit by Carolyn Bennett 

From BBC Radio 4 April 10-15

“Julian Jackson explores the central issue in the current election campaign for the Presidency of France: race, religion and what it means today to be French.

“Clichy-sous-Bois [majority population Muslims of North African heritage situated a few miles from Paris’s center] is a notorious Parisian ghetto. …

“The wooded, gently rolling slopes of this borough to the northeast of the capital are stacked with residential blocks, no burned-out blocks or abandoned lots. Clichy is kempt.

“In 2005, in this almost wholly immigrant community, the deaths of two Muslim youths fleeing police sparked some of the worst and most widespread race riots seen in Europe for generations.

“There are today 5 million Muslims in France, the largest population in western Europe, largely as a result of the country's colonial past in north Africa. Since the 2005 riots, their presence has increasingly been a central issue in French society.

“In 2009, the government instituted a national inquiry, with town-hall meetings and debates that resulted in much handwringing over what it means today ‘to be French,’ not least in the light of the country’s ban on wearing the full Islamic veil in public.

“Now there is widespread belief that with the far-right National Front led by the charismatic Marine le Pen, there may be a rerun of the 2002 shock elimination by the party of one of the main contenders in the first round of voting.

“In this program, Julian Jackson, Professor of modern French history at Queen Mary, University of London, visits Clichy and meets the men and women who are at the heart of the debate — Jean-Francois Copé, chief of [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy’s UMP [center-right political party, Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire)], Harlem Désir, Socialist MP and founder of SOS Racism and Marine le Pen to discuss what being French is all about and how they reconcile the fraught arguments over race and religion.”

Sources and notes

“France and Race: A Question of Identite”

Producer: Simon Elmes; Broadcasts Tuesday April 10, 2012, 20:00, BBC Radio 4

Sunday April 15, 2012, 17:00, BBC Radio 4, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fhysd

Wikipedia notes

Clichy-sous-Bois (formerly Clichy-en-Aulnois), located 15.8 km (9.8 mi) from the center of Paris, is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. The vast majority of its population is made up of Muslims of North African heritage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clichy-sous-Bois

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_for_a_Popular_Movement

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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THOUSANDS STOLEN, FORCED TO KILL

Caught in global act and consequences of conflict and War — 300,000 children forced to soldier in more than thirty armed conflicts throughout the world. The practice of kidnapping — forceful recruitment of — children has occurred in more than 20 nations.

Re-reported, edited by Carolyn Bennett

The Lord’s Resistance Army in a 20-year period abducted and created killers of children to assist “rebels.” Estimates in 2010 reported the LRA had victimized 35,000 Ugandan children for their purposes.

“There are so many children unaccounted for. We want these children back home,” says the executive director and founder of Children of Peace Uganda. In “Making it Right,” the latest theme on the Radio Netherlands Worldwide program “The State We’re in,” one segment focused on child soldiers and the experience of Jane Ekayu.

Jane Ekayu

Ugandan Jane Ekayu was abducted and a “child soldier.” She became a trauma counselor and rescuer of child soldiers then creator of Children of Peace Uganda with the mission of promoting peace, human security and development for formerly abducted children and youth, children born in captivity and vulnerable people in society.

Adults subject abducted children to torture, says Jane Ekayu. “I’m talking about children who were abducted at the age of 5 or 6 and lived in captivity for 10 years,” she says. “All they know is what the rebels indoctrinated them into.”

These children trust no one, so “we have to build trust — that’s the first thing.” It is the responsibility of the counselor to make the child know it was not right for the rebels to abduct them.”

After the center where Jane Ekayu began working with child soldiers closed in 2006 — it had helped more than 2,500 young people return to their families and communities — she continued her work with similar organizations in Uganda. As founder and executive director of Children of Peace Uganda, Jane Ekayu has been an international spokesperson on the issues of child soldiering and war trauma recovery. She has captivated audiences at the UN General Assembly Hall, the International Criminal Court, the ICC Review Conference, the Amnesty International Film Festival and others.

More than 300,000 children, some as young as 5 years old, participate in more than 30 armed conflicts throughout the world. This is a grave violation of international and local laws.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) defines child soldier as “any child (girl or boy) under the age of 18, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group — including but not limited to combatants, cooks, porters, messengers, and anyone accompanying such groups other than as family members.” In UNICEF’s definition are “girls and boys recruited for sexual purposes or forced marriage.”

The practice of kidnapping (forceful recruitment of) children has occurred in more than 20 nations.

Government forces, rebel groups, and guerrilla armies use “child soldiers” because these children are psychologically and physically immature and can be easily manipulated, making them obedient, cheap, and disposable. Appearing less threatening because of their age, these victim children “can be used to confuse an adversary or to serve as informants.”

Some 66,000 children and youth, according to a 2007 World Bank report, were thought to have been forcibly abducted and recruited into Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in its two-decade long insurgency in the northern region, The report Confirmed —

Two-thirds of the children severely beaten

A fifth forced to kill

Nearly 10 percent forced to murder a family member or friend to bind them to the group

Children abducted were more than three times as likely to have a serious physical injury or illness that impedes their ability to work.

They were twice as likely to report difficulties in family and community relations. They have several years less education and they are twice as likely to be illiterate.

 These concerns and the film
“Children of War” (by Bryan Single) prompted the establishment of  Children of Peace (CPU) “to take Formerly Abducted Children (FAC) and Children Born in Captivity (CBC); and through Trauma Counseling, Advocacy for Human Rights, Health Care, Quality Education and Income Generating Projects, Rehabilitate them into Children of Peace.”

Sources and notes

Children of War, The State We're In - Making it Right, On air: 8 October 2011 2:00, http://www.rnw.nl/english/radioshow/making-it-right, http://cpuganda.wordpress.com/

Abduction: Jane Ekayu is a therapist who works with former child soldiers in Uganda – children who were forcibly conscripted into the Lord’s Resistance Army. Jane talks about the abuses the children suffered and the time the kids confronted a former LRA leader at the rehabilitation centre where she worked.

Reunion: Jane Ekayu tells show host Jonathan Groubert about the incredible reunion one former boy soldier had with his family who thought he was dead, and the other touchstone moments that drive her to do this difficult work

Jane Ekayu’s credentials

In addition to her position as founder and executive director of Children of Peace Uganda (Lira Uganda, March 2011-), Jane Ekayu holds other positions: Executive Director, Children of peace Uganda; Head of Department, Social Work, Adina Foundation Uganda, Lira, Uganda. (Jan 2010-May 2011); Program Assistant, Orphans and other Vulnerable Children, Pathfinder International, Kampala, Uganda (Feb 2009-May 2009); Resettlement Officer, Child Restoration Outreach, Lira, Uganda (Nov 2007-Dec 2008); Social Worker (Majoring in trauma therapy), Rachele Rehabilitation Centre Lira, Sponsoring Children Uganda (March 2004- Dec 2006); Education Assistant, Lira District Local Government. (Nov 1999- Feb 2003)

Academic credentials: Bachelor of Arts, Democracy and Development study (Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi, Mpigi, Uganda); Diploma in Gender and Development (Nsamizi Training Institute of Social Development, Mpigi, Uganda, 2003-2005); Teaching Certificate (Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo, Uganda, 1997-1999),   http://cpuganda.wordpress.com/cpu-board-and-staff/

“Counselor for child soldiers, featured in film, discusses her work in Uganda, ‘Children of War’ screened at UN,” 2010, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uganda_56484.html

Children of Peace Uganda’s vision is “a society where there is dignity, equal opportunities, fair treatment and the protection of the rights of all Formerly Abducted Children/youth, Children born in Captivity and vulnerable people for sustainable development

Its mission: “To promote peace, human security and development for Formerly Abducted Children/youth, Children born in Captivity and vulnerable people in society”

Its project goal: To rebuild the capacity of FAC through a comprehensive approach to meet their educational and livelihood needs hence improve on their standard of living by 85% by the end of the program.

Its strategic objectives: to provide Health care support to the FAC/Y and CBC; to provide psycho-social support to the FAC/youth and Children born in captivity; to support educational needs of FAC/youth and other Children born in captivity; to support Families of FAC/youth with Income Generating Projects; to protect the rights of the FAC/Y, CBC and other vulnerable children; to provide psychosocial support services to formerly abducted children/youth (FAC/Y) and children born in captivity (CBC)

http://cpuganda.wordpress.com/vision-mission-and-objectives/

http://cpuganda.wordpress.com/background/

Contact: Tel: + 256 775 133 637 / +256 712 459933 jnekayulwa@gmail.com childrenofpeaceug@gmail.com; Children of peace Uganda - CPU

Web: www.childrenofpeaceuganda.org; Blog: http://cpuganda.wordpress.com © CPU 2011

Children of peace Uganda (CPU). Plot 4 Nubi Road, Junior Quarters, Adyel Division, P.O. Box 1037 Lira Uganda; Email: childrenofpeaceug@gmail.com

Tel:+256775133637 / +256712459933; Email: jnekayulwa@gmail.com;   http://cpuganda.wordpress.com/contact-us/

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY];  Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm:
http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire

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Endless aftermath

War makers’ mendacity, war’s consequences

Re-reporting, editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett 

The Eisenhower Research Project derives its purpose from 34th U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address in which he warns of the ‘unwarranted influence’ of the military-industrial complex and appeals for an ‘alert and knowledgeable citizenry’ as the only force capable of balancing the often contrasting demands of security and liberty in a democratic state. 

A new report by the Eisenhower Research Project based at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University has found that U.S. wars will cost its people 3.2 to 4 trillion dollars — including medical care and disability for current and future war veterans.

The first comprehensive analysis of all U.S., coalition, and civilian casualties, including U.S. contractors, this ‘Costs of War’ project “assesses many of the wars’ hidden costs, such as interest on war-related debt and veterans’ benefits.…

The U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan will cost between $3.2 and $4 trillion, including medical care and disability for current and future war veterans. This figure does not include substantial probable future interest on war-related debt.

More than 31,000 people in uniform and military contractors have died, including the Iraqi and Afghan security forces and other military forces allied with the United States.

Conservatively estimated, 137,000 civilians have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The wars have created more than 7.8 million refugees among Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis.

Pentagon bills account for half of the budgetary costs incurred and are a fraction of the full economic cost of the wars.

Because the war has been financed almost entirely by borrowing, $185 billion in interest has already been paid on war spending, and another $1 trillion could accrue in interest alone through 2020.

Federal obligations to care for past and future veterans of these wars will range (total estimates) from $600 to $950 billion. This number is not included in most analyses of the costs of war and will not peak until mid-century.

Co-director of the Eisenhower Research Project Neta Crawford says, “There are many costs and consequences of war that cannot be quantified, and the consequences of wars do not end when the fighting stops… The Eisenhower study group has made a start at counting and estimating the costs in blood, treasure, and lost opportunities that are both immediately visible and those which are less visible and likely to grow even when the fighting winds down.”

Nevertheless, U.S. officials continue making wars on foreign lands and peoples and neglecting critical U.S. domestic needs. Democracy Now reports today on the U.S.’s continuing carnage.

HORN OF AFRICA

Somalia

“Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world,” AlertNet reports in its country profiles. “Health indicators are also among the worst in Africa. The maternal mortality rate is around one in 100.”

U.S. Drones target “militant Islamist group” in Somalia, the Democracy Now program headlines. The United States is now using drone missiles in attacks on “at least six countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia.” U.S. President Barack Obama “has greatly ramped up the U.S. use of armed drones.”

Somalia suffers climate change effect: Drought causing displacement, mass exit of refugees into neighboring Kenya.

In the midst of U.S. drone strikes, the Save the Children group has reportedly “estimated [that] 800 Somali children cross into Kenya every day to escape the drought.” The United Nations estimates the drought has caused dire hardship for “10 million people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, says, at the current rate of suffering and malnutrition, the future “level of deaths in Somalia [will likely] take us back almost 20 years and certainly be unparalleled in the recent decade.”

Developing countries or underdeveloped countries cannot develop when “rich” countries are bombing them back to antiquity.

When asking why poor people are poor and remain poor, it might be well to look at who is enormously rich, and how and why they are enormously rich.

AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN

Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world and home to a booming narcotics trade. The country struggles to recover from more than a quarter-century of conflict, with violence still raging in parts of the country. The Taliban are fighting to oust tens of thousands of foreign troops and Afghanistan’s Western-backed government.

Geo-strategic Pakistan, though receiving enormous aid, is scarred by conflict, buffeted by earthquakes and floods. Among the world’s biggest humanitarian emergencies are in Pakistan. The 2010 floods affected 20 million of its people, a fifth of the population.

PAKISTAN

Droned, post-floods, climate change

United States officials continue to intensify a drone war on Pakistan. Pakistan’s officials reportedly have “told the U.S. to stop using the Shamsi Air Base in the southwest of the country to launch drone strikes.”

PERSIAN GULF 

IRAQ

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the country’s leader, Saddam Hussein, in 2003. Many people have been displaced. Others have fled abroad. Basic services have been devastated by sanctions and war. Violence continues to hamper aid operations.

U.S.-occupation, war claimed not to be war

In the deadliest month in three years, another three U.S. soldiers died yesterday “in [military] action in southern Iraq.” This month, at least 15 U.S. soldiers have died in this country; all except of one reportedly died in combat.

The Obama administration persists in claiming the U.S. combat mission in Iraq has ended.

Sources and notes

“Costs of War” Project — Estimated cost of post-9/11 wars: 225,000 lives, up to $4 trillion,” http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/06/warcosts

“U.S. Wars in Projected to Cost Nearly $4 Trillion With Hundreds of Thousands Dead — A new report is estimating the true cost of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will end up being approximately $4 trillion — far more than the Bush or Obama administrations have acknowledged. The report also estimates between 224,000 and 258,000 people have died directly from warfare, including 125,000 civilians in Iraq. Brown University professor Catherine Lutz is the co-director of the ‘Costs of War’ report,” June 30, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/30/headlines

Department of Defense by Spc. Tia P. Sokimson, U.S. Army/Released The cost of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan are estimated at 225,000 lives and up to $4 trillion in U.S. spending, in a new report by scholars with the Eisenhower Research Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

“The Eisenhower Research Project is a new, nonpartisan, nonprofit, scholarly initiative that derives its purpose from President Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address, in which he warned of the ‘unwarranted influence’ of the military-industrial complex and appealed for an ‘alert and knowledgeable citizenry’ as the only force able to balance the often contrasting demands of security and liberty in the democratic state.”

Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at Brown University, co-directs the Eisenhower Research Project with Neta Crawford, a 1985 Brown graduate and professor of political science at Boston University.

The Costs of War has released its findings online, at www.costsofwar.org, to spur public discussion about America at war. Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call (401) 863-2476.

Democracy Now headlines, June 30, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/30/headlines

Country profiles at AlertNet

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/country-profiles/somalia/

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/country-profiles/afghanistan/

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/country-profiles/pakistan/

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/country-profiles/iraq/

U.S.-OCCUPIED, at WAR
MIDDLE EAST NEAR EAST COUNTRIES

The Middle or Near East consists of the lands around the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. These lands extend from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, sometimes beyond. 

Some of the first modern Western geographers and historians who tended to divide the Orient into three regions gave the region the name Near East. In their three-region designations, the Near East applied to the region nearest Europe, extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf; the Middle East, extending from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia; and the Far East, encompassing the regions facing the Pacific Ocean.

The change in usage from Near to Middle East began evolving before World War II and extended through the war. The term Middle East was given to the British military command in Egypt.

So defined, the Middle East consisted of the states or territories of —

Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon
Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Jordan
Egypt, The Sudan, Libya and
Various states of Arabia proper (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial States, or Trucial Oman [now United Arab Emirates]

 Subsequent events have tended, in loose usage, to enlarge the number of lands included in the definition, among them —

Three North African countries: Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco“closely connected in sentiment and foreign policy with the Arab states”  

Afghanistan and Pakistan, because of geographic factors, state official and others take into account in connection with affairs of the Middle East. 

Greece occasionally is included in the compass of the Middle East because the Middle Eastern (then Near Eastern) question in its modern form first became apparent when the Greeks in 1821 rebelled to assert their independence from the Ottoman Empire). Turkey and Greece, together with the predominantly Arabic-speaking lands around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, were also formerly known as the Levant.

Historically the countries along the eastern Mediterranean shores were called the Levant. Common use of the term is associated with Venetian and other trading ventures and the establishment of commerce with cities such as Tyre and Sidon as a result of the Crusades. It was applied to the coastlands of Asia Minor and Syria, sometimes extending from Greece to Egypt. It was also used for Anatolia and as a synonym for the Middle or Near East. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the term High Levant referred to the Far East. The name Levant States was given to the French mandate of Syria and Lebanon after World War I, and the term is sometimes still used for those two countries, which became independent in 1946. Levant (from the French lever, ‘to rise,’ as in sunrise, meaning the east.

Use of the term Middle East remains unsettled, and some agencies (notably the United States State Department and certain bodies of the United Nations) still employ the term Near East.

Middle East. (2011). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Deluxe Edition.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Education investment returns far more than military

Why then is the U.S. at perpetual war?

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

“The military is the nation’s largest and most firmly entrenched entitlement program.” When factoring in veterans’ benefits and other past military costs, “the military devours half the U.S. budget,” says Ellen Brown, author and president of the Public Banking Institute, this week in a Global Research article.

Why is this so? “Wasteful and unnecessary military programs get a pass from legislators,” she says,  “because the military is also our largest and most secure jobs program, one that has penetrated into the nooks and crannies of Every Town U.S.A..…

“Every year since World War II, the U.S. has been at war somewhere. [Some have said] that if we didn’t have a war to fight, we would have to create one just to keep the war business going. We have a military empire of over 800 bases around the world.…”

However, “The military actually destroys jobs in the civilian economy,” Brown reports. “The higher profits from cost-plus military manufacturing cause manufacturers to abandon more competitive civilian endeavors; and the permanent war economy takes engineers, capital and resources away from civilian production. “

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

“Government investment in education creates twice as many jobs as investment in the military.” Brown poses alternatives that have worked as far back as the civil service years of the 1800s, and closer, in the immediate post-World War II era when conversion to civilian activity did not raise  unemployment figures above 3 percent (today estimated as high as 16 percent).

“Spending on personal consumption, health care, education, mass transit, and construction for home weatherization and infrastructure repair, all were found,” in a 2007 study by Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier (University of Massachusetts), she reports, “to create more jobs per $1 billon in expenditures than military spending does.”

Conversion from military to civilian works all round. “Military conversion is a well thought-out program that could provide real economic stimulus and national security for people here and abroad,” she writes.

“Existing military bases, laboratories, and production facilities can be converted to civilian uses. Bases can become industrial parks, schools, airports, hospitals, recreation facilities, and so forth.

“Converted factories can produce consumer and capital goods: machine tools, electric locomotives, farm machinery, oil field equipment, construction machinery for modernizing infrastructure. …”

The United States can better spend that “half of the federal budget” it now spends on military pursuits. “There are more efficient ways to stimulate the economy.”

Brown begins her article with the sage thought of a military general, the 34th U.S. president, Dwight David Eisenhower — 

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. . . . 

“We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed [thousands].”

Sources and notes

“The Military as a Jobs Program: There are More Efficient Ways to Stimulate the Economy (Ellen Brown at Global Research), June 22, 2011, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25361

Prepared for ‘The Military Industrial Complex at 50,’ a conference in Charlottesville, VA, September 16-18, 2011

A frequent contributor to Global Research, Ellen Brown is an attorney, author, and president of the Public Banking Institute (http://PublicBankingInstitute.org). Her latest of eleven books is Web of Debt; her websites: http://webofdebt.com; http://ellenbrown.com

“‘The Chance for Peace’” speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953 — Dwight David Eisenhower

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
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Concentrated POWER causing death, poverty

Re-reporting, editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

The same entrenched power that brought the latest financial crisis is bringing farm families to their knees. 

Investigative reports released June 7 by the Oakland Institute think tank reveal that hedge funds and other foreign speculators are increasing price volatility and supply insecurity in the global food system. Speculators are “taking over agricultural land,” says the institute’s policy director Frederic Mousseau, small farmers are being cast as ‘squatters’ and, with no compensation, they are being forcibly removed from their land.

Driving starvation

Largely unregulated land purchases are “forcing millions of small farmers off ancestral lands and small local food farms in order to make room for export commodities, including biofuels and cut flowers.”

The same financial firms that plunged the world into global recession by inflating the real estate bubble through risky financial maneuvers, says Oakland Institute executive director Anuradha Mittal, “Are now doing the same with the world’s food supply.”

African Chiefs, Ivy League 

never together in public

Research exposes investors commenting on the ease of landing land deals with developing countries: usually with “a poor tribal chief,” an exchange of “a bottle of Johnny Walker.” However, investors’ promises to local chiefs of progress and jobs never materialize, OI says; what ensues is “no progress” and people relocated from their homes.

Among financial players cashing in on people’s misery are “U.S universities and pension funds” lured by high returns and conveniently ignoring the theft of land and displacement of people. Investing in these deals are reportedly such prestigious institutions of higher learning as “Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Spelman College (Atlanta, Georgia) and Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee).”

Obang Metho of Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia says, “These investors are not there to feed starving Africans, create jobs or improve food security.”  Land-grab deals and agreements — many of which could be in place for 99 years — “lead only to dollars in the pockets of corrupt leaders and foreign investors.”

Worse than ‘terrorism’

Speculators under cover creating, deepening poverty

“The majority of the world’s poor still depend on small farms for their livelihoods, and speculators are taking these away while promising progress that never happens.”  These deals happen under cover of darkness (are generally “lacking in transparency”) — despite the profound implications posed by financial firms’ “consolidation of control over global food markets and agricultural resources.… More than one billion people around the world are living with hunger.”

Insecurity in the global food system brought on by speculation, the Oakland Institute concludes, “could be a much bigger threat to global security than terrorism.”

Unrelenting pain of U.S.-led Wars

Civilians bombed in LIBYA — ‘Sorry’

Nine dead, 18 wounded

Libyan officials showed reporters five bodies, including two toddlers, they said were among nine civilians killed. Speaking for the Libyan government, Mussa Ibrahim told the press that four passersby also died, bringing the death toll to nine and the injured to 18 people.

Today NATO voiced responsibility for having killed the civilians during a Tripoli bombing raid. Pressure is mounting on NATO “to allow a political solution.”

OCCUPIED IRAQ — $‘Oops’

Missing are $17 BILLION the United States Government shipped to Iraq in 2003 after having destabilized and otherwise destroyed that country and overthrown its government.

News wires reporting today from Baghdad said, “Iraq’s parliament is chasing about $17 billion of Iraqi oil money it says was stolen after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has asked the United Nations for help to track it down. The missing money was shipped to Iraq from the United States to help with reconstruction after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.”

Speaking for the current government in Iraq, Ali al-Dabbagh today reportedly told Al Jazeera television, “‘No one on the Iraqi side was controlling the work of Paul Bremer at that time so I think the administration of the United States needs to give the answers for where and how this (money) was being used.… [However] We do understand that Iraqis are also engaged in such lack of transparency and corruption related to the Paul Bremer time in Iraq.’”

OCCUPIED AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN

Wasting more $billions

Saving women

Heading into campaign season, U.S. legislators a decade on raise the curtain on theater complaining that Pakistan’s cooperation remains unreliable despite an “aid package” since 2001 exceeding $20 BILLION.

In Afghanistan, NATO airstrikes and cultural practices combine persistently to imperil women.  Afghan women are hurt repeatedly by “violence, dismal healthcare and brutal poverty,” according to results of a survey conducted by TrustLaw, an arm of Thomson Reuters. Afghanistan takes ranking as the most dangerous country in the world for women.

Two hundred and thirteen (213) gender experts from five continents ranked countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by six risks. The risks were health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking. In rank order following Afghanistan are Congo, Pakistan, India, and Somalia.

Sources and notes

“Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa” (Oakland Institute Press Release— Hedge Funds Create Volatility in Global Food Supply with Land Grabs across Africa), June 7-8, 2011, http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release-understanding-land-investment-deals-africa

OI’s reports are based on the actual materials from land deals and include investigations of investors, purchase contracts, business plans, and maps never before released. New reports and materials on these deals examine on-the-ground implications in several African nations including Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Sudan; and expose contracts that connect land grabs back to institutional investors in these nations and others. These reports and briefs on other aspects of land grabs are available at http://media.oaklandinstitute.org.

Oakland Institute is an independent policy think tank, bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time. OI’s mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic and environmental issues in both national and international forums. Contributions fund Oakland Institute’s (P.O. Box 18978, Oakland, CA 94619) independent research, analysis, and advocacy to facilitate democratic participation in critical policy decisions affecting quality of life. http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/about

info@oaklandinstitute.org

Between the Lines

 “Hedge Fund-Financed Land Grab in Africa Triggers Global Food Price Spike, Rise in Hunger” Scott Harris interview with Anuradha Mittal, executive director of The Oakland Institute, June 15, 2011, Between the Lines at http://btlonline.org/2011/seg/110624af-btl-mittal.html

“NATO admits civilian casualties in Libya raid,” June 19, 2011, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/world/

“Iraq hunting $17 billion missing after U.S. invasion,” June 19, 2011, http://sg.news.yahoo.com/iraq-hunting-17-billion-missing-u-invasion-183002114.html;_

“‘Pressure’ on Pakistan army head over U.S. ties  — General Kayani reportedly fighting to keep his job after killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in May,” June 16, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/20116166045538164.html

“Afghanistan ‘most dangerous place for women’— Survey says war-torn nation worst place for women while Congo, which has ‘horrific levels of rape.’ is ranked second,” June 15, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/201161582525243992.html

______________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
______________________________

Whose children, Whose crime, Whose law

In WAR — does entrenched Power alone decide who pays, who gets away with murder?
Compiled and edited, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

If the crime of war or “war crime” (these being separate categories of crime) is prosecutable before the International Criminal Court in The Hague when committed by or alleged against Sudanese, Libyans, Serbians but not French, British, United States heads of state, can we say, truthfully, that law exists? Should we not instead describe reality as a state of lawlessness, impunity the right of “might,” wherein coalesced, a nuclear-armed cartel hauls others before the court, international or domestic tribunal, while the cartel “gets away” with murder?

Every aspect of conflict, UNICEF says, has detrimental and disproportionate impact on children. UNICEF was talking about a particular nation of people but it does not matter which children or whose children. Conflict and war harm children; and together, the future. “Conflict affects their physical and mental well-being, exposes them to extreme life-threatening situations, displacement and food insecurity and leaves them without health care, education and protection from violence, abuse and exploitation.”

OCCUPIED and DESPISED

In the context of continuing conflict in the Middle East and a continuing failure of leadership outside that region, Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad reflected in an opinion piece last week in Al Jazeera.

“What is it about Jewish and Arab children that privileges [favors] the first and spurns the second in the speeches of President Barack Obama — let alone in the Western media more generally? Are Jewish children smarter, prettier, whiter? Are they deserving of sympathy and solidarity, denied to Arab children, because they [Jewish children] are innocent, unsullied by the guilt of their parents who are often referred to as ‘the children of Israel’? Is it rather that Arab children are dangerous, threatening, guilty, even dark and ugly, a situation that can only lead to … Western fear of Arab children? ...

“Innocence and childhood are common themes in Western political discourse, official and unofficial. … The only Western sympathy manifest is to Jewish children as symbols of Zionist and Israeli innocence; this Western sympathy denounces Arab guilt, including the guilt of Arab children.…

“The story of Arab children, and especially Palestinian ones, is not only tragic in the context of Israeli violence, but one that also remains ignored, deliberately marginalized, and purposely suppressed in the U.S. and Western media — and in Western political discourse....

“Palestinian children were murdered along with adults in April 1948 in the Deir Yassin massacre, to name the most well known slaughter of 1948. This would continue not only during Israel’s wars against Arabs in 1956, 1967, 1973, 1978, 1982, 1996, 2006, and 2008, when thousands of children fell victim to indiscriminate Israeli bombardment, but also in more outright massacres: in Qibya in 1953 where even the school was not spared Israel’s destruction. In Kafr Kassem in 1956 the Israeli army massacred 46 unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel, 23 of whom were children. This trend would continue. In April 1970, during the War of Attrition with Egypt, Israel bombed an Egyptian elementary school in Bahr al-Baqar. Of the 130 schoolchildren in attendance, 46 died and more than 50 suffered wounds, many of them maimed for life. The school was completely demolished. The first Israeli massacre at Qana in Lebanon in 1996 spared no child or adult, and the second massacre in the same village in 2006 did the same — adults aside — 16 children died that year.

“The number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers in the first intifada (1987-1993) was 213, not counting the hundreds of induced miscarriages from tear gas grenades thrown inside closed areas targeting pregnant women and aside from the number of the injured. The Swedish branch of Save the Children estimated that ‘23,600 to 29,900 children required medical treatment for their injuries in the first two years of the intifada,’ one third of whom were children under the age of ten. In the same period, Palestinian attacks resulted in the death of five Israeli children. In the second intifada (2000-2004), Israeli soldiers killed more than 500 children with at least 10,000 injured, and 2,200 children arrested. The televised murder of the Palestinian child Muhammad al-Durra shook the world — but not Israeli Jews, whose government concocted the most outrageous and criminal of stories to exonerate Israel. In the Israeli attack on Gaza in December 2008, 1,400 Palestinians died — 313 were children.


OCCUPIED TERRITORIES/North Africa

After last month’s highly publicized opening of its border to people of Gaza, Egypt today closed its border crossing with Gaza. Palestinians angered by this action stormed the gates in protest.

Three buses filled with 180 passengers, according to Palestinian border officials, had waited several hours to cross the border at Rafah. Press reports said officials gave no reason for closing the crossing.


SYRIA

Seventy people have died in demonstrations in Syria. “This week’s toll in the ongoing Government crackdown against protesters calling for reform brings the number of casualties to more than 1,000 since mid-March, with many more injured and thousands arrested,” according to the UN. Earlier in the week, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it had received, but could not independently confirm, information that the use of live ammunition against demonstrators has reportedly left at least 30 children dead.

HORN OF AFRICA — SOMALIA

Forty children below the age of fifteen, in May alone, have died in the latest wave of fighting in Mogadishu. UNICEF is expressing concern about these deaths and about children who escape armed groups but have no safe house, and other children captured in the line of combat and detained for reasons related to the armed conflict. Children in central south Somalia face never-ending suffering in an extreme, indiscriminate, and one of the most complex conflicts in today’s world.

“Children under the age of 5 accounted for 46 percent of all weapon-related injuries in Mogadishu in May 2011,” according to the World Health Organization, “compared to 3.5 percent in January.”

Somali children are the most affected by the unrelenting violence in which they risk being killed, maimed or injured when caught in crossfire or after being unlawfully recruited and used on the front lines by all parties to the conflict. Thousands of Somali children reportedly are directly involved in the fighting.

Seventy-five percent of acutely malnourished children (at least 180,000) are in Somalia’s southern regions. Only 30 percent of the population has access to safe water. School enrollment is amongst the lowest in the world at only 22 percent in the Central South.

GLOBAL AIDS/HIV

... At the end of 2010, an estimated 16.6 million children lost one or both parents to AIDS. This estimate includes 14.9 million children of sub-Saharan Africa.

ENDLESS WAR
ENDLESS CONSEQUENCES

AFGHANSITAN – PAKISTAN

AFGHANISTAN — At least 220 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan in 2011, 57 in May when the Taliban began a spring offensive.

Increased fighting increases suffering in the new ‘fighting season’ in Afghanistan putting “renewed hardship on children.” The conflict affects “every aspect of children’s lives,” UNCEF said this week. An airstrike in Helmand reportedly killed women and children and armed opposition groups are stepping up their efforts to recruit and use children as suicide bombers.

Four soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) died today when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan. Most of the ISAF troops operating near the border with Pakistan are reportedly from the United States.

This year an estimated 220 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan. Fifty-seven died in May “when the Taliban began a spring offensive.” May was “the deadliest month of the year for foreign troops.” Reuters and the independent monitor www.icasualties.org’s figures show 711 foreign troops died in Afghanistan last year, the deadliest year of the war. June of that year was “the bloodiest single month of the war for foreign troops; 103 died. The first four days of June this year at least seven have died.

PAKISTAN — An estimated 24 Pakistani security forces and 3 civilians died during fighting in northwest Pakistan. At least 200 had crossed from Afghanistan and attacked a security checkpoint. Twenty-four hours of gun battles Thursday in a village in the Dir region left around 40 fighters dead.


LIBYA

French and British officials announced last month that their countries would be sending attack helicopters for use by NATO against Libya and its government.

Reports today said the town of Brega in eastern Libya, site of important oil facilities, had been hit for the first time by British Apache helicopters.

At least 150 people have drowned and scores of others are missing, according to a report yesterday by the United Nations refugee agency, after a boat leaving Libya capsized off the Tunisian coast on Wednesday. The boat capsized as desperate passengers rushed to one side, seeking rescue by the Tunisian coast guard and fishing boats that had approached the vessel.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative Adrian Edwards told reporters, this tragedy “appears to be one of the worst and the deadliest incidents in the Mediterranean so far this year.”

Since the February onset of a Libyan conflict later joined by a foreign invasion, boats loaded with migrants fleeing the ongoing conflict in Libya have been fleeing to Italy and Malta, “sometimes with tragic consequences.” Last month, “hundreds died as a vessel carrying about 600 people broke up shortly after departing Tripoli.”

That Saturday and Sunday May 7 and 8 five boats carrying almost 2,400 people, including many women and children, arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The sub-Saharan Africa representative for UNHCR, Melissa Fleming, said, “All five boats needed rescuing by the Italian coastguard and maritime police, with one boat running aground close to the Lampedusa shore.” Later three bodies thought to have been passengers washed ashore.

Since the start of the crisis, an estimated 12,360 have arrived in Italy and Malta from Libya. Hundreds of people are simply missing. More than 665,000 people have fled Libya among them are 39,000 who have crossed into Tunisia.

Cease-fire (?)

Invading foreign forces in Libya have roundly ignored calls from the UN last month for a ceasefire in Libya.

UN Special Envoy Abdel Elah al-Khatib told the Security Council, “The main difficulty at this stage is getting all sides to agree on the essential elements of a political process that meets the aspirations of the Libyan people.… For Libyan authorities, a ceasefire must be accompanied by an end to the attacks by NATO in order to pave the road for national dialogue.”

He said, “They have told me that if NATO attacks stop, the Libyan Government would be in a position to hold discussions about elections, democracy and constitutional reform.”


YEMEN

Despite protests, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen is “still in Yemen and ‘he has no intention of leaving.’” An anonymous source close to the Saudi royal family told Reuters today following a media report that the president had sought treatment in Saudi Arabia.

Al Jazeera is reporting today — “There are conflicting reports about the whereabouts of Yemen’s president, a day after he was injured in an attack on his compound. Some reports suggested President Ali Abdullah Saleh was on his way to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment on Saturday evening but sources told Al Jazeera that the president was being treated for face burns at a hospital in Sanaa,” Yemen's capital.

CASUALTY SITES REPORTING

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting June 4, 2011

(Accurate totals unknown)

Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20,

2009: 226] Information out of date

•

Wounded 33,041-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: May 28, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

•

Iraq Body Count

The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation

Documented civilian deaths from violence

101,121 – 110,454

Full analysis of the WikiLeaks’ Iraq War Logs may add 15,000 civilian deaths. http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

•

ICasualties figures:

AFGHANISTAN:

1,604 United States

2,507 Coalition

IRAQ: 4,454 United States

4,772 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/

Sources and notes

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

“Are Palestinian children less worthy? — Although Palestinian children endure lives of suffering, Obama’s love for their Israeli counterparts knows no limit” (OPINION, Joseph Massad), May 30, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201152911579533291.html

Joseph Massad is Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University and author of The Persistence of the Palestinian Question (2006).

“Palestinians storm shut Egypt crossing-witnesses” (Nidal al-Mughrabi), June 4, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/palestinians-storm-shut-egypt-crossing-witnesses/

“UN chief voices alarm at escalation of violence in Syria,” June 3, 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38606&Cr=syria&Cr1=


HORN OF AFRICA — SOMALIA

“Children face multiple threats to life in ongoing conflict which no longer is at the forefront of world attention— Statement UNICEF shocked at new reports of increase in child casualties in Somalia, June 2, 2011, http://www.unicef.org/media/media_58727.html

GLOBAL AIDS/HIV

“Fifth Global Partners Forum focuses on care, protection and support for children affected by HIV and AIDS— Crucial time to turn commitments into action,” June 3, 2011, http://www.unicef.org/media/media_58745.html

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. UNICEF is the world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries; it supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF receives funding from individuals, businesses, foundations and governments, www.unicef.org

AFGHANISTAN - PAKISTAN

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news

“UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan, on the Occasion of International Children’s Day — ‘On a day that is marked by many countries as International Children’s Day and dedicated to celebrating childhood, Afghanistan continues to be plagued by conflict and remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child,’ according to UNICEF Afghanistan” (KABUL, Statement by Peter Crowley), June 1, 2011, http://www.unicef.org/media/media_58732.html

“Four NATO troops killed by bomb in eastern Afghanistan” (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Robert Birsel), June 4, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/four-nato-troops-killed-by-bomb-in-eastern-afghanistan/

“At least 220 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan in 2011, 57 in May when the Taliban began a spring offensive” (Paul Tait, KABUL, June 4, Reuters), June 4, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news

“Dozens killed in raid on Pakistan troops — At least 24 Pakistani troops, 40 fighters dead after cross-border ambush on security checkpoint near Afghan border,” June 2, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/20116254420120922.html

LIBYA

“NATO uses helicopters to strike Libya targets,” June 4, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/nato-uses-helicopters-to-strike-libya-targets/

“At least 150 dead as boat carrying migrants from Libya capsizes — one of the deadliest incidents in the Mediterranean Sea so far this year” (UN agency), June 3, 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38598&Cr=Libya&Cr1=

“As hundreds feared drowned off Libya, UN agency urges better rescue methods,” May 10, 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38331&Cr=libya&Cr1=

“UN envoy highlights need to work out details of ceasefire to end Libyan conflict,” May 3, 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38262&Cr=libya&Cr1=

YEMEN

“Yemen’s Saleh still in Yemen, not Saudi Arabia – Saudi” ((Reporting by Amena Bakr; Writing by Amran Abocar; Editing by Myra MacDonald, Reuters), June 4, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/yemens-saleh-still-in-yemen-not-saudi-arabia-saudi/

“Yemeni president ‘on way to Saudi Arabia’ — Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly flown to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, a day after his compound is attacked,” June 4, 2011,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201164164346765100.html



___________________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

___________________________________________

War’s consequences at “mothers’ weekend”

Re-reporting, editing, comment, by Carolyn Bennett

Citizens of the world must keep pressure on this U.S. president and future presidents and congresses and on entrenched power elites and militarists getting through to them that this character of violence, this perpetual war and provoked violence and its consequences in human suffering are medieval and altogether unacceptable.

True progressives must press home relentlessly the better principle, the better course of nonviolence in domestic and international affairs. The axiom still holds: Constant vigilance is the price of liberty but in the mind of the Progressivist, that liberty is not alone for the few; it is for all people, all creatures, and for nature itself.

We are not islands nor do we live alone on islands. Whether we like it or not, we are a collective, a world society.  

WAR’s CONSEQUENCES 

in the midst of war

Three hundred and twenty-seven thousand (327,000) people, according to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, have been displaced by the fighting inside Libya.

Africa spills over African borders

NATO strikes Tripoli and Libya strikes Tunisia.  Tunisian officials warned again on Sunday “that the repeated shelling from Libya of one of its border towns may force it to take measures to protect its sovereignty.”

This country’s official news agency had reported approximately “80 shells from Libya have fallen on Tunisian territory.” On April 29, Tunisia had summoned Libya’s ambassador and complained about shells falling in inhabited areas.

A Live blog to Al Jazeera from inside Libya said, “‘We are now at a cemetery burying 11 people martyred during [Saturday]’s fighting in which 35 other fighters were also wounded.’ The reported air raids came a week after the Libyan government said that [President Qaddafi]’s son, Seif al-Arab [Qaddafi], and three of his grandchildren had been killed in a NATO air strike on a compound in Tripoli.

Africa/Asia pours into Europe

Five hundred shipwrecked refugees had to be rescued today, according a report from Deutsche Welle. The rescue operation occurred off the Italian island of Lampedusa, which has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the unrest in North Africa.

The report says “most of the refugees were migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who had been living in Libya. Months of fighting between pro- and anti-Qaddafi forces has left thousands dead.

Since the start of 2001, Lampedusa, 140 kilometers (85 miles) from the Tunisian coast, has been the port for more than 30,000 refugees. Backlash has erupted throughout the EU, between Italy and France in particular, and the island’s authorities are said to be struggling “to keep up with the influx of immigrants seeking asylum.” In addition to the shipwrecked refugees, Lampedusa received another boat of 842 people overnight” Saturday to Sunday.

Update African refugees into Europe, death at sea

From Democracy Now Headlines Monday May 9

“Boat of African Migrants Fleeing Libya Left to Die by NATO  European Units — The Guardian newspaper reports dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean Sea after a number of European and NATO military units apparently ignored their cries for help.

“The boat had left Libya bound for Italy with 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees.

“All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days.” [http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/9/headlines#6]

Questions of morality and legality

Not everyone countenances or celebrates murder

In Germany and elsewhere, concerns are rising over the legality (and morality) of the U.S. mission (allegedly) into Pakistan last Sunday and the killing of an Al Qaeda leader.

Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German television that the act announced by the Obama administration “was clearly a violation of international law.” Chancellor Angela Merkel praised then “clarified.”

After the announcement was made that Osama bin Laden was dead, Chancellor Merkel said, “‘I am pleased that it was possible to kill bin Laden.’ [But] Several figures in Germany distanced themselves from the comments, including some from within Merkel’s conservative party, the Christian Democrats (CDU). Hamburg judge Heinz Uthmann filed a criminal complaint against Merkel for ‘endorsing a crime,’ describing her comments as ‘disgraceful.’”

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, asked the United States to give the UN full details about the (alleged) killing of Osama bin Laden. In Brussels, European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom wrote in a blog that it “‘would have been preferred to see Osama bin Laden before a court.’” Echoing this thought were European newspaper editorials. 

Italy’s La Repubblica daily: 

“‘We Europeans would have preferred bin Laden to be captured and tried because executions are contrary to our culture.’”

Rheinische Post newspaper: 

“‘It would have been better if the Americans had arrested him and brought him to trial… “‘Then, justice would really have been served.’” 

Update U.S. assassinations, targeted killings [Yemen]

From Democracy Now Headlines Monday May 9

“U.S. Targets American-Born Cleric in Assassination Attempt in Yemen —The Obama administration launched a drone strike in Yemen last week in an attempt to assassinate a U.S.-born Muslim cleric. Anwar al-Awlaki survived the attack but two suspected members of al-Qaeda died.

“It was reported to be the first U.S. drone strike in Yemen in nine years. According to the Washington Post, Anwar al-Awlaki is one of at least four U.S. citizens the Obama administration approved for assassination — even though Anwar al-Awlaki  has never been convicted of a crime.

“The attack came just days after U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and NATO strikes hit Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s compound.”  [http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/9/headlines#6]

A tarnished leader’s thousand-miles Drones

Though U.S. citizens generally seemed less concerned last year, other people in the world were concerned about U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan and elsewhere.

“The unmanned aerial vehicles, which are equipped with high-resolution infrared cameras and hellfire rockets,” a Deutsche Welle article read in late 2010, “have become U.S. President Barack Obama’s weapon of choice in the so-called war on terror. However, critics argue that the drones are used to carry out extrajudicial executions.…

“Just one click of the mouse at CIA headquarters in the U.S. state of Virginia is all that is needed to crush a suspected al Qaeda cell thousands of miles away in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan — and to kill dozens of people in one strike. 

Increasingly the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has come under intense scrutiny. The Pakistani army now says it will “review cooperation with the U.S. if there is another violation of its sovereignty.”

Pakistan’s foreign secretary told the press of the Obama administration’s Osama bin Laden “mission” — “the first that Pakistan knew of the raid was when the helicopters buzzed over Abbottabad after evading Pakistani radar. He said troops were sent to the scene ‘once it became clear they were not our helicopters’ but that the Americans had already left by the time they arrived.’ Pakistan then scrambled two F-16 fighter jets but the American helicopters had apparently already made it back to Afghanistan before they could be intercepted. The foreign secretary said the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen had called Pakistan after the fact to inform them that the raid had taken place.

Al Jazeera reports that the United States “has given the Pakistani army more than $10 billion in aid over the past decade to help it fight al-Qaeda and its Afghan Taliban allies. [However] As far as the majority of Pakistanis are concerned, they don’t want any support from the United States, they don’t want the money…They say the government has enslaved their national interests to the Americans for the money they have received.”

In last Sunday’s raid, officials told the press, four yet unidentified people died and13 children were recovered from the compound.

Western Journalists at risk

A reporter for Al Jazeera, “Dorothy Parvaz, was detained upon arrival in Damascus, Syria, six days ago” and since then she has had no contact with the outside world. Parvaz holds American, Canadian and Iranian citizenship. She joined Al Jazeera in 2010. Before going to Al Jazeera, she was a columnist and feature writer with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  

◊

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting May 8, 2011

(Accurate totals unknown)

Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20,

2009: 224]

•

Wounded 33,023-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: May 1, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

•

Iraq Body Count

The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation

Documented civilian deaths from violence

100, 708 – 110, 005

Full analysis of the WikiLeaks’ Iraq War Logs may add 15,000 civilian deaths.  http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

•

ICasualties figures:

AFGHANISTAN:

1,572 United States

2,445 Coalition

 IRAQ:

4,452 United States

4,770 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/

◊

Sources and notes

“Thousands flee Libyan fighting — As conflict rages in north African nation, many seek shelter in refugee camps,” May 4, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/05/20115453514196407.html

Raids on Libyan weapons depots reported  — Accounts of NATO strike in Zintan and explosions in Tripoli follow ‘government attacks on fuel depots’ in Misurata,” May 8, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/05/201158135733735559.html

“Five hundred refugees saved from shipwreck off Italian island,” May 8, 2011, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15059853,00.html

“Germans taken aback by outspoken jubilation over bin Laden’s killing — As new details surface of the U.S. operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the legality of the mission is being debated in Germany. Many are also critical of rejoicing — they say it is inappropriate,” May 5, 2011, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15048183,00.html

“Merkel clarifies controversial praise of bin Laden killing — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has revisited her ‘praise’ of the killing of Osama bin Laden, after a German judge filed a criminal complaint against her for saying she was ‘glad’ at his death,” May 7, 2011, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15057782,00.html

“Use of drone attacks draws little criticism in U.S. — Several suspected terrorists were killed in a recent drone attack in northwest Pakistan. Five were apparently German citizens. In the past five weeks alone, the CIA has launched 23 remote attacks in Pakistan,” October 6, 2010, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6085155,00.html

“Pakistan army threatens to reconsider U.S. ties — Warning against future raid comes as US politicians question Pakistan aid following bin Laden’s killing in Abbottabad,” May 6, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/05/20115633712747260.html

“Syria confirms journalist detained — Al Jazeera calls for immediate release of journalist Dorothy Parvaz, held since arriving in Damascus on Friday,” May 4, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201154183912826324.html

MIDDLE EAST/NEAR EAST 

U.S. Theater of WAR

The Middle or Near East consists of the lands around the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. These lands extend from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, sometimes beyond.

Some of the first modern Western geographers and historians who tended to divide the Orient into three regions gave the region the name Near East. In their three-region designations, the Near East applied to the region nearest Europe, extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf; the Middle East, extending from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia; and the Far East, encompassing the regions facing the Pacific Ocean.

The change in usage from Near to Middle East began evolving before World War II and extended through the war. The term Middle East was given to the British military command in Egypt.

So defined, the Middle East consisted of the states or territories of —

Turkey, Cyprus
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran
Palestine, Jordan, Egypt
The Sudan, Libya and
Various states of Arabia proper (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial States, or Trucial Oman [now United Arab Emirates]

Subsequent events have tended, in loose usage, to enlarge the number of lands included in the definition, among them — 

Three North African countries: Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco “closely connected in sentiment and foreign policy with the Arab states”  

Afghanistan and Pakistan, because of geographic factors, state official and others take into account in connection with affairs of the Middle East.  

Greece occasionally is included in the compass of the Middle East because the Middle Eastern (then Near Eastern) question in its modern form first became apparent when the Greeks in 1821 rebelled to assert their independence from the Ottoman Empire). 

Turkey and Greece, together with the predominantly Arabic-speaking lands around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, were also formerly known as the Levant.

Historically the countries along the eastern Mediterranean shores were called the Levant. Common use of the term is associated with Venetian and other trading ventures and the establishment of commerce with cities such as Tyre and Sidon as a result of the Crusades.

It was applied to the coastlands of Asia Minor and Syria, sometimes extending from Greece to Egypt. It was also used for Anatolia and as a synonym for the Middle or Near East. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the term High Levant referred to the Far East. The name Levant States was given to the French mandate of Syria and Lebanon after World War I, and the term is sometimes still used for those two countries, which became independent in 1946. Levant (from the French lever, ‘to rise,’ as in sunrise, meaning the east.

Use of the term Middle East remains unsettled, and some agencies (notably the United States State Department and certain bodies of the United Nations) still employ the term Near East. Middle East. (2011). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Deluxe Edition.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica

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