Gun control emphasis evades fundamental sources of U.S. anti-social violence

War is Terror
War on Terror is Terrorism

Media, political establishment prevent discussion of social and political background says Joseph Kishore and I’m inclined to agree 
Editing, short comment by Carolyn Bennett

Circumstances surrounding Connecticut killing

More Information emerges

U.S. involvement in
Asymmetrical warfare

Killer who shot himself after killing his mother, Nancy Lanza, in her home, and 26 others at Sandy Hook Elementary School was 20-year-old Adam Lanza, officially confirmed by police on Sunday.

Guns, including the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition Adam Lanza brought to the school and used to kill 27 people were owned by his mother.

  

Adam Lanza's mother apparently taught him to shoot the weapons.

The shooter’s mother at some point “had removed him from his high school and [had given] him home schooling.”

The shooter was dressed in black army fatigues and a military vest when he carried out the killings.

The shooter’s mother, Nancy Lanza, as reported in the British Telegraph (citing an interview with Marsha Lanza, the sister-in-law), “was part of the ‘prepper’ or survivalist movement.

Involving the stockpiling of weapons and food in preparation for economic or social collapse and often associated with right-wing political conceptions, Survivalism has expanded as a movement, particularly since the start of the U.S. ‘war on terror.’

U.S. global war on terrorism

Adam Lanza had Asperger Syndrome, a mild form of autism, a common disorder characterized by difficulty interacting socially but “not associated with violent behavior.”

Whatever are the contributing or circumstantial factors in this tragedy, Joseph Kishore writes today at World Socialist Web Site, “[this one] and a series of similar mass homicides [after publication of Kishore’s article, another occurred in Colorado] are  —

Linked to the brutalization of American society

A product of the violence promoted by the state, 

including unending war, 

U.S. drone war

the institutionalization and glorification of state assassinations, and 

the propaganda associated with the ‘war on terror.’

“In the media and political establishment, commentary on the killing has focused on standard themes that follow every such tragedy—above all, the need for a ‘national conversation’ on gun control,” Kishore writes.

However, “while the ready availability of guns (the United States has the most guns per capita of any country in the world) facilitates homicidal impulses of certain individuals, this does not explain the regularity of mass killings in the United States.

Violence Turned on self

“From the standpoint of the ruling class, the campaign for gun control is tied to efforts to extend powers of the state, undermine democratic rights, and maintain the monopolization of violence by the police and military.”

Ultimately, he concludes, the focus on gun control aims at “evading the discussion of more fundamental sources of anti-social violence in America.”

Sadly, I agree with Kishore.

Sources and notes

“Connecticut shooting” (Joseph Kishore), December 18, 2012,   http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/guns-d18.html

Joseph Kishore also recommends: “Horror at Newtown” [December17, 2012]; and “Illegal stops by New York Police rise to 2,200 daily” [May 21, 2012]

Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger’s syndrome or Asperger disorder, is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and atypical (peculiar, odd) use of language are frequently reported. Wikipedia note.

Residents of Newtown, Connecticut, began Monday burying those killed in the mass shooting last Friday.

 Survivalism is a movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who are actively preparing for emergencies, including possible disruptions in social or political order, on scales ranging from local to international levels.

Survivalists often acquire emergency medical and self-defense training, stockpile food and water, prepare to become self-sufficient, and build structures (e.g., a survival retreat or an underground shelter) that would help them survive a catastrophe. Wikipedia note

NBC news today online: Updated at 5:50 p.m. ET: 

Four people were found dead Tuesday in Colorado in an apparent murder-suicide that began with a woman's plea in a 911 call and then the sound of gunshots. 

A vehicle found outside the home was later tied to a man who hours earlier was released after being arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/18/15993440-after-no-no-no-911-call-4-found-dead-in-apparent-murder-suicide-in-colorado

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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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Universal ratification, enforcement of torture ban imperative says APT SG

Past ten years’ advances suggest next ten years’ achievements doable

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

The past ten years of work have brought 65 States to ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture. Twenty-one have signed. Forty-six are established National Prevention Mechanisms (NPMs). A UN Committee of 25 experts (SPT) works with NPMs and States Parties to implement the Protocol.

This week 127 members of the United Nations in a majority vote adopted the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT), thus establishing a new system of preventing torture through regular monitoring of all places of detention.

 

Remaining is universal ratification, says Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) Secretary General and 2004 recipient of the British Honor of OBE for work on human rights, Mark Thomson.

In today’s APT blog “From midnight to the morning light,” Thomson declares that over the next ten years of collective international campaign it is doable to achieve universal ratification of the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT), the OPCAT, and their effective application. His belief, he says, is based on these advances of the past ten years. 

The world has faced the fact that the risk of torture and ill-treatment exists in all countries of the world.

UN human rights bodies and mechanisms have evolved and brought to light every country’s profile in implementing international human rights norms; and the Universal Periodic Review has published a regular recommendation of States to fellow States: ratify and implement the two anti-torture treaties. 

The human rights movement has developed in promising directions: the strengthening of National human rights institutions (NHRIs: administrative bodies set up to protect or monitor human rights in a given country), NGOs, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ─ almost all having taken an active interest in ending torture.  

Traditional and social media have brought to light atrocities inside places of detention, prompting vital public debate on penal policies.  

Regional Human Rights mechanisms have raised the significance of the challenge and have contributed to bringing the responsibility of this issue directly to States authorities. 

Flags of States
Geneva, Switzerland

Still, the APT Secretary General concludes that collective, sustained action is vital.

A

 major new, concerted global action is imperative and will require politicians, media, civil society continuing to prod States into action as well as the conjoined efforts of a much broader variety of actors intent on obtaining a truly universal commitment to eradicate torture and other ill-treatment.

Sources and notes

“From midnight to the morning light” (Mark Thomson APT blog), December 18, 2012, http://www.apt.ch/en/history-of-the-opcat-1/

Mark Thomson

Secretary General of the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) since April 2001, Mark Thomson has worked 30 years with international development and human rights NGOs.

He has given presentations and training, on human rights and prevention of torture, in all regions of the world; and has established partnerships in prevention with governments, national human rights commissions, police authorities, NGOs and United Nations experts and agencies.

Mark Thomson has contributed to the drafting, adoption and implementation of several human rights instruments such as: the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the subsequent Special Representative; the Optional Protocol for the UN Convention against Torture; the revised United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) rules on consultations with NGOs.

In 2004 Thomson received the British Honor of OBE for his human rights work. He took his academic credentials in Fiji and the UK (MA London, BA Essex), http://www.apt.ch/en/in-switzerland/

UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (ECOSOC)

A founding UN Charter body established in 1946, ECOSOC is concerned with the world’s economic, social and environmental challenges. The Council discusses and debates such issues and makes policy recommendations.

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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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Corporations are not people, money is not speech: MOVE TO AMEND in New York

End the sale of law, elected officials, policy, government, democracy

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

From Steve Lupo and Lauren Carmichael of Move to Amend Brookhaven, New York

Supreme Court rulings opened the floodgates to unlimited, secret and unaccountable money flowing into U.S. political campaigns.

Corporations, unions, non-profits, foreign companies and/or governments, (anyone or any entity) can spend as much and whenever they want to support or disparage anonymously any U.S. political candidate.

Eighty percent of Americans of all political persuasions feel that court rulings on this matter have “put the U.S. government up for sale to the highest bidder.”

THEREFORE, PEOPLE IN U.S. CITIES AND TOWNS ARE MOVING TO AMEND

A

t 6:30 p.m. tomorrow (December 18, 2012), members of the Brookhaven Town Board “will have an opportunity to vote their support for a resolution calling for a 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Constitution,” which declares:

Corporations are not people and 

money is not speech.

The Green Party of Suffolk has supported “Move to Amend Brookhaven” and with the board vote at Brookhaven, citizens will come to “know, unequivocally, where each member stands on the issue of ‘Money in Politic$.’” 

The issue is non-partisan. The thought process behind resolutions across the country is this.

We come together to affirm that democracy should not be for sale!

Thousands of communities across the nation establishing their support for the amendment affirm an issue which can no longer be ignored by federal and state elected officials.

M

OVE TO AMEND COALITION

“Move to Amend” was formed September 2009 and is a coalition of hundreds of organizations, tens of thousands of individuals committed to social and economic justice, ending corporate rule, and building a vibrant democracy that is genuinely accountable to the people ─ not corporate interests.

“Move to Amend” calls for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to unequivocally state that inalienable rights belong to human beings only and that money is not a form of protected free speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution; and that money political campaigns can be regulated.

Statement of Values

Move to Amend reserves the right to disassociate with any organization or individual who fails to maintain its stated values.

A broad coalition of organizations and individuals sharing common values, working together to end corporate personhood and demand real democracy, Move to Amend welcomes organizations and individuals who embrace:

• Accountability and responsibility, personally and organizationally      
• Transparency
• Community
• Movement building
• Dedication to the mission, goals and tactics of Move to Amend
• Commitment to anti-oppression within self, communities, work places, policies, and representation

Sources and notes

“A local Green Party part of ‘Move To Amend’ action in Long Island, New York” (by Kimberly Wilder), https://movetoamend.org/ny-brookhaven

Move to Amend, https://movetoamend.org/about-us

Brookhaven

The Town of Brookhaven (pop. 486,040 at the 2010 census) is the largest town (by area, if including water area) in the state of New York and the second most populous, exceeded only by the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County.

Located in central Suffolk County (one of ten towns in Suffolk County), the Town of Brookhaven is part of the New York metropolitan area and the only town in the county that stretches from the North Shore to the South Shore of Long Island [Wikipedia note].

Citizens United

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (558 U.S. 310, 2010) was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions.

The nonprofit group Citizens United wanted to air a film critical of Hillary Rodham Clinton and to advertise the film during television broadcasts in apparent violation of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act or ‘BCRA’).

In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that portions of BCRA §203 violated the First Amendment [Wikipedia note].

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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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Here we are again: the SHOW of “shock” feigned anguish, public weeping, wringing hands

U.S.
Dropping cluster bombs

“If you’re not outraged, you are not paying attention.”

By Carolyn Bennett

A

mericans (we) will not face the fact and the implications of the fact that the problem is not in the stars or with the gods, but with us. We are the problem. 

Whether it is the environment or violence or inhumanity of man to man, the problem is us. No question about it. We seem unable or, more likely, unwilling to progress beyond this point. And a people or any of the many peoples of the world who fasten themselves in fear and paranoia, blind themselves with consumption, and who will not rise to the challenge of our inherent failings will forever be doomed to repeat and repeat and repeat the horrors that beset the world. No, let me restate that: the horrors we unleash on the world.

Let’s take a look for a moment at us.

"War on Terror"

Mr. Obama, the current U.S. head of state, is the personification of a “good” actor, a camouflage, a fake, a fooler, a flimflammer; whether “promising” or “mourning,” he performs the part like no other. And you believe him because mass media makes you believe, as it plays and replays the scene of a weeping president; like towers falling over and over until your brain is washed of the common sense that tells you something is amiss.

Together they can perform as many “mourning” moments as they like. Lower as many flags in feigned grieving as they like. But it is these same “grievers,” these mourning cabals who send young men and women to make war, to instigate conflict, to fall in a foreign land, to return home broken inside and out.

Torture

The same “mourners” send “immigrants” to fight their wars and when they return imprison them without due process, torture the without recourse in human rights convention, and or “render” them to countries for the sole purpose of having them undergo further cruel and inhuman treatment.

U.S. deploys
Fails to sign
UN Treaty

War, massacre, mayhem

It is these same mourners who kill women and children and who, as suits their fancy, label young men “terrorists.” It is these same mourners who send remote bombs and who attack with chemical weapons leaving landmines and bomblets to massacre hundreds of thousands immediately and well into the future. These same mourners destroy lives and livelihoods and upset geographic regions, multi-sectarian relations, international and domestic relations among people who have and would, if left alone, resolve their own conflicts and live in peace with one another.

Corrupt politics and bribe-taking pandering terrorists-making hypocritical politicians, these are the performing “mourners.” Torture, assassination and brute force at home and abroad are their examples, their legacy to world and nation. Violence is the true face of these “mourners.”

Pakistanis protest
U.S. assassination drone strikes

Violence

  

These are heads of U.S. governments up and down the spectrum (local to national) whose “law enforcement,” whose immigration and homeland security and “safe communities” agents make sport tasering unarmed people, shooting pointblank,  shoving instruments up the rectums of victims in their custody; doing this routinely, with impunity, never having to face prosecution or adjudication. This is “our” face domestically, transported by U.S. agents (soldiers, officials, personnel, proxies) anywhere in the world. We are the world, the world is us; and what we do is who we are.

Face of “mourners”: here and there, failure to care

The faces and facts of those who today perform a “mourning” of the deaths of schoolchildren are also heartlessly, carelessly without caring.  These “mourners” play to and promote ignorance. In fact, their destruction of quality education ensures ignorance.

Homeless USA

Fakers and foolers: For the masses of people in the United States, there are no schools encouraging independent thought and love of learning. Schools instill profit-making models, makers of consumers, and mindless consuming, furthering a violent character in consumption. A culture that creates holidays for gouging and gorging; a culture that creates disasters for making fake “community,” convenient “humanitarians,” manipulative mass-media-made “heroes”: “Look how they helped one another, even the black, brown, yellow and white people … ‘hero’ Johnny pulls little Sally from the sink hole.”

Education, medical and health resources, shelter ─

Why do the sick of all kinds suffer needlessly?

Why does homelessness persist in a “prosperous” nation? Is this not violence against one’s own people?

(Why are the U.S. citizens demanding regime change in other nations not demanding it in the United States?

Disestablishing education

Why not sweep out the entire sitting government, executive and legislative?)

Why not? Because this nation is a nation of people who have learned not to care as a matter of character; because we are a nation of people who have created and maintained structures, institutions and systems that operate in the interests of profit for a few and that tease suckers into wanting the same ─ like playing lotteries that help no one and deliberately work against the needs and interests of human beings, against societies all over the world.

Here and there: Killing

In the void of care, of caring; in the absence of character that regards, respects, is concerned one for the other grows paranoia, fear and uncertainty, untreated sickness, suspicion and division. Community declines (no fake mourning or heroes can contain), descending to annihilation.

Lie on its face: the Show

You can continue to believe the false “mourners,” the assassins, the CNN-ized portrayal of reality. 

However, to really shake up things, we have to look critically at what these “mourners” do, what they have done, what they will continue to do as long as you (as we), the masses, majorities of people, let them get away with moments of weeping while chronically engaging in manipulation and murder.

U.S. war in Afghanistan
Civilian Dead

Violence has been the first instrument of an entrenched character, of a cabal, of the corrupt, corrupting and corrupted. Anyone conscious of or engaged in contemporary world and domestic affairs expects violence to rise from among the masses ─ whether university teachers in tenured posts, board members of top companies or organizations, whether laborers in garbage collection or students in America’s classrooms ─ when what they are fed continuously is violence. This status quo in violence will continue until we the masses say no more.

Shock? Mourning? I don’t think so. It is all performance: for some, self-delusional; for others, deliberate flimflamming made for television. For all, it is pageantry, the SHOW: Gere sings “Chicago.” 

Here we are again, a fleeting moment of feigned (for some possibly real)  anguish. Then back to character as usual ─ until next time.

I am saddened but not shocked. I am definitely outraged, angry with us.

Peg: Sources and notes

HEADLINES yesterday and yesterday

Today's news

CIA: European court rules [U.S.] CIA tortured, sodomized German man.

SYRIA: West sanctions causing Syrians to suffer: Syrian Foreign Minister says.

SYRIA: Blacklisting terrorists in Syria pretext for U.S. intervention says Opposition

PAKISTAN: Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan joined an alliance with the United States in the so-called ‘war on terror.’  Today a rocket attack on an airport killed four people in NW Pakistan.

AFGHANISTAN: U.S. soldier dies in volatile southern Afghanistan

UNITED STATES: Alabama Gunman killed after shooting three people

A gunman opened fire at a hospital in the U.S. state of Alabama, injuring a police officer and two other people. The police then shot and killed the gunman.

UNITED STATES: Suicide [in U.S. Army] numbers likely to top 2011, Army says

UNITED STATES: Poll: 32 percent of Americans find medical care too expensive

Yesterday’s news December 14, 2012

UNITED STATES

20 children, 6 adults killed by gunman at U.S. school

Newtown, Connecticut, northern Fairfield County about 45 miles southwest of Hartford, 80 miles northeast of the New York City.

CBS News reported 27 people died: 20 Sandy Hook Elementary School students, 6 adult victims; shooter suicide. One person injured in the Friday incident. Media outlets reported the school’s principal and psychologist among the dead.

Headlines from Press TV print news online, http://www.presstv.ir/

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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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Rights are constant victim of constant conflict: governments, media, nonprofits collude against public interest

Biasing reality: jounralists under fire and torture

Editing, bracketed notes, brief commentary by Carolyn Bennett

“Torture prevention is not about asking what happened and how it happened, but asking why it happens and how we can stop it happening.” [Victor Rodriguez, UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture]

Dark deed denied by Key Democracies

The risk of torture and other ill-treatment exist in all situations where people are deprived of their liberty, particularly in places closed to the outside world.

The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2002 and came into force in 2006.

It aims to minimize the risks of abuse by opening up prisons, police stations, mental health institutions and all other places of detention to examination by independent watchdogs.

The basic premise behind the OPCAT is that the more open and transparent places of detention are, the lesser the risk for abuse. 

Despite its absolute prohibition, torture continues to persist in all regions of the world.

In this month’s update the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) reports 65 States Parties; 21 Additional State Signatories; 46 Designated National Preventive Mechanisms

A

bsent from Torture Prevention States: United States of America

OPCAT States Parties: 65 Albania Argentina Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Benin Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cambodia Chile Congo, Democratic Republic of Costa Rica Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Estonia France Gabon Georgia Germany Guatemala Honduras Hungary Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Lebanon Liberia Liechtenstein Luxembourg Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Maldives Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Moldova Montenegro Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Panama

Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Romania Senegal Serbia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Togo Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Uruguay Additional States Signatories: 21  Australia  Belgium  Cameroon  Cape Verde  Chad  Congo, Republic of  Finland  Ghana  Greece  Guinea  Iceland  Ireland  Italy  Madagascar  Norway  Portugal  Sierra Leone  South Africa  Timor-Leste  Venezuela  Zambia

States having designated their National Preventive Mechanisms (NPM): 46 Albania Argentina Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Cambodia Chile Costa Rica Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Estonia France Georgia Germany Guatemala Honduras Hungary Kyrgyzstan Liechtenstein Luxembourg Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Maldives Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Montenegro Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Paraguay Poland

Senegal Serbia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom Uruguay

There are linkages among rights. Whether torture or news coverage and those who try to cover people and events and issues fairly and justly and truthfully, rights jointly suffer during perpetual war and conflict, occupation and provocation, amidst dark politics, hardened ideological positions and propaganda.  

Italian journalist 

Giuliana Sgrena 

kidnapped during 

U.S. invasion of Iraq

Journalists in line of fire

Not all culprits exposed

Egyptian journalist El Husseini Abu Deif died Tuesday never waking from a coma by a rubber bullet that fractured his skull resulting in severe brain damage. A reporter for the “Al Fajr” independent news weekly, El Husseini Abu Deif had been covering the conflict in Cairo.

He was reportedly “shot at close range by an unidentified gunman during clashes that erupted between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi outside the presidential palace on December 5, 2012.

Egyptian photojournalist
El Husseini Abu Deif
killed in Cairo

O

mitted in CPJ’s jailed journalists report, noted by CJR

Behind the News, Borders & Bylines — Columbia Journalism Review April 2, 2012 03:17 p.m.: Which Countries Jail the Most Journalists Per Capita? Taking the CPJ data one step further (By Justin D. Martin)

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya
killed in Russia

At the end of each year, the Committee to Protect Journalists counts the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide and lists the countries in which they’re locked up.

Though these data are very helpful, “we can consider them under a new lamp,” Martin writes, “by taking into account each country’s size. China and Eritrea, for example, have about the same number of journalists rotting in prison, 27 and 28 respectively; but the population of China is more than 250 times the population of the small dictatorship.

Any country that unjustly arrests or imprisons a single journalist is democratically suspect ─ and that includes America.

Ratings of press freedom in the United States tanked after 2011, as counts of arrested journalists in this country soared.

Police in the United States tend to arrest journalists filming or otherwise documenting unrest. Their bosses usually get embarrassed at the media blowback and drop the charges.

C

Journalist Maya Naser
killed during
Syrian conflict

ommittee to Protect Journalists’ December Special Report, “Number of jailed journalists sets global record,” conveniently fails to mention the United States and Israel.

“Imprisonment of journalists worldwide reached a record high in 2012, driven in part by the widespread use of charges of ‘terrorism’ [the U.S.’s global 11-year reckless coinage] and other anti-state offenses against critical reporters and editors,” says the Committee to Protect Journalists’ latest report.

Turkey [U.S. ally of convenience] is world’s worst jailer. At least 49 journalists remain jailed in Turkey. (AFP)

232 individuals were behind bars on December 1 ─ a rise of 53 compared with CPJ’s 2011 tally.

A 29.6 percent worldwide increase over 2011, the largest percentage jump in a decade and the second consecutive annual increase of more than 20 percent.

Imprisonments increased 23.4 percent from 2010 to 2011.

Elena Poniatowska

Mexico

States singled out by CPJ, in addition to U.S.-allied Turkey, were Iran, China, east Africa’s Eritrea, Middle East’s Syria; plus top-teners Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, and [U.S.-allied] Saudi Arabia identified

Its list of states jailing journalists, CPJ said, “is a snapshot of those incarcerated at 12:01 a.m. on December 1, 2012, [and] does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year.”

At its website, the Committee to Protect Journalists describes itself as “an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide.” Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t “independent.”

Israeli government impunity

In its own letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conveniently one day after its jailed journalists tally, the CPJ made strong sounds. “All journalists,” the letter said, “whether local or foreign, regardless of the perspective from which they report, are afforded the same civilian protections under international law.” Continuing, it said ─

The Israeli government does not have the right to selectively define who is and who is not a journalist based on national identity or media affiliation. International law also places strict limits on military attacks on all civilian sites, including media outlets.

Article 51 of ‘Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions’ prohibits attacks on civilian sites in which potential damage and loss of civilian life ‘would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.’

“We request your government provide an immediate and detailed explanation for its actions in targeting Mahmoud al-Kumi, Hussam Salama, and Mohamed Abu Aisha and the two media buildings in the Gaza Strip.”

Were these mere words, bluster lending cover to collusion with the sitting national government in Washington, its corporate and nonprofit allies and mass media; all the while adhering to an underling mission of biasing truth against the public interest?

Attack on journalists December 14 UPDATE [CPJ missed Israel]

Israeli Soldiers Attack Journalists in Hebron

“In Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israeli troops have attacked two journalists with the news service Reuters as they covered the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a Palestinian boy. Camera operators Yousri Al Jamal and Ma’amoun Wazwaz were on their way to the Hebron military checkpoint where Israeli troops had shot the boy dead when they were stopped by an Israeli military vehicle. According to their account, the Israeli soldiers punched them, forced them to strip in the street, and then fired off a tear gas canister. Wazwaz was overcome by the tear gas fumes and treated in a local hospital. Two other Palestinian journalists working for local outlets were also stopped and accosted. Democracy Now headlines, December 14, 2012, http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/14/headlines#12142

Israeli forces assault Reuters cameramen in West Bank, December 14, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/14/277965/israeli-forces-attack-reuters-cameramen/

Sources and notes

“Egyptian journalist dies of wounds from clashes,” December 12, 2012,

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/ae6b3a73-a375-4383-995e-06f273ef2648.aspx

Behind the News, Borders & Bylines — April 2, 2012 03:17 PM

Which Countries Jail the Most Journalists Per Capita?

Taking the CPJ data one step further (By Justin D. Martin)

Columbia Journalism Review, behind the news, http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/which_countries_jail_the_most.php

“Number of jailed journalists sets global record,” Special Reports (CPJ), December 11, 2012,

https://www.cpj.org/reports/2012/12/imprisoned-journalists-world-record.php

This report was compiled by CPJ staff with additional reporting by CPJ Steiger Fellow Sumit Galhotra. https://www.cpj.org/about/

“INTERNATIONAL: Number of jailed journalists sets global record”

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 at 08:28 am http://www.raxanreeb.com/2012/12/international-number-o f-jailed-journalists-sets-global-record/

“Israel must explain targeting of journalists in Gaza,” December 2, 2012, http://cpj.org/2012/12/israel-must-explain-targeting-of-journalists-gaza.php

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