Fake feminist bona fides

HRClinton’s State Department strikes again — bans Afghan MP/women’s rights activist until pushed to lift ban

Re-reporting, comment, editing by Carolyn Bennett

The U.S. Embassy last week denied famed Afghan women’s rights activist and Afghan Member of Parliament Malalai Joya a visa to the United States. Joya had planned an extensive U.S. speaking tour to have been launched last Saturday, according to the U.S.-based Afghan Women’s Mission.

“Americans are being denied the right to hear from an on-the-ground activist how the war is affecting ordinary Afghans, especially women,” the AWM said.

Matt Jones wrote two years ago in the Montreal Mirror, “The life of Afghan MP Malalai Joya has become an inconvenient truth about the war in Afghanistan.

“Rather than showing that Afghan women have been liberated since NATO tanks and troops rolled into the country, Joya has had to brave censorship, threats of violence and four assassination attempts under the new regime. In 2007, she received a three-year suspension from parliament for claiming [the parliament] was ‘a stable’ filled with warlords and drug barons. …

“Malalai Joya thinks two things need to happen before peace can come to Afghanistan —  

the departure of foreign troops and

the prosecution of warlords.

“‘Your government says that if the troops leave Afghanistan, civil war will happen but nobody’s talking about today’s civil war. The longer troops stay in Afghanistan, the worse the civil war will be.

“‘[M]y people are squashed between two powerful enemies. From the sky, occupation forces are bombing, killing civilians. On the ground, Taliban and warlords continue their faction fighting.’”

Today’s Democracy Now program reports, “The U.S. Department of State has reversed a decision to deny a travel visa to Afghan women’s and democracy activist Malalai Joya.” Joya had planned a three-week U.S. tour to promote a new edition of her memoir when the U.S. imposed a ban but after coming under heavy protest, HR Clinton’s State Department reversed its decision. Joya will appear tonight in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

Malalai Joya speaks unspeakable truths. Among the inconvenient truths she reveals in her interview with Matt Jones, “Rape, domestic violence, attacks, killing of women are increasing rapidly and all of these crimes are happening under the name of democracy.”

Sources and notes

“Four things you can do about Malalai Joya’s Visa Denial,” (ACTION ALERT: AWM News, Campaigns), March 18, 2011, http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1258

Afghan Women’s Mission

The Afghan Women’s Mission was founded in January 2000 by a small group of Americans to support the humanitarian and political work of RAWA. Projects include many programs run by Afghan women including Malalai Clinic, schools, orphanages, agricultural programs, demonstrations and functions in support of women’s and human rights. We are an all-volunteer organization based in the United States.

The Afghan Women’s Mission was founded in response to the compelling need for adequate hospital facilities near Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Their first undertaking was the re-opening of the Malalai Hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. This flagship project was effectively started in late 2001. In 2005, Malalai Hospital was transitioned into Malalai Clinic in Khewa refugee camp, http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?page_id=2

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977, http://www.rawa.org/index.php

“Speaking truth to warlords Banned Afghan MP Malalai  Joya on her country’s corruption, the bravery of women and being squashed between two powerful forces,”

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2009/111909/news1.html

“U.S. Reverses Visa Denial to Afghan Activist,” March 25, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/25/headlines

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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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Duped?

Re-reporting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

This is what happens when civilian government weakens and otherwise disestablishes a strong diplomatic corps and hands the reins of foreign relations to old soldiers, militarists and vested interests who are by definition inept and uninterested in applying diplomatic means in resolving conflict — let alone advancing peace or reconciliation — and negotiating for other nations’ natural resources.

A man called Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, thought to be one of the highest ranking members of the Taliban, turns out to be “an impostor.” Foreign occupation forces and their governments apparently paid large amounts of money to a liar and impersonator who repeatedly fooled Afghan and U.S.-NATO officials.

“The revelation that the man presumed to be a high-ranking Taliban leader who had met with top Afghan officials was an imposter [New York Times reporting] sheds new light on Gen. David Petraeus’s aggressive propaganda about the supposed Taliban approach to the Hamid Karzai regime,” writes Gareth Porter, investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy.

“Ever since August [2010], Petraeus had been playing up the Taliban’s supposed willingness to talk peace with Karzai as a development that paralleled the success he had claimed in splitting the Sunni insurgency in 2007 in Iraq. However, it is now clear that Petraeus was deceiving himself as well as the news media in accepting the man claiming to be the second-ranking Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as genuine — despite a number of indications to the contrary.”

In late summer and early autumn, “Petraeus and Afghan contacts with the imposter ignored warning signals [that willingly or ignorantly they were being duped].”

“Taliban leadership was firmly denying that they were negotiating with the Afghan government.

During the three-day Muslim holiday that began September 9, Mullah Omar [spiritual leader of the Taliban movement] had said the Taliban would ‘never accept’ the current government.

On September 29, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Majahid said Petraeus’s claim that the Taliban were negotiating with the Afghan government was ‘completely baseless’ and that the Taliban would not negotiate with ‘foreign invaders or their puppet government.’

Even more important, Taliban officials, as reported in the summer by Syed Saleem Shahzad in the Asia Times, were telling Pakistani intelligence officers seeking clarification on the Taliban position on peace that the U.S. and NATO forces would have to be withdrawn before any settlement with Karzai.…

“Petraeus’s failure to heed those signals was certainly driven by his strong desire to establish yet another narrative emphasizing his brilliance as a war strategist, judging from his public statements prior to the revelation of the fraud. …

Most journalists and the U.S. political elite believe it was Petraeus’s maneuvering combined with the surge that produced [in Iraq] the Sunni turn towards cooperation against al Qaeda and Petraeus has been able to reap the political benefit from this narrative. However, “the narrative of Petraeus-driven success is largely mythical: the Sunni shift toward joining local anti-al Qaeda militia units was already well underway before Petraeus took command in February 2007.”

This past October or early November in Afghanistan, “Petraeus’s U.S.-NATO command, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), finally consulted someone who has actually known Mullah Mansour. Those consulted “told [Petraeus’s U.S.-NATO command] that the man they had been dealing with [the man called Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour] was an imposter.”

“Neither ISAF nor the Karzai government has been able to establish the identity of the imposter,” Porter reports.

This is what happens when civilian government is inept or irresponsible it its proper leadership and conduct of foreign affairs.

Sources and notes

Mullah Omar was Afghanistan’s de facto head of state (1996-late 2001) under the official title ‘Head of the Supreme Council.’ He held the title Commander of the Faithful of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, officially recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.


Mullah Mohammed Omar (born circa 1959), often simply called Mullah Omar, is the spiritual leader of the Taliban movement that operates in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan [Wikipedia].

“Afghanistan Plagued By Fake Mullahs, Fraudulent Elections, More Troops, and Delayed Withdrawal,” Uprising Radio (GUEST: Gareth Porter, investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy, writer for the Inter Press Service), November, 24, 2010, http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=17354

Gareth Porter’s work online at www.ipsnews.net

“An Overeager Petraeus Ignored Danger Signs on Taliban Imposter” (Gareth Porter), November 25, 2010, Antiwar Forum, http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2010/11/24/an-overeager-petraeus-ignored-danger-signs-on-taliban-imposter/

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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]