US silent on Guantanamo abuse claim : Aren’t we all opaquely silent about the lack of transparency in global affairs??
April 16, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Aren’t we all hurting, prisoner or free?
Don’t we all distrust anything anyone says in public, especially our elected politicians?
Aren’t we all blinded already by global violence, hate and revenge?
Aren’t we all opaquely silent?
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. “
Martin Luther King Jr
US silent on Guantanamo abuse claim
Al Jazeera 16/4/2009
The US state department has refused to comment on a claim that guards at Guantanamo Bay prison camp abused a Chadian prisoner held there.
Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday that Mohammad al-Qurani had been beaten and tear-gassed by guards after Barack Obama, the US president, pledged to end abuse at the camp in January.
Cory Crider, a member of al-Qurani’s legal team, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday it was hard to ascertain how al-Qurani had been treated in recent months as the situation varied from camp to camp within the facility and also there had been “ramping up” of secrecy in the new administration.
On his second day in office, Obama ordered the closure of the prison, which has been heavily criticised by rights groups over reports of ill-treatment of detainees.
He also ordered that prisoners held there be treated in line with the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the abuse of detainees.
Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for some detainees at Guantanamo Bay, said his clients had been subjected to similar abuses at Guantanamo Bay over the past two years and that the situation had remained the same despite the Obama administration coming to power.
“However, he ( Obama ) tasked the department of defence with conducting that review, so the same people… who had been running the operation for years were charged with being critical of their own operation. So, when the report came out, it said that everything was all right. It really wasn’t critical and independent in the ways we would have wanted.”
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Where is the Afghan Human Person in a meeting on Afghanistan??
March 7, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
Clinton Pushes for Afghan Meeting
BBC 06/03/2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for a high-level conference on Afghanistan at the end of March.
Solutions to the situation in Afghanistan can only be found if the countries involved, including Iran, meet, she said.
How long more will America and the world be ‘un-democratic’?, ‘un-Christian’ and ‘un-Islamic’ with regards to war and peace??
March 7, 2009 by
Filed under Journey Updates
How long more will America and the world be ‘un-democratic’, ‘un-Christian’ and ‘un-Islamic’ with regards to war and peace?
How long more?
How long more will humanity quench her conscience in defending an eye-for-an-eye , power-hungry, and money-driven killing industries, while untenably holding on to her inhumane disguises of democracy and religion?
Putting Afghan arms down?
Al Jazeera 28/2/2009
Negotiations are under way between Taliban-linked mediators, Western officials and the Afghan government.
Patricia Degennaro, a professor at the Centre for Global Affairs at New York University, told Al Jazeera the talks were a central part of attempts to end the conflict.
“It’s long overdue that there is some kind of jirga, or regional council in Afghanistan, where some of these parties who have had grievances over the years are brought together.
“They need to start talking to each other and move forward so people can start putting their arms down.”
Putting American arms down?
From Al Jazeera 28/2/2009 and Obama’s address to Congress
“For too long our budget has not held true about how our tax dollars are spent,” Obama said.”Large sums held off the budget, including the true cost of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price. “
“We are now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.
And with our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al Qaeda and combat extremism. Because I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens half a world away.”
“The military industrial complex has become embedded in American life,” said John Pike, a US defence expert. “It seems normal and there aren’t strong voices, countervailing constituencies arguing against it.”
Moustaffa from Afghanistan commented on this in Al Jazeera , “The problem with America and it’s like’s never learn from the lesson’s of history. What did America learn from the unjust war it waged in Vietnam? It cost them billion’s of dollar’s and in the end left humiliated. Now they thought would be diffirent because were more powerfull and sophisticated, so they waged an unjust war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So now once again , they are spending trilions and they are achieving nothing except defeat and humiliation.”
US democratic in resisting Karzai poll date call?
BBC 1/3/2009
The US has reiterated it prefers an August date for presidential elections in Afghanistan, despite President Hamid Karzai’s call for polls on 21 April 09.