In a move to monitor and restrict all web traffic to and from Pakistan, the authorities have decided to ban virtual private networks (VPNs), according to major news outlets . A legal notice sent to all internet providers (ISPs) by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority orders the ISPs to inform authorities of any VPN use for web browsing. Pakistan’s 20 million internet users have previously been banned from continue reading…
Read it here. Some highlights:
What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. Our greed and our debt are literally eating our economy alive. Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. continue reading…
Over a year ago, mental midget and world-class bigot Nicolas Sarkozy denounced the face-veil that is worn by many Muslim women and called for a ban on wearing it in any public places. Now, it seems, he is close to getting his wish.[1] This ban would be the first of its type after attempts to pass a similar ban failed in Belgium only because the ruling coalition fell apart before it could be ratified.[2,3] continue reading…
By: Bilal A. Siddiqui
Of course oil was not the reason for the US to invade Iraq. It was a country waiting to be “freed” from a dictator which the West supported with weapons (yes the very mass destruction variety used against Kurds, not the fairy tale variety never found after the invasion). That half a million children died in the run up to the invasion was of course “worth it”, to quote two American ambassadors to the UN[1,2] . Of course, the price was worth it since it was paid in blood. Iraqi blood, that is [3].
And make no mistake. If you thought the loss of thousands of human lives in Afghanistan was all in vain, you are dead wrong. Not only did Operation Enduring Freedom rid the country of an oppressive regime, so oppressive that it eradicated drug cultivation in areas it ruled [4] and dared to think about giving oil concessions to other than American companies [5]. It’s so good now that the Taliban are gone, year after year Afghan farmers are experiencing bumper opium crops [4]. But of course the drug money will never fill American coffers, just as it never did, ever [6]. However, now the price of death and destruction in this barbaric, 18th century relic of a country is truly worth it.
The U.S has:
discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials. Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe. An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” [7]
Micheal Scheuer, a top ranking former CIA analyst argued that it is West’s “imperial hubris” which is making it lose the war against Islamists. But perhaps it is really something else which makes it initiate and perpetuate these wars: Imperial Avarice.
Here is a chilling reminder from Chris Floyd [8]:
Unfortunately, given the realities of our world, one’s first reaction to such news is not a cheery “How nice for the Afghan people!” but rather a heart-sinking, dread-clammy “Uh oh.” For what this discovery almost certainly portends are many more decades of war, warlordism and foreign intervention, as the forces of greed and power fight like hyenas to tear off the juiciest chunks of this windfall.
It also guarantees many more years of American military occupation (in one guise or another); there is absolutely no chance that our Beltway banditti (and their corporate cronies) are simply going to walk away from a stash like this, not when they’ve already got “boots on the ground” — and billions of dollars in war pork invested in the place. It’s payback time, baby! (Or rather, double-dip time, as most these “investments” are just pass-throughs of public money to private profiteers). And hey, finder’s keepers and all that, right?
By: Bilal A. Siddiqui
One of the founding members of Hamas’s military wing, Mr. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was assassinated a few months back on a trip to Dubai [1]. We should have commented earlier, but somehow the draft never got finalized.
All kudos to Dubai police for carefully reconstructing the entire episode in chilling detail in a very short span of time, thanks to omnipresent CCTV coverage [2]. There are three aspects to this story:
- There was a deafening silence in the corridors of power across the Muslim world at the assassination of a hero to the brutal occupation, save Dubai. However, make no mistake: the outcry in Dubai was not due to the assassination of a fellow Muslim, but “Israel should fight its enemies elsewhere not in Dubai.” In plainer English: it’s bad press and not good for business.
- Meanwhile, apparently some Western governments feigned anger at the misuse of their citizens’ passports, which according to them were faked [3],[4],[5],[6]. However, it appears that this is all an eyewash and the governments were either privy to and or privately condone the cold blooded murder [7].
- On the other hand, Israeli government is neither accepting nor denying responsibility. However, their public is ecstatic. A Haretz reporter noted that since he had a resemblance to the alleged head of the hit squad, he was greeted in streets and patted on the back by grannies saying: “Well done, son!” On a similar note, Mossad recruitment is up as Mossad has been restored to its glory days,” said Ilan Mizrahi, a former deputy director of the agency. Even glasses worn by Peter Elvinger, the ring leader are flying off the shelf in Israel [8]. And add to it a bizarre parody of the assassination in a television advert for an Israeli supermarket, offering “killer prices.” [9]
In 1963, John F. Kennedy on a maiden trip to West Berlin said:
Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’ [10]
However, today, given that Israelis alone enjoy the right to act as “freely” as they wish, the proudest boast should be “Civis Israelus Sum” or “Ich Bin Ein Judaean”.
By: Bilal A. Siddiqui
Rules of Engagement (2000), Paramount Pictures:
The original Rules of Engagement (2000) Hollywood flick featuring Tomme Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. It was widely condemned as one of the most racist and Arab-demonizing mainstream films to date [1,2]. The best synopsis is provided by Dr. Jack Shaheen from his ground-breaking documentary “Reel Bad Arabs – How Hollywood Vilifies a people” [3]: continue reading…
An excellent review by James Bovard.
This is the age of Leviathan Democracy. The bigger government grows, the more clueless citizens become. The contract between rulers and ruled is replaced by a blank check. Government becomes an elective dictatorship, and elections merely signify whose turn it is to trample the Constitution. Because people have been taught to expect their rulers to save them from all perils, they cheer any action that either boosts their benefits or assuages their fears. Because the media relies on government “news” handouts, it ignores most official abuses and instead whines about the perils of citizens distrusting their masters.
Kampfner complains about the collapse of “redistributive democracy” in recent years. But politicians are buying more votes than ever before. At the state and local level in the U.S., government employees and pensioners often have a death grip on everyone else’s paychecks. Government entitlement spending is pushing nation after nation towards insolvency.
Read the full review here.
Buy the book here
Excellent analysis of the ‘Maoist insurgency’ in India and an exposition of the Indian government. (From 29:58)
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/22/arundhati_roy_on_obamas_wars_india
And here is the outlookindia article referred to in the interview where she spent time as a mediator with the rebels.
