|
| This is an excerpt from an article I found in the San Jose Mercury:
WASHINGTON
- Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for
foreign terrorists who could travel elsewhere across the globe and
wreak havoc, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and
classified studies by the CIA and the State Department.
Of
particular concern, the officials and studies say, are the urban combat
techniques being learned and used by foreign fighters assaulting U.S.
and Iraqi troops. There's already evidence that those tactics are being
replicated elsewhere.
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Conway told a
Pentagon briefing last week that remotely detonated bombs known as
improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are an increasing threat to U.S.
forces trying to stabilize Afghanistan.
Iraq's emergence as a
terrorist training ground appears to challenge President Bush's
rationale for invading and overthrowing leader Saddam Hussein in March
2003.
``To complete the mission, we will prevent Al-Qaida and
other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was
under the Taliban, a safe haven from which they could launch attacks on
America and our friends,'' the president said in a nationally televised
address last Tuesday.
But Iraq wasn't a source of Islamist
fundamentalist terrorism under Saddam and played no role in the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Critics argue that the U.S. invasion
harmed, rather than helped, the war on terror by acting as a magnet and
recruiting tool.
``Arguably, it's created new problems that
we're going to be dealing with for a long time,'' said Steven Simon, a
senior analyst at the Rand Corp. who served at the National Security
Council under President Clinton.
Yet another sign that
the United States made a huge mistake in choosing to invade Iraq. If
only the American public was aware of all the shit that's actually
happening throughout the world, not just what the media tells us.
I
read the following in an entry on Juan Cole's blog. He is a Professor
of History at the University of Michigan and one of the nation's
leading experts on the Middle East and Terrorism and the U.S. This is
an excerpt from an interview a reporter did with him the day of the
London bombings:
Why do they think terrorism will work, since it’s unlikely Britain will change its policies?
The
British were already planning to draw down their troops from 9,000 to
2,000 in the next nine months. I think the British will do that, and
these bombings will not change British policy. The British have been
bombed before and have not been timid; they’ve soldiered on in their
activities. I don’t think Spain withdrew from Iraq mainly because of
the Madrid bombings, either. The Iraq war had always been enormously
unpopular—-92 percent of the population didn’t want it.
But
these people don’t do these bombings for immediate political purposes.
Sacred terror has a lot to do with symbology. They’re like big
theatrical events. As I said, they couldn’t even operate in Cairo; they
would be arrested. So they feel very powerless. All the powers in the
world are against them, and they feel very sure God is with them. What
do you do if you’re a tiny fringe who is completely right and indeed
only if your plan succeeds is the world saved? And you’re opposed by
all of these massive states and powers? One of the things they’re doing
is giving themselves heart. They’re saying we can make a difference, we
can intervene in history, the enemy is not invulnerable, and we can
strike it . . ." | | |
| 
Kanye West.
I've
been sitting here listening to the two tracks I got off his new album,
the Diamonds Remix and Gold Digger. The guy is so unbelievably
talented...
First of all, his production is off the chain. He
has mastered the art of sampling, layering sounds to create beautiful
texture, making the beat bump, and weaving his flow through the
intricate rhythms of the background track to create the perfect
eargasm. I love his flow, and I'm eagerly await the release of his
album. Granted, it's commercial hip hop; if it has any type of socially
conscious message, it's being used mostly to sell records, not
necessarilly change anything. Which brings me to my next point.
Immortal Technique.
If
you've ever heard his music, you would know why. All you have to do is
listen to one track and you will be blown away by his insightfulness,
intelligence, and unrelenting will to expose the world. He doesn't care
what people think, how many records he'll sell, or who he'll piss off.
He cares about spitting the truth. He refuses to be tied down by
corporate sponsors and record labels. His new album, Middle Passage, is
going to drop this fall and when it does you will see me in line to cop
that on opening day. I suggest you do the same. In honor of Tech, verse
one from The 4th Branch:
The voice of racism preaching the gospel is devilish
A fake church called the prophet Muhammad a terrorist
Forgetting God is not a religion, but a spiritual bond
And Jesus is the most quoted prophet in the Qu'ran
They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam
When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran
This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings
Cause Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings
I break it down with critical language and spiritual anguish
The Judas I hang with, the guilt of betraying Christ
You murdered and stole his religion, and painting him white
Translated in psychologically tainted philosophy
Conservative political right wing, ideology
Glued together sloppily, the blasphemy of a nation
Got my back to the wall, cause I'm facin' assassination
Guantanamo Bay, federal incarceration
How could this be, the land of the free, home of the brave?
Indigenous holocaust, and the home of the slaves
Corporate America, dancin' offbeat to the rhythm
You really think this country, never sponsored terrorism?
Human rights violations, we continue the saga
El Savador and the contras in Nicaragua
And on top of that, you still wanna take me to prison
Just cause I won't trade humanity for patriotism
Fucking genius.
If you don't already have this track, I suggest you illegally download it immediately.
| | |
| I remember having a discussion with a teacher of mine once, and he told
me history repeats itself every several decades and that each
generation makes similar mistakes. At one time I thought my teacher was
right, that the human race keeps committing the same blunders over and
over again.
However, it occurred to me that perhaps the
happenings of today aren't a mistake. As George Orwell so eloquently
displayed in 1984, war is simply a way of stimulating the economy and
ensuring class differences. Since the dawn of human civilization, the
wealthy have been trying to ensure their security from poverty and
increase the disparity between the classes.
If you go back and
study U.S. relations with many of the Middle Eastern governments,
you'll quickly find that we are the root of much of the world's
turmoil. From arms dealings to military coupes to forced regime
changes, the U.S. government has been manipulating other countries'
political structures for years to benefit "big industry," all in the
name of "democracy." To say that we have instigated these attacks is an
understatement; they are merely retaliations to what have been decades
of corruption and suppression.
What's even more frightening is
the thought that all of this is planned. Is it possible that the U.S.
government has known all along what would happen? Eric Hoffer, a famous
conservative-American social writer, once said, "It is when power is
wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable." Last time it was
the Cold War and the false notion that the world was in constant
jeopardy. This time it's terrorism and the "threat to freedom."
It's
quite possible that the Bush Administration has created the perfect
tool for instituting power, wealth, and "the American way of life."
Unfortunately, it's at the expense of peace, justice, and countless
lives.
I've been sitting here wondering if that teacher was
right. Does history repeat itself? Do we keep making the same mistakes?
Or are the ones in power getting better? Are they learning how to
manipulate the rest of us more effectively each time around?
Either way... if we don't wise up as a species, we won't have many more cycles left.
"Experience is not what happens to a man, but what a man does with what happens to him."
~Aldous Huxley | | |
| This is an except taken from an article in the New York Times:
In
general remarks about terrorism, the prime minister also condemned as
"complete nonsense" the argument that the Iraqi war was a
justification, or even a reason, for the bombings in London on July 7
and the attempted bombings two weeks later.
"My point to you is
this," he said. "It's time we stopped saying, O.K., we abhor their
methods but we kind of see something in their ideas or maybe they've
got a sliver of excuse or justification. They've got no justification
for it."
As I was reading this article, I was a little
disturbed. I wondered if people actually stop and consider why the
"terrorists" attack in the first place. A lot of people just get angry
and hot, understandably so, but very few people actually stop to
consider why. Of course I thought the bombings were tragic and were
probably unjustifiable, but so are the millions of murders the U.S. and
England have committed.
What follows are the next two paragraphs in the article. Read carefully:
Mr.
Blair also defended the shoot-to-kill policy for suspected terrorists
that resulted in the killing by the police on Friday of a 27-year-old
Brazilian electrician, mistakenly believed to be a suicide bomber.
"If
you are dealing with someone who you think might be a suicide bomber,
then obviously the important thing is that they were not able to set
off the bomb," he said. "It's as simple as that, and I think it's more
of a common-sense response to the situation rather than any great
change of policy."
Did anyone else catch that? They killed an INNOCENT man, because they thought
he was a suicide bomber. Do I need to say anymore? This is both sad and
infuriating. I skimmed through the rest of the article expecting to
read something about this innocent dude that was killed, but there was
nothing. It's ironic. The "terrorists" kill us, and we start a crusade.
We kill ourselves, and no one even cares...
****EDIT****
I've
just been informed that the innocent man's tragic death was actually a
big deal; somehow, I hadn't found out about it until today. Here is the
original article detailing his murder:
LONDON -
Police identified the man who was chased down in a subway and shot to
death by plainclothes officers as a Brazilian and said Saturday they no
longer believed he was tied to the recent terror bombings.
Friday's
shooting before horrified commuters prompted criticism of police for
overreacting and expressions of fear that Asians and Muslims would be
targeted by a "trigger-happy culture" after two well-coordinated
attacks in two weeks.
Police expressed regret for the death of
the man at the Stockwell subway station, identified Saturday as Jean
Charles de Menezes, 27. Witnesses said he was wearing a heavy, padded
coat when plainclothes police chased him into a subway car, pinned him
to the ground and shot him about five times in the head and torso.
Hours
after the shooting, Police Commissioner Ian Blair said the victim was
"directly linked" to the investigations into attacks Thursday and July
7. In the latter, suicide bombings on trains and a bus killed 56
people, including four attackers.
Police initially said the
victim attracted police attention because he left a house that was
under surveillance after Thursday's bungled bombings, in which devices
planted on three subway trains and a double-decker bus failed to
detonate properly. Stockwell is near Oval station, one of those
targeted.
"He was then followed by surveillance officers to the
station. His clothing and his behavior at the station added to their
suspicions," police said Friday.
But Saturday, a police official
said on condition of anonymity that Menezes was "not believed to be
connected in any way to any of the London bombings."
"For
somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one
that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets," a spokesman said on
condition of anonymity, which is police policy.
However, police did not explain what went wrong or say whether Menezes had done anything illegal.
In
Brazil, the Foreign Ministry said it was "shocked and perplexed" by the
death of Menezes, whom it did not name but described as "apparently the
victim of a lamentable mistake."
The ministry said it expected
British authorities to explain the circumstances of the shooting, and
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim would try to arrange a meeting with
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during a visit to London.
Brazilian
media reported that Menezes was an electrician who had been legally
living and working in England for the past three years. He originally
came from the small city of Gonzaga, some 500 miles northeast of Sao
Paulo in the state of Minas Gerais.
"He spoke English very well,
and had permission to study and work there," Menezes' cousin Maria
Alves told the O Globo Online Web site from her home in Sao Paulo.
Menezes'
family was Roman Catholic. When asked if he had become Muslim in
Britain, Agostino Ferreira Rosa, a policeman in Gonzaga said:
"According to his family, he had nothing to do with Muslims or
Islamism. He was Catholic."
"There was no reason to think he was
a terrorist," Menezes' grandmother, Zilda Ambrosia de Figueiredo, told
the Globo TV late Saturday. "He was very easygoing and very
communicative with everybody. It's terrible what they have done to him."
Mayor Ken Livingstone said the killing was a "human tragedy" that was a consequence of the attacks.
"The
police acted to do what they believed necessary to protect the lives of
the public," he said. "This tragedy has added another victim to the
toll of deaths for which the terrorists bear responsibility."
Livingstone
drew a hard line before the mistake became clear, declaring that anyone
believed to be a suicide bomber faced a "shoot-to-kill policy."
The
shooting was an indication of the nervousness and anxiety around the
city of about 8 million people. A police watchdog organization, the
Independent Police Complaints Commission, said it would investigate the
shooting but make sure not to hinder the bombings probe.
Shami
Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, said such an
investigation was critical for reassuring the public.
"It's
incredibly important that society remains united at such a tense time,
it's very important that young Asian men don't feel that there is some
kind of trigger-happy culture out there," Chakrabarti said.
The
Islamic Human Rights Commission said "in the current climate of
anti-Muslim hysteria, IHRC fears that innocent people may lose their
lives due to the new shoot to kill policy."
Iqbal Sacranie,
secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said, "It's
absolutely vital that the utmost care is taken to ensure that innocent
people are not killed due to overzealousness."
Police have made
two arrests in the Stockwell neighborhood following Thursday's attacks.
The second arrest was made late Friday "in connection with our
inquiries" into those attacks, Metropolitan Police said.
Police have not released many details of the arrests, including the identities of those in custody.
Thousands
of officers fanned out in a huge manhunt amid hopes the publication of
closed-circuit TV images of four suspected attackers would lead to
their capture. Blair declined to say if the men in custody were among
the four pictured.
Security alerts kept Londoners on edge, and
fears of a new terrorist attack led Italian soccer powerhouse Inter
Milan to cancel its English tour because of safety concerns, a decision
criticized by England's Norwich City soccer team.
"For Inter
Milan to refuse to travel because of the threat of terrorism is simply
giving in to the terrorists," said the team's chief executive, Neil
Doncaster.
Hundreds of people also gathered Saturday to mourn
Anthony Fatayi-Williams, a 26-year-old oil executive among those killed
July 7.
"The cathedral is full. I can see Nigerians, people from
different backgrounds, white and black, I can see people of all ages
gathered here representing the different races of humankind," said his
uncle, Tom Ikimi, a former Nigerian foreign affairs minister.
To put it simply, the guy was murdered in cold blood. | | |
| It's a lengthy article, but a good read. Talks about Sean John, P. Diddy's clothing line:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/business/yourmoney/24puff.html?pagewanted=1&ex=1137902400
Smart guy. Knows his old marketing strategy won't fly for long so he's adapting...
His music is garbage, but I respect his business sense. | | |
|
