Major Media Outlets Ignore News That CIA Documents Fail to Back-Up Cheney's Torture Claims
here
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Holder opens investigation into CIA interrogationsLA Times August 25, 2009- WH Releases Report
here
latimes dot com
Holder opens investigation into CIA interrogations
At the same time, the White House releases a report detailing allegations of prisoner abuse by the agency.
By Josh Meyer and Greg Miller
August 25, 2009
Reporting from Washington
The Obama administration Monday set the country on a course to confront whether actions taken in the name of defending Americans instead crossed criminal lines.
In simultaneous moves, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. opened an investigation into whether CIA interrogators broke the law and the administration complied with a judge's order and released a long-secret CIA report that cataloged allegations of agency prisoner abuse.
The administration also released memos sought in recent months by former Vice President Dick Cheney that he argued attest to the success of the CIA's controversial methods, but that appeared inconclusive in part because the agency had blacked out large portions of the memos.
The release of the report by the CIA's inspector general provided the most comprehensive account to date of the interrogation program, with previously undisclosed details such as prisoners being choked to the point of passing out or threatened with harm to their families.
The administration sought to limit the impact of Monday's moves, which it appeared to make with some reluctance. Holder described the inquiry as "preliminary," and the White House left many pages of the CIA report blacked out.
But fallout from the decisions could prove difficult to contain.
The investigation is likely to intensify an already bitter battle in Washington over whether to punish career intelligence officials for how they executed the Bush administration's counter-terrorism campaign.
The investigation means that CIA counter-terrorism officials could face criminal scrutiny for years at a time when the agency and the Justice Department are supposed to be part of a seamless counter-terrorism team and contributing to a new elite interrogation outfit, which was also unveiled Monday.
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, who had fought both the criminal investigation and the release of the inspector general's report, issued a statement to agency employees Monday describing the details of the document as "an old story."
"For the CIA now, the challenge is not the battles of yesterday, but those of today and tomorrow," Panetta said.
In announcing the inquiry, Holder concluded that there was enough evidence to warrant a fresh examination of whether federal law had been violated. He said he realized the decision "will be controversial," but added: "It is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take."
To lead the review, Holder tapped Assistant U.S. Atty. John H. Durham of Connecticut, who in 2008 was appointed by the Bush administration to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations.
Durham already has assembled a team of investigators who will determine whether the preliminary review turns up enough evidence to warrant a criminal investigation.
Holder's decision to open the investigation was driven to a large degree by his reaction to reading the CIA inspector general report earlier this year.
The report was issued in 2004. Officials within the Justice Department at the time reviewed the document and opted to keep it secret. The report became available to the public, at least in part, for the first time Monday as the result of an ACLU lawsuit. The document includes new disclosures on how top Al Qaeda prisoners were told that their families faced harm if they didn't cooperate.
"We could get your mother in here," a CIA interrogator told Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the man suspected of plotting the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole, according to the report. The threat was meant to prey on fears in the Middle East that prisoners are made to witness the sexual abuse of their relatives.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, was told, "If anything else happens in the United States, 'We're going to kill your children,' " according to the report.
In some cases, the report praises how the CIA prisons were run, and acknowledges that the program provided valuable intelligence. During a 19-month stretch after the Sept. 11 attacks, the report said, the interrogation program accounted for 3,000 intelligence reports, providing the agency with much of its understanding of Al Qaeda.
Interrogations "provided intelligence that has enabled the identification and apprehension of other terrorists and warned of terrorist plots," the report said. Even so, the report concluded that the effectiveness of particular techniques "cannot be so easily measured," raising the question of whether the enhanced methods had been crucial to collecting that data.
But the report also faults CIA personnel across agency ranks for failures in oversight and abuses in the interrogation booth. In one passage, the document warns that the agency's activities "are inconsistent with the public policy positions that the United States has taken regarding human rights." The document also cites the anxieties of CIA case officers fearful they would one day be held to account.
"One officer expressed concern that one day, agency officers will wind up on some 'wanted list' to appear before the World Court," the report said.
The report describes cases in which the CIA turned to off-the-books methods, including mock execution and threatening a prisoner with a gun and a power drill.
One previously undisclosed method was known as "pressure points," and involved applying pressure to a prisoner's carotid artery "to the point that the detainee would nod and start to pass out" before being shaken awake.
Many of the incidents described in the document have been previously disclosed. The report expresses deep misgivings, for example, about the simulated drowning method known as waterboarding.
Two prisoners were subjected repeatedly to that method, despite deep concern among the agency's own medical staff, as well as explicit language in Justice Department memos warning against such repetition. The method appears to be the subject of a 23-page section of the report that was nearly completely blacked out.
But even in laying out potential violations of U.S. anti-torture laws, the document contains details that underscore how difficult it could be to obtain convictions.
The excessive use of waterboarding, for example, appears to have been sanctioned by then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who "confirmed that DOJ approved of the expanded use of various" techniques.
There are new indications that CIA higher-ups sometimes pushed for the use of brutal tactics even after interrogators believed a prisoner was cooperating.
The opinions of CIA officials at headquarters "are not always supported by an objective evaluation," and were often based on inflated "presumptions of what the individual might or should know," according to the report.
The report was produced by former CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, who issued a statement Monday saying he was "disappointed" that the government did not declassify large segments of the document, including the recommendations he issued to address problems the report identified.
President Obama outlawed the CIA's use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques in January and ordered the secret prisons closed.
But he has come under criticism for dismantling programs that Republicans, led by Cheney, argue were crucial to keeping the country safe.
In recent months, the former vice president has pushed for the declassification of two documents he said would bolster his argument.
After the administration released them, Cheney issued a statement to the Weekly Standard saying the documents show he was right. The documents "clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about Al Qaeda," he said Monday night. "This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks."
However, the documents provide few details on what role, if any, enhanced interrogation methods played in getting terrorists to talk.
One is titled "Detainee Reporting Pivotal for the War Against Al Qaeda." But it indicates that officials believe some top Al Qaeda leaders talked simply because they believed the CIA already had the information from other detainees.
The other document focuses on Mohammed, who gave up crucial information about Al Qaeda's weapons of mass destruction program because "he apparently calculated -- incorrectly -- that we had this information already."
josh.meyer@latimes.com
greg.miller@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
latimes dot com
Holder opens investigation into CIA interrogations
At the same time, the White House releases a report detailing allegations of prisoner abuse by the agency.
By Josh Meyer and Greg Miller
August 25, 2009
Reporting from Washington
The Obama administration Monday set the country on a course to confront whether actions taken in the name of defending Americans instead crossed criminal lines.
In simultaneous moves, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. opened an investigation into whether CIA interrogators broke the law and the administration complied with a judge's order and released a long-secret CIA report that cataloged allegations of agency prisoner abuse.
The administration also released memos sought in recent months by former Vice President Dick Cheney that he argued attest to the success of the CIA's controversial methods, but that appeared inconclusive in part because the agency had blacked out large portions of the memos.
The release of the report by the CIA's inspector general provided the most comprehensive account to date of the interrogation program, with previously undisclosed details such as prisoners being choked to the point of passing out or threatened with harm to their families.
The administration sought to limit the impact of Monday's moves, which it appeared to make with some reluctance. Holder described the inquiry as "preliminary," and the White House left many pages of the CIA report blacked out.
But fallout from the decisions could prove difficult to contain.
The investigation is likely to intensify an already bitter battle in Washington over whether to punish career intelligence officials for how they executed the Bush administration's counter-terrorism campaign.
The investigation means that CIA counter-terrorism officials could face criminal scrutiny for years at a time when the agency and the Justice Department are supposed to be part of a seamless counter-terrorism team and contributing to a new elite interrogation outfit, which was also unveiled Monday.
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, who had fought both the criminal investigation and the release of the inspector general's report, issued a statement to agency employees Monday describing the details of the document as "an old story."
"For the CIA now, the challenge is not the battles of yesterday, but those of today and tomorrow," Panetta said.
In announcing the inquiry, Holder concluded that there was enough evidence to warrant a fresh examination of whether federal law had been violated. He said he realized the decision "will be controversial," but added: "It is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take."
To lead the review, Holder tapped Assistant U.S. Atty. John H. Durham of Connecticut, who in 2008 was appointed by the Bush administration to investigate the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations.
Durham already has assembled a team of investigators who will determine whether the preliminary review turns up enough evidence to warrant a criminal investigation.
Holder's decision to open the investigation was driven to a large degree by his reaction to reading the CIA inspector general report earlier this year.
The report was issued in 2004. Officials within the Justice Department at the time reviewed the document and opted to keep it secret. The report became available to the public, at least in part, for the first time Monday as the result of an ACLU lawsuit. The document includes new disclosures on how top Al Qaeda prisoners were told that their families faced harm if they didn't cooperate.
"We could get your mother in here," a CIA interrogator told Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the man suspected of plotting the 2000 bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole, according to the report. The threat was meant to prey on fears in the Middle East that prisoners are made to witness the sexual abuse of their relatives.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, was told, "If anything else happens in the United States, 'We're going to kill your children,' " according to the report.
In some cases, the report praises how the CIA prisons were run, and acknowledges that the program provided valuable intelligence. During a 19-month stretch after the Sept. 11 attacks, the report said, the interrogation program accounted for 3,000 intelligence reports, providing the agency with much of its understanding of Al Qaeda.
Interrogations "provided intelligence that has enabled the identification and apprehension of other terrorists and warned of terrorist plots," the report said. Even so, the report concluded that the effectiveness of particular techniques "cannot be so easily measured," raising the question of whether the enhanced methods had been crucial to collecting that data.
But the report also faults CIA personnel across agency ranks for failures in oversight and abuses in the interrogation booth. In one passage, the document warns that the agency's activities "are inconsistent with the public policy positions that the United States has taken regarding human rights." The document also cites the anxieties of CIA case officers fearful they would one day be held to account.
"One officer expressed concern that one day, agency officers will wind up on some 'wanted list' to appear before the World Court," the report said.
The report describes cases in which the CIA turned to off-the-books methods, including mock execution and threatening a prisoner with a gun and a power drill.
One previously undisclosed method was known as "pressure points," and involved applying pressure to a prisoner's carotid artery "to the point that the detainee would nod and start to pass out" before being shaken awake.
Many of the incidents described in the document have been previously disclosed. The report expresses deep misgivings, for example, about the simulated drowning method known as waterboarding.
Two prisoners were subjected repeatedly to that method, despite deep concern among the agency's own medical staff, as well as explicit language in Justice Department memos warning against such repetition. The method appears to be the subject of a 23-page section of the report that was nearly completely blacked out.
But even in laying out potential violations of U.S. anti-torture laws, the document contains details that underscore how difficult it could be to obtain convictions.
The excessive use of waterboarding, for example, appears to have been sanctioned by then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who "confirmed that DOJ approved of the expanded use of various" techniques.
There are new indications that CIA higher-ups sometimes pushed for the use of brutal tactics even after interrogators believed a prisoner was cooperating.
The opinions of CIA officials at headquarters "are not always supported by an objective evaluation," and were often based on inflated "presumptions of what the individual might or should know," according to the report.
The report was produced by former CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, who issued a statement Monday saying he was "disappointed" that the government did not declassify large segments of the document, including the recommendations he issued to address problems the report identified.
President Obama outlawed the CIA's use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques in January and ordered the secret prisons closed.
But he has come under criticism for dismantling programs that Republicans, led by Cheney, argue were crucial to keeping the country safe.
In recent months, the former vice president has pushed for the declassification of two documents he said would bolster his argument.
After the administration released them, Cheney issued a statement to the Weekly Standard saying the documents show he was right. The documents "clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about Al Qaeda," he said Monday night. "This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks."
However, the documents provide few details on what role, if any, enhanced interrogation methods played in getting terrorists to talk.
One is titled "Detainee Reporting Pivotal for the War Against Al Qaeda." But it indicates that officials believe some top Al Qaeda leaders talked simply because they believed the CIA already had the information from other detainees.
The other document focuses on Mohammed, who gave up crucial information about Al Qaeda's weapons of mass destruction program because "he apparently calculated -- incorrectly -- that we had this information already."
josh.meyer@latimes.com
greg.miller@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
LIST of Torture Tactics: Extraordinary Cover-ups - How Much Longer?
...The announcement that a Special Prosecutor has been appointed to investigate Bush-era crimes was the direct result of the massive, grassroots movement from below. It was the action taken by you and people all around the country that made this possible.
The investigation must and will lead back to the high officials who ordered their subordinates to carry out the most heinous crimes. Now we must keep up the pressure. In fact we must increase it a hundred fold with newspaper ads, street demonstrations, media outreach and more.
Please make an urgently needed donation today.
As it was stated by the Washington Post lead editorial today:
“The real culprits in this sordid story are those higher-ups, starting with former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who led America down the degrading path of state-sanctioned torture and left the next administration to cope with the fallout.”
What does the report that Attorney General Eric Holder released yesterday reveal? That Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld’s torture tactics included:
* Mock executions
* Repeatedly choking detainees carotid artery until unconsciousness
* Threatening sexual attacks against the children and parents of detainees
* Detaining the children of detainees and threatening to kill the children
* “Hard takedowns” meaning repeatedly smashing prisoners into the floor
* Head smashing inmates into walls
* Water dousing, pouring freezing water on naked inmates strapped to plastic sheets followed by holding the still naked inmates in bitterly cold cells for days
* Sleep deprivation lasting for 11 days
* Violent shaking of prisoners
* Waterboarding (mock drowning) 183 times in the case of one detainee
* Hanging prisoners form their wrists for up to three days
* “Scrubbing” the bodies of detainees with metal brushes
(NOTE: include Diapering, threat of executions, mock executions, placing prisoners in grave-like cell or burial box, fear of never seeing family members, friends, attorney's, torture music, threatening to rape wives, hurt children, etc. which we've known about for some time through other reports. Blogger's insert.)
More than one hundred prisoners may have died in these torture centers according to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson who served as Colin Powell’s chief of staff during the Bush Administration.
The IndictBushNow movement is now in high gear for the next phase of this critical struggle to save the Constitution. Every elected official and the mass media must know that the people will not accept finding a few low-level scapegoats to punish.
Members of Congress are echoing this call and we can create an avalanche of public support for the indictment of Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld.
Jerome Nadler, the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Chairman said yesterday: “The gruesome acts described in today's report did not happen in a vacuum ... it is vital that this special counsel be given a broad mandate to investigate these abuses, to follow the evidence where it leads, and to prosecute where warranted.”
Now that the investigation has begun all efforts to limit it will fail. Each step of the investigation will inevitably point to those who gave the orders in the chain of command. It is Bush and Cheney who gave the orders and it is they who must be held responsible. END Article
NOTE:
Be sure to go to the daily news and archives at Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Consortiumnews dot come, Center for Constitutional Rights, andyworthington dot com, cageprisoners dot com, Senator Feingold, After Downing Street dot com, Greenwald at Salon dot com and skim through the other items on the blogsite for more URLS
The investigation must and will lead back to the high officials who ordered their subordinates to carry out the most heinous crimes. Now we must keep up the pressure. In fact we must increase it a hundred fold with newspaper ads, street demonstrations, media outreach and more.
Please make an urgently needed donation today.
As it was stated by the Washington Post lead editorial today:
“The real culprits in this sordid story are those higher-ups, starting with former president George W. Bush and former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who led America down the degrading path of state-sanctioned torture and left the next administration to cope with the fallout.”
What does the report that Attorney General Eric Holder released yesterday reveal? That Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld’s torture tactics included:
* Mock executions
* Repeatedly choking detainees carotid artery until unconsciousness
* Threatening sexual attacks against the children and parents of detainees
* Detaining the children of detainees and threatening to kill the children
* “Hard takedowns” meaning repeatedly smashing prisoners into the floor
* Head smashing inmates into walls
* Water dousing, pouring freezing water on naked inmates strapped to plastic sheets followed by holding the still naked inmates in bitterly cold cells for days
* Sleep deprivation lasting for 11 days
* Violent shaking of prisoners
* Waterboarding (mock drowning) 183 times in the case of one detainee
* Hanging prisoners form their wrists for up to three days
* “Scrubbing” the bodies of detainees with metal brushes
(NOTE: include Diapering, threat of executions, mock executions, placing prisoners in grave-like cell or burial box, fear of never seeing family members, friends, attorney's, torture music, threatening to rape wives, hurt children, etc. which we've known about for some time through other reports. Blogger's insert.)
More than one hundred prisoners may have died in these torture centers according to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson who served as Colin Powell’s chief of staff during the Bush Administration.
The IndictBushNow movement is now in high gear for the next phase of this critical struggle to save the Constitution. Every elected official and the mass media must know that the people will not accept finding a few low-level scapegoats to punish.
Members of Congress are echoing this call and we can create an avalanche of public support for the indictment of Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld.
Jerome Nadler, the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Chairman said yesterday: “The gruesome acts described in today's report did not happen in a vacuum ... it is vital that this special counsel be given a broad mandate to investigate these abuses, to follow the evidence where it leads, and to prosecute where warranted.”
Now that the investigation has begun all efforts to limit it will fail. Each step of the investigation will inevitably point to those who gave the orders in the chain of command. It is Bush and Cheney who gave the orders and it is they who must be held responsible. END Article
NOTE:
Be sure to go to the daily news and archives at Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Consortiumnews dot come, Center for Constitutional Rights, andyworthington dot com, cageprisoners dot com, Senator Feingold, After Downing Street dot com, Greenwald at Salon dot com and skim through the other items on the blogsite for more URLS
Monday, August 24, 2009
Blackwater and Helen Thomas
Report: Blackwater Involved in CIA Renditions - Helen Thomas' WELL-PUT Comments
The German newspaper Der Spiegel is reporting the CIA used the private military firm Blackwater to transfer foreign prisoners to secret jails. Two former Blackwater employees reportedly claim Blackwater helped move the prisoners to secret prison camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. The news follows last week’s disclosures Blackwater has played a major role in the CIA’s drone attacks in Pakistan and in its aborted assassination program. According to the New York Times, Blackwater currently has over $400 million in State Department contracts. On Friday, the veteran journalist Helen Thomas asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the Obama administration’s dealings with Blackwater.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: “I asked for an update, which I have not yet gotten, on where we are in different contracts. I would—as it relates to CIA’s use of contracting, I would point you specifically to them for responses on that.”
Helen Thomas: “I don’t think they would tell us.”
Gibbs: “They may tell you, Helen. If you use that sweet voice on the phone, you never know what you could get.”
Thomas: “I want them to stop killing people.”
Gibbs: “You should let them know.”
Thomas: “You should, too.”
=============
Books by Helen Thomas, Dean of the White House Press Corps.
here
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Calley Apologizes for My Lai Massacre for the First Time
Vietnamese women and children in My Lai shortly before being killed in the massacre, March 16, 1968.[11] Photo by Ronald L. Haeberle
SEE VIDEO - READ TRANSCRIPT at Democracy Now! dot org for 8-24-2009
Calley Apologizes for 1968 My Lai Massacre
Over forty-one years after the My Lai Massacre, when US troops killed more than 500 men, women and children in Vietnam, the former Army lieutenant who was convicted for his role in the killings has publicly apologized.
William Calley was the only US soldier held legally responsible for the slayings. He was convicted on twenty-two counts of murder, and his sentence was later commuted by President Reagan.
Last week, William Calley publicly apologized for the first time, saying, “There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai."
He added that he had been FOLLOWING ORDERS.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
RAMAZAN/RAMADAN: Month of Fasting, Remembrance and Reflection
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
Also a month of loving-Kindness and purification
Lebanese man wakes up observant Muslims for their overnight "suhur" meal before the day's fast in Sidon's Old City in south Lebanon just before dawn
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you
This man praying near Swat Pakistan reminds me of the first Muslim man I saw years ago praying in likewise devout manner in a small rural village of Northeast State Nigeria. This memory has has a lifelong effect on me of an individual's unknown yet perhaps most genuine prayer life - whatever that particular religion and certainly opened my eyes to Muslim prayer as equal to any other.
May the light celebrated at Ramadan lead all together on the path of peace and social harmony.
Rabi'a asked someone to buy a blanket for her, giving the person four coins. The person asked: 'Do you want a black blanket, or a white one?' Rabi'a took back the coins, threw them in the Tigris river, and exclaimed: "Must we divide even blankets into distinct groups?"
Attar's Rabi'a
"I can fulfill the need of all of you, with one and the same piece of money. If you honestly give me your trust, your one coin will become as four; and four at odds will become as one united."
Mevlana Rumi
About what do they ask one another?
About the awesome tiding
On which they disagree.
Nay, but in time they will come to understand.
And once again: Nay, but in time they will come to undestand!
The Quran
Chapter 78, 'The Tiding', Lines 1-5
Indonesian women coming together for prayer during Ramadan.
(Photos above were taken by MAHMOUD ZAYAT/AFP/Getty Images for September 2008)
During Ramadan/Ramzan/Ramazan (and several other names for this religious month), Muslims all over the world observe a dawn-to-dusk fast and refrain from anything considered an indulgence...They aim to show patience, modesty and spirituality...this culminates in Eid al-Fitr. This month is also a time - as I understand the case from my Muslim friends - for religious and spiritual reading - in private as well as community. This time is conducive to more than usual reflection with resulting prayer for inner transformation as well as for family, neighbors and the world at large. (A worthy challenge for us all)
Abraham [Ibrahim (A.S.)] received scriptures on the first or third of Ramadan, David [Dawood (A.S.)] on the twelfth or the eighteenth, Moses [Musa (A.S.)] on the sixth, and Jesus [Esa (A.S.)] on the twelfth or the thirteenth of Ramadan.
It was in the very month of Ramadan that the Holy Quran, the last revealed Book, started descending upon Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). It testifies: (Ramadan is the month in which was sent down the Quran as a guide to mankind ...) (2:185)
* 1st Ramadan day of fasting began at dawn on August 22, 2009
* Lailatul-Qadr (Night of Power) September 16, 2009
* Eid-al-Fitr (End of Ramadan) September 20, 2009
* Eid-Al-Adha: November 27, 2009
* Al-Hijra - 1st Muharramn (Islamic New Year) December 18, 2009
Suggested ritual - a prayer for the world's citizens to petition Allah that our world leaders will be most wise and love peace (found in a Sufi's blog for Ramadan and modified)
1. Enter your place of prayer
2. Hold an image of a world leader in your mind
3. Place that person in the region which is closest to your heart
4. Send him/her thoughts of peace along with a symbol such as the scale of balance
And may we pray from the deepest heart of us all for the displaced and the terrorized from many kinds of terrorism - among them the Pakistan's war-displaced in camps during this time:
ICHRIAN, Pakistan, Aug 22 (Reuters) - As the Muslim month of Ramadan begins, tens of thousands of Pakistanis forced to flee their homes by the confusion of battle. Many have no choice but to languish in camps or host families over the religious period.
About 2.3 million people were forced from their homes by fighting in the northwest...creating one of the largest internal displacements in recent times...
"Ramadan is the holiest period of the year for Muslims and it is a period of fasting, prayer and blessings," said Mubashir Fida, communications officer for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),"It's a tough time for the internally displaced people as they have endured so much over the last few months and had hoped to be back home for Eid as that is the time for family celebrations."
For example, 300 or so live in a poultry farm in the village of Ichrian, 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Islamabad where people live in sheds that once housed fowl.
The IFRC together with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society have built latrines here, provided clean water and are now holding psychosocial sessions for those traumatized by their experiences. (Above report from Reuters - found at a number of news sources August 22-23, 2009)
According to both Pakistani and international visitors at the sites where the displaced persons and families are being helped to survive. There has been a warm generous outpouring of service, hospitality, resources and concern common among many Pakistani people who've volunteered and housed mamy people over these long agonizing months.
Girls from Swat sing Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s famous poem 'bol ke lub azaad hai tere':
Speak, your lips are free ) at the interactive session in Islamabad. — File Photo Dawn dot com. May we each and all be part of the solace for girls like these. NOTE: Comment #2 below this post beginning: "The awakening, the praying and the life resonating singing of Swat girls, and what a poem they are reciting..." See English translation of the poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz - BOOL KE LUB AZAD HEI TERAY - in full by Azfer Hussain. Also find the touching article that "matches" the photo above about the girls from Swat in a Dawn online column August 22nd by Nosheen's 'Under the Shade of Unity' here
Some lines from Maulana Rumi on fasting (several different poems and translators in a collage) There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness...Fasting is as our sacrifice, it is the life of our soul; let us sacrifice all our body, since the soul has arrived as guest...let a new song come out of the fire...fortitude is as a sweet cloud, wisdom rains from it...When the carnal soul is in need, the spirit goes into ascension; when the gate of the prison is broken, the soul reaches the Beloved...seek that speech and that morsel which has come to the silent ones...Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry...write secrets with the reed pen...A table descends to your tents, the Lord's table. Expect to see it when you fast, this table spread with other food - better than the broth of cabbages.
And once again let us all listen to the message which is even now coming from the East and to the bells announcing that the Infinite Love is being offered for everyone, everywhere...
Also a month of loving-Kindness and purification
Lebanese man wakes up observant Muslims for their overnight "suhur" meal before the day's fast in Sidon's Old City in south Lebanon just before dawn Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you
This man praying near Swat Pakistan reminds me of the first Muslim man I saw years ago praying in likewise devout manner in a small rural village of Northeast State Nigeria. This memory has has a lifelong effect on me of an individual's unknown yet perhaps most genuine prayer life - whatever that particular religion and certainly opened my eyes to Muslim prayer as equal to any other.
May the light celebrated at Ramadan lead all together on the path of peace and social harmony.
Rabi'a asked someone to buy a blanket for her, giving the person four coins. The person asked: 'Do you want a black blanket, or a white one?' Rabi'a took back the coins, threw them in the Tigris river, and exclaimed: "Must we divide even blankets into distinct groups?"
Attar's Rabi'a
"I can fulfill the need of all of you, with one and the same piece of money. If you honestly give me your trust, your one coin will become as four; and four at odds will become as one united."
Mevlana Rumi
About what do they ask one another?
About the awesome tiding
On which they disagree.
Nay, but in time they will come to understand.
And once again: Nay, but in time they will come to undestand!
The Quran
Chapter 78, 'The Tiding', Lines 1-5
Indonesian women coming together for prayer during Ramadan.(Photos above were taken by MAHMOUD ZAYAT/AFP/Getty Images for September 2008)
During Ramadan/Ramzan/Ramazan (and several other names for this religious month), Muslims all over the world observe a dawn-to-dusk fast and refrain from anything considered an indulgence...They aim to show patience, modesty and spirituality...this culminates in Eid al-Fitr. This month is also a time - as I understand the case from my Muslim friends - for religious and spiritual reading - in private as well as community. This time is conducive to more than usual reflection with resulting prayer for inner transformation as well as for family, neighbors and the world at large. (A worthy challenge for us all)
Abraham [Ibrahim (A.S.)] received scriptures on the first or third of Ramadan, David [Dawood (A.S.)] on the twelfth or the eighteenth, Moses [Musa (A.S.)] on the sixth, and Jesus [Esa (A.S.)] on the twelfth or the thirteenth of Ramadan.
It was in the very month of Ramadan that the Holy Quran, the last revealed Book, started descending upon Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). It testifies: (Ramadan is the month in which was sent down the Quran as a guide to mankind ...) (2:185)
* 1st Ramadan day of fasting began at dawn on August 22, 2009
* Lailatul-Qadr (Night of Power) September 16, 2009
* Eid-al-Fitr (End of Ramadan) September 20, 2009
* Eid-Al-Adha: November 27, 2009
* Al-Hijra - 1st Muharramn (Islamic New Year) December 18, 2009
Suggested ritual - a prayer for the world's citizens to petition Allah that our world leaders will be most wise and love peace (found in a Sufi's blog for Ramadan and modified)
1. Enter your place of prayer
2. Hold an image of a world leader in your mind
3. Place that person in the region which is closest to your heart
4. Send him/her thoughts of peace along with a symbol such as the scale of balance
And may we pray from the deepest heart of us all for the displaced and the terrorized from many kinds of terrorism - among them the Pakistan's war-displaced in camps during this time:
ICHRIAN, Pakistan, Aug 22 (Reuters) - As the Muslim month of Ramadan begins, tens of thousands of Pakistanis forced to flee their homes by the confusion of battle. Many have no choice but to languish in camps or host families over the religious period.
About 2.3 million people were forced from their homes by fighting in the northwest...creating one of the largest internal displacements in recent times...
"Ramadan is the holiest period of the year for Muslims and it is a period of fasting, prayer and blessings," said Mubashir Fida, communications officer for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),"It's a tough time for the internally displaced people as they have endured so much over the last few months and had hoped to be back home for Eid as that is the time for family celebrations."
For example, 300 or so live in a poultry farm in the village of Ichrian, 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Islamabad where people live in sheds that once housed fowl.
The IFRC together with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society have built latrines here, provided clean water and are now holding psychosocial sessions for those traumatized by their experiences. (Above report from Reuters - found at a number of news sources August 22-23, 2009)
According to both Pakistani and international visitors at the sites where the displaced persons and families are being helped to survive. There has been a warm generous outpouring of service, hospitality, resources and concern common among many Pakistani people who've volunteered and housed mamy people over these long agonizing months.
Girls from Swat sing Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s famous poem 'bol ke lub azaad hai tere':
Speak, your lips are free ) at the interactive session in Islamabad. — File Photo Dawn dot com. May we each and all be part of the solace for girls like these. NOTE: Comment #2 below this post beginning: "The awakening, the praying and the life resonating singing of Swat girls, and what a poem they are reciting..." See English translation of the poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz - BOOL KE LUB AZAD HEI TERAY - in full by Azfer Hussain. Also find the touching article that "matches" the photo above about the girls from Swat in a Dawn online column August 22nd by Nosheen's 'Under the Shade of Unity' here
Some lines from Maulana Rumi on fasting (several different poems and translators in a collage) There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness...Fasting is as our sacrifice, it is the life of our soul; let us sacrifice all our body, since the soul has arrived as guest...let a new song come out of the fire...fortitude is as a sweet cloud, wisdom rains from it...When the carnal soul is in need, the spirit goes into ascension; when the gate of the prison is broken, the soul reaches the Beloved...seek that speech and that morsel which has come to the silent ones...Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry...write secrets with the reed pen...A table descends to your tents, the Lord's table. Expect to see it when you fast, this table spread with other food - better than the broth of cabbages.
And once again let us all listen to the message which is even now coming from the East and to the bells announcing that the Infinite Love is being offered for everyone, everywhere...
Friday, August 21, 2009
Say NO! to Blackwater and Drones in Pakistan or anywhere!
iiss dot org publicationsRemotely piloted aircraft - or drones - in operation at Creech USAF base in Nevada (unknown at this time which of these particularly are connected to the Blackwater operations)
US Drone -- Reuters News Service Photo
Here are PLENTY of reasons to say NO to Blackwater in any disquise -operating ANY vehicle, helicopter, drone - any moving item - manned or unmanned - or even any Blackwater employee walking on foot:
According to a New York Times report, the Blackwater private security firm (now known as Xe) has taken up a role in America’s most important and contentious counterterrorism program: the use of unmanned drones to kill (supposed) militant leaders.
Dawn.com Leading Pakistani Newspaper
here
C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders to Put Bombs on Drones:
WASHINGTON — From a secret division at its North Carolina headquarters, the company formerly known as Blackwater has assumed a role in Washington’s most important counterterrorism program: the use of remotely piloted drones to kill Al Qaeda’s leaders, according to government officials and current and former employees.
The division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft ...SNIP...
In interviews on Thursday, current and former government officials provided new details about Blackwater’s association with the assassination program, which began in 2004 not long after Porter J. Goss took over at the C.I.A. The officials said that the spy agency did not dispatch the Blackwater executives with a “license to kill.” Instead, it ordered the contractors to begin collecting information on the whereabouts of Al Qaeda’s leaders, carry out surveillance and train for possible missions. CONTINUED...
here
Blackwater’s Unwritten Death Contract By Ray McGovern, outspoken former CIA analyst who points out the behind the scenes supposed "legal" and rampant "Nuremberg Defense" justifications of US war crimes and related shenanigans
here
Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press Blackwater security contractors flew over Baghdad in 2007. For years, Blackwater played a significant role in the Iraq operation.
Earlier Breaking Article and Comments: New York Times here For years, Blackwater played a significant role in the Iraq operation. COMMENTS: here
Leading Expert on Blackwater Jeremy Scahill's latest with alarming quotes
here
Another by Scahill
here
Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince
In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats
- In sworn statements, two ex-employees claim Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince, murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. One also charged Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.” We speak with investigative journalist and bestselling author Jeremy Scahill, who broke the story for The Nation magazine. More on Blackwater's more than questionable history in Democracy Now!
here
NORTH CAROLINA News & Observer August 21, 2009 (where Blackwater has been based) Watch for comments here by people who know of this corrupt group - See Box and watch for future Columns and related articles here
Feds hired Blackwater to hit Qaida brass -- Related Breaking News
here
Erik Prince and the last crusade The Economist
here
REFERENCE: The Drones of War May 2009
here
One Apt Commentary on US involvement:
Reality Is Its Own Caricature for U.S. in Afghanistan and Pakistan
here
Watch for Blackwater officials and contractors in disquise - using other names and titles - read their history. US and Pakistani citizens and concerned legislators/leaders have the right and responsibility to act NOW! This is the time to say NO! en large and growing numbers. Much recent history and many records support saying NO! to Blackwater - a large contributor to War Crimes USA. The current and former administration of the US and all who cooperate with these crimes must be stopped NOW!
Final note: Why would Pakistan ask US military and possibly therefore Blackwater for drone technology known to be counter-productive - inaccurate to kill an estimated 9 civilians for every 1 so-called militant and to lose the hearts and minds of the people?
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