A bright young man dazzling with talent is almost reduced to amere vegetable since 2005 when he was involved in an auto crash on his way to Ibadan for his Nikkah.
Trampling The Rights Of The Child: The Treatment Of Juveniles In Guantánamo
Andy Worthington
According to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (on the involvement of children in armed conflict), to which the United States has been a signatory since January 23, 2003, juvenile prisoners — those under the age of 18 when their alleged crimes took place — “require special protection.” The Optional Protocol specifically recognizes “the special needs of those children who are particularly vulnerable to recruitment or use in hostilities”, and requires its signatories to promote “the physical and psychosocial rehabilitation and social reintegration of children who are victims of armed conflict.”
In January 2003, four doctors in Guantánamo put together a fascinating document, entitled “Recommended Course of Action for Reception and Detention of Individuals Under 18 Years of Age >>>More
Who Will Stop the Settlers?
Jonathan Cook
The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them.
The couple have been living in the same property in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since the mid-1950s, when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. The United Nations allotted them the land after they were expelled from their homes in territory that was seized by Israel during the 1948 war. >>>More
Washington Secretly Authorized Military Raids on 20 Countries
Bill Van Auken
Since 2004, the Bush administration has secretly authorized military raids against up to 20 countries without any declaration of war or even any explicit congressional authorization for armed action, according to a report published Monday in the New York Times.
The report, which cites recent attacks on targets in Pakistan, Syria and Somalia, establishes that under an order issued by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and approved by President George W. Bush in the spring of 2004, the US military’s Special Operations forces were given license to attack alleged al Qaeda targets “anywhere in the world.”
Citing unnamed senior US officials, the Times reported that the authorization provided a “sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.” It confirmed that the US military has used the authority to “carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks.” >>>More
The Way Out
Moazzam Begg
It’s almost seven years since the notorious images depicting kneeling Muslim men attired in the signature orange clothing of Camp X-Ray, Guantanamo Bay, were unleashed through the world’s media. Their eyes covered with blackened-out goggles, their mouths masked and their ears covered with earmuffs.
They saw no evil, spoke no evil and heard no evil: they only experienced it. Ironically, they were – and are still – regarded by the world’s most powerful military machine as the epitome of evil, the ‘worst of the worst.’ My time with them was comparatively short but, I had the honour of being in these men’s company for three years.
The president of the USA called them ‘bad men’, ‘terrorists’ and ‘murderers’ who were so dangerous they would ‘gnaw through the cables of an aircraft in order to bring it down’ (hence the justification for face masks.) >>>More
Come, Obama, Change My Life
Edna Canetti
Obama my dear, they tell me that you are going to change the world. Do me a favor, come and change my life personally.
Come to Israel, grab its stupid leadership by the throat and take its foot off the neck of another people. Come and force us to do what is clear, and written, and fitting, and necessary, come and get us out of the Territories, if necessary do it with a smile that reveals million-dollar teeth. If necessary bare your teeth and force us to do it.
Make it so that I don’t have to get up in the morning – I who hate to get up early, to go to the checkpoints, to watch and to weep. Make it so I will not have to see 19-year-old children who have been duped into believing that they are defending the home front by pointing rifles at five-year-old children. >>>More
How Obama Can Help Redeem the White House
Amy Goodman
Alice Walker is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But Monday, I called her to talk about a true story. The Obamas had just visited the White House. The first African-American elected president of the United States had visited his soon-to-be residence, a house built by slaves. Walker told me: "Even when they were building it, you know, in chains or in desperation and in sadness, they were building it for him. Ancestors take a very long view of life, and they see what is coming." The author of The Color Purple, who writes about slavery and redemption, went on, "This is a great victory of the spirit and for people who have had to live basically by faith."
Many decades ago, Alice Walker had broken anti-miscegenation laws in Mississippi by marrying a white man. She is a descendant of slaves. >>>More
Verdict Against Holy Land Charity Could Have a Chilling Effect on the Muslim Community
Laila Al-Arian
On Monday afternoon, a jury in Dallas, Texas found five Palestinian men guilty of more than 100 charges in the nation's largest terrorism financing trial since 9/11.
But was this case about prosecuting terrorism, or the Bush administration's "war on terror?"
Prosecutors never argued that the charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, or any of its officials were ever involved in violence, either through funding it or directly participating in it. Instead, they told the jury that the charity sent money to schools, hospitals and social welfare programs that were controlled by Hamas, a group listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department since 1995. >>>More
The Last Dance in Ramallah
Mats Svensson
Until November 2004, Israel lacked a partner for peace. President Arafat was locked up in a prison in Ramallah. He could admittedly receive international dignitaries from the whole world after Israeli approval. Israel often demanded that the dignitary first visit Israel and then leave for the home country to only return a couple of months later and visit the Nobel prize winner, one of the world’s most famous persons. The international community, including Sweden, accepted this moratorium theater without shame. Almost everyone obeyed the orders of the occupation power. There were, however, countries that rebelled against the folly, South Africa was one of them.
But in November 2004, the folly ended. Arafat died on the 11 November. Since Arafat was finally gone, normalized relations would be established and Israel would finally get a partner for peace. In regards to taking action, a lot has happened since 2004. >>>More
How to Close Guantánamo: A Legal Minefield
The Time
Few attorneys better understand the legal dilemmas surrounding the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, than Neal Katyal. In 2006, Katyal led a successful Supreme Court case challenging the legality of the Bush Administration's military tribunals in Guantánamo, a ruling that sounded one of the first death knells for Camp X-Ray. But two years later, difficult questions about how to close Guantánamo continue to vex legal minds ranging from Katyal to the advisers now gathering around President-elect Barack Obama. "This is a huge and difficult problem," says Katyal, who teaches national-security law at Georgetown University. "I don't actually see obvious answers."
Obama has vowed to close Guantánamo and reject the Military Commissions Act, the 2006 law underpinning the ongoing Guantánamo tribunals. But major hurdles stand in the way of doing so, even for a new President with a clear mandate. >>>More
The Top Ten Power Brokers of the Religious Right
Rob Boston
For the past two years, numerous media pundits have been all abuzz over the so-called "death" of the Religious Right. There is one problem, however: Someone forgot to tell the Religious Right.
A recent Americans United study of the finances and influence of the Religious Right shows a movement that is very much alive and kicking. Indeed, our research shows that the nation's leading Religious Right organizations took in more than half a billion dollars over a recent 12-month period. Several of the organizations reported dramatic increases in their budgets; only a few showed a drop.
Financial information was not the only factor we took into account when compiling this list. We also attempted to determine the influence organizations have on the larger political scene. A group can have a modest budget and still cast a long shadow. >>>More
Disclaimer: All articles, cartoons and other materials on the Opinion & Analysis and other sections of this website do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of the MPAC, nor can the MPAC be held accountable for these views.
Fair Use Notice: The MPAC website may occasionally contain copyrighted material the use of which may not always have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The MPAC is making such material available in its effort to advance understanding of humanitarian, education, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit. If you wish to use any copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
MPAC FORUM
Why don't you visit our Discussion Forum and debate current hot topics.
Home
