Blogging the democratic revolution
The organized campaign to see Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, who was jailed this month for insulting Islam and the government, is quite a thing to behold. Between FreeKareem.org, online petitions, blog posts, and articles in huge publications like the Washington Post, rarely has there been such an interest in the blogosphere as a whole on one human rights issue involving one person in a country so far away. I think it’s great! Bringing attention to these kinds of things is exactly how to get them changed. Otherwise, the Egyptian government will continue to its war campaign against civil society and…
Richard Fernandez at the Belmont Club posts about a subject close to home — about a document called the Melo Report released yesterday in the Philippines. It’s the result of a fact-finding investigation conducted by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo into extrajudicial killings committed by both the military and communist rebels. The result is interesting, but my historical standards, not too surprising. By and large, the communists have killed far more people than their right-wing adversaries. There is evidence that the military “allowed, tolerated and even encouraged” political assassinations, and that retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan was among those…
Breaking news – Russia’s elite spetznaz goons uses poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko’s photo at the center of their targets during shooting practice. The Times of London has the story here. But they’re still denying that they had anything to do with killing Litvinenko. My my, how hollow their elaborate protestations of noninvolvement in Litvinenko’s poisoning death ring today! These Putinites lie like thugs.
On October 13, 2006, Human Rights Watch reported on a Russian trial court’s ordering the closure of an organization based in the Russian city of Nizhny Novogorod and known as the “Russian-Chechen Friendship Association.” The RCFA is a nongovernmental organization established by Russians to inform the public about the dire plight of Chechnya and Russian human rights abuses there. The decision came just after the group announced its intention to conduct its own formal investigation into Russian war crimes in Chechnya. Time magazine reported that Amnesty International had characterized the Kremlin’s action as one that “appears to be the latest…
During his 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush set forth a bold plan to to make the advancement of freedom and democracy the cornerstone of America’s foreign policy. Under liberal democracies, the Islamic terrorist and statist authoritarian threat would practically vanish from the face of the earth. Sure, there would be conflicts, but no liberal democracy has ever warred with another; and because democracies respond to the will of the people, there is no rich soil for terrorism to plant its roots. In that speech, he mentioned the word “democracy” seven times and “freedom” nineteen times when talking…
Iran’s Islamofascist barbarians have either come to their senses or caved in to international pressure on the infamous case of Nazanin Fatehi, an unjustly accused Iranian girl whom we’ve blogged about here at Publius as a worthy freedom cause. Nazanin, age 17, was walking in the park with either her little sister or her boyfriend, when she was beset by a pack of brutal thugs who sought to rape her. By Iranian Islamofascist law, she was supposed to just lay back and enjoy it (being a temptress and all), and then take 100 lashes from the state for getting raped…
A The Belmont Club Richard Fernandez discusses the propaganda of Islamic radicals who, at the moment, are ten steps ahead of the West in terms of spreading its message. The speed at which the message is spreading, the reach that it is attaining, and the sheer quantity cannot hope to be matched by the bureaucratic structures of Western Europe when terrorists operate fast and free-cell. The unique nature of the enemy poses a great challenge for the United States in its war in Iraq. While it can never be defeated militarily, it can easily be demolished politically if it doesn’t…
The State Department has put out a press release detailing new initiatives to support human rights that will begin next year. By and large, the plans focus on supporting NGOs that operate under fierce government repression, thus countering the global trend of cracking down on such organizations from Russia to Venezuela. Here is a list of the three programs: 1) Human Rights Defenders Fund In countries where tyranny persists, and even in states with some semblance of democratic institutions, human rights defenders are frequently put in jeopardy by the nature of their work. They are harassed, physically threatened or harmed,…
Castro’s goon squads beat up Cubans in Havana Sunday Source: Stefania at Free Thoughts Their crime? Celebrating human rights day. You heard that right, they were observing human rights day. That’s why they were beat up by Castro’s ‘repudiation’ squads, the barrio thugs who serve as Castro’s illegal enforcers, beating others with impunity in the name of Castroism. It doesn’t get viler than this. What’s amazing to me is that the ruling Castro brothers don’t seem to be bothered by the irony. What this shows is their essential inhumanity and willingness to strike out at any thinking about human rights.…
On September 8, 1999, several hundred pounds of explosive detonated on the ground floor of a nine-story apartment building in the southwestern Moscow neighborhood of Pechatniki. 94 people were killed and 150 wounded. Five days later, a second building was leveled, this time on Kashirskoye Highway, again in the southern region of the city. In the collapse of the eight-story structure, 118 people were killed and 200 wounded. Almost immediately, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia would undertake a second massive military assault on the breakaway province of Chechnya, even though the Chechen rebels did not take responsibility for…
Poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko on his deathbead Source: Kim Zigfeld, at La Russophobe In his defiant last statement, poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko said, “The bastards got me. But they won’t get everybody.” Incredibly brave words for a man going down in lingering pain from a now-unknown poison. Less than a week ago, Alexander Litvinenko was in perfect health, doggedly trying to find out the truth behind the murder of another Russian journalist in London. In a scene reminiscent of Daniel Pearl’s kidnap, he apparently got too close to people too dirty, and then hit on some nerve too…
At VCrisis, Alek Boyd has firsthand info about how Hugo Chavez’s shiny new Russian weapons purchases are being used – to massacre Venezuelan and Brazilian peasants from helicopters in the deep jungle. There was a great big massacre of miners in the Amazon rainforest this week and Boyd is on the scene with tons of photos and interviews with locals. These are Hugo Chavez’s death squads up close. Death squads from the air, with the willing collaboration of Vladimir Putin. Read the whole thing here.
When I heard about the protests planned against Khatami’s speech at Harvard, I knew just the guy to contact. I emailed Jesse Sage over at HAMSA and he filled me in on all the information. Khatami was to speak at 4:00 p.m. so the protests would start around three. We arrived in Harvard Square outside of the Kennedy School of Government just before then, and people were already gathering by the dozens. It wasn’t just the people I knew from HAMSA and the Iran Freedom Concert Coalition, either. There were many, from pro-Israel Jews to Americans concerned about our security…
In a moment where the forces of dictatorship and tyranny seem to be pushing back against democracy, the common thread that has successfully aligned nations such as Iran, Russia, Venezuela, China, and Sudan have been the supply and demand of energy. While it is encouraging that the relationships forged seem to be more based on Machiavellian pragmatism then aligned ideologies or long term goals, problematic occurrences and diplomatic realignment have debilitated the West????????s efforts to act against undemocratic forces. Increasingly, the ability to act as a geopolitical actor has been taken away from the United States and the UN as…
(To hear the interview in .mp3 format or download it to your iPod, click here or right-click and choose “save target as”.) Since Alexander Lukashenka became president of Belarus in 1994, he has used every avenue possible to repress political opposition to his rule. He has jailed politicians and activists, shut down NGOs both major and minor, destroyed the independent media, and ensured that no man but he will win the so-called presidential election that is held every five years. Some of his biggest opposition, however, comes from university students who crave opportunity in a country whose government regulates the…
There may be an Arabo-Iranian Cold War brewing, if the Arabs make themselves relevant again As the Arabs furiously try to guilt Syria into curbing Hezb Allah????????s activities and ???????rejoining??????? the Arab world, one cannot help but see an almost laughable, but certainly pathetic, last ditch attempt at salvaging what influence the Sunni Arab states have in the Middle East. Ever since the American invasion of Iraq, the strong men of the Sunni Arab world have become less and less relevant in a region that has become increasingly polarized on various fronts. On the one hand, with the liberation of…
Charles at LGF caught Reuters in what looks like an obnoxious faked photo, with lots of dissection and discussion. A special correspondent who works for Reuters sent me this photo from the series, which I believes corroborates Reuters’ story. Judge for yourself: UPDATE: Now that Adnan Hajj has gone public, I feel it’s ok to share the rest of this story. Some readers may have questioned the authenticity of the original photo, even after I presented the above evidence, but surely we can all agree with Adnan’s explanation: As a ÄformerÅ Reuters photographer, I deny having deliberately attempted to manipulate…
When I was in Washington, D.C. last week, I had dinner with the relatives I was staying with at their good friends’ house. These family friends happened to be Iranian. They had a son and two daughters, the boy was the youngest and the girls were about four years apart from each other. I had a conversation with the oldest girl about a variety of things, and by about 15 minutes before her mother had finished making our dinner, it turned political. She was very intelligent, she has one year to go until she achieves her degree in biology from…
As millions around the world I was glued to the TV watching the World Cup final when Zin????dine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi. My instant reaction was “what could Materazzi possibly have said to prompt such a reaction?” I didn’t judge Zidane, contrary to the statements of commentators who just couldn’t help themselves in condemning in impressively quick fashion the French virtuoso, to me it was evident that he was taunted by the Italian. The positive thing about this incident is that it took place before the eyes of the world, in a tournament whose motto was “A Time to Make…
ÄNote: The Algerian independence day is July 5Å Algeria????????s independence came on July 5, 1962, after a long and bloody war against France. The Revolution that took place from 1954 to 1962 would soon be abducted by the egos of many powerful men, with names like Ben Bella, Boumediene, and Khider. But, the ideals of the Revolution they stole would not die. The Algerian Revolution was a revolt against exclusion, under-representation, racialism, displacement, colonialism, ignorance and all the other pretty words that come with battles in the name of rights. Algerians today, hold all of these notions close to their…
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Imprisoned Democratic Revolutionary Of Burma Source: OA Net The Burmese military junta’s 61st birthday present to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was a beefed-up contingency of military troops at her door this morning. Burma’s democracy leader has now spent all of ten years under house arrest, with very few visitors allowed. The Burmese junta fears her popularity, and knows its days are numbered. To read the backstory of this leader, see this site here. In the past, Burma’s democratic revolutionaries have released doves into the air on Suu Kyi’s birthday, so that even if she…
Less than a week after Hugo Chavez threatened to shut down the broadcast press by yanking their licenses, a newspaper editor for the weekly Ahora newspaper was gunned down in a targeted hit. His death raises the total of news editors shot dead to at least four that I know about. Hugo Chavez has it in for the media. And there will be no letup. The death of this editor shows the range of tactics he intends to employ as he begins to dismantle the independent media. Can you imagine the impact of this on the rest of the free…
Islamism defeats itself. Every time. This is a simple observation. Take the recent take over of the Somali capital by Islamic militias. This illustrates the archetypical Islamist power grab scenario: in a nation wrought with chaos and violence, and lacking strong leaders of principle, Islamic leaders with machine guns move in to give a desperate land order. Islamists symbolize sound principles and organization. They are often the only faction with a seemingly practical philosophy of governance that is at the same time legitimized in the folk culture of the locals. The Somali warlords of today could just have easily been…
According to Dick Marty’s report on secret CIA flights and prisons on the European continent, fourteen countries were complicit in either allowing or turning a blind eye to the CIA’s activities. That’s right, fourteen countries. Including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Most of the important European Union countries. Interesting. Doesn’t sound like this “spider web” of illegality was really all that secret, huh? Many of these countries have already acknowledged that they allowed flights to stop on their territory. A lot of this has been shown through cross-checking travel logs. The biggest accusation, however, is that some of…
This post refers to events that occured in Algeria last weekend. The Algerian regime, though it has made some reforms, is not pleasant. It is corrupt, gluttonous, and repressive. Life is difficult for many in Algeria, especially for the forgotten ones of Boumerdes who were displaced by an earthquake in 2003 and still have not been able to return to their homes from temorary housing units made of tin called chalets. Corruption, frustration with the tortse rate of housing construction, and the general quality of life led 200 Algerians in the area to demonstrate infront of the town hall of…