be just

Dumb and Hateful: The Consequences of US Islamophobia      :   Information Clearing House: ICH Consider the case of Lieutenant General William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin. While still on active duty in 2002, this highly decorated Army officer spoke in uniform at a series of some 30 church gatherings during which he offered his own response to President Bush’s famous question: “Why do they hate us?” The general’s perspective differed markedly from his commander-in-chief’s: “The answer to that is because we're a Christian nation. We are hated because we are a nation of believers.” On another such occasion, the general recalled his encounter with a Somali warlord who claimed to enjoy Allah’s protection. The warlord was deluding himself, Boykin declared, and was sure to get his comeuppance: “I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.” As a Christian nation, Boykin insisted, the United States would succ...

On outskirts of Kabul, 'Warlordistan' may be glimpse of Afghan future - News - Stripes “He’s a murderer, he’s a thief and he has two more years of ruling out there,” one high-ranking police commander said of Gul, saying he hopes the people will choose a new member of parliament when Gul’s term is up. Gul and Mohammadi have steadfastly denied the accusations.

Study: ‘Counterproductive’ Drone War ‘Terrorizes’ Civilians in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com A new report by researchers at the Stanford and NYU schools of law has found that the drone program is “terrorizing” the people of Pakistan and that it is having “counterproductive” effects.

New Mexico church pulled offer to host Palestine conference due to pro-Israel group’s “interfaith bullying” On Friday, I wrote about the bullying and smear tactics of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico and its director Sam Sokolove, against the upcoming Friends of Sabeel-North America conference in Albuquerque on September 28-29 – tactics that I had experienced personally before a previous visit to New Mexico two years ago.

US to Take Iran Anti-Regime Group Off Terrorism List by Jim Lobe -- Antiwar.com In a move certain to ratchet up already-high tensions with Iran, the administration of President Barack Obama will remove a militant anti-regime group from the State Department’s terrorism list, U.S. officials told reporters here Friday. The decision, which is expected to be formally announced before Oct. 1, the deadline set earlier this year by a federal court to make a determination, was in the process of being transmitted in a classified report to Congress, according to the Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. The decision came several days after some 680 members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), or People’s Mojahedin, were transferred from their long-time home at Camp Ashraf in eastern Iraq close to the Iranian to a former U.S. base in at Baghdad’s airport in compliance with Washington’s demands that the group move. The transfer leaves only 200 militants at Camp Ashraf out of the roughly 3,20...

Hidden Camera Video: Romney on Iran, Israel-Palestine « Antiwar.com Blog A hidden camera that caught Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraising dinner has grabbed a lot of media attention today. Network news is focusing primarily on a single portion of the candid-camera speech in which Romney derides “47 percent” of the population who doesn’t pay income taxes and therefore will automatically vote for Obama. This should be really effective at grabbing that 5 percent of swing voters, Ol’ Mitt. Truthfully, this is one of the most poorly run campaigns I’ve seen in a long time.

Details emerge of US role in Sabra-Shatila massacre:       Information Clearing House: ICH Details Emerge of US Role in Sabra-Shatila Massacre By Al-Akhbar September 17, 2012 "Al-Akhbar" --  Israel duped the United Stated into believing that “thousands of terrorists” remained in west Beirut following the expulsion of Palestinian fighters 30 years ago, providing cover for the 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, according to recently declassified Israeli documents. The documents include verbatim transcripts of meetings between US and Israeli officials before and during the three-day massacre led by the right-wing Lebanese Christian Phalange militia that left roughly 2,000 people dead, mostly children, women and elderly men. “[The transcripts] reveal that the Israelis misled American diplomats about events in Beirut and bullied them into accepting the spurious claim that thousands of “terrorists” were in the camps,” The New York Tim...