Author Archives: Siun

FDL Book Salon Welcomes David Brin, Existence

Posted by on March 3, 2013 Comments Off

Welcome David Brin (Existence) (The Worlds of David Brin) (Trailer) and Host Siun (FDL)

Existence

In an interview with The Futurist about the publication of Existence, our guest David Brin’s epic novel, the author says:

After all, what better service can science – and science fiction – perform than to poke sticks into the unknown territory ahead of us, probing for the quicksand and land mines? The mistakes that might bring our Great Experiment to an end?

And who better to poke and prod the territory than Brin whose background includes a PhD in Physics, time as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Study of Evolution of Life and a lifetime of writing award-winning books that challenge his readers to join in the exercise of imagining and creating the future.

In his latest novel, Existence, Brin takes on the Fermi Paradox – the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and humanity’s lack of contact with, or evidence for, such civilizations. Set in the 2050s, Existence is at once familiar and oh so alien even before the initial contact with an alien artifact occurs.

Reading Existence I was particularly intrigued by this depiction of the near-future. We see not only significant developments in space activity but also of media, climate change and social structures. Introducing us to a full array of characters – from a space “garbage man” to a father trying to homestead in the flooded remains of Shanghai – Brin portrays the many layers of global society in the near future from so many different angles. Interwoven with these character focused tales that make up Existence are also a series of short pieces from “Pandora’s Cornucopia” which wryly examine “our means of self-destruction.” And it’s the very extrapolations Brin devises from our current state to 2050 that serve as signposts to what we must take seriously now if we wish to avoid those means of self-destruction.

Simon Bisson of ZDnet wrote of Brin’s Existence:

Science fiction is as much a literature of the moment as it is of the future. This book, then, is both a warning and an encouragement: a novel that engages with the world we’re building and tries to show us a way to become a mature civilisation rather than a raggle-taggle band of individuals. Technology has libertarian roots, but in the end we build the tools that construct a civil society. In Existence Brin shows us the world our technology is building, and then poses one of the biggest questions: what is it all for?

This is precisely where the writers of “hard SF” gift us so magnificently. We live in a world of speeding evolution with technology shifting the very ground beneath our feet, racing towards destruction but also possible salvation. While our politicians still haggle in terms so outdated and ineffectual, we need guides who can point us out toward the next stages. Existence does just that – and provides us with a good fast paced tale that readers will enjoy.

Or as David Brin has written, “It’s time to free ourselves from the old left-right axis of the 19th and 20th centuries.” As we explore the topics of his novel, it’s clear that he is calling on us to make that leap and begin to help build the next stage.

I hope you will join me in welcoming David Brin to FDL – there is so much for us all to talk about.


[As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book and be respectful of dissenting opinions.  Please take other conversations to a previous thread. - bev]

Share This icon 

You Don’t Have to Love AIPAC to Oppose Hagel

Posted by on January 7, 2013 Comments Off

If you follow foreign policy discussions at all you will have noticed the recent commotion around the potential (and now they say planned) nomination of Republican former Senator and current Chevron board member Chuck Hagel to become Obama’s Secretary of Defense.

Hagel, whose policy positions were never exactly progressive – just scan these ratings to get a flavor of where he stands: Chuck Hagel on VoteSmart — ran afoul of his own party’s dogma police by suggesting that the Iraq war was a mistake. Of course, that opposition to the Iraq War which is now being touted so widely as a sign that he is “a war skeptic” didn’t come until 2007 when we had clearly lost. He also upset the Israel First wing of DC-land by suggesting he was an American rather than an Israeli senator and by using the phrase “Jewish lobby.” And as soon as the rumours that Obama might appoint him began, the usual voices were raised against him with the usual accusations made against anyone who is not lockstep in line with AIPAC.

So far, precisely what one would expect but then something else happened. Defending Chuck Hagel and in fact lobbying for his appointment became the cause celebre of folks like Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy and MoveOn. The drumbeat was rather stunning – in fact, at times, rather startling in its … fervor:

If we don’t want to spend the next four years under the jackboot of the neocons, then we have to stop the neocons from blocking the nomination of diplomacy advocate, war skeptic and decorated Vietnam combat veteran Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense.

I’m not saying that we’re necessarily going to win this. But at least we can have a real fight. This is like the Warsaw Uprising: the odds against us may be daunting, but we’ll never have a better venue to make our stand.

The Warsaw Uprising? Really?

While I certainly understand – and share – the opposition to AIPAC’s vicious campaigns against anyone who dares question loyalty to the Israeli interests as the cornerstone of US policy – and I understand that some, including Glenn Greenwald, feel that support for Hagel is worthwhile:

But at the very least, Hagel’s confirmation will be a much-needed declaration that some mild dissent on foreign policy orthodoxies and Israel is permitted. It will shatter AIPAC’s veto power and dilute the perception of the so-called “pro-Israel community’s” unchallengeable power.

I have to wonder if such a confirmation really will do that as we watch Hagel’s supporters argue more and more loudly that he really didn’t mean it as Greenwald himself rightly points out in his link to ThinkProgress’ Chuch Hagel’s Pro-Israel Record.

Or look at the Politico article highlighting the Fact Sheet that Hagel’s allies are circulating (PDF download here) that includes such counterpoints to the cheerleaders’ claims that he will stop a war on Iran and oppose sanctions as assurances that Hagel “has never ruled out the use of force and supports keeping all options on the table” and that he is not opposed to sanctions on Iran, merely to unilateral sanctions noting that “in a March 2012 interview, he said the U.S. should “keep ratcheting up the sanctions…” Add in the “Facts” about his fervent support for Israel and it’s hard to see how Hagel breaks any molds in reality.

Of course, it would be folly to expect Obama to appoint someone who actually has views outside the beltway mainstream for any position, let alone Secretary of Defense. And I agree completely with Greenwald’s point that it’s absurd for the usual liberals who urged votes for Obama even with his history on gay rights and other issues to now oppose Hagel supposedly on those grounds.

For those of us who want to actually move for real change let’s look instead to Greenwald’s comment that:

The benefits of a Hagel nomination shouldn’t be overstated. As I said last week, I agree with those who doubt that Hagel will have any real impact on restraining Obama’s aggressive and imperialistic foreign policies.

Moreover, despite the above-reference differences, Hagel in general is squarely within the DC foreign policy consensus on most issues (Obama would never nominate someone who isn’t).

If true, should we really be working to support him? What do we expect to gain – and what meaningful returns do the more eager cheerleaders like Naiman expect – from their particularly vehement pro-Hagel effort?

Greenwald in that final quote above links to a remarkable piece by Charles Davis at False Dichotomy that really sums up the whole wrongheaded “let’s lobby for Hagel” campaign when he writes:

But, in order to create a sign-this-petition! narrative, one often can’t do nuance. So Naiman doesn’t. In another post, this one highlighting Hagel’s establishment support, because antiwar activists care about that sort of thing, he casually refers to former ambassador Ryan Crocker as among the “diplomacy champions and war skeptics” backing the former senator. This would be the same Ryan Crocker appointed by George W. Buish who has said “it’s simply not the case that Afghans would rather have US forces gone,” and dismissed the killing of at least 25 people in Afghanistan, including children, as “not a very big deal.”

That should give you a good idea of the obfuscation going on in the antiwar campaign for a Pentagon chief. This is a problem. If you’re going to play the role of the savvy Washington activist and get involved in the inside baseball that is fights over cabinet appointments, ostensibly to reframe the debate more than anything – we must defeat AIPAC! – you ought not go about reinforcing adherence to orthodoxy and the perceived value of establishment support and credentials. And you ought not cast as heroes of the peace movement people that really shouldn’t be. That’s actually really dangerous.

Davis goes on to point out that:

Yet, some would rather play down Hagel’s pro-war credentials for the all-important narrative. So we cast him as a staunch opponent of a war with Iran, ignoring his repeated assertions that we must “keep all options on the table” with respect to the Islamic Republic, including killing men, women and children. In a piece he coauthored with other establishment foreign policy figures, Hagel’s opposition to war amounted merely to a call to consider its costs – and its benefits.

For instance, “a U.S. attack would demonstrate the country’s credibility as an ally to other nations in the region and would derail Iran’s nuclear ambitions for several years, providing space for other, potentially longer-term solutions,” the senator and his friends wrote. “An attack would also make clear the United States’ full commitment to nonproliferation as other nations contemplate moves in that direction.” Ah, but he mentioned there could be “costs” (though none of those he mentioned were “dead people”). Such is brave, antiwar opposition in Washington.

(Greenwald’s other link is to Max Ajl’s superb post, Why Chuck Hagle is Irrelevant at Jadaliyya which is also a must read.)

So, as we watch the faux DC drama that pretends to be policy debates during the Hagel confirmation, I’m not going to be cheering him on. Some day – perhaps – we’ll begin to understand that only if we stand firm for what is actually right, not for some pretense of “reform” or “bipartisan foreign policy” in which both parties represent a continuation of more of the same will we have any chance to bring about change that can be cheered by us — and by the people who live beneath the threat of our drones and occupying forces.

Share This icon 

Obama Clinton Ad Campaign Doesn’t Work

Posted by on September 24, 2012 Comments Off

Last week, in an attempt to damp down protests against the United States in Pakistan, the US State Department ran advertisements on Pakistani TV:

The ads show Obama saying, “Since our founding, the United States has been a nation of respect, that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.”
Clinton follows with a speech she’s made several times since the crisis in the Middle East began unfolding last week.
“Let me state very clearly that the United States has absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its contents. America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation,” she says in the video.

The ad campaign cost $70,000 to run but apparently was ineffective as Friday’s demonstrations were the largest yet.

On Saturday, the United States continued a different campaign:

At least three people have been killed in a suspected US drone attack in Pakistan’s northwestern region along the Afghan border, according to a Pakistani security official…

All three people travelling in the car were killed and the vehicle completely destroyed, the security official said on condition of anonymity…

Witnesses told that drones continued hovering over the area after the attack, which triggered fear among the residents.

According to the New York Times, “The Pentagon now has some 7,000 aerial drones, compared with fewer than 50 a decade ago, and asked Congress for nearly $5 billion for drones in the 2012 budget. “

And yet we wonder about the source of “Muslim Rage?”

Or as FB Ali wrote in his very helpful piece at Sic Semper Tyrannis:

It is this sense of conflict with the West and aggression by it against Muslims for centuries that underlies the almost universal antipathy felt towards it by Muslims. The United States, as the current leader of the Western world, now attracts to itself this suspicion and animosity, solidified by its wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan’s tribal areas, and its military and economic dominance of many Muslim lands.

Share This icon 


FDL Book Salon Welcomes Doug Saunders, The Myth of the Muslim Tide

Posted by on August 26, 2012 Comments Off

Welcome Doug Saunders (The Globe and Mail) and Host Siun (FDL)

The Myth of the Muslim Tide: Do Immigrants Threaten the West?

Doug Saunders is a journalist of the rare kind these days. He actually researches, explores, investigates and only then reports on the major trends of our global community. His earlier book, Arrival City, explored “the final shift of human populations from agricultural life to cities… —from Maryland to Shenzhen, from the favelas of Rio to the shanty towns of Mumbai, from Los Angeles to Nairobi. “ His new book The Myth of the Muslim Tide addresses the fearful response of so many Americans and Europeans to one key constituency of that shift, Muslim immigrants.

While explicitly addressing the extreme views of a Geert Wilders or Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann about Islamic immigrants, Saunders points to so many of the attacks on those communities that also resonate – without acknowledgement – in much of “liberal” society. For all the claims of openness and tolerance, so often the comments and attitudes we hear are reminiscent of the “liberal” racism embodied in the old “some of my best friends are ….”

In responding to either school of bigotry, Saunders sensible, fact-driven book is especially helpful. The Myth of the Muslim Tide begins with a section titled “Popular Fiction” which profiles the right-wing Eurabia myth as well as the various groups and parties allied to it. The author shows us just how very close the writings of “legitimate” politicians can be to the manifesto of an Anders Breivik – and how widespread such attitudes are in Europe, Canada, and in the US.

Once Saunders has laid this out, he begins to methodically tear down the myths used to support those attitudes. In The Facts, he takes us through the standard “beliefs” about Islamic population, integration and extremism, framing each as a series of statements followed by detailed, research based rebuttals. It is marvelous to see a book like this shift away from the polemical to social science and very effectively. Here’s one example:

When a terrorist attack occurs in the West, it’s sometimes hard to avoid wondering if our Muslim neighbours might be watching in silent approval…

It is chilling to learn that 7% of American Muslims say that acts of violence against civilian targets, such as bombings, are ‘sometimes justified’ if the cause is right, and that an additional 1% say they are ‘often justified.’ … Taken in isolation, such poll results have become fodder for a widespread belief that that ordinary Muslims condone terrorist violence. But those numbers leave out the larger context. When the same question was asked of Americans in general, an astounding 24% said they believe bomb attacks aimed at civilians are ‘often or sometimes justified’ and 6% feel they are ‘completely justified.’ In other words, American Muslims are between four and six times less likely than other Americans to endorse violent acts against civilians.

In addition to this debunking of the Myth, Saunders reminds us of the popular fears common during the height of Catholic and Jewish immigration and assimilation. I’m old enough (and Irish Catholic enough!) to remember well the comments heard in the 50s and the arguments against electing John Kennedy since he would obviously be beholden to the Vatican rather than the American people. And the more one explores the information about those times – including the history of terrorism and violence – the more one can begin to view the current bigotry as the latest wave of a social problem we need to work to overcome.

European bureau chief for The Globe and Mail, Doug Saunders has won the National Newspaper Award, (Canada’s Pulitzer) four times and you can follow him on twitter @DougSaunders. Happily today we can discuss this fascinating book with him here and learn what steps he hopes we’ll see to counter the hysteria of the Muslim Tide myth.

 

[As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book and be respectful of dissenting opinions. Please take other conversations to a previous thread. - bev]

Share This icon 

FDL Book Salon Welcomes Kim Stanley Robinson, 2312

Posted by on August 25, 2012 Comments Off

Welcome Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit Books) and Host Siun (FDL)

2312

I have to confess I’m a bit gobsmacked to be hosting this discussion with Kim Stanley Robinson about his latest novel, 2312. You see, Robinson’s work has been central to my political thinking since my first trip to his Red Mars. While I grew up in the antiwar and civil rights movement, the old new left, those politics over time were not broad enough, rich enough to encompass the world we now live in and try to reshape. Reading the Mars trilogy, where Robinson mixes serious science with a stunning array of political and spiritual responses to how we might organize our worlds – and his deep vein of human scale storytelling provided me with a new view, a new panorama – and it’s one that has sustained me in the years since. Other works of his – especially Antarctica and Pacific Edge – provide images, models to complement the vision of Blue Mars, reminding me even in the dark days of the world we are trying to create and I wish to live in.

In 2312, Robinson has taken us 300 years into the future, shifting beyond the near times of most of his works to a time when the consequences of our actions now play out in a devastated yet still home planet Earth. And Robinson reminds us, when 2312’s lead character Swan heads from her home Mercury to Earth of the wonder of our own planet, a wonder we forget and destroy with our current actions:

Simply to be outdoors in the open air, under the sky, in the wind – this was what she loved most about Earth. Today puffy clouds were massed overhead at about the thousand-foot level. Looked like a marine layer rolling in… Through gaps in the cloud layer she could see the light-but-dark blue of the Terran sky, subtle and ful. It looked like a blue dome flattened at the center, perhaps a few kilometers about the clouds – she reached up for it – although knowing too that it was just a kind of rainbow made it glorious.

Of course, 2312 does not solely take place on a flooded post climate crisis earth. Instead we move around a solar system, inhabited and altered – in some places greatly, in others less so – in a “space diaspora”

The space diaspora occurred as late capitalism writhed in its internal decision concerning whether to destroy the Earth’s biosphere or change its rules. Many argued for the destruction of the biosphere, as being the lesser of two evils.

Yet Robinson’s vision of human cultures in space is not the light but almost sweet vision of older SF writing, which plays with our imaginations like the old World’s Fair displays, but instead a richly considered portfolio of possible worlds – some disturbing in their darkness, some exhilarating in the potential for human expression and diversity. Robinson assumes that not only will our transport and technology evolve in the coming years and our economics, but the very nature of humanity will as well.

And that evolution is at the core of 2312. The novel introduces us to people who have evolved often in rather startling ways, as Robinson suggests in one the “Extracts” segments of the book: [cont'd.]

they were now their own unavoidable experiment, and were making themselves many things they had never been before: augmented, multi-sexed, and most importantly, very long-lived, the oldest at that point being around two hundred years old. But not one whit wiser, or even more intelligent. Sad but true: individual intelligence probably peaked in the Upper Paleolithic, and we have been self-domesticated creatures ever since, dogs when we had been wolves…

Two humans live at the center of 2312, Swan and Wahram, one from Mercury, the other Saturn, with all the characteristics both imply. As we read the novel, we follow their growing attachment, their lovely romance of hot and constant, adventurous and cautious, as they strive to survive a terrorist attack on Swan’s home planet and then investigate the source of that attack – and find ways to bring a new type of revolution to Earth, drawing from Mondragon models and Swan’s belief that:

There’s a gift economy in people’s feelings that precedes all the rules. Set one up and people give themselves to it.

One of the great joys of reading Robinson’s books is meeting his characters, such fully realized, multilayered, contradictory and oh-so-human humans. Swan and Wahram are two of his best and will, I am sure, live in your imaginations as they do now in mine.

There is so much more to 2312 – Robinson’s science is, as always, solid and accessible even for those of us without much background; there’s philosophy and fun references for SF regulars, a good mystery and more. This is a book that will enchant as well as inform and push your outlook in new directions. Living as we do in the times Robinson calls the “Age of Dithering,” we need reminders of why we keep trying to bring about change – and of where we might head. 2312 and the other tales of Kim Stanley Robinson help us believe there’s a future worth creating. Read more »

Manuel Diaz’ Mother Won’t Be Silenced in Anaheim

Posted by on August 9, 2012 Comments Off

Citizens of Anaheim gathered Wednesday night to demand change from their City Council. One of those citizens was Genevieve Huizar, the mother of Manuel Diaz who was shot and killed by Anaheim Police just over two weeks ago. Diaz’ killing led to a series of protests demanding an end to the frequent police shootings in the Latino community – a community that makes up the majority of the city but has no representation in city government. One of the issued addressed at the Council meeting was the call (and suit by ACLU) for a change away from city-wide elections to district representation. One outcome of the recent events in Anaheim is that Disneyland, the largest employer in the city, has now come out in favor of election reform.

While such changes are important, Manuel Diaz’ mother had a simpler and more direct message to deliver – even when a heckler attacked her. She speaks for so many mothers in Anaheim and elsewhere. Please listen.

Share This icon 


The Videos Anaheim PD Doesn’t Want Us to See

Posted by on July 30, 2012 Comments Off

Last Sunday Kevin Gosztola wrote about the police shootings in Anaheim, CA and pointed to the reports from local network news reporters that the Anaheim police were trying to buy up cell phone videos residents might have of events. Now a video has surfaced which shows us why the Anaheim PD is so afraid of witness videos.

The video here, shot last Saturday, shows the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Manuel Diaz. As the OC Weekly describes it:

The most harrowing part of the video, however, is the fact that Diaz was alive–and police stood there for over three minutes and did nothing. Instead, they seem more concerned with pushing witnesses away from the scene, the better to diminish the video quality of the footage, when they weren’t actively trying to block the source from recording

Diaz is visibly twitching at the very beginning of the video. It’s not until about 3:13 into the video that police finally turn over Diaz, whose head is bloodied beyond belief.

As noted by the OC Weekly, you can hear witnesses yelling to the police that “He’s Still Alive” and asking them to do something to help Diaz.

Since last weekend, protesters have been out every day demanding an end to police shootings and brutality but the situation is not at all new:

This Anaheim neighborhood has been organizing for years in an effort to stop the police from murdering their family members and to get police-controlled information on how their loved ones were killed by the police.

They tried weekly marches in front of the Anaheim Police Station, which were first organized by Theresa Smith after her son was killed by the police in 2009. The killing continues.

Take a look for example at this video from the 2012 Mother’s Day rally at which women who have lost family members to police shootings speak out.

Protests and efforts to stop these police crimes continued until finally:

in June 2012, the people were able to get the City Council to support an independent review of “major police incidents.” Yet, there is no timetable for the review, and the only outcome will be that the findings will be shared at a “public workshop” with the City Council. A month following that announcement, the Anaheim police murdered Manuel Diaz. The killing continues.

The Diaz family – seen here protesting and mourning their son – are suing the city where police continue to attack with impunity. Along with two further shootings – one fatal of an armed man, one other of an unarmed robber just in this past week – Anaheim PD continues its brutal treatment of neighborhood protesters and has now begun to attack journalists:

While covering the Anaheim protests, APD begin firing riot control impact weapons at Tim Pool and Amber Lyon. Neither Tim nor Amber were hurt. Amber was pinned between two trucks and Tim was fired at multiple times after this video but is unscathed.


Amber took the photo linked here showing “NBC journalist ducks down in drivers seat after PD riot weapons strike car windshield.”

Protests are taking place around the country in solidarity with the people of Anaheim. Saturday protests were peaceful with Occupy Orange County taking the call for justice to outside Disneyland. Larger protests are expected Sunday at the Anaheim Police Station. As of 4PM Pacific Sunday, two peaceful protest marches have been held. Police were out in force – including SWAT teams and forces in military gear (see here). The video at left shows one of two arrests today – with police aiming weapons at observers and media who simply tried to see what was happening. A memorial service is planned for Manuel Diaz tonight and possibly more protests.

The video at left shows one of two arrests today – with police aiming weapons at observers and media who simply tried to see what was happening.

As Mary Sanchez wrote in the Kansas City Star of the view in the video of Diaz’ murder earlier this week:

This is one view of America. A view far removed from the banal rhetoric beginning to define this presidential election — and from the worldview of the media industry that is supposed to cover such things. Why is it that such events, in this case pitched clashes between protesters and police in riot gear, seem so strange and random?

This is one view of America. Get to know it. Because the discontent in Anaheim instantiates an emerging political theme of 2012: the divide between the haves vs. have-nots, between the protected and the policed. We live in the same America, but trust me, we don’t all see it the same way.

Anaheim has had five fatal police shootings this year. The fourth and fifth came in one recent weekend, tipping off underlying tensions between police and the large (and largely impoverished) Latino community.

The man mentioned above who lay wounded as bystanders screamed for police to help him was Manuel Angel Diaz, 25. He was unarmed. Another Latino man they shot and killed, police say, was armed with a handgun and had fired at police.
Outraged over the deaths, hundreds of protesters marched to an already packed City Hall meeting and were turned away. Tensions turned ugly. Store windows were broken, goods stolen and police pelted with bottles and rocks. Law enforcement responded with pepperballs and beanbag rounds.

In a further irony, a brilliant fireworks display at Disneyland, that sacred ground of American consumer order, illuminated protesters and the police in riot gear confronting them. Same planet, different universe.

This is clearly a view the Anaheim PD don’t want us to see.

Share This icon 


Can You Spot the Iran Hawk?

Posted by on July 29, 2012 Comments Off

(photo: BradWilke / flickr)

I know we all were concerned to see Mitt’s latest photo-op trip gaffe in which he seems to contradict the current Administration’s policy on Israel and Iran:

Romney met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on the second leg of a trip show display his foreign policy credentials in his race to unseat President Barack Obama in the Nov. 6 election.

Shortly before talks with Netanyahu, Romney’s senior national security aide, Dan Senor, told reporters travelling with the candidate:

“If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision.”

The comment seemed to put Romney at odds with Obama’s efforts to press Israel to avoid any preemptive strike before tough Western economic sanctions against Iran run their course.

Even his apparent “accept[ing] instructions from Netanyahu” may be noted …

…but did anyone notice what the Obama administration has been doing at the same time? From Reuters:

President Barack Obama’s national security adviser has briefed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a U.S. contingency plan to attack Iran should diplomacy fail to curb its nuclear program, an Israeli newspaper reported on Sunday.

The Haaretz newspaper said that the U.S. adviser – Thomas Donilon – had described the plan in talks with Netanyahu earlier this month.

… Quoting a senior U.S. official it said spoke on condition of anonymity, Haaretz said Donilon had told Netanyahu the Pentagon was planning for a possible decision to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, and had shown him some of the plans.

In their talks, the same official said Donilon had also detailed the U.S. military’s ability to penetrate nuclear facilities buried deep underground, and had said that such contingency plans were being drawn up in case of a possible deadlock in diplomacy with Iran.

Or there’s Clinton’s statement in the same Reuters piece:

On a visit to Jerusalem this month, Clinton said Israel and Washington were “on the same page” with respect to Iran, calling Iran’s latest proposals to world power talks on the issue “non starters.”

“Our own choice is clear, we will use all elements of American power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Clinton said.

So Romney is saying it’s ok for Israel to go ahead with an attack while Obama’s team is briefing Bibi on how we’ll do it. Can someone explain what the choice is here since I certainly can’t.

(Hmmm, even Jeffrey Goldberg is having trouble choosing — he ends up picking Obama. (h/t Russ Wellen)) http://www.fpif.org/blog

Share This icon 

AngryArabiya Injured By Bahrain Police

Posted by on July 2, 2012 Comments Off

On June 27, Zeinab AlKhawaja (@AngryArabiya) (seen in the video at left) and Said Yousif Almuhafda, head of monitoring & evaluation for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BHCR), were attacked by Bahrain police. Almuhadfa told Daily News Egypt:

we weren’t even protesting, riot police just shot at us [with] sound grenades, pushed me and shot Zainab Al Khawaja.”

Almuhafda and El Khawaja were documenting the protests for potential police abuses when officers fired sound grenades and injured them. “Fifteen minutes after the protest was over, we were cornered and fired at directly. Zainab was injured and I took her to the hospital.” Almuhafda has filed a complaint against the Bahrain riot police today. He says similar reports have been made but were never investigated.

Almuhafda said there were between 120 and 150 protesters at the rally, held under the title “Right to peacefully protest”  named as such, “because police do not allow us to take part in marches” he said.  He added the police fired “without giving a warning.”

Zeinab was hit at close range on the thigh. Zeinab’s sister, Maryam Alkhawaja, reported:

just spoke to zainab, riot police surrounded her and @saidyousif mocking them and one of them gave an order to another to shoot her …
it was a clear order and they targeted her directly, all the police were wearing balaclavas @angryarabiya

Zeinab has a fractured femur and serious muscle damage.

This attack on Zeinab and Said Yousif is just one of the frequent attacks by Bahraini officials on any attempt to protest the monarchy’s refusal to grant even basic civil rights. Just a few days before, leaders of the moderate Al Wefaq political party faced similar attack:

A small group of 25 or 30 people, some carrying flowers and led by Al-Wefaq’s leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, attempted to march to the protest site after the Ministry of Interior denied their request for a permit. They were stopped by a more or less equal number of riot police. Four witnesses told Human Rights Watch that riot police shot “flash-bang” grenades and teargas directly at the protesters without provocation. A video examined by Human Rights Watch appears to show police at first tossing flash-bang grenades into the crowd and then firing multiple rounds of the same type of device from riot control guns at extremely close range. The protesters behaved peacefully throughout and posed no threat of any kind to the officers or anyone else.

On Thursday, 28 countries – including Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland , Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Norway. France, and Germany – issued a joint statement the UN Human Rights Council saying:

With this in mind, we jointly express our concern over the human rights situation in Bahrain, both the violations that took place in February and March 2011 as well as the related ongoing ones. We are particularly concerned about the consequences faced by those who protested for democratic change in a peaceful manner. We call upon the Bahraini government to fully respect their rights of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association and especially to ensure the protection of Human Rights Defenders.

Yet on the very same day, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office was hosting the BahrainiMinister of Interior, Lt Gen Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, who has been implicated in the torture and repression:

Briefing documents reveal that the Bahrain minister was in the country to learn about policing in Northern Ireland. The British government, which is a “long-standing ally” of Bahrain, is “keen to share lessons learnt from our experience in Northern Ireland”, the documents say.

And of course, not only has the Obama administration not joined the international outcry over the treatment of Bahrain’s pro-democracy activists, it’s shipping weapons to the monarchy that perpetrates these crimes.

Listen to Rula Al Saffar , the president of the Bahraini Nurses Association, who wrote to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

This week, I expect to hear if I will be going to prison for 15 years. The verdict on my appeal, as well as those of 19 other medics convicted in a sham Bahraini military trial last year, is due on Thursday. The Bahraini regime targeted us for treating protesters who were injured in democracy protests.

I lived and worked in the United States for many years, some spent studying at Widener University in Chester. It’s where I learned to volunteer, and last year, when demonstrations erupted in Bahrain, that’s what I did. Salmaniya Medical Complex, the country’s main public hospital, was overwhelmed by protesters hurt by regime forces, so I went to the emergency room to help treat them.

Several weeks later, on entering a government office, I was blindfolded and handcuffed. Over five months of detention, I was beaten, electrocuted, and sexually harassed. Then I was convicted. All just for doing my job.

Al Saffar’s charges were dismissed but nine of her medical colleagues had their convictions upheld. As she warns us:

I understand that America has strategic interests in the region. But Americans should consider the strategic impact of siding with a brutal dictatorship. The United States is losing an entire generation of people not just in Bahrain, but across the Middle East.

Share This icon 


The Romance of Counterinsurgency

Posted by on June 25, 2012 Comments Off

Photo: Staff Sgt. Christine Jones / U.S. Air Force

From this week’s Small Wars Journal:

He clasped my rosary beads in one hand as he rummaged through his olive drab field jacket with the other.  As we huddled over a small diesel heater for warmth, he delicately handed me the only photograph ever taken of him – a reminder of his days as a mujahedeen fighter.  In the faded print, he held his polished AK-47 more like a farmer than a soldier and wore the very same field jacket, although in much finer condition.  We laughed about his long hair and full set of teeth and traded stories about combat only warriors could appreciate.  In an unexpected moment of friendship, I began to understand…

Let’s do more with less by handing over operational control of key rural districts to small, light, and fast Special Operations Forces advisory teams – free of red tape, parallel chains of command, and impossibly complex coordination between countless military and civilian entities….

Ah, the romance of counterinsurgency surprisingly still alive and well … the old mujahidin sharing tea with me …. and then we kill his kids since it’s precisely these free of red tape SOF units that have been responsible for so many civilian casualties.”

Share This icon 

FDL Movie Night: Words of Witness

Posted by on June 19, 2012 Comments Off

Watching Mai Iskander’s film Words of Witness as the reports filtered in of the Egyptian presidential election results was somewhat surreal, a word the film’s Heba and her family also find descriptive of the situation in their homeland as the initial joy of Mubarak’s resignation becomes the much longer struggle to build democracy – or perhaps to continue wresting democracy from the hands of the regime.

Words of Witness begins with the wonderful days of the encampment in Tahrir and takes us up to the first election held in the new Egypt. Mai, a cinematographer and filmmaker who has family in Egypt, landed in Cairo just before Mubarak was driven from office. She began filming a young reporter, Heba Afify – a 22 year old woman just starting her career at the English edition of the independent Al Masry Al Youm. Those of you who followed my coverage of the Arab Spring will remember Al Masry since it was almost always the most reliable and timely source from the streets of Cairo. Now Mai’s film takes us into the streets with Heba as she gathered the news we went on to read so eagerly when it was published.

What is particularly wonderful about Words of Witness is the way Mai has so skillfully blended Heba’s work with a very personal view of her family life. We see not only the young talented reporter but also her mother who worries so about her young daughter at the same time she takes such pride in her. We also get to see the shifting views of her family as the situation in Egypt changes from jubilation and belief in the military to dismay and disillusionment – but also determination. At one point when they are discussing recent events, Heba is asked what is the worst case scenario and she says:

The worst case scenario is we won’t go back to the way it was, but we won’t finish the job.

Sadly it seems tonight that the job is not completed – while election results seems to point to a win by the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, Morsi over the Mubarak era PM Shafiq, the army announced changes to the constitution immediately after polls closed which are close to a military takeover of all real power – and no one knows what will happen next. The speaker of the Parliament – apparently dissolved by the regime controlled court has vowed to continue to meet and the activists of January 25 have announced new demonstrations for the end of this month.

We will be reading Heba’s reporting as the situation evolves – and we’ll have a much clearer and more personal view of Heba and her young colleagues in democracy thanks to this superb film.

The film itself is so well crafted. Iskander’s training in cinematography shines through the visuals while her openness allows her subjects’ own viewpoints to take center stage. We never feel a story is imposed — instead she allows it to evolve organically, respecting both her subjects and her audience. And of all the footage I’ve watched from Tahrir, this is the first that really takes us into the streets from an Egyptian perspective.

Mai encourages us too to go into the streets of activism, inspired by Heba, as she writes in her Director’s statement:

The Revolution opened a new world of activity, imagination and possibility in Egypt. And despite the cultural, linguistic and societal differences and miles that separate Egypt and the Untied States, there is at least one truth in organizing: people know when there is no struggle, there is no progress. So, whether the rallying cry is “Out with Mubarak” or “We are the 99 percent,” people don’t need to read headlines or stare at bar graphs to know that the first step in making the country better for themselves, is to “lead themselves.”

And this is the story that Heba and her colleagues will continue writing.

I am so grateful to Mai Iskander for her “writing” of this story in Words of Witness and I am so very glad we have a chance to talk with her tonight.

Share This icon 

Putting Some Heart Back Into the Discussion of Women’s Health

Posted by on June 12, 2012 Comments Off

I was so impressed by the Movie Night that Lisa hosted with the remarkable women who made Pink Ribbons Inc. It’s always a delicate and often radical matter to talk about fundraising and awareness raising around illnesses – and in many ways any challenge to pink ribbon land is a risky undertaking so these women – Ravida Din; Barbara Brenner, and Dr. Samantha King are my heroes. I hope folks will see the film and read the superb discussion that took place in the thread here.

One area I’m concerned about is the way the Komen et all focus has skewed our view of women’s illnesses and health risks. With several dear friends who are breast cancer survivors – as well as one who didn’t make it past her second year of treatment at age 30, 30 years ago – I am so grateful that the awareness is out there and that women are encouraged to check and get treatment.

But – and it’s a big one to me – more women die of heart disease than breast cancer. Now that clearly does not mean that we should ignore breast cancer – but we do need to take seriously the heart health issues women face, particularly since the signs of women’s heart attacks are different from men’s and so easily missed or misdiagnosed. The number of women who report bad experiences when they suspect a heart attack and head for the ER is staggering – with all too numerous tales of being sent home with antacid or anti-anxiety drugs rather than tested and treated. And those are just the women who know to head for help and have the chance to. So many of us don’t know the critical signs – or ignore them.

• Discomfort, tightness,uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing in the center of the chest lasting more than a few minutes, or comes and goes
• Crushing chest pain
• Pressure or pain that spreads to the shoulders, neck, upper back, jaw, or arms.
• Dizziness or nausea
• Clammy sweats, heart flutters, or paleness
• Unexplained feelings of anxiety, fatigue or weakness – especially with exertion
• Stomach or abdominal pain
• Shortness of breath and difficulty breathing

The great video above that sure captures all too well the way so many of us react – I certainly related – and smacked my forehead a few times – when I saw it!

As I mentioned, this issue is very dear to my … heart. Last year, as some of you know, I had a sudden heart attack and congestive heart failure. In the weeks leading up to it, I hadn’t felt great but I was working 24/7 and had deadlines to meet and meetings to travel to and the usual buzz of life these days. I missed a number of signs I should have taken seriously. When I found myself in Oakland, CA unable to breathe, I was so lucky that my hotel acted fast – and that the nearest hospital, Alta Bates, took exceptional care of me. I was so lucky to be somewhere with a world-class cardiac unit and a team that takes women’s symptoms seriously.

And that is what we need to achieve for all women – a balanced view of women’s health concerns that does not pit one illness against another in the search for research and treatment funding and does not ignore the biggest risk of all in favor of pink ribbons and commercial interests.

For more information on Women and heart disease, check out Womenheart . Womenheart trains women how to be advocates in their own communities and also supports a superb online community at Inspire.

Share This icon 


Obama & Clinton Pal, Bahrain’s King Al Khalifa, Jails Kids

Posted by on June 11, 2012 Comments Off

This is 11 year old Ali Hassan, the youngest political prisoner in #bahrain

At left you see the photo of Ali Hasan. Ali is 11 years old and has been in a Bahraini jail for three weeks now. His crime – “Illegal gathering.” His trial will be held tomorrow.

The Bahrain Human Rights Center reports:

On 13 May 2012, 11 year old Ali Hasan Alqudaihi was arrested on the street in his hometown Bilad Alqadeem by security officials in civilian clothing and driving a civilian car; he was taken to the Nabeeh Saleh police station. The eleven year-old stated that he was beaten and humiliated at the time of his arrest. He was charged with “illegal gathering” and detained at the juvenile detention centre as per an order from the juvenile court’s judge, who has extended the detention period into its 3rd week on 4 June 2012. The child has not yet been found guilty of the alleged crime, but he has been already been detained for over 20 days now, and kept away from his home and school during the period of the final exams.

Ali’s arrest was just a few days after the Obama administration decided to resume arms sales to Bahrain’s government – the same government that claims Ali was involved in “burning tires” and so should be help in jail for weeks. (Activists in Bahrain’s villages often burn tires in the road to disrupt traffic as a protest.)

CNN notes:

But an attorney for Hasan’s family disputes the government account, saying the boy was playing with two other children in the street when he was stopped by police.

The attorney, Shahzalan Khamees, said that police stopped Hasan and two other boys, who managed to run away. Khamees said Hasan claims the police threatened to shoot him with a pellet gun if he ran…

A second defense attorney, Mohsin Al-Alawi, said he recently visited Hasan and that the boy told him that he didn’t take part in an “illegal gathering.”

The boy sobbed, said he is tired and wants to go home, Al-Alawi said.

While Ali enters his fourth week of detention, the head of the Bahrain Human Rights Center, Nabeel Rajab was rearrested.

This arrest of Nabeel Rajab comes one day after he appeared on Al-Jazeera TV show AJStream and criticized the lack of serious reform and the continuation of violations against the people of Bahrain.[4]

Rajab had just been released on bail on May 28th for the charges that he used Twitter to organize a protest and to “suggest that the Interior Ministry had not carried out proper investigations into civilian deaths. “

You can watch that Al Jazeera Stream broadcast here.

Share This icon 

This Is What Democracy Really Looks Like – Manifencours in Montreal

Posted by on May 25, 2012 Comments Off

For the past three months the students of Montreal have been marching daily in the streets. These “manifencours” or manifestations travel throughout the city, with marchers carrying “les casseroles” or pots and pans and drumming on them as they march. The students are protesting the government’s plan to raise university tuition 75% and while their tuition is inexpensive by many standards, a commitment to providing eduction and access to university has been a core aspect of this special community:

If we allow the hike to come into effect, university education will become less accessible. Groups that already tend to have more difficulty paying for university, including women, people of color, and the poor, will be the most affected by the hike. The result is more social inequality, as postsecondary education becomes increasingly reserved for an elite class. Since available financial aid will remain inadequate, students will face surging debt burdens, which act to channel us into high-paid corporate jobs, rather than work we might find more fulfilling.

Education is a right, not a privilege. In fact, Quebec agreed to respect this principle when it signed a 1976 UN declaration holding that “higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.”

In response to the initial demonstrations, the usually liberal Quebecois government passed Law 78 aka the Truncheon Law or “law of the baton” virtually outlawing all demonstrations and imposing astonishing levels of fines on any organization that did not obey. The largest independent student organization, Classe, vowed to continue the strike and demonstrations even so.

And so they have. On the night of May 23rd for example 518 were arrested after the march was kettled by police and after the crew from CUTV were attacked, beaten and arrested themselves for a time. This video from CUTV records the attack on them and also shows their immense courage in response. (We can all wish we had journalists like this!) CUTV is a small TV station run by Concordia University and they have been broadcasting the marches each night live. You can view them here each evening – the interviews and comments along the way are fascinating and the spirit is inspiring.

On Thursday, the students were back with a daytime demonstration by pirates and ninjas:

A small but colourful anti-tuition protest snarled downtown and west end traffic Thursday afternoon as about 100 protesters dressed as pirates and ninjas made their way from Place du Canada to Victoria Ave. in Westmount in an unsuccessful bid to picket the home of Premier Jean Charest.

The protesters, many of them wearing masks in defiance of a Montreal bylaw banning face coverings during public demonstrations, were escorted by police along the route of their march.

Followed by an evening march avec casseroles:

“I’m here in solidarity with the students,” said Henri Fernand, 65, who took part in the protest in his wheelchair. “The youth is our future and I’m proud of them,” he added.

The march, one of several on Thursday night, included a few thousand people. It was loud, even deafening at times, with people clanging pots, bowls, woks and frying pans as they marched in the warm night.

Onlookers showed their support by banging pots on balconies and outside restaurants.

What began as a movement directly aimed at stopping the tuition hike has expanded as citizens join the students after seeing the behavior of the police and reject the EU style austerity moves behind this tuition hike. Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy’s are holding casserole actions in support of the activists in Montreal as well.

The Indypendent, produced a wonderful short video tracing the history of the revolt – it’s very worth watching as we have a lot to learn from the activism of these students. RIghtNow I/O also has a wonderful collection of photos from the movement – you can view them here.

You can follow developments on CUTV as well as on twitter using the hashtag #manifencours.

Share This icon 


The Real Violence in Chicago: Millions for NATO Cops Not for City Children

Posted by on May 19, 2012 Comments Off

It’s very strange to have my home town host NATO and NONATO this weekend. Strange partly since my health limits my ability to be in the streets as part of NONATO and I so miss it. But also odd to have our usual daily routines interrupted by the hyper security state that Rahm and his friends decided we need to protect us from all that dangerous free speech that might take place this week.

For months the local press has been full of stories about police and traffic closures and threats, all the things we’re supposed to fear this weekend. Businesses were told to have their workers stay home, a friend who lives in a high rise said the management sent around a notice that they would be doing ID checks, another friend who works on one of the tour boats at Navy Pier mentioned security briefings and warnings months ago. Just the other day we even had warnings that we all might be subject to cyberattacks too.

Yet Friday night the coverage in the Chicago Tribune was … actually rather positive, saying the demonstrations had been peaceful and generally taking a slightly bemused but definitely non-threatened tone.

Out in the neighborhoods it’s really quiet … most people are just staying home, avoiding the mess of transit disruptions and police lines. But all the folks I’ve talked to seem to just see the security hype as much ado about nothing – folks do not seem to have bought the be very afraid pressure from Rahm and his cohorts.

While simply an aggravation to most here, the arrival of NATO has been really bad for our local businesses – our email inboxes filled this week with special offers from restaurants and stores offering big discounts if we’ll come eat or shop this weekend. Even the big hotels are saying there’s no money in this event for them .So much for the capitalist value of NATO which seems mostly to be hurting local small businesses.

Now it seems we just weren’t afraid enough. The local media is all over the police tale of Molotov cocktails and all manner of evil three protesters were supposed to be planning – or should I say encouraged to plan by a CPD informants? With high bail set and all sorts of incendiary claims made by the CPD, the tone is very likely to change a lot – and I suspect the solidarity march called for 3:30 today will be much less happy than yesterday’s actions.

The budget for security is immense – with fighter jets scrambling in our skies, drones apparently at the ready at Elgin Field and police from far and wide brought in.

Throughout it all, I keep thinking about the costs of this whole event. Back in March, the Chicago Tribune reported that:

Chicago has a received a $19 million grant to cover the local security costs of the NATO summit this May, the city’s summit planners said as they announced they have raised more than $36 million in private donations for other costs.

And each time I think about that – $55 million dollars and all the police and plans, – I wonder why Rahm and his pals can to this to keep a few global elites “safe” from citizens and free speech but can’t seem to do anything about the horrific lack of security for Chicago’s own children:

In Chicago, more than 530 people under the age of 21 have been killed since 2008 and many more have been shot or have otherwise suffered violence.

Share This icon