Month: December 2015

This may come as a shock, but incoming House Speaker is less than honest. He promised “regular order” and no more sneaky business of slipping bad bills into the text of massive spending legislation. Oops they did it again — passing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) by sneaking it into the “must pass” Omnibus spending bill. Now your favorite technology company is acting as a spy on you, the customer, for the US government. Isn’t there a word for when the government “partners” with the private sector to deprive people of liberties? More today in the Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Here’s what happened:

The three Navy SEALs stomped on bound Afghan detainees and dropped heavy stones on their chests. They stood on the prisoners’ heads and poured bottles of water on their faces in an improvised form of waterboarding.

A bomb had exploded at an Afghan Local Police checkpoint where the SEALs were conducting training. Angered by the death of one of their comrades, the police rounded up half a dozen or more “suspects” from a nearby village. Along the way, they beat them with rifle butts and car antennas. The men from SEAL Team 2 joined in, jump-kicking a man kneeling on the ground. They beat one detainee to death.

Four American soldiers working with the SEALs reported the episode. In a Navy criminal investigation, two American support personnel said they had witnessed the abuse by the SEALs, as did a local police officer. Another Afghan provided a detailed account to investigators.

Continue reading “The SEALS Beat a Man to Death – Should We Care?”

Here in Kabul, young friends with the Afghan Peace Volunteers look forward to learning more about “The Tea Project” in late December, when Aaron Hughes arrives, an artist, a U.S. military veteran, and a core member of Iraq Veterans Against War. He’ll carry with him 20 plaster replicas of a standard-issue, factory-made Styrofoam cup. They’re part of a set numbering 779 replica cups, each cup dedicated to prisoners detained in Guantanamo. In the entire collection, 220 of the cups bear names of Afghan citizens imprisoned in Guantanamo.

In Guantanamo, with each evening meal, Guantanamo prisoners are served tea in styrofoam cups. Many prisoners etch floral designs into their cups, which become a nightly artistic outlet for men with few other freedoms allowed them. Aaron had heard a former Guantanamo guard describe how deeply he grew to deeply love the cups that had become works of art.

The cups would then be collected, each night, and turned over to military intelligence which most likely just dumped them. Aaron’s cups are more durable. A Guantanamo prisoner’s name is written on the base of every cup, and each carries a unique design. Following the practice of the prisoners, Aaron focused on etching floral patterns into the cups he created, displaying flowers that are native to each prisoner’s homeland. 220 of the cups he has sculpted bear the names of prisoners from Afghanistan.

Continue reading “Flowers From Guantanamo”

Two hours, and during the last GOP debate of the year Tuesday night, the candidates and their moderators said the name “ISIS” 112 times.

That’s nearly once per minute. And yet, it turns out, a lot of untrue statements were made about ISIS and Syria.

So tonight, we’re giving those statements a reality check.

“Assad is one of the main reasons why ISIS even exists to begin with. Assad is a puppet of Iran. And he has been so brutal toward the Sunni within Syria that he created the space that led to the people of Syria themselves to stand up and try to overthrow him.”

That was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) explaining why ISIS is in power in Syria in the first place. Rubio says it is the fault of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

Continue reading “Reality Check: GOP Candidates Completely Wrong on Origin of ISIS in Latest Debate”

After almost a year of civil war, the conflicting forces in Yemen sat down on December 15 in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss the prospect of finding a political solution to the conflict that has been raging since March 2015. While this is a necessary step towards ending the violence that has killed thousands, crippled infrastructure and led to a critical humanitarian crisis, the peace talks should include a mechanism for rebuilding this impoverished nation. Saudi Arabia, which is responsible for most of the destruction with its relentless bombings, should be forced to pay for the terrible damage it has wrought. So should the United States.

The U.S. involvement in the Yemen crisis can be summed up in four words: allegiance to Saudi Arabia. The United States’ problematic relationship with Saudi Arabia goes all the way back to World War II, when US officials started to see Saudi’s oil as a strategic advantage. Since then, the US has blindly supported the Kingdom in almost every political and economic effort, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is an ultraconservative Islamic monarchy rife with human rights abuses.

“Saudi Arabia’s involvement in Yemen has only destroyed lives and created a state of total chaos, and the US government is complicit in the carnage.”

Continue reading “Yemen Crisis: One More Reason To Reevaluate the Toxic US-Saudi Alliance”

Peace on Earth and goodwill to all – in a world of conflict, tis the season of peace.

I write about the peaceful angels of our nature every holiday season. I hope to replace “conflict” with “love” soon. Another year over, and it was full of war. But we cannot expect the end of war without first realizing what war is.

Those of us in western nation states, especially those of us my age (born in 1984), have grown up with a steady climate of peace. Violence exists in our society, sure, but recognition of the destructive nature of war is largely missing. Even the attacks of September the 11th, or the Paris attacks of this year, as horrific and terrifying as they were, pale in comparison to the leveling of entire cities – a common element of war.

Continue reading “A Wish for Peace in the New Year”