zaman-al-samt:

Source

Today marks Shaker Aamer’s 11th year without charge or release.

(via brianlionzion)

immolator:

polly toynbee. here’s another ‘progressive’ journalist with a rather simple role. render what is and isn’t acceptable and lead it all back to the labour party. here are a few devices toynbee uses to try and nullify opposition:

1) when talking about an issue which isn’t explicitly economic, attack the left for not paying attention to the bigger moral problem of inequality.

2) when talking about inequality, always point out there’s people worse off and talk about a “pecking order of pain”. if you’re talking about the poorest, make sure to say it’s children who are hurt worst. use this to attack (do this on the eve of a march because solidarity, eh?)

3) argue that labour could be doing more. let a few criticisms in. but also uphold almost everything labour does (uphold privatization when you’re not writing in the guardian). be sure to attack critics of labour as decadent, immoral and self-righteous 

4) VOTE LABOUR. VOTE LABOUR. VOTE LABOUR. VOTE LABOUR. VOTE LABOUR

again: these people aren’t your friends

find and replace: labour with democrat

(via fourwindsshotgun)

readyokaygo:

Photos like this are being spread across the internet lately, and they are dangerous for a few reasons. If you’re too lazy to read below; basically ignorant Americans are blaming other people, governments, and religions for problems their own nation caused.

First, here is a history lesson on Afghanistan. From 1933 until 1973, Afghanistan was ruled under a man named Mohammed Zahir Shah. While he was a devout Muslim, he had a Western education in France. His reign marked four decades of peace and stability. With the introduction of a constitution Afghanistan progressively developed into a modern democratic state with free elections and a parliament, as well as a massive push for women’s rights, universal suffrage, education, worker’s rights, and civil rights. So yes, Afghanistan was doing well in the 60’s as this photo suggests. However, the photo doesn’t give you context for what went wrong.

During this period in time the Soviet Union had a strong influence in Afghanistan. They supported modernization and education in the Afghan state. The United States, not wanting to risk their hegemony in the region, clearly had a major problem with this. They were terrified of the spread of Communism and quickly developed a plan. Afghanistan would become the Cold War’s chessboard. In the late 80’s, the Saudis, Pakistanis, and the Americans brought in radical Islamists from around the world. They armed, trained, and directed them into a militant force, and they were called the mujahideen. They became the US’ main offense against the Soviets. It wasn’t to defend the Afghans against the Soviets who were ready to pull out, but to deliver as much harm against them imaginable. Carter wanted Afghanistan to be the Soviet’s “Vietnam”. And it was. When they finally retreated Afghanistan spun into chaos and a civil war ensued under the militant mujahideen warriors. Within this framework we saw the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and of course Osama bin Laden. All under the auspices of the United States security forces and American tax-payer monies. Clinton’s bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan was directly responsible for their rise. Oh, and then in what was most likely the greatest immoral injustice of the 21st century the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 only further driving the besieged nation further into turmoil.

What does this mean? The mujahideen, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda do not represent thousands of years of Afghan culture and Islam. They are a direct reaction to Western imperialism. The root cause for the disparity between the two pictures is foreign intervention. Not Islam, and certainly not Arabs.

Second, here is a history on Iran. Before 1953, Iran was ruled under a democratically elected man called Mohammad Mosaddegh. Under his reign Iran saw a progressive movement of social and political reforms. During this time Britain tried to establish an oil company (British Petroleum) on Iranian soil, and promised to share profit and technology with the Iranian government. However the British, as usual, didn’t honor their agreement. They, and the United States, began to steal Iran’s oil. Prime Minister Mosaddegh would not stand for this and demanded the seizure of the oil fields and the ouster of the British. In response, the British and the United States overthrew him in a coup and installed the Shah who was a brutal tyrant and ruled the nation under an absolute monarchy. The women in this picture did live well, but that was because they were members of a very small minority and in the Shah’s social circle. Everyone else in Iran lived under harsh conditions. The economy was failing, education was abysmal, and the entire nation was rural and very religious.

Today, Iran’s health care is better. They have more political freedom. Education is improving, and the country is slowly globalizing. The economy is slightly better off, however that is quickly changing with the Western world’s sanctions against Iran in midst of their nuclear propaganda campaign at the behest of Israel. 

What does this mean? Essentially, the Islamic Revolution had little to do with the rise of an Islamic state; rather the resistance of Western imperialism. Almost every social and political group was united in resisting the Shah, from the communists to the secularists to the Islamists. They demanded Iranian sovereignty and political freedoms. Is the current regime in Iran perfect? Absolutely not, and I’m passionately against it. But this picture is extremely distortive of the truth.

Unfortunately, we have gone full circle. Today, the United States is supporting terrorist cells in Iran in an attempt to oust the current Iranian regime. They want to establish another pro-Western government like the Shah and “try again” where they failed. They have been doing this for decades and it hasn’t been working well. That is why we are now seeing media hysteria against Iran, and their false quest to achieve nuclear power and bomb Israel. Iran is a peaceful nation, and always has been. They have never attacked another nation, and have absolutely no intention of attacking Israel or anyone else for that matter. The United States’ war against Iran is rooted solely to seek revenge for their failed foreign policy in the 70’s and to once again take control of their natural resources.

In conclusion, if you think you can understand decades of history in the Middle East, or anywhere for that matter, by looking at a photograph you are a fucking idiot who has no right to engage in intellectual discussion or give your opinion on anything other than what you watched on TLC last night.

(via bapeonion)

rokkenrou:

bollockscaptor:

roachpatrol:

electric-liquid:

Ongoing Mexico Revolution - Ignored by the Media

Mexico, July 11, 2012. The largest protest in human history. USA and UK governments pushed the press not to publish. Google censored videos on youtube and restricted keywords on this event.

The Mexican media has blacking out the protests against their new government, who have been accused of doing everything from buying votes to buying off the media.

If the corporate media won’t spread this story, then let’s spread the story. Share this all over your pages and your friend’s pages and help support the democracy movement in Mexico.

Wow, what the fuck. 

whoah, i heard nothing about this?

thats scary as hell

if it weren’t for my cousins calling my grandma about it from Mexico, I wouldn’t have known about this at all. Its really scary :c

(via riddlemethatass)

au-nat-urelle:

theweekmagazine:

With the 2012 Summer Olympic Games now just days away, many Londoners are feeling anxiety and regret. A recent poll found that half the city’s residents are not interested in the Olympics at all, and 42 percent think the city should never have bid for them.

“It’s a major disaster,” said documentary filmmaker Iain Sinclair. “You don’t need this vast, top-down structure spending billions of pounds to obliterate a landscape.”

London’s Olympic regrets

it’s just so… english of them

(via natellite)

News that that a swarm of termites deep inside the British banking system have been fiddling the interbank interest rates (LIBOR) for years in order to systematically vacuum a few billion pence off the exchange floors for themselves is the latest blow to the credibility of the global money system - and probably a fine overture to a looming climactic implosion of the gigantic, creaking, smoldering, reeking, duck-taped edifice of broken promises, booby-trapped hedge obligations, counterparty follies, central bank euchres, sovereign flim-flams, and countless chicanes too various, dark, and deep to smoke out. Next, we’ll probably hear that Lloyd Blankfein over at Goldman Sachs has been tinkering with the rotation of the earth in order to gain a few micro-milliseconds of advantage in his firm’s high frequency trading rackets. After all, back in 2008 Lloyd himself claimed to be “doing God’s work.”

In short, world banking is now hopelessly pranged, and I am not at all sure the project of civilization (modern edition) can continue by other means. The impairments of capital formation are now so profound that no one and nothing can be trusted. Not only are all bets off, but nobody will want to make any new bets - and by that I mean venture to invest accumulated wealth (capital) in some useful project designed to sustain human well-being. What remains is just the desperate hoarding of whatever remains in assets uncontaminated by the pledges of others to pony up.

All this points to a dangerous new period of political history, a deadly Hobbesian scramble to evade the falling timber in a burning house as the rudiments of a worldwide social contract go up in flames. Such is the importance of legitimacy: the basic condition for governance, especially among supposedly free people. You can meddle in a lot of distributory issues - who gets what - but when you mess with the most basic operations of money to the extent that no one is sure what it’s really worth, or what it represents, then you are deeply undermining society. This is now the condition that is set to blow up republics. [++]

(Source: theamericanbear, via socialuprooting)

au-nat-urelle:

at the end of the episode, british soldiers raise the union jack over the battlefield in an exact recreation of the Iwo Jima picture

subtle.

as if doctor who was ever anything other than united kingdom supremacist propaganda

(Source: natellite)

Shaker Aamer is a Saudi Arabian citizen and the last British resident held by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was captured in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on 24 November 2001 and was brought to Guantánamo on 14 February 2002, where he has now been held for 10 years, 1 month and 24 days.

According to documents published in the Guantanamo Bay files leak, the US military Joint Task Force Guantanamo believed in November 2007 that Aamer had led a unit of fighters in Afghanistan, including the Battle of Tora Bora, while his family was paid a stipend by Osama bin Laden. The file asserts past associations with Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui. Clive Stafford Smith a human rights lawyer said the leaked documents would not stand up in court. He pointed out that part of the evidence comes from an unreliable witness and that confessions Aamer made had been obtained through torture. Mr Aamer’s father-in-law, Saaed Ahmed Siddique, said: “All of these claims have no basis. If any of this was true he would be in a court now.” The Bush administration acknowledged later that it had no evidence against Aamer.

Aamer has never been charged with any wrongdoing and has never received a trial and his lawyer says he is “totally innocent”. He has been cleared for release by the Bush administration in 2007, and the Obama administration in 2009, but Aamer remains in Guantánamo. He has been described as a charismatic leader who spoke up and fought for the rights of fellow prisoners and some have speculated that this might be a reason for his continued detention. Aamer alleges that he has been subject to torture while in detention.

Mr. Aamer’s mental and physical health has been declining over the years, as he has participated in hunger strikes to protest detention condition and spent much of his time held in solitary confinement. He has lost 40 per cent of his body weight in captivity. After a visit in November 2011 Clive Stafford Smith said: “I do not think it is stretching matters to say that he is gradually dying in Guantanamo Bay.”

The UK government has been demanding his release for years and a growing number of people from all walks of life have started campaigning for him. (via)

(Source: dishabillic, via socialuprooting)

A colony of Gentoo penguins rest in a minefield at Kidney Cove, at a stretch of beach across the Falklands Islands’ capital Stanley, on September 9, 2005. Most of the 150 minefields were laid around the capital Stanley when Argentine forces landed there in April of 1982.

topgearconfessions:

I love how Jeremy makes fun of America… and I’m an American.

jeremy may not realize it but he is a pitch perfect parody of british culture

(via ahoneko)