United States – Active Voice

From #Gaza with Love #Ferguson

As police in the USA intensify anti-protest action in Ferguson tweeters start sending advice and sympathy from Gaza, especially on how to withstand armed forces’ terror tactics…

Wesley Lowery@WesleyLowery

But the residents have not been “rioting.” It just isn’t true. Protesting: yes. Outraged: yes. Clashing with police: yes. Rioting: No

#Gaza or #Ferguson can you tell? #p2 #uniteblue #fergusonshooting #mikebrown #stl #moleg http://t.co/LvX4w4ykym

#Gaza or #Ferguson can you tell? #p2 #uniteblue #fergusonshooting #mikebrown #stl #moleg pic.twitter.com/LvX4w4ykym

Michael Arria @michaelarria

There are Americans who think a black teenager reached for a cop’s gun, from 35 feet away, but demand further proof for global warming.

Jo March @Amancipation

When @KristinFisher approached our protest, she immediately went to the white woman for details. Ignoring the Black faces who organized.

J. Freedom du Lac @jfdulac

This is the WaPo piece @WesleyLowery filed not long before he was arrested in Ferguson. http://wapo.st/1nQtysv

Garance Franke-Ruta @thegarance

Twitter list of people tweeting from #ferguson: https://twitter.com/thegarance/lists/ferguson …

Anna @TallyAnnaE

People in #Gaza are tweeting information on how to handle tear gas to the citizens of #Ferguson. Mind blown. #MikeBrown

Randa Jarrar @randajarrar

Crowd in #ferguson now chanting “End the occupation from Gaza to St Louis!!!”

Sasha Frere-Jones @sfj

An American army is attacking unarmed Americans. Who is willing to invade America to protect Americans? Isn’t that our logic when we invade?

Bryan Gamble @BVGamble

Wow! People from Gaza are tweeting to the people in #Ferguson on how to protect themselves from tear gas. Think about that! #Maddow

Mona Eltahawy @monaeltahawy

Whole world is watching #Ferguson & every dictator who sets his police like attack dogs on protesters shrugs & says “See, the US does it.”

Jasiri X @jasiri_x

That sound cannon that the police is using in Ferguson was used in Iraq and Somalia and causes permanent hearing loss

Mary @MFL1956

Stun grenades and tear gas in #Ferguson now. Police rioting in the streets against calm protesters.

Trevor Timm @trevortimm

This livestream of #Ferguson right now is unbelievable, holy shit. http://new.livestream.com/accounts/9035483/events/3271930 …

Alex Kane @alexbkane

Tip learned in Bil’in, Palestine on tear gas: use onion peels to breathe easier. #Ferguson

Ali Abunimah @AliAbunimah

Do not expect Obama to travel to #Ferguson, unless it is to show solidarity with the police.

“@manofsteele: Wow...A man picks up burning tear gas can and throws it back at police. #ferguson http://t.co/qiLwujczqr” @YourAnonNews

Wow…A man picks up burning tear gas can and throws it back at police pic.twitter.com/qiLwujczqrwujYourAnonNews @YourAnonNews<Not just a man…a dread! Jah RASTAfari!!!!

Jeremy LaGuins @jrocklaguins

Look at these black men be heroes RT @jonswaine: Police "This is your final warning." Protesters at front not nudging http://t.co/Kp2O4qEGWZ

Look at these black men be heroes RT @jonswaine: Police “This is your final warning.” Protesters at front nopic.twitter.com/Kp2O4qEGWZKp2O4qEGWZ

Bonita Applebum @TheMusze

Imran Garda @ImranGarda

It’s like a law of nature. Marginalized people protest the senseless killing of one of their own. Face a brutal, militarized police machine.

The Public Archive @public_archive

WHERE IS ANDERSON COOPER?????

The Daily Rupert @TheMurdochTimes

Oh Twitter. People in #Gaza following #Ferguson events tweeting like ‘Hope you’re OK, don’t stop resisting’

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Wajahat Ali @WajahatAli

You know it’s a bad situation when the people of #Gaza are empathizing with you and seeing parallels #Ferguson

Got folks in #Gaza tweeting tips to help people during the #Ferguson protest...wild. http://t.co/HNH0nlAouk #mikebrown

Got folks in #Gaza tweeting tips to help people during the #Ferguson protest…wild. pic.twitter.com/HNH0nlAouk #mikebrown

Jordan Belfort @hollywood_trey

The oppressed stands with the oppressed. #Palestine stands with #Ferguson. http://t.co/hxK94VqfsO

The oppressed stands with the oppressed. #Palestine stands with #Ferguson. pic.twitter.com/hxK94VqfsO

فلسطين i @iFalasteen

#MikeBrown shooting; 'War zone' in #Ferguson. Photos and story: http://t.co/ZUSuL3tLjr http://t.co/XhekatA2F6

#MikeBrown shooting; ‘War zone in #Ferguson. Photos and story ibt.uk/A00685n http://pic.twitter.com/XhekatA2F6

IBTimes UK @IBTimesUK

MORE BREAKING PHOTOS: After Aljazeera crew was directly hit with tear gas, their cameras were disassembled: #Ferguson http://t.co/j1Xxk93CVU

MORE BREAKING PHOTOS: After Aljazeera crew was directly hit with tear gas, their cameras were disassembled: #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/j1Xxk93CVU

TheAnonMessage @TheAnonMessage

Oxblood Ruffin | cDc @OxbloodRuffin

I respect law enforcement. I have issues with the political classes who use them. #Ferguson #Gaza

Mark Meinero @MMMRaisin

When the words “NEW CEASE FIRE TAKES HOLD” appear on the screen, one wonders if the report’s on #Iraq #Ukraine #Gaza or #Ferguson.

Barack Obama: Certified Worl’ Boss

Images of Obama after historic second term win…

The US Presidential race is over. And Obama has prevailed. What a relief. The race was so close Zina Saunders who was asked to design a cover image for the New York Observer had to come up with three cover images to cover every eventuality:

On Sunday afternoon, Ed Johnson at the NY Observer wrote with a cover assignment that thrilled and terrified me at the same time. The thrill? Painting the election cover! The terror? They needed to have 3 variations to cover all possible election outcomes (Obama wins, it’s a tie when they go to press, and Obama…gulp…loses). So, yeah, the prospect of Romney winning struck terror in my heart. And it was an awful feeling painting a sad Obama face for the Romney Wins variation. Awful, awful.

Read Zina’s blogpost for the full 100….

Meanwhile below are some other images i acquired from Facebook. They say it all I think…

And my favourite tweet of the evening was the following just before Obama finally made an appearance to give his speech:

Rob Hyndman@rhh

I want Obama to come out in a huge Afro wig. To the soundtrack of Shaft.

And favourite Facebook update:

Albert Chong

Colorado, yes we CANNABIS!

Obamaposter — By Charis Tsevis, via Michael Thompson

73 Civilians killed in Jamaica. Big deal! So what?

The deaths of 73 civilians matter so little that the government of Jamaica can’t be bothered to ask for surveillance footage from the US DEA P 3 Orion which should show what took place on May 24, 2010 in Tivoli Gardens

To my astonishment the Jamaica Observer carried an editorial on Sunday titled “There was a spy plane over Tivoli, so what?” This was astonishing to me because in my last post I had commented saying that the Minister of Security’s reaction to questions about the spy plane he said he knew nothing about seemed to be a nonchalant shrug. “In fact he acted as if it really wasn’t his business or ours (!) An unidentified flying object in our airspace? Pshaw! So he didn’t know about it, so what?“

Now here was one of the nation’s leading newspapers shamelessly saying exactly the same thing. Not only that: highlighted on the Letters page was an inane one titled “What’s the big deal about the surveillance plane?”

“Dear Editor,

Ok, so it has been confirmed that a US plane provided surveillance assistance during the 2010 Tivoli Gardens operations. I don’t understand the controversy and what’s the big deal if they were invited to assist to strengthen the army’s tactics and strategy?”

The big deal dear thick-skulled letter writer and Observer editors is that 73 people were killed under unexplained circumstances during that Tivoli Gardens operation. This spy plane has video footage of what happened on the ground during that operation which ought to be central to any investigation into the massacre of 73 civilians by government forces only one of whom was killed in the battle for Tivoli.

So no one is faulting the government for asking or accepting assistance from the US government. As the Sunday Gleaner’s editorial eloquently said:

“…the decline in crime in Jamaica, in particular homicides, since Coke’s departure and the degrading of his network suggest that America’s insistence on his extradition, and whatever help they may have given to effect it – the memorandum included – were the best aid package by a foreign government to Jamaica in recent times.”

The question is why then Minister of Information Daryl Vaz denied this so vigorously immediately after the Tivoli incursion and why Minister of Security Dwight Nelson continued to do so until a few days ago.

And the really burning question is why the government shows so little interest in acquiring the video footage shot by the P-3 Orion. Are we to assume that the residents of Tivoli matter as little to this Prime Minister as they did to the previous one?

If this is a strategy by the Jamaica Observer to come to the rescue of its favourite political party it should think again because in its haste to diminish the import of the spy plane what it seems to be saying is that the massacre of 73 civilians in Tivoli in May 2010 was insignificant. Big deal! So what?

Paranoia Central…USA

American paranoia

Photo: Courtesy Peter Dean Rickards

Ok so now Allah is intervening directly in American affairs…? (Fanatics please note: This is an ironic comment, not a truth claim).

‘A Voice for the Voiceless’: @Arundhati_Roy vs Arundhati Roy

A look at campaigns of different sorts from political, to personal, to religious to hate…also a focused look at @Arundhati_Roy’s late, great Twitter account which has been suspended for reasons unknown.

I like the way the author of this virtual poster has co-opted former US President Bush into such a neatly executed visual sabotage rescue mission. The USA’s political shenanigans. Will Obama survive the concerted effort to derail him? Waiting and watching…

Meanwhile the following terse message arrived by email this morning:

i am Mrs. Bintu Mahmud. Please contact my lawyer Ramli Sariman (barr_ramli_sariman09@gala.net) for a very important thing ALLAH wants you to do for Him. May ALLAH be with you always.

Surely no practising Muslim would be foolish enough to circulate such a message in today’s climate. Is it part of some anti-Islam campaign? All i know is that Yahoo has been really good about catching all such Spam messages with its filters, i wonder how this one escaped?

And by snail mail i received a tiny envelope, the kind the postman leaves for you before Christmas, postmarked Trinidad and Tobago. Inside: two business card-sized cards. You are not who we thought you were, says one, and We are not who you had in mind proclaims the other in 14-point serif type. On the back of each card is a green star in the upper left corner and –Les Argotieres, in the bottom right corner. My address is written in ink on the envelope in chiselled letters by a calligraphic hand. Is this a new company? an advertising campaign of some sort? What? Who? One awaits full revelations at the earliest.

Finally @Arundhati_Roy whom many believed to be the author of The God of Small Things has had her Twitter account suspended. I had written about the purported Roy account in its early days. More recently Roy’s Twitter avatar has been proclaimed a fake, something i find hard to believe, the tweets were so typical of Roy’s taut, tart x-ray observations on life in the late capitalist lane. What we do know is that before the account was suspended @Arundhati_Roy came under attack for views the activist had expressed on Pakistan and India’s Maoists among other things. Below are her/his last few tweets and some tweets from Roy’s critics. For convenience I have prefixed @Arundhati_Roy’s tweets with the label ARoy:

ARoy: As long as your heart beats, make sure it’s with good intentions… RT @vjlive: @Arundhati_Roy Should a good heart need contours to beat…
Wed 18 Aug. 12.46

ARoy: “Businesses resist ‘conflict minerals’ law.” First the Congo, then where? Who will mine the bauxite? http://bit.ly/dA9bAB
Wed 18 Aug. 2.31

ARoy: Glad you have that philosophy. Suiting you well? RT @krishnakacker: Unfortunately, the way to hell is also paved with good intentions!
19 Aug 14.14

ARoy: When I feel like I don’t belong, draw the strength from the words when you said, Hey, It’s about you, baby. Look deeper inside you, baby…
19 Aug 14.17

@KanchanGupta @Arundhati_Roy Pakistan wants you. Pakistan needs you. Won’t you rise to the occasion and buy a one-way ticket to the promised land?
19 Aug 14.19

ARoy: @KanchanGupta tickets i find are never one way. I have places to go. This WORLD is my home…Go be antagonistic to someone who cares for it.
19 Aug 14.20

@KanchanGupta @Arundhati_Roy I wouldn’t dare antagonise you, what with your bum-chums with big-big guns.
19 Aug 14.23

@Arundhati_Roy By the way, Maomata recently told me you are a “claash owan frawd” and a “tormooj” — green outside, red inside.
19 Aug 14.28

@Dilir123 @Arundhati_Roy earlier asked you a question. Just saw myself how an indian j0urno hates you! you were very calm. i’m not paki nor indi just
19 Aug 15.21

@Arundhati_Roy just a bangladeshi want to knw what did you do/write that these ppl r so mad about?
19 Aug 15.26

ARoy: @Dilir123 I think that one whom you’re speaking of is just jealous that I have a few more followers than him. Just ignore him… #noisemaker
19 Aug 15.51

ARoy: maybe in US RT @aurosan: Up to 10% of Pakistanis might die due to cholera in water http://bit.ly/9bhAZH Why isn’t anyone talking about this?
19 Aug 14.35

ARoy: Bad dreams in the night, they told me I was going to lose the fight. Leave behind my wuthering heights…
20 Aug 8.39

ARoy: http://bit.ly/bV0F1j
20 Aug 10.04

ARoy: I family on their lot in Pakistan, yes. RT @Libraryben: Pakistan? RT @Arundhati_Roy: http://bit.ly/bV0F1j
20 Aug 13.04

ARoy: If caring for ppl not part of a political agenda makes me one, so be it RT @mahasamant: @Arundhati_Roy PAKISTAN GIVES YOU POPULARITY#TRAITOR
20 Aug 13.04

@Shonatwits @Arundhati_Roy When you can serve people at your door step what will you serve in Pakistan? Stop this hypocrisy u r just losing ur respect!
20 Aug 13.19

ARoy: @Shonatwits Statements have been stated. Press releases have been released…Criticize policy makers, not a voice for the voiceless…
20 Aug 13.22

ARoy: Lost inside adorable illusion, and I cannot hide. I’m the one you’re using, please don’t push me aside…
20 Aug 13.26

@Arundhati_Roy Ms. Roy, you ROCK.
20 Aug 13.57

ARoy: @aseemvadehra what “rocks” is reading the critics disassemble that one…
20 Aug 14.02

ARoy: I am in love with what we are, and not what we “should” be. And I am. I am starstruck with every part of this whole story…
23 Aug 03.07

I echo the question asked by one of the tweeple quoted above: Arundhati Roy what did you do/write that these ppl r so mad about? Because their questions were addressed to the author and activist regardless of who was tweeting in her name…

David Coleman Headley: The Ugly American?

For those interested in more information on the Indian situation vis-a-vis US terrorist David Coleman Headley two interesting articles from the Indian media are presented below:

A spy unsettles US-India ties
By M K Bhadrakumar

News that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had reached a plea bargain with David Coleman Headley, who played a key role in the planning of the terrorist strike in Mumbai in November 2008 in which 166 people were killed, has caused an uproar in India.

The deal enables the US government to hold back from formally producing any evidence against Headley in a court of law that might have included details of his links with US intelligence or oblige any cross-examination of Headley by the prosecution.

Nor can the families of the 166 victims be represented by a lawyer to question Headley during his trial commencing in Chicago. Headley’s links with the US intelligence will now remain classified

information and the Pakistan nationals involved in the Mumbai attacks will get away scot-free. Furthermore, the FBI will not allow Headley’s extradition to India and will restrict access so that Indian agencies cannot interrogate him regarding his links with US and Pakistani intelligence.

In return for pleading guilty to the charges against him Headley will get lighter punishment than the death sentence that was probably most likely.

Headley’s arrest in Chicago last October initially seemed a breakthrough in throwing light on the operations and activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terrorist organization, in India. But instead the Obama administration’s frantic efforts to cover up the details of the case have been taken to their logical conclusion.

The plea bargain raises explosive questions. The LeT began planning the attack on Mumbai sometime around September 2006. According to the plea bargain, Headley paid five visits to India on reconnaissance missions between 2006 and the November 2008 strike, each time returning to the US via Pakistan where he met “with various co-conspirators, including but not limited to members of LeT”.

For more click here:

And for a more personal take on the matter by one of India’s top journalists, NDTV editor Barkha Dutt, see below. Barkha was the reporter who commented live outside the Taj in Bombay while it was under siege:

Chasing a Shadow

Barkha Dutt

Now that the light-eyed Pakistani American who waged war against India and plotted the ruin of Mumbai in meticulous detail has finally pleaded guilty — we are being told that all is not lost. After the cushy deal that David Headley has cut with the Americans, it’s brutally clear that India will never get hold of the man who criss-crossed our country like some Super-Bomber, surveying targets and picking new victims. But, apparently we are still meant to be pleased that Indian investigators may eventually be able to talk to the man in some shape or form. So what if a government who demanded extradition now has to quietly contend with a reduced sentence for Headley and one that India will have no say in.

Never mind the humiliation of our sleuths being turned back from the United States when they first arrived to question him. And forget the fact that India allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to interrogate Ajmal Kasab for nine hours away from the formal constraints of court trials and the relentless gaze of the public eye. Since 26/11 claimed the lives of six Americans, the FBI felt it had an automatic entitlement to that meeting. But the murder of more than a hundred Indians in the same attack; one that left India naked and vulnerable forever, does not apparently give us the same rights in reverse. But no — we are being asked to forget all of that and be grateful for the fact that Headley may now testify in the trial via videoconference. As they sometimes say in Ronald McDonald’s land: “Gee Whiz.” What a joke.

There can be only two explanations for this astounding double standard: hypocrisy or secrecy. For several months now questions have been raised about Headley’s curious and untold past. His differently coloured eyes (one brown, one blue) may as well have been a metaphor for a life steeped in schizophrenia. We know now of his two wives and about his American socialite mom who ran a swinging bar and his Pakistani diplomat dad who encouraged a regimented orthodoxy. But Headley’s version of East- meets-West turned out to be his stint in Pakistan working as an undercover informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

To continue reading click here: