Angela Merkel paid a three-day state visit to Modi in India where they signed agreements to fight terrorism & extremism as well as for cooperation in space research, agriculture, marine science, education & academic research, sports, cultural exchanges. It can’t be said the fascistic occupation of Kashmir has interfered with Indian business ventures. But to capitalists, fascism isn’t personal. it’s just good business. Their joint statement on terrorism denounced safe havens & sanctuaries for terrorists & terrorism in all its “forms & manifestations.” Then Merkel came out with her one-two punch against Indian terrorism in Kashmir by saying, “The situation now for the people (in Kashmir) is not good & not sustainable. This has to be improved for sure.” What kind of wimpy-assed statement is that!?

“The total annexation and “downgrade” of Kashmir has a silver lining for those of us demanding freedom from India. It lifts the façade of the hollowed-out and non-existent autonomy that the pro-India stooges of NC and PDP were hiding behind. Now it’s all out in the open and there is no grey zone. The traitors, opportunists and collaborators still have a chance to redeem themselves if they get behind the freedom camp and demand the right of self determination for Kashmiris.”

–Sultan Magami

“…their report contains allegations of beatings where the victims’ screams were recorded and played on loudspeakers, torture by electric shocks on genitals and sexual abuse of boys and women. None of the alleged victims or other witnesses were willing to reveal their names for fear of reprisal.

After a BBC story on torture (of a militant’s brother allegedly by the Rashtriya Rifles, with the victim’s screams played on a loudspeaker) in a village in Shopian, the armed forces came again and tortured him, and said, ‘How dare you speak to the media?’”

https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/grim-report-from-kashmir/cid/1715947?fbclid=IwAR1V2WTKV7NwsJz-YC3XFDuJXL9eMfQR-

Max Blumenthal, a leading member of Assad & Putin’s propaganda cult, was arrested by DC police for an assault charge related to the politically pointless activity of defending an abandoned Venezuelan embassy. We should look at the civil liberty merits of his case despite his smug support for Assad’s gulag where thousands are tortured & hung to death. We’ll even look past his poisonous, dishonest, rightwing denial of the Uyghur genocide, vilification of protesters in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Hong Kong, & his writings portraying the Syrian Arab Spring as all terrorists.

Being a grandstander & publicity hound, Blumenthal wants to make himself a cause célèbre by claiming he was ‘shackled’ & ‘languished in prison for days’ because of his political writings. Flexi-cuffs are not the same as being shackled like Assad’s torturers do dissidents. Having to eat with plebeians must have been an ordeal for our man since class arrogance is written all over his face. But he was arrested on an assault charge, not for his poisonous writings about political dissidents. It’s up to a court to decide if the assault charge if false & as far as we know he will have his day in court & family money to buy the best defense lawyers in town. What’s the big deal? Why would the US persecute him for writing articles that in every instance support state power & vilify protesters? The US wouldn’t persecute a guy like that; they’d eventually make him Secretary of State.

He can’t get any authoritative media to write about his arrest nor any reputable civil liberties groups to take up his defense because he is out of jail without a hair on his head out of place nor a single mark of abuse. The murder, persecution, torture, incarceration of journalists is a serious issue everywhere in the world, especially under those regimes which Blumenthal supports. In his narcissism & stinking elitism, he wants to take attention from the defense of journalists being tortured in gulags so he can get his bona fides as a journalist rather than being ridiculed as the rightwing dilettante & sycophant that he is.

“India has always tried to make Kashmiris doubt their character, it has always tried to weaken their self belief. Nehru did that with Sheikh Abdullah, he used to tell him that Kashmiris do not care for political rights, all they (Kashmiris) want is bread and butter. This idea has been carefully implanted by Indians in our collective memory to the extent that today every Kashmiri is involved in self flagellation. One such example being A.S. Dulat’s book which is full of condescension for Kashmiris. The fact, however, remains that despite everything that India has done in Kashmir whether it was creating a loyal ruling class or corrupting people with money or suppressing our voices with brutal oppression, we have brought them to the point that today they had to transport far right nuts (with whom no decent democratic country wants to associate) from Europe to Kashmir just to convince their people that international community supports them.

Morally and politically, we have already won this battle. They are only militarily holding on to our territory. That’s all that remains of their “integral part” today.”

–Kashmiri Faris Hamid Bazaz

“The shades of development are so visible in Kashmir:
1. Since August 5, 2019, 80% of the south Kashmir is almost without electricity. People get 3 hours interrupted electricity in 12 hours. After getting an hour of electricity, there is cut of 3 hours after each hour.

2. 10,000 crore loss, due to curfew, restrictions, communication blockade.

3. 56000 jobs lost.

4. Fruit industry badly damaged.

Who wouldn’t love such developmental models.”

–Kashmiri Ashraf Bhat

Since most Assad propagandists are employed by Russian state-owned media & Russia fully endorses & proudly arms the Indian occupation of Kashmir, it won’t be long before we hear the bray about “al-Qaeda affiliated Wahhabi/Salafi jihadists” in Kashmir. That’s when propagandists linked to Islamophobia & anti-Semitism will meet their Waterloo. Kashmiris have used their time on social media well while the Syrian Arab Spring did not have such an effective tool until too late & only briefly.

The ideology & strategy of the Islamophobic ‘war on terror’ must be rejected & decisively defeated if we are to live in a world free of war, occupation, & genocide.

For the 12th Friday in a row, Kashmiris are barred from congregational prayers at the mosque. The denial of religious freedom & the fostering of Sunni/Shia & Muslim/Hindu conflicts will be central to India’s iron-fisted rule over Kashmir.

“It’s not the time for idle conversation for the Rohingya with partisan talking points. This is about going to save people from the last stage of genocide before it’s too late when people are calling for real action to stop ongoing genocide and addressing citizenship issue, repatriation with right and dignity, education, family reunification and lobbying with the government of Bangladesh to stop moving people to flood-prone island.”

–Rohingya activist Saiful Rohin