India contracted US corporation Cisco Systems to build a firewall against VPN technology in Kashmir. US corporations also aided the South African apartheid regime in developing technologies for administering apartheid. There’s profit in oppression. Trump is not a disinterested party when he offers to mediate between India & Pakistan over Kashmir, as if Kashmiris were chess pieces in some geopolitical game. He wants US corporations to have a part in the plunder. We need to find ways to put political pressure on Cisco Systems to force them to withdraw.
Monthly Archives: March 2020
Reposting this brilliant “Revolutionary Manifesto of 21st-century Hypocrites” about Syria by poet Musab Iqbal written in 2016:
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The “Revolutionary” manifesto of 21st-century Hypocrites
– Russian intervention is different from US/Nato intervention
– Russia has no imperial/colonial ambition (ever) unlike US and allies
– Iran-backed militias are not like US/Saudi-backed militias. Former unlike later is busy saving human lives with great empathy and kindness
– Assad is the most ideal democrat and any criticism of him and his power is sinful
– Assad army never shot or killed anyone, in fact Hama massacre never happened, there is no prison and torture center in Syria
– Syrian Army is personally trained by Gandhiji
– The world is made of binary. If you are not with us (Russia-Syria-Iran) then you are with them (ISIS-Al Qaeda- USA- Saudi etc)
– Celebrating death and torture is the most merciful and dignified revolutionary act
– Iran is defending Secularism and Democracy in Syria like it is doing in its own country
– Everyone is lying except PressTV, RT and journalists close to Assad regime
– Don’t criticize Syrian regime if you have not criticized all the violence in the world starting from Habeel and Qabeel (Adam’s son killing the other son)
– There is/was never political opposition in Syria, there were terrorists and there are terrorists.
Saw a video of Srinagar mayor Junaid Azim Mattu speaking at ‘Ideas India Conclave 2020’ in Gujarat, India. Isn’t he a piece of work!? I’m guessing, as collaborators come, he is among the more detestable. Is it safe to say he wasn’t elected in a landslide but more by default?
After Erdogan & the Turkish government signaled that the border to Greece was open & ordered police & border guards to stand aside, thousands of refugees from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine streamed across the border hoping to pass into Greece & find asylum in the EU. Turkish officials even bussed thousands of refugees to the border. Greek police, acting on behalf of the EU, attempted to force them back by spraying them with tear gas. Thousands of small children are among them & there are videos of the children screaming in pain while their distraught parents try to help them.
Turkey’s political motivation is not certain since Erdogan made an unsavory deal with Merkel in 2016, exchanging billions of euros for preventing refugees from entering Europe. Most speculation is that he is attempting to pressure European countries to assist him in his Syrian operation. There is plenty of speculation but little useful analysis thus far of Turkey’s game plan for its Syrian operation where it first began bombing to rout Kurds out of Rojava & is now engaged in combat with Syrian warplanes in Idlib. Turkey’s Syrian operation is certainly not to defend the Syrian Arab Spring on the threshold of its final defeat by Syrian, Russian, Iranian, & Hezbollah forces–with the military support of the US coalition.
We should demand Turkey open the border with Syria, which remains hermetically sealed, to allow Syrians fleeing Syrian & Russian bombing to leave; that it continue to facilitate refugees safely entering Greece; that it withdraw its military forces from Syria where its primary game plan is not the defeat of Assad but the routing of Kurds from Rojava. Taking out a few Syrian warplanes does not justify its continued military presence since it has done nothing to strengthen the Syrian revolution.
This photo is a frightened child arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey with other refugees.
(Photo from AP)
A devastating account of the hardships placed on working class Kashmiri families whose young are held as political prisoners in Indian jails. Often the detainee is the family breadwinner & they are left without means of support. Often family members cannot afford to visit their sons in prisons hundreds of miles away. Your blood will boil when you read this account.
Before anyone gets their hopes up about the peace agreement signed between the US & Afghan Taliban, one needs to look at the actual provisions of the agreement. It is entirely conditioned on provisions that will be impossible to realize, including some kind of rapprochement or shared power relationship between the Taliban & Afghan government. It should be considered only an electoral stunt by Trump & not a serious offer of US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Just as importantly, the US has no rights whatsoever to negotiate the future of Afghanistan. We must demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all US-NATO forces & their mercenary adjuncts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/world/asia/us-taliban-afghanistan.html?
It says so much about American left politics that a guy is considered champion of the people by socialists simply because he’s an ‘old Jewish guy’ with populist rhetoric who refuses to attend the AIPAC conference even though he’s “100-percent pro-Israel”.
Learned this morning that wishing friends happy birthday violates the inscrutable community standards. Also receive a notice of a 60-day suspension when I attempt to share videos directly from their wall. Maybe all the censorship is just algorithm-fail.
A disturbing article on the forced relocation & forced labor imposed on Uyghur Muslims by the Chinese government.
The Burma Campaign UK has issued this list of 149 products & brands produced by Burmese military-owned companies. Rohingya activists & organizations have called for a boycott of these goods to support the Rohingya struggle for full civil, human, & democratic rights in Burma.