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Code Pink led a 30-person “peace delegation” to Iran from February 25th through March 6th. Included on the delegation were Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, confusionists Kevin Zeese & Margaret Flowers, & Code Pink staff member Ann Wright, a ‘retired’ US army colonel & State Department diplomat. Wright also belongs to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, a group of ‘retired’ CIA, FBI, & Pentagon officials who openly admit they collaborate with active duty operatives from those same organizations & yet still lead the corrupted US antiwar movement.
The Iranian government asked Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to meet with the group when it arrived since the delegation went there to express solidarity with the repressive Iranian government & not to meet with dissident political groups opposed to theocratic rule & to Iranian military intervention in Syria. February 25th was the day Assad was on a state visit to Iran. Zarif (who has been Foreign Minister since 2013) was miffed that he was excluded from that meeting & forced instead to meet with a group of half-baked groupies from the US. So he resigned that very day. (It was a stunt on his part & Iranian president Rouhani refused to accept the resignation.)
Upon his resignation, Benjamin tweeted her high regard for Zarif. High regard for a man described by most sources as a sleezeball? A man who defends, without blanching, all the excesses of the Iranian government, including ordering women what to wear, repression of Kurds, arrests of journalists (46 currently in jail in Iran), persecution of homosexuals, & worst of all, military intervention against the Syrian Arab Spring? Of course the Code Pink delegation fully supports the Assad regime & Iranian & Russian intervention in Syria. It’s a surprise they didn’t beg to also meet with Assad so they could kiss his ass too.
Code Pink has substituted the politics of spectacle & grandstanding for building a mass social movement to oppose the several US wars. Not rooted in movement democracy, it has lost its bearings completely when it forges links with repressive regimes under the imbecilic rubric of “regime change operations” & does not stand with the people of Iran & Syria. Shame on Code Pink as they limp at a steady pace into oblivion.
(Screenshot of Benjamin’s February 25 tweet showing delegation with Javad Zarif)
“India has made these highways in Kashmir ONLY for the smooth travel of its Occupying forces, while the collaborators always try to fool people into voting by promising better roads and highways. This rightwing thuggish government with its hateful policy is unmasking Indian presence in Kashmir for what it is and has always been: brutal bloody occupation.”
“Closing highways to civilian traffic so that army convoys can move smoothly for two whole days in a week simply demonstrates, like everything else india does here on a daily basis, that “Kashmir Dispute” is nothing but a deceptive term coined for Indian Military Occupation of Kashmir. Period.”
–Mir Laieeq
So glad someone pointed this out:
“America Is much worried about Uigher Muslims in Turkistan. Didn’t you find it irony?”
–Rizwan Raheem
Rizwan Raheem is a Kashmiri just returning to Facebook after two consecutive 30-day suspensions. Those getting caught up in the binge of censorship on social media apparently do not understand that the voices against war, occupation, & genocide are the primary targets of censorship, not accidental victims of overzealous censors. Those struggling against oppression have nothing to fear from full freedom of speech & everything to fear from censorship. That is not to protect the haters, white supremacists, nationalists but to protect the voices struggling for freedom.
(Photo is Rizwan (on right) & a friend)
It remains to be seen, based on our political response, how far this obscenity of forcing us to swear allegiance to Israel will go. But legal compulsion or not, every Democratic presidential candidate must swear that allegiance & demonstrate it by pilgrimage to Israel—& all of them have. Some may think that’s political chump change if they talk a good line on US domestic politics. Those are the ones who don’t understand the impact of genocide & specifically Israel’s colonial & apartheid policies on the corruption of US politics & politicians. That’s where expedience & abandonment of principles are taught & where promoting genocide becomes a rite of passage for Democratic politicians.
The Rio Grande Valley, where I live, is on the Texas border with Mexico. Because of border patrol checkpoints on the highways leading north, thousands of undocumented immigrants & refugees live & work in this area. Trying to get around those checkpoints without a “coyote” is life-threatening because of vigilante ranchers & dehydration in scorching heat. Anthropology teams from the University of Texas have been excavating mass graves where county officials dumped the bodies of those who died. Their humanitarian intention is to identify them so their families can be notified & their bodies returned to their families for respectful burial. This is ground zero for the refugee crisis, including refugee rights, abduction of children & incarceration of refugees.
Where I live, all of my immediate neighbors are immigrants or children of undocumented immigrants. Many were among the three million who received amnesty in 1986 (under president Reagan). Some of them only speak Spanish.
Imagine my revulsion to learn that many I deal with in daily life who have Mexican ancestry or are themselves immigrants (including undocumented) are ardent supporters of Trump & strongly oppose immigration, using the same racist arguments that Trump & other white supremacists use. These are not rotten people like Trump. Not at all. But if I had to characterize them, I would say they have too close identification with the status quo. Several are small business owners who attribute their success to some kind of superiority. Some have long associations with the US military where racism is the bedrock of training. What they all share is contempt & an antisocial attitude toward the poor. I can’t hate these people nor do I debate with them. I marvel at the cement-headed dissonance that makes some people, despite their own histories, believe they are superior to others.
Mir Jamsheed Jameel has passed away from cancer. His dying words were a call for azaadi. He is being grieved by many Kashmiris who held him in highest esteem. I was honored to have him as a friend. We should take a moment to honor his life & commitment to freedom.
“I will never accept false antiwar activists posing alongside dictators murdering their own people. There is no chance I will accept the millions brave enough to question their corrupt, sociopathic leaders as false flag operations. This argument gives power to monsters-our leadership included and only serves to rob innocent people of their voices and lives.”
–Patty McCormick on the “US peace delegations” visiting Syria, Iran, & Venezuela to solidify links with corrupt regimes rather than meet with activists fighting for human, democratic, & civil rights.
“Congress manifesto has scared rightlog.in. Forget about whether Congress will revoke/rethink AFSPA , think about the genesis of AFSPA. Where did it come from? It comes from British Indian Empire when they colonized India. It’s continuous use should not just worry the mandarins of democracy but make them hang their heads in shame. It was colonial and unethical then, its colonial and unethical now.”
–Zachriah Sulayman on India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which India uses to give impunity to its troops against prosecution for war & human rights crimes in Kashmir