One year after Abu Ghraib, torture continues

After the fall of the brutal regime of the Shah in Iran, it was not easy to imagine the new regime would be even more brutal. The crush of the peoples' democratic demands started by warnings, then pushings, then street clashes and beatings, then arresting for a couple of hours, then arresting for longer periods, then slapping the prisoners, then severely beating them, then officially torturing them and ...... and by this time, the new regime had broken the Shah's regime's record of human rights abuses by a great margin and they were on the rout of becoming one of the most brutal regimes in the world.

Looks like the same process is taking place in Iraq now, and that is under the eyes, actions and directions of the American occupying forces. The latest Amnesty International report tells us that the only change in Iraq is that only the torturers have changed and they are not only Iraqis now but also are Americans and the brutality and torture continues. And this is only one year after Abu Ghraib was exposed. There goes the "freedom and democracy loving" Bush's America.

When Human Rights is not always Human Rights!

When I read that a "Human Rights" group is investigating North Korean government for the possible use of "deadly nerve gas on its own citizens and may even be operating experimental gas chambers", I was shocked. There is no doubt IF there is enough ground for this allegation, which will be nothing but crimes against humanity, it should be investigated and exposed, no matter to what extend; big or small.

Seeing the phrase "human rights group", I was interested to know more about the group and see what else they have to say about other human right abuses in the world. When I found the web-site of the group, and I noticed that it is a Jewish "rights" group, I was even more interested to read. After all, I had seen other Jewish Human Rights groups such as B'Tselem which to the true meaning of the word, is a respected rights group.

However, the more I read at the first group's web-site, the more disappointed I became. In volumes and volumes of material in that site, I did not see one word criticizing Israeli atrocities and human rights violations. I did not see words condemning what the US has committed in and around the world. In fact, I saw in many articles that the atrocities had been justified and supported. All I saw was hypocrisy and double standards which only condemns what it does not like, not what is not right. With many of the otherwise valuable material at the site, the site seemed to me nothing but a piece of propaganda under the banner of Human Rights.

Help needed!

I don't even know what it is, but since it is coming from a couple of caring bloggers, it must be worth visiting. Please visit Old White Lady to see what she has regarding Filibuster!

In love

Just look at them. Hand in hand, almost lips on lips, just like re-united lovers. Well, there truly are many reasons for these two to love each other. They have many "qualities" in common. They are both ultra-rich. They are both stupid. They are both criminals. They both have no regards for human life, human rights and human dignity.

Looks like we are easily forgetting that under the rule of Saudi's Crown Prince Abdullah, the lover in the right, there are heads that are chopped, there are hands that are cut for offenses such as stealing and there are many other abuses of human rights talking place. We are forgetting that I Saudi Arabia, women practically don't exist as they have no power what so ever. They can't vote. They can't even drive as they are not allowed to have driver's license. But to George Bush and his pathetic gang, these are all ok as long as "the Prince" remains a "friend". By the way, wasn't it Iraq which was accused of staging the September 11 attacks? This was one of the biggest excuses for the US to attack Iraq. Wasn't it? And Is it not a fact that there was not even one single member of the group which carried out the attacks from Iraq? Oh by the way, were most of the attackers not be citizens of Saudi Arabia? The same country whose ruler is in such love affair with the corporate puppet residing in Washington?

Update:

While we are at it, why not look at the Timeline of business connection between Bush family and the Saudi Royal family (and the Bin Laden family)? When on the page, click on "The Saudi Connection".

Hey, you will find much more in the above link.

Lecturers vote to boycott Israeli universities

The taboo has been shattered at last. From now on, it will be acceptable to compare Israel's apartheid system to its South African predecessor.

Looks like the trick of "anti-semitist accusations" of whoever criticizes Israel, is beginning to lose its effectiveness. Well, that's about time.

Yeah, Rrrright!

You have heard the phrase "kangaroo court". Here is another one: kangaroo investigation. Well, no surprise there.

Torture: The dirty business

Perhaps nothing says it more accurately than:
Torture is a multinational industry – but its headquarters is in the USA.

Yes, Bush is "man of war", if not brain

...Last year more than 860bn gallons of untreated sewage was poured into US rivers, making millions of people ill and causing widespread environmental damage. At the same time the Bush administration is planning to lower clean water standards.

Here goes another Bush's war; this time against nature and environment and that's all for the sake of serving his bodies at the big corporations.

An alternative to CNN and Fox

Try Democracy Now! as one of your alternative sources of information. You will not regret.

Saddam, Bush and Blair, same S**t from different piles

Tens of thousands of Iraqis joined an anti-US protest in Firdus Square, where Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled on 9 April 2003 as millions watched on TV.

Chanting "No to America" and "No to the occupiers", they pulled down and burned effigies of Saddam Hussein, US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

That is true that Iraqis do not want Saddam, but they do not want Bush and Blair either.

The Robins from last summer

In part of a post back in June 2004, I wrote about a Robin family that had nested on a tree in our front yard. Last fall, after the birds had left the tree for possible migration south, we cut the tree at half of its height which was getting too high and was pressing upward on the exterior suffit. The tree was also too large and too close to the building itself which was completely blocking our view out from inside the living room. Additionally, the tree was not quite healthy and we thought it would be possible that it would come to life after cutting most of its unhealthy parts which were most of the upper parts. What we made sure was not to cut the tree as long as the birds lived there.

After I came back from work today, as we always do, my wife and I were talking about the events of the day over a cup of tea. My wife warned me that she was going to break a bad news to me. She started by asking whether I remembered the Robins from last year.. . Without her finishing what she was going to say, I asked whether they were dead? She replied no. But a Robin, possibly the same Robin from last year, she said, was in our front yard again today. I could see tears in my wife's eyes when she was describing that the bird was wondering around the half-cut tree, looking at it for many minutes. The way she was describing this, was like she could feel what was going on in the bird's mind. She said that she thought the Robin had come back from the south and was back at her supposedly home. A home which was "demolished" by us. She also spoke of our little one's anger at us accusing us of destroying the hopes of that bird by "demolishing" the "house". I, too, felt so guilty about this and felt really bad as I thought to myself how, unintentionally, cruel we had been in destroying what a living being had high hopes for.

The death of Terry Schiavo and Iraq war

Terry Schiavo, a terminally sick woman with no hope for any improvement, has finally been freed from her suffering. Many people wanted her "alive" without considering whether she would want to remain the way she was. Many people wanted her "alive" eventhough she was only suffering from this worse-than-death "living". Perhaps her parents would even be happy to have her in the same state of "health" as long as she was alive, as long as they could see her everyday, as long as she was there so they wouldn't have to "miss" her, but for Terry, there was no such a thing as missing anybody, or seeing anybody. There couldn't be such a thing for her as she was brain-dead. She could feel no emotions, she could feel no closeness to anybody, she could feel no love, no family and no nothing, except suffering. This scenario has been, perhaps, nothing but a selfish one-way street on her parents' part.

On a broader case, the issue of Terry Schiavo has become a serious case that has caused mobilization of the US mass-media and rightwing ultra religious Americans and their "pro-life" Republicans in the Congress and their less-than-idiot president, to scream on "her behalf" that she wants to and she has to "live". They have screamed to show how much they "value" life. They have screamed to say how "human" they are. They have screamed.. .

But in the show of the ultimate hypocrisy, the same "caring" people are the ones who have been cheering for a war that has terminated the lives of tens of thousands of people in Iraq, and still does. The same people have cheered for this war regardless of the fact that if Terry Schiavo was a sick and suffering woman, tens of thousands of Iraqis, especially Iraqi children, were having their lives with their families, and perhaps with the joy of being with their families, before the bombs of "civilization" began falling on them. The same people who, by re-electing the same gang, have just provided another opportunity to the criminals in the White House to continue their anti-human and warmongering policies and to continue to kill. The same president, who woke up at One O'clock in the morning to put his signature on a piece of paper to give "another" opportunity to Terry's parents to take their case to another level of the US courts while their daughter continued suffering, is responsible for destroying the lives of so many people in Iraq; the same president who should be tried for the crimes he has committed against the humanity, the same president who has been so stupid, in part, to let others decide for him and so heartless in part for being so cruel and for ignoring the fact that his war policies has brought death and destruction and nothing more; the same president which is a disgrace to humanity,... Yes, the same people and the same president are now screaming in favour of "preserving life".

In what is happening in the US today, one of the main unhumanist factors has been the rightwing ultra Christianity who is not capable of seeing the forest but only a leaf and has been a combination of naiveness and stupidity on part of many rightwing religious people on the ground, and opportunism from many of the so-called law-makers in the US governing system. What a sick culture this is, or is this Culture of Life or Culture of Living Death?