Six Wars and Counting
4 July, by Tom Engelhardt

President Obama recently reshuffled his top Washington warriors, sending CIA Director Leon Panetta, a man who knows Congress well, on to the Pentagon to replace retiring Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. In turn, the president is bringing in General David Petraeus, present Afghan War Commander, former Centcom commander, and former Iraq War commander (as well as “Bush’s general”), to run the Agency.

Whatever the local politics involved, and the Petraeus appointment ensures that the potentially popular general will be on the political sidelines for campaign year 2012, these moves catch the zeitgeist of our Washington moment. Since the bin Laden assassination, in which U.S. military special operations forces “commanded” by Panetta took out the al-Qaeda leader, a new face of American war, “where sovereignty is irrelevant, armies tangential, and decisions are secret,” has been emerging according to Foreign Policy in Focus analyst Conn Hallinan.

With the latest news (revealed last week by the New York Times) that the U.S. has launched a significant “intensification” of its secret air campaign against Yemeni tribesmen believed to be connected with al-Qaeda, the U.S. is now involved in no less than six wars. Count ‘em, if you don’t believe me: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and what used to be called the Global War on Terror. …more

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

New Immigration Legislation Would Allow for Indefinite Detention
By Erin Hustings on June 3, 2011 Tweet this

As the US immigration detention web rapidly expands, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) continues to document the existence of numerous problems within the system that harm and sometimes kill detainees. Inability to meet the advanced and chronic health care needs of survivors of persecution, dangerous disregard for ethical obligations, and the overuse of solitary confinement to “treat” behavioral issues are just some of these problems. Incredibly though, despite our unwieldy and inefficient detention regime, some see a need for more. This sentiment has given rise to proposed legislation – H.R. 1932, the “Keep Our Communities Safe Act” – which would subject more people to mandatory detention while their immigration cases are pending and would allow for the indefinite detention of some people who the government is unable to deport.

A well-attended hearing was held on this bill on Tuesday, May 24th by the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee. Witnesses offered widely divergent accounts of whom the legislation would affect, and how. Supporters of the bill described immigrants with long rap sheets from countries such as Cuba and Vietnam (with whom the US lacks the diplomatic relationships or agreements necessary to arrange for deportation). Such individuals are currently released after a short period of detention but are subject to safeguards that require them to stay in contact with immigration officials. H.R. 1932 would allow for the continued incarceration of people like this, ostensibly to keep our communities safer.

On the other hand, an ACLU attorney cited sympathetic clients who would be indefinitely detained under H.R. 1932, including an asylum seeker, a decorated Gulf War veteran, and a man who’d fled the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in Cambodia as a young child. ACLU attorney Arulanantham affirmed that, “most of the immigrants covered by the proposed legislation are anything but dangerous.” In addition, he emphasized the potentially crippling expense of expanding and lengthening detention: at an average of $122 per day, its cost dwarfs that of community supervision, at about $9 a day. …more

Saudis urge political prisoners’ release
By shiapost – July 2, 2011Posted in: Middle East

Saudi protesters have taken to the streets in the eastern city of Qatif in Saudi Arabia, demanding the release of political prisoners in the Arab country.

Despite tight security measures, the protesters held the anti-government demonstration following t
he Friday Prayers.

The protesters also condemned Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the crackdowns on anti-government protests in neighboring Bahrain, and urged the immediate withdrawal of Saudi troops from the tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom.

Protests are illegal in Saudi Arabia and political parties are banned.

Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province has been the scene of anti-government protests over the past months and authorities have arrested scores of people, including bloggers and writers, for taking part in anti-government demonstrations.

Saudi protesters in the east are calling for human rights reform, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners some of whom held without trial for more than 16 years.

In March, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed troops to Bahrain to help the Manama government crush the nationwide protests. Yet, the protests have only grown more popular. …source