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Talk Nation Radio for October 30, 2009

Idrees Ahmad on Pakistan, Clinton, Drones, and US Policy in the Region

TRT: 29:24
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here and at Radio4all.net and Archive.org.
Active 64K link, low speed computers.

Idrees Ahmad returned to his native Pakistan where he reported for Inter Press Service in an October 30, 2009 story ‘The US in Pakistan’s Mind: Nothing but Aversion’.

Pakistanis have viewed US policy with grave skepticism as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeks to win ‘hearts and minds’ while promoting the unpopular US war on terror.

Idrees Ahmad joined us after returning to Glasgow, Scotland, where he is a student about to publish his PHD thesis as a book. You can find his story about Pakistan online at Inter Press Service News and look for a longer version at the start of November in Le Monde Diplomatique.

See: POLITICS: U.S. in Pakistan’s Mind: Nothing But Aversion
Analysis by Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct 30 (IPS) – “To the west of Peshawar on the Jamrud Road that leads to the historic Khyber Pass sits the Karkhano Market, a series of shopping plazas whose usual offering of contraband is now supplemented by standard issue U.S. military equipment, including combat fatigues, night vision goggles, body armour and army knives”.

“Beyond the market is a checkpoint, which separates the city from the semi-autonomous tribal region of Khyber. In the past, if one lingered near the barrier long enough, one was usually approached by someone from the far side selling hashish, alcohol, guns, or even rocket-propelled grenade launchers. These days such salesman could also be selling U.S. semi-automatics, sniper rifles and hand guns. Those who buy do it less for their quality-the AK-47 still remains the weapon of choice here-than as mementos of a dying Empire”.

See also this portion of Ahmad’s report: “Opinions were reinforced in favour of a military solution when militants launched a wave of terrorist attacks in anticipation of the Pakistani army’s new operation in FATA”.

From the University of Strathclyde, Department of Geography and Sociology, Mohammed Idrees Ahmad. (Bio)

Mohammed Idrees Ahmad is co founder of Pulse Media and a member of Spinwatch. He writes about propaganda, Israel-Palestine conflict, Iraq war, and globalization, and his stories have appeared in Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Atlantic Free Press, Electronic Intifada , Electronic Iraq and various print publications. His daily musings on politics, art and culture appear on his blog, The Fanonite.

For his PhD, Idrees is researching the role of lobbies, think tanks and foundations in furnishing the propaganda for the war in Iraq. He also produced a current affairs program on Glasgow community radio 87.7 FM.

Idrees is the former captain of the Edwardes College and the American University in Dubai tennis teams. He is also the winner of the 2004 University of Pittsburgh Jazz talent hunt in Dubai. His experimental website, The Savage Mountain won various awards for its innovative UI and programmatic 3D simulation.

Talk Nation Radio for October 22, 2009
Dahr Jamail at ECSU, Eastern CT State University, Independent Journalism in a Time of War

This is part two of a two part show, page for part one is here

Special Thanks to Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, CT where this program was taped and also to: Prof. Helma De Vries, Political Science Dept., who coordinated the event, and the campus human rights group, as well as sponsor, Promoting Enduring Peace, PEP, a Connecticut based peace group. Video of this event here taped by ECSU audio visual dept.

TRT: 29:42
Produced by Dori Smith
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here
Or at Archive.org and see our new Talk Nation Radio collection, or at Radio4all.net

Journalist Dahr Jamail spoke at ECSU, Eastern Connecticut State University, in Willimantic, Connecticut before a crowd of several hundred students, professors, and members of the general public at an event marking the UN’s International Day of Peace, September 21, 2009. The program was sponsored by Promoting Enduring Peace based in Connecticut and campus groups including the campus human rights group.

Last week we heard Dahr Jamail explain how the US Military has been deploying or redeploying tens of thousands of US soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan. In many cases they are on their 4th, 5th or even 6th deployment. He mentioned an incident involving a US soldier who killed five fellow soldiers. One month after his comments, on October 21, 2009, Associated Press writers Chelsea J. Carter and Rebecca Santana, published a story about the condition of the soldier arrested in the killing in the weeks prior to the shooting. The report is here in PDF format.

Carter and Santana wrote that Sgt John M. Russell, had been unraveling for nearly two weeks prior to the shooting, and staff at the Camp Liberty Combat Stress Control Clinic, had called Military police on the morning of the shooting to say he was ‘verbally noncompliant’. No one put him on 24 hour watch and staff at the clinic said there was no staff for that purpose. The Military Police did not arrest Russell that morning, and they ordered him returned to his unit instead.

You can learn more about the crisis for other soldiers on the ‘treadmill’ of war at Dahr Jamail’s recent book, ‘The Will to Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghansitan’ at his web site http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com or from the publisher, Haymarket Books. Dahr Jamail’s previous book was, ‘Beyond the Green Zone, Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq’.

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This week’s Sprouts: David Rovics: News and History in Song

An interview with David Rovics about his writing and the meaning in his songs.
Produced by Dori Smith, Talk Nation Radio, Storrs, CT

Left KU Channel
Thursday, October 22, 2009 3PM EST
TRT: 28:47
Download after October 21 as broadcast quality .mp3 at Audioport.org or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

This week’s program:
David Rovics is well known for powerful anti war songs like Operation Iraqi Liberation. We also focus on his songs about under-reported news stories and some of the lesser known figures in world history like Ginger Goodwin of British Columbia, who was killed for standing up for worker’s rights.

David Rovics sings about the miners, revolutionaries, and farmers who shaped US and world history. We discuss several Rovics songs including, ‘Guanajuato’ from his new CD, Ten Thousand Miles Away. This recent song is about a Ciudad de Mexico man who lost his farm and his income after the passage of NAFTA, the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement. In this modern description of what has been happening to many people from Mexico, the farmer loses his life while trying to cross the desert into North America.

Other songs of David Rovics on this week’s Sprouts include: Operation Iraqi Liberation, OIL, Saint Patrick Battalion, From Kabul to Khartoum, In the Name of God, John Brown, Berkshire Hills, Brad, Song for Eureka Stockade. These are from the new Rovics CD, Ten Thousand Miles Away, and also from an earlier album, Living in These Times.

Sprouts is a weekly program that features local radio production and stories from many radio stations and local media groups around the world. It is produced in collaboration with community radio stations and independent producers across the country.

The program is coordinated and distributed by Pacifica Radio and offered free of charge to all radio stations. For information, or if you would like to feature your work on Sprouts, contact Ursula Ruedenberg at ursula@pacifica.org.

David Rovics is currently touring the USAin performances with Ann Feeney. You can view a video of him performing with ALISTAIR HULETT here.

October/November 2009 and beyond here

Friday, October 30th, 8:30 pm
Trail Room in Templeton Student Center
Lewis & Clark College
Portland, OR

November 5th though December 18th: Tour of Denmark, Norway and Belgium
Details coming soon…

March 7-21: West coast tour with Danbert Nobacon of Chumbawamba

Late April through mid-May: Tour of England, Scotland and Wales with Attila the Stockbroker

Talk Nation Radio for October 14, 2009
Dahr Jamail Lecture at ECSU on Reinventing Journalism in a Time of War

Special Thanks to Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, CT where this program was taped and also to: Prof. Helma De Vries, Political Science Dept., who coordinated the event, and the campus human rights group, as well as sponsor, Promoting Enduring Peace, PEP, a Connecticut based peace group. Video of this event here taped by ECSU audio visual dept.

Produced by Dori Smith
TRT:29:51
Recorded September 21, 2009
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here and at Archive.org or Radio4all.net

Dahr Jamail spoke at Eastern Connecticut State University, [ECSU] in Willimantic, Connecticut before a crowd of several hundred students, professors, and members of the general public. The event September 21, 2009, marked the UN’s International Day of Peace and was sponsored by Promoting Enduring Peace and campus groups. Link to video here.

You can learn more about Dahr Jamail’s recent book, ‘The Will to Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan’ at his web site dahr.org or at the publisher, Haymarket Books. Dahr Jamail’s previous book was, ‘Beyond the Green Zone, Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq’.

Talk Nation Radio special 1 hour discussion on politics, human rights, and the environment.

Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 59:09
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

International Law and politics expert Francis A. Boyle, and Rolleiv Solholm, Chief Editor at The Norway Post, discuss prospects for peace in Palestine and assess the significance of President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Ad featured on the web site for The Norway Post. The Norway Post Chief Editor, The Norway Post, Rolleiv Solholm pointed out that U.S. President Barack Obama is highly popular world wide, and he read from the Nobel Committee’s statement upon awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize. He also noted that members of the press who were on hand for the announcement burst into spontaneous applause. This was the first time he had seen this happen, he explained.

The small but symbolic Norwegian military presence in Afghanistan is described from a Norwegian journalist’s perspective, and from the perspective of an international legal expert with experience in the Balkans and the Middle East. Norway has some 700 troops serving in Afghanistan.

First, Professor Francis A. Boyle, has served as counsel to the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine, and is counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and also represents two associations of citizens within Bosnia and has been instrumental in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He is attorney of record fo the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and has represented national and international bodies including the Blackfoot Nation of (Canada), the Nation of Hawaii, and the Lakota Nation, as well as numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases.

Professor Boyle’s eleventh book is Breaking All the Rules: Palestine, Iraq, Iran and the Case for Impeachment was recently published by Clarity Press. Professor Boyle also combines scholarly work on the law, and legal representation for nations and peoples with work for human rights organizations like Amnesty International and peace groups like the American Friends Service Committee. He drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, signed into law by George W. Bush, and served as Legal Advisor in 1991 to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations.

To: The President of the United States:
From: journalist Dori Smith

Re: The Nobel Prize for Peace and the 10 million kronor (1.4 million dollar) cash prize. Please consider donating some of it to help Palestinian children who were victims of the Gaza War and who still need medical treatment for their wounds.

Dear Mr. President:

I was touched by the tone and humility expressed in your statement upon receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize. You mentioned your children and the home life you treasure. That was a fitting context for your statement about waging world peace. Many of us were encouraged by your call to end nuclear weapons.

The Nobel Committee is convinced that you have changed the global climate in support of negotiated solutions in general to intractable conflicts. This would indeed be an opening for peace, a way forward in solving a wide variety of problems including climate change. So I hope with all of my heart that you can walk through this opening you have created in order to help broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghanis, offering hope as well to the people of Iran, Pakistan, Burma, Sudan, Darfur, Somalia, Columbia, and other countries.

Populations in these countries have moved from desperate to critical stages in terms of their short and long term survival. Americans too are suffering as their loved ones are deployed into combat in the Middle East or other region. We all need peace.

You mentioned other recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in your statement and I suppose you already have a favorite. Mine is IPPNW, a physicians group based in Massachusetts. At his acceptance speech December 10th, 1985, Dr. Bernard Lown told the Nobel Committee: “We physicians who shepherd human life from birth to death have a moral imperative to resist with all our being the drift toward the brink. The threatened inhabitants on this fragile planet must speak out for those yet unborn for prosperity has no lobby with politicians”.

Dr. Lown’s fellow recipient at IPPNW, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, noted in his speech on the same day: “As adults we are obliged to avert transformation of the Earth from a flourishing planet into a heap of smoking ruins. Our duty is to hand it over to our successors in a better state than it was inherited by us. Therefore, it is not for fame, but for the happiness and for the future of all mothers and children that we- the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War- have worked, are working and will work”.

This physician’s organization working on behalf of the survival of everyone on the planet, focusing on their equal rights, makes a great deal of sense to me. Our mutual security is our mutual survival.

Given that you are committed to presenting the $1.4 million in US dollars that comes with your award to charitable organizations I hope you will consider donating some or all of it to IPPNW. Their efforts to prevent nuclear war and its horrific consequences are to be commended and rewarded. Beyond that idea, however, is another one that occurred to me immediately after I heard that you had won.

I’d like to humbly ask that you ear mark this money for Palestinian war victims, especially the children. Perhaps IPPNW would agree to serve their needs in conjunction with other organizations working in the region.

Palestinians, especially kids, have suffered without medical care in the wake of the Gaza War in late 2008 and early 2009. These innocent victims are not able to benefit from the world’s offerings to humanitarian aid organizations because much of the aid is curtailed by Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

I realize that there are many wonderful aid organizations in the world but I’ve recently seen a slide show presented by Ridgely Fuller, a social worker from Massachusetts who traveled to Gaza earlier this year. She is creating a CD/DVD of her slide show to present to members of Congress. I’ve agreed to help her in this effort.

One of her photos is of a three year old girl injured by white phosphorus fired by Israeli troops. I will make certain that you receive it somehow. The child is still without proper medical care.

Ridgely’s photo reminded me of the portrait of Phan Th? Kim Phúc as she ran away from the Napalm dropped on her village by US forces. The picture won a Pulitzer Prize for AP photographer Nick Ut. And for many of us, the burning shame and pain we felt at seeing this photo remains. I as seven years old at the time, but knew in my heart that no one, no nation, and no military should use such horrific weapons that hurt children like that.

In cases where these horrific weapons are used, all of us must take a stand that we should help prevent their further use.

If you were to offer Palestinians aid from your Nobel Peace Prize, you would send a strong message of hope to children affected by war in the entire region that they are what matter, not politics or money, just that they never be made to feel such terrible pain.

Thank you very much for accepting my letter and congratulations on your award. May peace on all continents be the reward we share in our lifetimes as the result.

Sincerely,

Dori Smith
Producer, Talk Nation Radio
Syndicated with Pacifica Network

Talk Nation Radio for October 8, 2009
Jeff Bartos of IVAW CT and Denisa Jashari, Trinity College Anti War Coalition

US Veteran Jeff Bartos, IVAW CT describes G20 arrest, and state and national anti war activities. IVAW CT co founder Chris Grohs, who has worked as a media activist at WHUS FM 91.7 Radio for the People, at the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut, discusses need to increase membership. These friends from high school who both deployed to Iraq are now working as activists trying to help end the US occupation and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contact: connecticut@ivaw.org The national organization, Iraq Veterans Against the War is here.

Trinity College Senior Denisa Jashari discusses her organizing efforts and urges people to attend the Oct 17th Peace March in Boston. Plus how to help Veterans who Resist War, or who are in crisis in your communities. The GI rights hot line at 1-877-447-4487.

TRT: 29:45
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here and at Archive.org and Radio4all.net

Clip: On September 20th in Hartford Connecticut’s Bushnell Park, Connecticut IVAW member Chris Grohs talked about his group’s efforts as he introduced journalist Dahr Jamail, author of the 2009 book, The Will to Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan: We will be hearing more of what Dahr Jamail had to say in Hartford, Storrs, Willimantic, and New Britain Connecticut, in upcoming shows.

You can learn more about Dahr Jamail’s book, The Will to Resist, and an award he received from Connecticut Independent Media, at Willtoresistwar.blogspot.com

Talk Nation Radio Special, An Hour with David Swanson on Mobilizing for Peace and to Form a More Perfect Union.

Produced by Dori Smith
TRT:59:46
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport or try Radio4all.net and Archive.org Mp3Pro56:441 Active Link here

Topics: Insurance Agency Sit Ins, Health Care Reform, Drumbeats for War, and Who Decides about War? The G-20 protests, Activating toward Restoring the Constitution, Strengthening U.S. Congress, working through the House for Now, and more!

David Swanson is author of the new book, Daybreak, Undoing the Imperial Presidency and forming a More Perfect Union, from Seven Stories Press. David Swanson is the co-founder of After Downing Street, a coalition that formed after discovery of key documents on the British role in planning and carrying out the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He is creator of ProsecuteBushCheney.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com, and a board member of Progressive Democrats for America. He was press secretary to Democratic Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich during his Presidential Campaign of 2004.

WhoDecidesAboutWar.org
Nogoodwar.org

Mobilization for Peace
Boston OCT 17th! New England Demonstrates Against the Wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan & Iraq

See also: Promoting Enduring Peace

Talk Nation Radio for October 1, 2009
Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh in Bethlehem, Al Mazen Center for Human Rights, Gaza

Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
TRT:29:45
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here
And at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Prof. Mazin B. Qumsiyeh is author of, “Sharing the Land of Caanan, Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle”. His soon to be released book is, “Hope and Empowerment: Civil Resistance in Palestine.” We discuss Palestine, US President Barack Obama, the UN, the Goldstone Report, as Israeli war planes target Gaza’s border with Egypt over three days time. Israelis predict more war between Israel and Gaza. Media conflicts over rockets from Gaza, Haaretz reporting Israel fired first.

Al Mazen Center for Human Rights in Gaza, describe the importance of the Goldstone Report. Her organization issued a Joint Report on Gaza with DCI, Defence for Children International, “Bearing the Brunt Again – Child Rights Violations during Operation Cast Lead.” The comprehensive report is based on forty three case studies to illustrate the vast range of violations perpetrated by Israel, many of them deadly for children. Download PDF File of report: http://www.mezan.org/upload/9056.pdf

Bearing the Brunt Again – Child Rights Violations during Operation Cast Lead.
The Al Mezan Center and DCI endorse recommendations from Judge Goldstone’s Mission including bringing Israel to the ICC, International Criminal Court should the Government of Israel fail to undertake timely independent and impartial investigations. South African Judge Richard Goldstone is the international law expert who prosecuted war crimes in Rwanda. Israeli leaders have hired an attorney to address any legal claims stemming from the his report on civilian casualties in Gaza during Israeli Operation Cast Lead.

As we talked about the report we read the headlines running across the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights web site: Three Israeli Air Raids on Gaza-Egypt Border, Israeli war planes launching missile attacks at Salah Ad-Din Gate south of Rafah Town, missile fired at Block G southwest of Rafah Refugee Camp, a tunnel bombarded in a raid with some casualties still inside, Israeli drone attacks at West Biet Lahiya Beach, two children injured by Israeli shelling at Al Mosadar Village, Middle Gaza District, a two storey house destroyed by Israeli artillery fire, twin boys injured as they dressed for school.

There were 43 case studies, confirming 353 children were killed during the aftermath of Israeli operation “Cast Lead.” 116 of these children were killed in drone attacks, 66 of them died after Israeli forces obstructed medical access, and seven children were used as human shields by Israel with one child detained for ten days. Israeli attacks destroyed 18 schools, displacing 10,500 kids, and overall Israeli military actions resulting in the deaths of at least 623 children in the Gaza strip.

The Palestinian Authority Drops Support for Goldstone’s Report, Pressure from Netanyahu AND Obama:
This report is not about Gaza leadership, or Hamas, and also does not claim that other agencies such as Al Mazen Center for Human Rights, Gaza, or DCI, have dropped calls to bring Israel to ICC.

UPDATE: Last update – 23:47 01/10/2009
Source: Palestinians drop their endorsement of Goldstone’s Gaza report By Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgavaya, Haaretz Correspondents, ‘The source added that the decision appears to be based on pressure from the Obama administration, exerted by way of U.S. representatives in Geneva, as well as through contacts between Washington and Ramallah’.

‘Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated in recent days that efforts to use the Goldstone report to advance anti-Israel measures in the Human Rights Council or the International Tribunal in The Hague will deal a death blow to the peace process/.

UPDATE: On September 16, 2009, The Independent published this article: “UN says Israel should face war-crimes trial over Gaza, Report also censures Hamas but accuses Israelis of punishing entire population of the Palestinian Strip,” By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem. It states: ‘Using by far the strongest language of any of the numerous reports criticising Operation Cast Lead, the UN mission, which interviewed victims, witnesses and others in Gaza and Geneva this summer, says that while Israel had portrayed the war as self-defence in response to Hamas rocket attacks, it “considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole”.’

And: “In this respect the operations were in furtherance of an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population for its resilience and for its apparent support for Hamas, and possibly with the intent of forcing a change in such support,” the report said. It added that some Israelis should carry “individual criminal responsibility.”

UPDATE: On October 1st 2009, The Independent published a piece by Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem: “Palestinians cry ‘blackmail’ over Israel phone service threat.”

According to Lynfield, Israel has added a new twist. Not only will the Netanyahu government refuse to participate in peace talks unless the Palestinian Authority renounces Judge Goldstone’s report, they will also apply what amounts to sanctions against Palestinians, cutting off a key West Bank economic project, ‘unless the Palestinian Authority withdraws a request to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged Israeli crimes during last winter’s Gaza war’.

Ben Lynfield’s report in the Independent continues: ‘Shalom Kital, an aide to defence minister Ehud Barak, said today that Israel will not release a share of the radio spectrum that has long been sought by the Palestinian Authority to enable the launch of a second mobile telecommunications company unless the PA drops its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Israeli operation.

“It’s a condition. We are saying to the Palestinians that ‘if you want a normal life and are trying to embark on a new way, you must stop your incitement,” Mr. Kital said. “We are helping the Palestinian economy but one thing we ask them is to stop with these embarrassing charges.”

Nabil Shaath, former PA foreign minister, is crying blackmail. According to the report, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been made aware of the new conditions being imposed by Israel. See this program for an update, at about 29:00 minutes.