Posted by: "Walter Lippmann" walterlx@earthlink.net
Sat May 9, 2009 10:09 am (PDT)
Economy to Worsen, Nobel Laureate
Lisbon, May 9 (Prensa Latina) US Nobel Laureate in Economy Joseph
Stiglitz said the world economy will go through a long recession and
a very deep depression.
Participating with other specialists in a congress of the challenges
of globalization being held until today in Estoril, Portugal,
Stiglitz warned that the world would live through a free fall of
economies.
He pointed out that the right wing doctrine of market economy failed
and predicted that a recovery would not be easy if based on exports.
He concluded that those who provoked the present crisis are trying to
solve it with the same laissez faire ideology and criticized the US
financial sector, markets and governments that allowed deregulation
of the economy.
Stiglitz warned that to overcome the crisis initiatives must be
adopted to support the real estate market and transform bank debts
into capital to prevent injection of more taxpayers money.
***
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghans-riot-over-airstrike-atrocity-1681070.html
Afghans riot over air-strike atrocity
Witnesses say deaths of 147 people in three villages came after a sustained
bombardment by American aircraft.
By Patrick Cockburn, in Herat
The Independent UK: May 8, 2009
Shouting "Death to America" and "Death to the Government", thousands of
Afghan villagers hurled stones at police yesterday as they vented their fury
at American air strikes that local officials claim killed 147 civilians.
The riot started when people from three villages struck by US bombers in the
early hours of Tuesday, brought 15 newly-discovered bodies in a truck to the
house of the provincial governor. As the crowd pressed forward in Farah,
police opened fire, wounding four protesters. Traders in the rest of Farah
city, the capital of the province of the same name where the bombing took
place, closed their shops, vowing they would not reopen them until there is
an investigation.
A local official Abdul Basir Khan said yesterday that he had collected the
names of 147 people who had died, making it the worst such incident since
the US intervened in Afghanistan started in 2001. A phone call from the
governor of Farah province, Rohul Amin, in which he said that 130 people had
died, was played over the loudspeaker in the Afghan parliament in Kabul,
sparking demands for more control over US operations
The protest in Farah City is the latest sign of a strong Afghan reaction
against US air attacks in which explosions inflict massive damage on
mud-brick houses that provide little protection against bomb blasts. A claim
by American officials, which was repeated by the US Defence Secretary Robert
Gates yesterday in Kabul, that the Taliban might have killed people with
grenades because they did not pay an opium tax is not supported by any
eyewitnesses and is disproved by pictures of deep bomb craters, one of which
is filled with water. Mr Gates expressed regret for the incident but did not
go so far as to accept blame.
The US admits that it did conduct an air strike at the time and place, but
it is becoming clear, going by the account of survivors, that the air raid
was not a brief attack by several aircraft acting on mistaken intelligence,
but a sustained bombardment in which three villages were pounded to pieces.
Farouq Faizy, an Afghan radio reporter who was one of the first to reach the
district of Bala Baluk, says villagers told him that bombs suddenly, "began
to fall at 8pm on Monday and went on until 10pm though some believe there
were still bombs falling later". A prolonged bombing attack would explain
why there are so many dead, but only 14 wounded received at Farah City
hospital.
The attack was on three villages - Gerani, Gangabad and Koujaha - just off
the main road. It is a poppy growing area of poor farmers and there were
several fields of poppies near the villages. The Taliban are traditionally
strong here and the police and soldiers waiting around the villages were
said by eyewitnesses to be frightened. This would explain why Afghan army
commanders might have been eager to call for US airstrikes, though they
would have needed the agreement of American special operations officers.
Provincial officials, including the governor Rohul Amin, say that in the
lead-up to the bombing there was heavy fighting between hundreds of Taliban
and the Afghan Army and police. Going by Mr Faizy's account there had been,
"a fight some seven or eight kilometres from the three villages in which two
Afghan Army and a US Humvee were destroyed. A third Afghan Army vehicle was
captured." Three police were killed and four wounded, as was one American
and one Afghan army soldier. This was hardly a major military engagement,
but the pro-government forces seem to have got the worst of it and their
burned out vehicles still stand in the road.
The loss of life in Afghanistan from air strikes is often worse than in Iraq
where houses are more modern and usually have basements. In the villages in
Farah, people were living in compounds with mud brick walls which crumbled
easily. Pictures of the aftermath of the attack show people standing beside
the remains of a relative which often only looks like a muddy pile of torn
meat. One elderly white bearded man, said by neighbours to have lost 30
members of his family, squats despairingly beside a body that has been torn
into shreds. Among the few wounded to stay alive is a child with a badly
burned face.
One reason why US bombing inflicts such heavy civilian casualties in
Afghanistan and Iraq is that both are very poor countries in which houses
are very crowded. When the US used air strikes and heavy artillery with
little restraint in the siege of Fallujah in 2004 it caused serious loss of
life. Wedding parties in both countries have often been mistaken for
"terrorist" gatherings and bombed.
In Afghanistan opinion polls show that support for the Taliban and for armed
attacks on foreign forces rises sharply after events like the bombing in
Farah. President Hamid Karzai frequently criticises the US military for
wantonly inflicting civilian casualties, attacks which his opponents say is
an opportunistic effort to burnish his nationalist credentials.
The Taliban increasingly use tactics developed by insurgents in Iraq,
notably suicide bombing on a mass scale and IEDs, or mines in the road
detonated by a control wires or electronically. In Helmand province
yesterday a suicide bomber killed 12 civilians in an attack on a foreign
military convoy near the bazaar of the town of Gereshk. No foreign troops
were killed by the explosion, though two were wounded.
***
From: Frank Dorrel
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 10:46 PM
Subject: George Galloway, Cynthia McKinney, Anna Baltzer,Jim Lafferty &
Others Speaking on PALESTINE at UC Irvine this Week.
Sent by Anna Baltzer - baltzer.anna@gmail.com
George Galloway, Cynthia McKinney, Anna Baltzer, Jim Lafferty & Others
Speaking on PALESTINE at UC Irvine this Week.
Hello Friends, I'm coming back to Southern California briefly for two talks
at UC Irvine TUESDAY. The events are part of an amazing multi-week event
featuring George Galloway, Cynthia McKinney, and others! Details below.
Please pass the information on to anyone who may be interested (and come
for at least part of it!)...
Yours in peace, Anna Baltzer www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com
The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine Presents...
More than two weeks of incredible events on Palestine at UC IRVINE! ...as
part of Palestine-Awareness Week, hosted by the Muslim Students Association.
Co-sponsored by the Afrikan Student Union, Alpha Epsilon Omega, Armenian
Sorority, Armenian Student Association, Asian Pacific Student Association,
Hip Hop Congress, Hindu Student Council, Pakistani Student Association,
Radical Student Union, Sikh Student Association, Society of Arab Students,
Vietnamese American Coalition, Workers Student Alliance, and Young Americans
for Liberty. For details, press releases, trailers, and more information,
visit: www.msu-uci.com
It's already begun, but here's some of what's still to come...
Jim Lafferty
MONDAY, May 11th @ NOON (Speech at the Flagpoles)
"Palestine Is The Issue"
Jim Lafferty is a founding member of the Los Angeles chapter of the National
Lawyers Guild. He is also a leading member of the ANSWER Coalition, a
grassroots anti-war movement.
"Occupation 101"
MONDAY, May 11th @ 7:30PM
Award-Winning Documentary Film-Screening
Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium
Anna Baltzer
TUESDAY, May 12 @ NOON (Speech at the Flagpoles)
"Witness in Palestine Part I"
(bio below)
Anna Baltzer
TUESDAY, May 12 @ 6PM (doors open at 5:30)
Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium (photo presentation)
"Witness in Palestine Part II"
(bio below)
Cynthia McKinney
WEDNESDAY, May 13th @ NOON (Speech at the Flagpoles)
"Investing in Apartheid: 6.8 Million Tax Dollars a Day"
Cynthia McKinney is a former US Representative and was the 2008 Green Party
nominee for President of the United States. In 2004, McKinney was awarded
the 5th annual Backbone Award for her willingness to openly criticize and
question the Bush administration and call for an investigation into the 9/11
attacks. On December 30, 2008, McKinney was on a humanitarian mission by the
Free Gaza Movement aboard the Dignity ship, when the ship was rammed by the
Israeli Navy. Barred from reaching Gaza and forced to dock in Lebanon, the
ship, sailing in international waters, carried physicians, medical supplies
and activists.
Cynthia McKinney
WEDNESDAY, May 13th @ 8PM (doors open at 7:30)
Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium
"Sailing to the Shores of Oppression"
(bio above)
Amir Abdel Malik Ali
THURSDAY, May 14th @ NOON (Speech at the Flagpoles)
"To Exist is to Resist"
Amir Abdel Malik Ali is an inspiring speaker and community activist, that
has dedicated his life to building the American Muslim community. He
converted to Islam while in college after being inspired by the struggles of
Malcolm X, and has strived to follow his legacy of speaking truth to power
and community grassroots mobilization.
Amir Abdel Malik Ali
THURSDAY, May 14th @ 8PM (doors open at 7:30)
Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium
"Silence is Consent"
(bio above)
George Galloway
THURSDAY, May 21th @ 8PM (doors open at 7:30)
Student Center, Pacific Ballroom C/D
"Viva Palestina"
A British politician and member of Parliament since 1987, George Galloway is
best known for his staunch campaign to overturn economic sanctions against
Iraq in the 1990s, and more recently, to avert the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In
response to the recent War on Gaza which began in the end of December 2008,
Galloway created the Viva Palestina aid convoy to the Gaza Strip. After he
raised an insurmountable amount of humanitarian aid in a matter of four
weeks, Galloway and hundreds of volunteers launched the convoy in the strip,
which included a fire engine, 12 ambulances, trucks full of medicine, tools,
clothing, blankets and gifts for children. www.vivapalestina.org
Hope to see you there!
Anna
Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, author
of Witness in Palestine, and volunteer with the International Women's Peace
Service, is touring the United States with a presentation and book
describing her experiences documenting human rights abuses in Palestine and
supporting nonviolent resistance to the Occupation.
Providing photographic documentation and critical information often
misrepresented or ignored in the Western media, Anna's presentation covers
checkpoints, settlements, demonstrations, Israeli activism, the 1948 war &
refugees, censorship, the Separation Wall, and more. For further information
about Anna's work and tour, please visit: www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com
Anna will also be selling and signing copies of her popular full-color book:
Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories.
Jan27action mailing list
Visit our website at http://LinuxBeach.net/jan27action/
No comments:
Post a Comment