the drop » Peace & Security

WORLD WAR NO: Apocalypse Impending?

'The Middle East Theatre of War' (GlobalResearch.ca)

When a former Middle East bureau chief of The New York Times is writing that “War with Iran — a war that would unleash an apocalyptic scenario in the Middle East — is probable by the end of the Bush administration,” we should awaken to the possibility. When he continues, “It could begin in as little as three weeks,” concerned citizens everywhere should resolve to work together to prevent it.

Writing on Alternet on Tuesday, Chris Hedges warned of an American naval armada barreling towards the Strait of Hormuz: the 50 kilometer-wide, 21 kilometer-narrow waterway adjoining the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea…

“The aircraft carrier Eisenhower, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio, guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage, guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, is, as I write, making its way to the Straits of Hormuz off Iran. The ships will be in place to strike Iran by the end of the month. It may be a bluff. It may be a feint. It may be a simple show of American power. But I doubt it.“

Three weeks ago, a Time magazine cover-story broke the news of a “‘Prepare to Deploy’ order sent through [U.S.] naval communications channels to a submarine, an Aegis-class cruiser, two minesweepers and two mine hunters” alongside “a second request, from the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)” asking “for fresh eyes on long-standing U.S. plans to blockade two Iranian oil ports on the Persian Gulf.” A follow-up post in The Nation reported the public affairs office of the Navy Department at the Pentagon confirming that “the Eisenhower Strike Group, bristling with Tomahawk cruise missiles… is scheduled to arrive off the coast of Iran on or around October 21“ — next Saturday — just over two weeks before mid-term elections in the US.
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Death of a Journalist: Anna Politkovskaya

Time Europe 2003 Hero: Anna Politkovskaya © Time Magazine

Since the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, bloggers have been positing possible theories of her murder. At Global Voices, there’s a translation of one of the most popular posts in the Russian blogosphere, which discusses the journalist’s murder and her investigative work in Chechnya. The Diplomatic Times Review provides a good number of related links on the news of her death.
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Migrant Crisis Continues in Spain

Spain signed a repatriation agreement with Senegal, Photo: BBC News
You had promised me that I would never be hungry
You had promised me of true activities and a future
Really up to here I still see nothing
That’s why I decided to flee

The lyrics are from DJ Awadi, a Senegalese rapper and producer, who is promoting awareness of the migrant crisis with his song Sunugaal and an online slideshow.
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Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

Be sure to take a close look at Arundhati Roy’s provocative question about the future of non-violent resistance and armed struggle. “What is effective?,” she wonders. “What is the right thing to do?”
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112 Free Voices: Pauline Tangiora, Aotearoa’s inspiration

“People who recognise that others have something to share must make themselves available too. I’m humbled to be able to offer our basket of the spirit for others to draw from, as well as to learn from other participants to increase my own awareness of what is happening in the world.”

Pauline Tangiora is an activist and campaigner whose work embraces both the local and the global.
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ASK YOURSELF: “Must We Fight For Peace?”

Today we’re inaugurating a new module-series on ‘the drop’ which asks you to engage with and donate your answers to a select few of the questions dropping knowledge has received from the global public… In the wake of last week’s film chronicling Stop The War’s 100,000-person peace protest in London, we want you to ask yourself: Must we fight for peace?
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Uri Grossman, son of David Grossman, Killed in Battle

Israeli author David Grossman and his son Uri

Uri Grossman, the son of Israeli novelist and peace activist David Grossman, has died in battle in Lebanon. Staff Sergeant Uri Grossman, 20, was killed when an anti-tank missile hit his tank in southern Lebanon. He was one of the last Israeli casualties before the ceasefire was declared.
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“What are the lessons from this war?” Bianca Jagger’s Call for Peace

“I believe in the right of Israel to exist… However, it is important that we send a clear message to Israel that they have to adhere to international law and that they can no longer commit and violate and be in breach of humanitarian law… We call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire right now!”
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A dropping knowledge production, a Copyleft FILM: ‘CeaseFire Now: a day with bianca jagger’

On Saturday, August 5, 2006, over 100,000 people took to the streets of central London to demand an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon. The largest emergency demonstration in British history was organized by the Stop the War Coalition and led by renowned peace advocate Bianca Jagger, who had invited dropping knowledge to join her on the march. Now you can see the results in CeaseFire Now: a day with bianca jagger.
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So You Think You Can Do Better? Computer Games Get Serious

A screengrab from Peacemaker, © www.peacemakergame.com

Do you think you could sort out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Now’s your chance to find out. Developers at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA have come up with Peacemaker, an interactive game based on the conflict in Gaza.
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Aid Workers Murdered in Sri Lankan Violence

Internally Displaced Persons in northeast Sri Lanka.

Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans have been forced to flee their homes because of the escalating violence in the north-east of the country. A recent wave of killings across Sri Lanka included the execution-style murders of 17 aid workers. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters at a briefing in Geneva that more than 50,000 internally displaced persons have had to take shelter in Trincomalee district, scene to some of the worst clashes in recent weeks. UNHCR is dispatching cooking sets, plastic sheeting, hygiene kits and other items to the affected areas, often in cooperation with local branches of NGOs.
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NGO ACTION: Amnesty International Launches Global Action for Lebanese Civilians

Lebanese refugee © Red Crescent International, 2006

Amnesty International are asking their 1.8 million members to write to the Israeli Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, to insist that Lebanese civilians are allowed to escape from villages in the zones worst affected by fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces. Not only are those who have not been able to flee trapped, but aid agencies have been unable to reach them to provide urgent supplies and medical attention.
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Gay Rights and the War in Iraq

The bodies of three men suspected of being gay and subsequently killed, March 20 in the Iraqi city of Ramadi (Photo by Bilal Hussein/AP)

There have been a wave of vicious attacks against gay Iraqi men and women by Shia militants who believe that homosexuality is against their faith. Men are the main targets, and several have been found “executed” or beaten to death – worse still, their murder has been recorded on camera. The Observer trailed a Channel 4 documentary on the escalating homophobia in an article last Sunday, noting, most shockingly of all, that the attacks are permissable under current Iraqi law:

Homosexuality is seen as so immoral that it qualifies as an ‘honour killing’ to murder someone who is gay - and the perpetrator can escape punishment. Section 111 of Iraq’s penal code lays out protections for murder when people are acting against Islam.

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A Culture of Violence and Misogyny? The US Military Goes on Trial (Again)

Steven Green's mugshot from Mecklenburg County jail in Charlotte, N.C, USA. (©AP Photo/Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, File, 2006)

The hearing concerning the alleged rape and murder of a fourteen-year old Iraqi girl by four US servicemen who then killed her parents and five-year old sister (blogged earlier this week by dropping knowledge) is well underway, and the details that are emerging are shocking. Private Steven Green, 21, is indicated as the ringleader. He’d declared his intention to kill “some Iraqis” several times on the morning of March 12th 2006, and he and his colleagues were drinking a cocktail of whisky and energy drinks before they pulled on black masks and set out for the home of the Hamza family. What followed was horrific.
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Watching the War on the Web II: the Blogosphere’s “Propaganda Watch”

The doctored pictures, © Reuters 2006

News agency Reuters scrapped over 920 images by Lebanese photographer Adnan Hajj after bloggers alerted them to the fact that two of the pictures had been altered. The original picture is on the left, and on the right you can see someone has used a ’spray paint’ tool from a software package to add to the smoke rising from Beirut buildings. It’s pretty crudely done, and it’s no surprise that Reuters saw fit to issue a statement:

“Manipulating photographs in this way is entirely unacceptable and contrary to all the principles consistently held by Reuters throughout its long and distinguished history. It undermines not only our reputation but also the good name of all our photographers.”
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61st Anniversary of Hiroshima

A woman floats paper lanterns in the Motoyasu River before the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Yesterday marked Hiroshima Day, the 61st anniversary of the dropping of the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Japanese civilians, which killed 140,000 people. Indy Media have a round-up of links giving both the history of the attacks and details of the memorial services and protests that took place worldwide on Sunday. At a ceremony in Hiroshima Peace Park the city’s mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba, addressed the crowds:

“Sixty-one years have passed since radiation, heat rays and an atomic blast created hell on earth, but the number of nations enamored of evil and enslaved by nuclear arms has increased. The only role nuclear weapons have is to be demolished.”

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Veiled Threats: the Deterioration of Women’s Rights in Iraq

Women's rights are being compromised for the sake of big oil (© Ms. Magazine 2006)

A fortnight ago Prime Minister, Nouri Al-Maliki, pledged before the US Congress to improve women’s rights in Iraq. The statement was welcomed both in America and among Iraqi women’s groups, but Al-Maliki has a long way to go to prove that these are not just token words. Only 30 out of 275 members of his parliament have signed a declaration to investigate the decline of the basic rights that women took for granted in pre-war, secular Iraq, and to ensure that the police will uphold and defend these.
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Ethiopia and Somalia: Escalating Tensions

On National Public Radio’s News and Notes, Ed Gordon interviewed International Crisis Group senior advisor John Prendergast about the escalating tensions in the East African region. Gordon notes that media attention is currently focused on the Middle East, ignoring the problematic situation in Somalia and neighboring Ethiopia. Seeking to fill the void, Global Voices posted a summary of Ethiopian bloggers providing information and commentary about the conflict.

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Children´s Drawings of War-Torn Darfur Color Copyleft Question Film

Making of: drawings of Darfur refugees became part of a video on child soldiers.

Bukeni Tete Waruzi Beck directs the AJEDI-Ka Project, an NGO that rehabilitates former child soldiers in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. The dropping knowledge film crew spoke with Beck on a recent trip to New York, but when they brought the footage of the interview back to the cutting room in Berlin, something was missing.
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112 Free Voices: Nadja Halilbegovich inspires a generation

“I am honored to be a part of The Table of Free Voices. I believe that to share and learn from hundreds of different people with different experiences and perspectives is a thrilling process and a first step towards creating a deeper understanding, wider awareness and, ultimately, peace and harmony.

Born in Sarajevo, singer, author and peace advocate Nadja Halilbegovich was just 12 when her home city was placed under military seige. Six months later, she was almost killed when a bomb exploded seven feet from her. In the tradition of Anne Frank, Nadia Halilbegovich confided her thoughts and feelings to her diary.
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NGO ACTION: ‘Stop The War Coalition’ marching on Downing Street this Saturday, August 5

Tomorrow, the U.K.-based Stop The War Coalition will lead a march on Downing Street to pressure the British government to join the international chorus calling for an unconditional ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Co-organizers of the largest demonstration in British history — the February 15, 2003 march to protest the invasion of Iraq (attended by up to two million people) — Stop the war will tomorrow be carrying an open letter to Tony Blair (with over 20,000 signatures), condemning the Prime Minister for “not calling for a ceasefire to enable the suffering to stop”.
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112 Free Voices: Avi Primor & the politics of diplomacy

Avi Primor is a renowned Israeli diplomat and author. Born in 1935, Primor joined the Israeli foreign service as a cadet at 25 and, following various posts in Africa and Europe, held a series of key positions in the foreign ministry during the ’70s and ’80s. He was the Israeli ambassador in Brussels (1987-91) and Bonn (1993-99) during one of the most transformative decades in European history. Having served as vice president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1991-93) and Tel Aviv University (1999-2003), he currently directs the Center for European Studies at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
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Watching the War on the Web: Does the Camera ever Lie?

“Broadcast Yourself” is the slogan of YouTube, the video-hosting internet site where 65,000 new clips are uploaded every day. It’s a message that’s been taken to heart by people around the globe — and the content is mutating all the time, making it almost impossible to regulate.
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DRC Pre-election Blogging

The blogosphere is abuzz with anticipation of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s elections this Sunday…
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Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Tomorrow, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will hold its first bona fide elections in 40 years. South Africa has been instrumental in helping to set up the electoral infrastructure and send observers who will ensure that after decades of conflicts and dictatorships, the population of 62,000,000 will finally be able to choose their government peacefully and democratically.
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Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

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Peace & Security

WORLD WAR NO: Apocalypse Impending?

Death of a Journalist: Anna Politkovskaya

Migrant Crisis Continues in Spain

Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

112 Free Voices: Pauline Tangiora, Aotearoa’s inspiration

ASK YOURSELF: “Must We Fight For Peace?”

Uri Grossman, son of David Grossman, Killed in Battle

“What are the lessons from this war?” Bianca Jagger’s Call for Peace

A dropping knowledge production, a Copyleft FILM: ‘CeaseFire Now: a day with bianca jagger’

So You Think You Can Do Better? Computer Games Get Serious

Aid Workers Murdered in Sri Lankan Violence

NGO ACTION: Amnesty International Launches Global Action for Lebanese Civilians

Gay Rights and the War in Iraq

A Culture of Violence and Misogyny? The US Military Goes on Trial (Again)

Watching the War on the Web II: the Blogosphere’s “Propaganda Watch”

61st Anniversary of Hiroshima

Veiled Threats: the Deterioration of Women’s Rights in Iraq

Ethiopia and Somalia: Escalating Tensions

Children´s Drawings of War-Torn Darfur Color Copyleft Question Film

112 Free Voices: Nadja Halilbegovich inspires a generation

NGO ACTION: ‘Stop The War Coalition’ marching on Downing Street this Saturday, August 5

112 Free Voices: Avi Primor & the politics of diplomacy

Watching the War on the Web: Does the Camera ever Lie?

DRC Pre-election Blogging

Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo