121Contact

End of Terrorists? When we r die,

The end of terrorists? When we r die.
or maybe sooner if we stop supporting terror with our media.
April 16, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

--

The night before Boston we were talking to brother B. His house, in Baghdad, had electricity and none of the family were hurt in yesterday’s or today’s bombings. It was a good day, and he told us about the lady next door.

B was on the way home from the store. He passed his next door neighbor and they stopped to chat. After she congratulated him on his recent surgery he asked her how her children were doing in the U.S.

She is a retired lawyer in her 70’s with a daughter and son in the U.S. She’s always been very protective of her children. The kind of protection where when the children took 100 in the exams she would say they took 90’s so there would be no jealousy aimed at them. It was very hard for her to see her children leave Iraq.

“They are fine, Inshallah. But their safety is important. I thought as long as they are safe and happy…so I let them leave. But now I feel they are threatened there because Korea is about to bomb America.” A reassured her.

“America is a safe place, don’t worry.”

--

That same night, before Boston, we chatted with A, in Smawa, who posted, “It was close. The bomb, but I am OK.”

“Happy you are OK. When will it all end?”

“When we r die.”

---

And today the TV is an endless loop of terrorist propaganda. It is just what the bombers want. The publicity makes them feel strong. The terror that is induced by the repetitions magnifies the effect of their murder and maiming.

We support terror with our insensitive, profit-driven media.

Another Frame in the Iraq War Movie: American Denial, New York Times style.

Another Frame in the Iraq War Movie: American Denial, New York Times style.
March 17, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

 The New York Times ‘A War, Before and After,” March 17, 2013 begins 6 days of remembering the war in Iraq, anecdote by anecdote. Today’s installment: A contractor, without remorse, alludes to the interrogations he did in Abu Ghraib. A soldier remembers her “Let it start” moment as she waited to kill, and speaks of her husband’s ‘penetrating traumatic brain injury.” An infantry officer recalls failed ‘Peace Operations’ as if they were failed pledges to a fraternity.

No mention is made of the suffering of millions of innocent Iraqi civilians, nor of the over 100,000 who died as a direct result of the invasion and occupation. This failure to acknowledge the severe price the Iraqis paid pictures them as less than human, as if their pain does not count.

This one-sided framing of the occupation as a recitation of suffering by American warriors fails the American people. It prevents an honest look at all of the consequences of choosing violence as a means to achieve political ends.  

We are those two Afghan children

We are those two Afghan children

Obama sends Drones, Putin sends Food: Who wins hearts and minds?

Stanford and NYU researchers report that U.S. drone strikes have killed 3 times as many children as terrorist leaders. An NYU report states, “There is strong evidence to suggest that US drone strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups.” [Living Under Drones]

Constrained by the ‘War on Terror’ framing of modern conflict the Obama administration is once again turning to violence, and drones in particular, in spite of his promise to “work to build goodwill around the world to change minds of those who revile the United States.” [NYTimes] Speaking of ‘in spite of’: there are a goodly number of American military commanders who argue against drones, too. [policymic] The U.S. is building another drone base in Niger; so poor it probably couldn't resist the rewards the Obama administration offered for permission to build, staff, and then free U.S. personall from the reach of Niger courts.

We think we are witnessing a bad case of group confirmation bias on the part of the U.S. Government. Having chosen drones as an effective means of combatting terrorists they stubbornly stick to it, becoming increasingly unable to hear counter-factual evidence. At the same time they are shutting out evidence; refusing to disclose any data that would support their position. Government statistics on numbers of strikes, ratio of terrorists to civilians killed, etc., are kept secret. [UCSD]

Drone strikes serve to radicalize local populations, and it is from these radicalized people that terrorist organizations recruit, train, and deploy the very same killers we attempt to eradicate with drones. Do you sense a never-ending cycle of violence here?

Meanwhile, just as we are setting up another African drone base in Niger, the Russians are sending food and blankets and other aid to Mali, in support of the people directly affected by terrorist violence. So while the U.S. is generating animosity, the Russians are busy winning the hearts and minds of the people.

Dear President Obama, try to free yourself from the errors in thinking born of confirmation bias. You can learn from the facts and act rationally, in spite of your emotional investment in your first choice of violence. Free yourself and set us all on a path to more peaceful tomorrows.

 February 23, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

 

 

 

 

 

The NRA from Paris (where no citizen has the right to own a gun)

The NRA from Paris
February 5, 2013 by Wright Salisbury

After countless instances of gun violence, which regularly robs over 10,000 Americans of their lives each year, many in mass murders, the American people seem finally to have awakened to the fact that we can, and must, put a stop to the proliferation of firearms in the U.S.

That it took the killing of twenty six- and seven-year-olds in a school in Newtown, CT to arouse the ire of so many people is a sad testimony to the general indifference to the suffering of others that has become, unfortunately, characteristic of our society.

Wayne LaPierre, the spokesman for the NRA, callously tried to blame gun violence on movies and video games. I'm living in Paris at the moment and I can bear witness to the fact that the French see all the violent movies we produce and play the same video games.

There are reportedly 33 gun deaths a day in the good old U.S.A. In France, the only mass killings since 2000 were carried out by a jihadist against four people (three of them children) in a Jewish school in Toulouse and a man who shot and killed eight members of the city council in a Paris suburb.

According to Philippe Coste, a staff correspondent for the weekly L'Express, "To get any category one or four weapons, like the Glock or the Sig Sauer used in Newtown, you need to be 21, to have joined a shooting range for the last six months, provided a blank criminal record and a certificate of physical and mental health not older than two weeks. Then, the local police precinct starts a "morality investigation" in your neighborhood that rivals the clearance work done by the FBI for anybody employed at the White House."

Furthermore: "Once you buy a gun, you still don't own it. Property rights don't apply to weapons. Even the European community, in spite of its principles of free enterprise and individual liberties, confirmed that there is no such thing as a right to own a weapon. A license is a temporary exception to the rule of prohibition. It is a privilege revoked after three years, before a new application."

Mr. Coste concludes, "I concur with the American gun lobby that gun control amounts to an obvious restriction of individual liberties. Like most French or European citizens, I would add a point: So what?"

 

[Posted by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact. Wright Salisbury is a friend and fellow 'gang member' in September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.]

List of children killed by drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen

List of children killed by drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen

Compiled from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports

PAKISTAN
Name | Age | Gender
Noor Aziz | 8 | male
Abdul Wasit | 17 | male
Noor Syed | 8 | male
Wajid Noor | 9 | male
Syed Wali Shah | 7 | male
Ayeesha | 3 | female
Qari Alamzeb | 14| male
Shoaib | 8 | male
Hayatullah KhaMohammad | 16 | male
Tariq Aziz | 16 | male
Sanaullah Jan | 17 | male
Maezol Khan | 8 | female
Nasir Khan | male
Naeem Khan | male
Naeemullah | male
Mohammad Tahir | 16 | male
Azizul Wahab | 15 | male
Fazal Wahab | 16 | male
Ziauddin | 16 | male
Mohammad Yunus | 16 | male
Fazal Hakim | 19 | male
Ilyas | 13 | male
Sohail | 7 | male
Asadullah | 9 | male
khalilullah | 9 | male
Noor Mohammad | 8 | male
Khalid | 12 | male
Saifullah | 9 | male
Mashooq Jan | 15 | male
Nawab | 17 | male
Sultanat Khan | 16 | male
Ziaur Rahman | 13 | male
Noor Mohammad | 15 | male
Mohammad Yaas Khan | 16 | male
Qari Alamzeb | 14 | male
Ziaur Rahman | 17 | male
Abdullah | 18 | male
Ikramullah Zada | 17 | male
Inayatur Rehman | 16 | male
Shahbuddin | 15 | male
Yahya Khan | 16 |male
Rahatullah |17 | male
Mohammad Salim | 11 | male
Shahjehan | 15 | male
Gul Sher Khan | 15 | male
Bakht Muneer | 14 | male
Numair | 14 | male
Mashooq Khan | 16 | male
Ihsanullah | 16 | male
Luqman | 12 | male
Jannatullah | 13 | male
Ismail | 12 | male
Taseel Khan | 18 | male
Zaheeruddin | 16 | male
Qari Ishaq | 19 | male
Jamshed Khan | 14 | male
Alam Nabi | 11 | male
Qari Abdul Karim | 19 | male
Rahmatullah | 14 | male
Abdus Samad | 17 | male
Siraj | 16 | male
Saeedullah | 17 | male
Abdul Waris | 16 | male
Darvesh | 13 | male
Ameer Said | 15 | male
Shaukat | 14 | male
Inayatur Rahman | 17 | male
Salman | 12 | male
Fazal Wahab | 18 | male
Baacha Rahman | 13 | male
Wali-ur-Rahman | 17 | male
Iftikhar | 17 | male
Inayatullah | 15 | male
Mashooq Khan | 16 | male
Ihsanullah | 16 | male
Luqman | 12 | male
Jannatullah | 13 | male
Ismail | 12 | male
Abdul Waris | 16 | male
Darvesh | 13 | male
Ameer Said | 15 | male
Shaukat | 14 | male
Inayatur Rahman | 17 | male
Adnan | 16 | male
Najibullah | 13 | male
Naeemullah | 17 | male
Hizbullah | 10 | male
Kitab Gul | 12 | male
Wilayat Khan | 11 | male
Zabihullah | 16 | male
Shehzad Gul | 11 | male
Shabir | 15 | male
Qari Sharifullah | 17 | male
Shafiullah | 16 | male
Nimatullah | 14 | male
Shakirullah | 16 | male
Talha | 8 | male

YEMEN
Afrah Ali Mohammed Nasser | 9 | female
Zayda Ali Mohammed Nasser | 7 | female
Hoda Ali Mohammed Nasser | 5 | female
Sheikha Ali Mohammed Nasser | 4 | female
Ibrahim Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 13 | male
Asmaa Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 9 | male
Salma Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 4 | female
Fatima Abdullah Mokbel Salem Louqye | 3 | female
Khadije Ali Mokbel Louqye | 1 | female
Hanaa Ali Mokbel Louqye | 6 | female
Mohammed Ali Mokbel Salem Louqye | 4 | male
Jawass Mokbel Salem Louqye | 15 | female
Maryam Hussein Abdullah Awad | 2 | female
Shafiq Hussein Abdullah Awad | 1 | female
Sheikha Nasser Mahdi Ahmad Bouh | 3 | female
Maha Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 12 | male
Soumaya Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 9 | female
Shafika Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 4 | female
Shafiq Mohammed Saleh Mohammed | 2 | male
Mabrook Mouqbal Al Qadari | 13 | male
Daolah Nasser 10 years | 10 | female
AbedalGhani Mohammed Mabkhout | 12 | male
Abdel- Rahman Anwar al Awlaki | 16 | male
Abdel-Rahman al-Awlaki | 17 | male
Nasser Salim | 19

 

Egyptian Terrorist Echoes in the Mahgrib

Were Belmoktar’s Masked Ones Listening to al-Zawahiri?

Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri died in Amenas, Algeria after leading a group of al-Mulathameen Brigade killers in a kidnapping raid on BP's oil facility in Northeastern Algeria. Many of the hostages  and attackers died when the Algerian Army ended the situation with deadly force. The total dead are still being counted.

Moktar Belmoktar (aka Khalid Abu al-Abbas) is the leader of the al-Mulathameen Brigade and was al-Nigiri's boss. Belmoktar was reportedly kicked out of the larger al-Qaeda in the Maghgreb for corruption. He then formed al-Mulathameen (sometimes known as the brigade of the masked ones).

Ayman al-Zawahiri is an ('the?') Al-Qaeda leader obsessed with a jihadist victory in Egypt since he was a kid. He was an admirer of Sayyid Qutb and IN 1966, when Qutb was hung by the Egyptian government, Zawahiri formed his first underground cell devoted to establishing an Islamic state. He was only fifteen years old!

On October 24, 2012, in the "11th Message To People Of Egypt", al-Zawahiri says Al-Qaeda is looking to kidnap additional westerners in order to free Muslim prisoners, including the 'Blind Sheikh.'

On January 17, 2013, during the attack in Amenas, Belmoktar (aka Khalid Abu al-Abbas) released a video that said he was willing to release American hostages in exchange for the "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdul Rahman and Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddique. It is possible that he got this idea from al-Zawahiri.

The messaging of al-Qaeda is evidently effective. That groups are listening to it doesn’t necessarily mean that are part of al-Qaeda. We are coming to call the increasing number of these ‘listening’ groups “al-Qaeda.” The quotes indicating 1) a oneness in philosophy and general goals of a global jihad, and 2) an independence from the ‘mother’ organization run so successfully for so many years by the team of Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.

[Belmoktar was not at the raid and is still alive. He also said, ominously, "We stress to our Muslims brothers the necessity to stay away from all the Western companies and complexes for their own safety, and especially the French ones."]

January 21, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

 

 

Peaceful Protests and Terrorism in Iraq: Insurgents or Terrorists?

Overshadowed in recent media reports covering the terrorist attacks in Iraq are the peaceful protests, by thousands, against what they view as anti-Sunni bias, random arrests, and harassment of Sunni government officials.  These demonstrations have taken place mainly in The Center and West of Iraq.

The recent bombing at the Shiite mosque in Dujail was one of a series of terrorist attacks that are sweeping across Iraq. The main targets have been Shiite pilgrims.

Ulterior motives may underlie this violence as the influence of al-Qaeda in Iraq is a clear possibility. The anti-Qaeda cleric Sheikh Aifan Sadoun Aifan al-Issawi was assassinated this week. He was a founder of Fallujah's tribal "Awakening" movement and al-Qaeda had targeted him before. A day later the Iraqi forces arrested Maytham Qassim, an al-Qaeda leader in Baqubah.

An insurgent may well be any person who revolts against an established government, but failing to label these latest attackers as terrorists does an injustice to the innocent civilians killed by them. Over 80 have died this past week. The New York Times, Washington Post, and other media outlets should do justice to the fallen by a more accurate characterization of these killers.

The Iraqi government seems out of control, intransigent, and without a chance at stability unless it democratizes and begins to treat all Iraqis fairly. Only then will they be able to stop the terrorists. The Sunnis can be a great ally in that fight.

January 18, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

Remember Houla: Syria May 25, 2012

From Jordanian Palestinian hip-hop artist El-Far3i, called "Birds of Houla""Tonight, the smell of blood coming from the north is torturing me / Tonight, children of Gaza and Houla will play together / But I feel that from heaven / Their eyes are observing me / the observers, shabiha, and envoys." [More: song]

Syrian painter Heba Akkad said she could only think about Houla. "I really tried to paint something else but I couldn't."  Click here for a clear image of Her piece, "Night in al-Houla."

 

108 people died in Hula on May 25, 2012. Rupert Colville of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said... fewer than 20 of the dead were killed by artillery fire...most of them slaughtered in their homes. Women and children were shot at close range. Some had their throats slit, others had their eyes gouged out.

Sometimes the government is the terrorist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 14, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

Who are the Terrorists? Syrian Citizens beg for Al-Nusrah Help against Assad’s Forces.

On December 11, 2012 the U.S. Government declared al-Nusrah (aka the al-Nusra Front, Jabhat al-Nusrah) to be a terrorist organization linked to al-Qaeda. Over 30 independent Syrian opposition groups denounced the designation and gave their support to al-Nusrah. In the eyes of the Obama administration al-Nusrah’s links to al-Qaeda were strong enough to justify the designation. But your terrorist may be someone’s freedom fighter.

When the citizens of Deir Baalbeh, near the city of Homs, found themselves under attack by Alawite fighters who support Syrian President Assad they were unprepared for the level of violence aimed at them. These innocent civilians first suffered a crushing massacre in Assad’s December 29^th assault on Homs. Over 200 died, including, of course, many women and children. While it is fruitless to compare tragedies, the latest atrocities are of smaller numbers but more horrifying details.

Kavkas is reporting that “Bodies of 50 ritually murdered Muslims [Young Madrassa students. ed.] were found. They bore signs of torture and have so far not been identified.” They were abducted Sunday, at a checkpoint, on their way home from school.

In shock and fear the residents of Deir Baalbeh are turning to al-Nusrah for help.Seen as a capable fighting force, al-Nusrah is gaining respect and power as it combats Assad’s forces. It is also gaining recruits. When the fighting is over and the power struggles intensify it is clear that al-Nusrah will have a big influence.

How this will play out for American foreign policy is unclear. Even though we’ve held hands with terrorists, dictators, and tyrants before, international media is a different now, and U.S. hypocrisy no longer goes without note by our allies and enemies alike. The fall of the Assad regime will probably mark a further deterioration of American influence in the Arab world.

January 5, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact