Armies of Liberation

Brooklyn, NY: Where is the shouting, the grumbling, the Al Gore outburst against the Sudan? Where’s the intellectual-academic-media contingent’s bluster regarding the world’s worst “humanitarian disaster”? Where are the vocal protest marches and Rush Limbaugh’s invective? The media that broadcasts Abu Ghraib photos with such gusto has no space for major atrocities without good footage. As the world averted its eyes from the hacking machetes in Rwanda, it turns its back again on Africa. A half a million Sudanese civilians may die within short months (1) and there’s a notable lack of guest analysts on cable news.

In the last year, the Sudanese government has systematically targeted its own people in Darfur, a California sized region of six million. Ariel bombings, crop destruction, well poisoning and mass executions are thoroughly documented, as is rape, torture, and starvation. The Janjaweed, a government backed militia, roam the Darfur region on horseback pillaging like Genghis Khan. They massacre men, rape women, and torch villages and mosques.

Over a million Darfurians have fled to the edge of the Sahara and into neighboring Chad and need “acute assistance” according to the UN. (2) The Sudanese government has used its administrative powers to block international monitors, aid, medical supplies, and the media. Many kidnapped youngsters have become chattel in the thriving slave trade. Six hundred children were recently rescued by UNICEF, and an estimated 40,000 children remain slaves in government held territories. (3)

Five percent of children under five have died in the last three months, mostly from treatable maladies like starvation, malaria and diarrhea, and 21% of children are already suffering from acute malnutrition.(4) Aid delivery will be extremely difficult with the onset of the monsoon in June. The million will then stand in the rain, starving and unsheltered, and hundreds of thousands will die, mostly women and children, the UN predicts.

The recent peace agreement between the Arab “Islamic” government in the north and southern Christian and animist rebels occurred after heavy US investment in ending the twenty-one year civil war in which two million people have died, and credit is due. In the western Darfur region, the Arab government has been targeting primarily Muslim blacks. The new promise of peace does not reach the Darfur region.

Bureaucratic inertia reigns. With a candidacy sponsored by the African regional group, the Sudan became a member of the United Nations Human Rights Commission last month. Kofi Annan “is following the situation in Darfur closely…and with great concern,” his spokeswoman reports. (5) With great efforts from the US, the Security Council recently passed a resolution strongly condemning “indiscriminate attacks on civilians, sexual violence, forced displacement and acts of violence, especially those with an ethnic dimension….” (6) The Arab League reports itself to be “concerned” by the actions of its member state, the Sudan. Unlike in Bosnia, France is not urging NATO to breach Sudanese sovereignty. The EU has lost its taste for multilateral responsibility as time has nearly run out in this race against the rains.

Considering today’s Victims of a Lethal Regime are Starving, Poor, Black, African, Muslim Women and Children, in theory they should have widespread popular support. Yet, the liberals are not championing these poor and the neocons have no army to spare. Feminists are busy defending Rowe. The Million Moms aren’t tending these children. The Million Men aren’t marching for these brothers. African-Americans aren’t appalled by racial profiling against these blacks. “Never Again” does not apply to these families. CAIR does not express outrage for these Muslims. Perhaps humans have not yet established a collective identity as earthlings, as civilians, and as allies.

September 11th was the first moment of instantaneous global focus. It resulted in a unified statement: billions of parents objected. The connectivity of that moment has been strengthened through the media and internet. The power of public opinion impacts foreign policy internationally as never before.

We thus empowered are more complicit by silence and face a choice. The global war is between the civilians and the terrorists, the civilians and the lethal regimes. As Sudanese children die, our children become more vulnerable. For those interested in more than hand wringing, this internet link, www.iAbolish.com, is helpful. The normal means of civil protest and advocacy remain open to us all as well.

by Jane

Works Cited

1) Sudan.Net http://sudan.net/news/posted/8535.html Carter Dougherty for the Observer 5/30/04 “Empty villages mark trail of Sudan’s hidden war”
2) The New York Times “Rebel’s Sign Pact with Sudanese Government to End 21-Year War” Warren Hoge http://www.nytimes.com./2004/05/27/international/africa/27suda.html?pagewanted=print&…
3) The News: Pakistan. The Jang Group of Newspapers http://jang.com.pk/the news/may2004-daily/05-05-2004/world/w15.htm or http://jang.com.pk/
4) AFP 5/20/04 “Mass Starvation looms in Sudan’s Darfur region: MSF”
Sudan.net http://www.sudan.net/news/posted/8502.html
5) CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/05/27/un.sudan/index.html
6) Sudan.Net UN Security Council Condemns Attacks on Civilians in Sudan’s Darfur Region” UN News Service 5/26/04 http://sudan.net/news/posted/8535.html

My Pet Jawa is advocating censorship: The whole point of my post was that context is everything. Freedom of speech cannot mean the same thing in a time of war that it means in a time of peace.

These are my comments: All nations currently have some level of censorship on speech that would undermine the security of the state, or incite violence. The global community recently sentenced two journalists to 40 years for broadcasting calls to murder civilians in Rwanda. The question is what level of censorship for the necessary for the continued existance of the state, not whether censorship is moral or an infrigement of rights. Ths social contract includes a limitation on speech that is harmful to society. Where the rights of individuals confront the rights of states, sometimes the state must win in order for the individual to survive. The question is not is censorship moral but what is the least amount required by the current circumstances.

The reason all states must censor some speech all the time is because popular speech is a powerful thing. The modern media can shift billions of people with a sound bite. It is the duty of the media to remain an impartial observer. To a large degree, the print media has become an interested party, a player, and a constituent of goverment, effectively shirking its duty as the fourth estate. The confluence of major media and academic instiutions may have an impact a great as the military/industrial complex so discussed in the nineteen-fifties.

That the media outlets are increasinly supplemented by the web may be a testiment to consumer dissatisfaction. A hopeful thought, which first came to mind in response to the Commissar’s post The Blogsphere Needs A Bar Mitzvah, is that the bloggers can be the counterweight to the elite media and al-Jazeera, as the millions of new hits generated by the death of Nick Berg demonstrates. In this manner, the market will censor the media.

Demosophia notes It’s almost a given that it would develop a herd mentality. The effect of major media censorship would be to slow down the propagation of a highly distorted news pattern, and it’s the very weight that we give “big media” that provides that power to distort.

Adam Khan seems to agree: Hating America is now a multi-billion dollar industry and its value chain–from school teachers and college professors to Hollywood to the music industry to opinion columnists–must be countered. Only this will put an end to the endless conspiracy theories about America and, truth be told, that is what some on the Left fear and that is why they are trying so hard to sabotage the mission in Iraq.

The whole discussion of fundamental issues is of course an imperial decree from Emperor Misha I who started the whole thing by defending a uniform standard of free speech when he said: Well, in a FREE society, the only proper answer is: NOTHING. I don’t give a shit how stupid, wrong or just plain ignorant the kid’s poem is, she has a G-d given right to write it and mean it. But not at THIS school. Oh no. Turns out that the principal learned his lessons REAL well when he studied fascism. Learned how to implement it, that is.

For my view of the importance of a free press in a democracy, here is an article.

My article in The Arab News in Saudi Arabia.

Update: It is also appearing today in the Yemen Times.

Arab Media Accuse US of Exploiting Berg Murder

CAIRO, 14 May 2004 — The Arab world has denounced the on-camera beheading of an American civilian, in part because the murder allowed the United States to deflect public attention from its abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

“Whose payroll are these murderers acting upon?” the Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar charged yesterday in the caption beneath a photograph taken from video footage showing telecommunications technicians Nick Berg sitting in front of his kidnappers moments before his death.

The tape “resulted in a sharp change in public opinion with American officials rushing to take advantage of the incident to reduce pressures on the US administration from the scandal of prisoners’ abuse,” Al-Akhbar said.The article continues.

Reuters: Hizbollah said Berg’s killing had diverted the world’s gaze from an escalating furor over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by occupation soldiers.

“The timing of this act that overshadowed the scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in occupation forces prisons is suspect timing that aims to serve the American administration and occupation forces in Iraq and present excuses and pretexts for their inhumane practices against Iraqi detainees.”

A Breach of Law at Abu Ghraib

In Iraq, the US strives to implement a political system based on the idea that pluralism and equality among humans is correct and that states are obligated to provide protections to all their citizens. The foundations of democracy include an unmolested media, a robust civil society, and majority affirmation of minority rights. The abuses at Abu Ghraib demonstrate that a just society also depends on the rule of law.

The international anger generated by the photos of prisoner pyramids is linked in part to the identity of the perpetrators, US soldiers, and the audacity necessary to both preach and torture. Another global response is glee at American shame. Anti-American sentiments have been reinforced and hostility vindicated. Some laud America’s vigorous commitment to human dignity. Others see a double standard, the tyranny of power and a campaign against Muslims. Few opinions have changed.

American women have been defined by a woman leading a naked man on a leash. The persona of the American woman has stepped beyond Baywatch slut to pornographically sadistic bitch. There are no more good wives in America, no longer any loving mothers: one female soldier devoid of dignity has made them all disappear.

The incident is also taken as another reason not to support Iraq. The Iraqis have become symbolic and their suffering necessary to prove a point. The blood of American soldiers and Iraqi police, shed for Iraq and for humanity, has been defiled at Abu Ghraib. “They did not mistreat me in general,” one of the victims, Hyader Sabber Abd, told the New York Times. All the other guards, who he reported were “nice and good people,” are now labeled sadists. The coalition is not expected to grow.

Some Middle Eastern writers have noted if the standard applied by President Bush was applied by all heads of state, a long line of leaders would need to appear, each with a litany of apologies. “Arabs…might reflect on…what it says about their own systems, where such images could only be glimpsed over the carcass of an overthrown regime,” notes Michael Young in the Daily Star. For others, outrage is directed at the media’s silence about torture regularly meted out in other prisons. Kamil Al-Saadoon writing in Sotaliraq believes the Americans prisoners are the lucky ones because “the Arab press becomes full of coverage about them and Arab leaders rush to condemn their treatment.”

United States, as a nation, is furious: according to a recent Washington Times Poll, 90 percent of Americans are concerned, upset or angry about the abuse of Iraqi detainees. Comparison to the standards of other nations is not made. Nor has the American reflex been to seek justification in the identity of the prisoners as murderers of Iraqis and US troops. Had it been Saddam on a leash, the violation of basic norms would have been as unacceptable. Neither the goal of gathering information nor the immolation of civilian contractors in Fallujah is seen as justification for the degradation of the Iraqi prisoners. Zarqawi’s beheading of an American hostage has not elicited calls for vengeance in kind but has strengthened the determination not to descend into barbarism. The small number of American criminals has not blunted American outrage at the system that permitted their actions.

America now understands humiliation. It is not the humiliation of defeat but that of a brutal victor. The complacency and innocence of American self-perception has taken another hit. The cruel behavior toward these detainees has made the accusations of jingoism and arrogance more biting. Accountability and the double standard are both unquestioningly accepted.

The self-flagellation of the US government is broadcast by the US media and legitimized by the US public. Demands by the citizenry, the media, the military, the executive and legislative branches have brought numerous investigation of both the individuals and the system. “People will be brought to justice,” President Bush has told the world.

The inability of Iraqi detainees to gain family access and the lack of due process are being questioned. The limitation of detainee rights is getting a hard look, as is the treatment of all US prisoners. These actions, more than apologies, have redeemed some American dignity as will the trials and reforms.

At Abu Ghraib, evil showed an American face. It is the same evil the US is bleeding to oppose in the War on Terror: the evil that some are less, that all are not equal, that a shared humanity is not the primary identity. The myth of liberal values alone as a defense against corruption has been dispelled. All societies have criminals. Without the enforcement of law, regard for human life can diminish to the point that men become toys.

Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba told the Senate Armed Services Committee that in his investigation he has documented a “failure in leadership … from
the brigade commander on down” at Abu Ghraib. He also cited the lack of training and supervision at the prison. “I believe that they did it on their own volition,” the general noted. “We didn’t find any order whatsoever … written or otherwise, that directed them to do what they did.” The breach of law is made more egregious when committed by those sworn to uphold it.

In the last fifty years the US has codified and implemented functional equality among various domestic groups; abuses and discrimination still occur and are vigorously prosecuted. The importance of humane standards, deviated from in a prison in Iraq, has been loudly reaffirmed by the US. America has changed for the better, as it has many times before, because it has disgusted itself. The path to a more perfect union runs through Abu Ghraib.

Works Cited

http://www.sotaliraq.com/thenewiraq/article_2004_05_6_0716k67856.html

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=3285

Yemen is perhaps one of the few countries of the world where children constitute the majority of beggars and street sellers. In urban areas, children work in stores and workshops, sell goods on the streets, and beg.
In fact, begging in the capital Sana’a is largely carried out by children. There are about 7,000 begging children in the city, and the economic crisis within the country and lack of social security benefits into children, force many families to push their children for begging.
I believe it is about time that we call upon international community to help assist the country rid itself of this evil. We are committed, as part of the civil society to provide all the help we can to expose this phenomenon and seek solutions.

The Daily Star in Lebanon contains the following editorial: As Arabs examine the photographs from Abu Ghraib and read about American misconduct there, they might reflect less on what this says about the US, which usually ponders its worst excesses, than what it says about their own systems, where such images could only have been glimpsed over the carcass of an overthrown regime.

(Some of the sentiments contained here echos those translated below.)

Translation of Arabic article “The lucky ones who got the taste of American whipping”
by Kamil Al-Saadoon, on Sotaliraq.com (7th May 2004)
Translation provided by Amir Rahim. Source

These prisoners must be fortunate that the head of the most powerful state in the world expressed his disgust and displeasure at their treatment.

They are lucky that the league of Arab tribes [the Arab League] and the human rights organisations in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, the Sudan and the isles of waq waq [sarcasm] cry for their sake and condemns the ‘American terror’!

They are lucky that an Iraqi minister resigns for their sake, and the Salafi Arab TV channels seek to interview various figures from the dissolved Republican Guard and other middle terrorists who have left this prison barely few days before claiming that they were beaten constantly and yet they are hanging around freely in Mousil, Howaija, Ramadi and Fallujah.

They are lucky that the fascist Arabic and Islamic parties call for their rescue and the Arab press becomes full of coverage about them and Arab leaders rush to condemn their treatment.

The prisoners are lucky that the Islamic Republic [of Iran] gives them attention and condemns American presence in Iraq. And we all know that the Islamic Republic is free from political prisoners like the rest of the Arab world and enjoys democracy better than the democracy of the Americans, except of course from the notorious Ivan prison, as the prisoners there are devious infidels who have to be killed by the order of God.

The prisoners are lucky as we see some of Iraqis rush to show their support and concern on their websites.

What most people don’t know is that occupants of Abu Ghraib are the torturers of the old days and the more recent past. Just over a year no more! They are the people who made us refugees for decades and deprived us from seeing our loved ones.

These prisoners are the ones who buried our friends and relatives alive in the mass graves. They are the ones who rebelled against the liberating Americans and still do. They are the ones who killed our joy about the liberation, and still do. They are the soldiers of the sectarian and fascists Republican Guards who raped women in Iran, Kuwait, Kurdistan and relatives of Iraqi opposition activists.

They are the ones who desecrated and bombed the holy places in Najaf, Karbala and Basrah during the uprising of 1991, who used to destroy the houses of men refusing to do the national service, or anyone suspected of possessing a weapon. They are the ones who gased the Kurds and conducted the Anfal operations.

Today many of them are the followers of Zarqawi and Bin Laden and the followers of the Committee of Religious Kidnappers [nick name for Committee of Religious Scholars].

Many of them are the killers of Iraqi police. Many of them were found with tons of weapons and ammunition in their houses, as well as bomb making equipments. These people are not peaceful doves who fell in the hands of the Americans by chance. These people can’t be compared with the rag tag army of Muqtada Al-Sadr.

What is good is that our people showed that they don’t care about such event. Because many of our people have already passed through worse prisons and still carry marks of torture. Our people who suffered from the perverted few under the sectarian chauvinistic rule of Saddam, did not take this claptrap about the American abuse seriously. Because they know that this is not much for those criminals who, if they were released today, would go back to bombing schools, bridges factories and killing of innocents.

What I am most concerned is that the Americans may intend to release these criminals before handing over power. God knows what would they do if they are released now, and what positions would they take. Who would then guarantee that the mass graves will not return again?

In six months in prisons, Hyader Sabbar Abd said most American soldiers had treated him well and with respect. “most of the time, they wouldn’t even say ’shut up,’ “he said. He stayed at the military prison in Un Qasr for three months and four days where he was treated “very good.” “There was no problem. The American guards were nice and good people.” After he was transferred to Abu Ghraib, after a fight in the yard, he was moved to the “hard side” and abused for ten days. Two weeks later an American military investigator came to visit him, showed him the pictures and urged him to make a statement against the military police who mistreated him. He said “Don’t be afraid. Tell us what happened, we are on your side.” Mr Abd says “The Americans did not mistreat me in general. But these people must be tried.” He thinks they must have been drunk. “The Americans,” he says “got rid of Saddam Hussain. They told us about freedom and democracy. We are happy about that. Then this man did this to the seven of us. I am asking: Is that democracy? Is that freedom?” (condensed from NYT)

President Bush appearing on Arabic TV stations yesterday affirmed the American disgust at the perverted actions of these soldiers and assured that the crimes would be fully investigated and punished. In doing so, he set a standard by which citizens may judge the accountability of their own prison apparatus in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

The pictures are shocking because these are Americans engaged in prisoner abuse. Held to a much higher standard by themselves and the world, the humane US military functions on strict command and control, as well as on the independent altruism of its members. When command breaks down, altruism alone in this instance was not enough to ensure the basic rights of these seven prisoners. Rumsfeld squirming on C-span tomorrow does not have the option of saying: I didn’t know. It’s his job to know.

“Those mistakes will be investigated, and people will be brought to justice,” President Bush said. “We’re an open society. We’re a society that is willing to investigate, fully investigate, in this case, what took place in that prison….That stands in stark contrast to life under Saddam Hussein,” he said. “His trained torturers were never brought to justice under his regime. There were no investigations about mistreatment of people. There will be investigations. People will be brought to justice.” As additional alligations and news of homicides are released, the question of when justice is applied becomes relevant: at the first inkling or when it is inescapable?

Robert Spencer’s article at Front Page Magazine Why They Hate Us explores the issue in the wider perspective of the jihadii movement. The Commissar discusses the gleeful international condemnations and the longer term ramifications.

Jason points out an informative article on the guards, noting Specialist Graner was involved in a bitter divorce. In court papers, his wife, Staci, accused him of beating her, threatening her with guns, stalking her after they separated in 1997 and breaking into her home. Since 1997, local judges have issued at least three orders of protection against him, records show.

In another description of an alleged abuse of power, Morality and the Middle East predicts a postitive impact: What this episode has done is open up the public debate about torture. With Clerics threatening US Troops, one would hope that they will also start threatening Arab regimes in the same breath. Once the Arabic people realize that the world listens when torture is alleged, maybe they will hold their regimes accountable as well.

such a generic term.

Throughout the world, humans are stolen and sold into a life of bondage. Whether for the sex trade, labor, or body parts, it occurs daily to humans like us.

In Afghansistan, women and children are kidnapped for both the international and domestic markets. Approximately 750 Afghan children have ended up in Saudi Arabia in past years, 250 of whom were repatriated last year. Children are often used for street begging or child labor, and they have sometimes been sold or sent with the consent of their parents, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has said. Body parts are another end use for stolen children.