A View From The Left-WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

WARS ABROAD, WARS AT HOME

 

AMERICA REVISITS THE DARK SIDE:

Candidates Compete to Promise the Most Torture and Slaughter

From the look of the presidential campaign, war crimes are back on the American agenda. We really shouldn’t be surprised, because American officials got away with it last time -- and in the case of the drone wars continue to get away with it today. Still, there’s nothing like the heady combination of a “populist” Republican race for the presidency and a national hysteria over terrorism to make Americans want to reach for those “enhanced interrogation techniques.”  … In August 2014, when President Obama finally admitted that “we tortured some folks,” he added a warning. The recent history of U.S. torture, he said, “needs to be understood and accepted. We have to as a country take responsibility for that so hopefully we don’t do it again in the future.” By pinning the responsibility for torture on all of us “as a country,” Obama avoided holding any of the actual perpetrators to account.   More

 

How Media Turned Right-Wing Extremists Into Peaceful 'Rancher's Rights Protesters'

Armed far-right anti-government militants occupied a federal building in Oregon late on January 2 and announced they would remain there indefinitely. Although the armed occupation was ostensibly organized to protest the imprisonment of ranchers on arson charges, the ultra-conservative militants made it clear from the beginning that they were willing to use violence, and hoped to inspire a larger anti-government uprising.  Major US media outlets ignored these basic facts, nevertheless, instead characterizing the far-right militants as peaceful “ranchers’ rights protesters” and “activists.”   More

 

The racial double standard at the heart of the new Bundy family standoff

At least 150 armed white men have seized control of a federal building outside of Burns, Oregon. They are led by a cadre which includes Ammon and Ryan Bundy. They are the sons of Cliven Bundy, the rancher who led a successful armed rebellion against federal law enforcement officers in Nevada last year. Since that event, Ammon and Ryan Bundy have been traveling the United States, meeting with other white “militia” groups, and inciting violence against the federal government… African-American protesters in Ferguson were met with lethal rounds from police, faced down by snipers, were bludgeoned with nightsticks, shot with rubber and wooden bullets, spied upon by drones, and shown the full range of power that is capable of being summoned by America’s hyper-militarized police forces. The protesters in Ferguson were also confronted by the National Guard—a step that the governor of Oregon has so far not taken in order to neutralize the estimated 150 armed white men who are making terrorist threats and engaging in armed insurrection in his state.  More

 

GOING TO EXTREMES:

The extremism behind the growing movement to seize America’s public lands

Last week, armed members of the Oath Keepers and other militias arrived at a mine in Montana, posting “no trespassing” signs on public land. The operation is the latest in a string of standoffs involving extremist groups that refuse to recognize the authority of the U.S. government, including incidents at the Sugar Pine Mine in Oregon and Cliven Bundy’s ranch in Nevada.  A new investigation by the non-partisan watchdog Center for Western Priorities has uncovered wide-ranging ties between those extremist groups and Western legislators involved in a coordinated effort to take our national lands from the American people.   More

 

JESSE JACKSON: Gun control alone can't curb violence

Gun control doesn’t cost much. America has another abiding challenge — the explosive catastrophe of urban poverty — that also goes unmet. The City Observatory, an urban policy think tank in Portland, Ore., reports that the number of high-poverty urban neighborhoods in the nation’s 51 largest cities tripled — to 3,100 — between 1970 and 2010. The number of poor persons living in those areas doubled over those years. The poor are more isolated and concentrated than ever… To deal with our impoverished neighborhoods, it isn’t enough to get rid of the guns. The public squalor of our inner cities has to be addressed: schools modernized, affordable housing built, mass transit supplied, available jobs created. Dealing with entrenched poverty costs real money, but less than we spend on the police, jails, drugs, alcoholism, and chronic illness — the dysfunction that comes from poverty.    More

 

Why Is the US Deporting Refugee Families?

The White House rang in the New Year by slamming the gates on refugee families seeking sanctuary. Immigration and Customs Enforcementm (ICE) announced quietly, in the midst of the holiday break, that it would begin raiding and deporting Central American families who have failed to qualify for asylum. Their impending exile, according to ICE, is a matter of upholding rule of law, apparently to make it clear that the United States takes border control seriously and seeks to somehow deter mass migration.  The law the Obama administration is following, immigrant advocates say, runs counter to the higher mandate the White House should be abiding by. International humanitarian law actually dictates that these desperate parents and children be granted protection from the persecution and violence they have fled in their home countries.   More

 

Add your name to Open Letter to Pres. Obama –

STOP DEPORTING CENTRAL AMERICAN FAMILIES

Recent news reports revealed that the Department of Homeland Security plans to hunt down Central American mothers and children who have fled to this country for their lives.  “The adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported."  (Washington Post, 12/23/15)  We, the undersigned -- members of faith communities, medical and legal professionals,  concerned Massachusetts residents -- are profoundly troubled by this move against vulnerable refugee families. While the planned operation is said to target only adults and children who have been ordered removed by an immigration judge, the court system that generates these orders is seriously broken.  Sign here

 

Landmark Settlement in Challenge to NYPD Surveillance of New York Muslims

The ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the CLEAR project at CUNY School of Law filed the suit in 2013. The law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP joined the litigation team soon after. The lawsuit charged that the NYPD mapped Muslim communities and their institutions, sent officers and informants into mosques to monitor innocent religious leaders and congregants, and used other invasive means to spy on Muslims.  "This settlement is a win for New York Muslims and for all New Yorkers, who have a right to be free from discriminatory police surveillance and to practice their religion without stigma or fear." The settlement, which is subject to court approval, imposes a number of important safeguards to ensure the NYPD’s investigative practices are in line with the protections of the Constitution. These include a robust anti-religious-discrimination policy, safeguards to constrain intrusive investigatory practices, a limitation on the use of undercover officers and informants, and — critically — the appointment of an outside civilian representative to ensure all safeguards are followed and enforced.   More