Stains

Stains of bloody hands on a rusty gate

Broken iron bars remind me of broken dreams

Eyebrows of a goddess moving and scratching the sky

The sky bleeds stars and fallen angels

The smell of wet sand mixed with smashed roses enchants the scene

And there you are

Out of my deepest soul inquisitions

Staring at me with lust of wolves

While the trees play an old symphony of glory

The curtain falls down along with a mad sound of laughter

Time is frozen

And so is everything

By Moustapha Yassine, Lebanon 2006

US launches air strike in Somalia

The US has carried out unilateral attacks using an AC-130 gunship on what it considers are al-Qaeda suspects in a village in southern Somalia on Monday night.

CNN, NBC and CBS first reported the military action. Citing Pentagon officials, CBS said the targets included the senior al-Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al-Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. AP
The Somalia’s interim Deputy Prime Minister Hussain Aideed, said concerning the raid that the US "have our full support for the attacks", the Associated Press news agency reported.

We can see the US has attacked another poor country in its global so called war on terror. Any government set up as an alternative or opposing Western intentions is soon labeled as terrorists and then subsequently attacked.

The UIC (Union of Islamic Courts) had bought law and order to many parts of Somalia after 15 years of lawlessness. The UIC also drove out War Lords that were over running Mogadishu, the war lords were supported by the interim government. The majority of people were happy with the rule of the UIC; the people of Somalia had suffered as a result of corrupt leaders supported by the interim government.

The American and Ethiopian backed interim government sought the aid of Ethiopian troops to fight out the UIC earlier this month. Ethiopian troops entered Somalia and used air strikes, tanks and Somalia’s government troops to drive out the UIC fighters from UIC controlled areas.
Though the UIC had been accused of links to Al-Qaeda, but its leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was viewed as a moderate and was from an anti-fundamentalist Sufi group which belongs to the Ahl Sunnah wal jama'ah school of thought in Islam. This is opposed to the Saudi Wahabi school of thought that Al-Qaeda is linked to. The UIC had no proven links to Al-Qaeda, only that they opposed the American backed interim government. This seems to have been enough of a reason for the US to link the UIC to Al-Qaeda.

Actions such as the attack on Somalia can only increase bad feeling towards the US and heighten the risk of terrorism not diminish it. As the war on terror has now moved to the horn of Africa there seems to be no end to the unilateral actions that the US is prepared to take in its quest for world domination.

Links to this story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6243459.stm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/068C7A74-4D2A-4E6F-8546-B6E062C1AFC2.htm

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SOMALIA?SITE=PASTR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://www.sweeble.com/story/view/1309

by Michael Olson

ISLAMIC RELIEF’S OFFICES IN ACEH BURNED.

25^th December 2006. Islamic Relief’s offices in Meulaboh, West Aceh, Indonesia have been burned by local people. Motives for the attack appear to be accusations that Islamic Relief has been collaborating too closely with the Indonesian government in its aid programmes in Aceh. Islamic Relief’s largest operations in Meulaboh were in partnership with the Indonesian government’s Education and Health Ministries: Three new schools with the former and a clinic with the latter. . Islamic Relief’s other partners in numerous large scale projects in Aceh are CAFOD (a Catholic Charity) and the DEC (British government coordinated collective of British based Agencies, of which Islamic relief is the only “Islamic” one).

In Achinese eyes the Indonesian government is more closely associated to robbery, graft and corruption in Aceh than it is with reconstruction or in any way providing humanitarian aid to the Achinese. For decades the Achinese people’s experience of the Indonesian government has been from the receiving end of a military iron fist.

Local Achinese claim that this ostensibly Islamic organization has not sought to understand the particular problems and circumstances of their brothers in faith, when designing its Aid and reconstruction projects but instead chose to collaborate with Aceh’s oppressors. Other grievances are than very few Achinese have been employed by Islamic relief’s considerable operation. Their offices in Meulaboh are mainly staffed by Javanese.

Coming on the second anniversary of the tsunami disaster of Dec 26^th 2004, those that perpetrated the burning appear to have sought to voice their grievances against the Agency in as clear and public way as possible. Feelings are running increasingly high against the Jakarta Government and the Javanese since the Peace Agreement between GAM and the Central government in August 2005, as people are freer to voice their opinions and the brutal treatment of the Achinese by the TNI (Indonesian Army). Are viewed in retrospect. Local feelings are that Islamic Relief has betrayed their best interests and have contributed less to their gain than to their loss and disadvantage. In any case it looks as if Islamic Relief will have to re-examine its Aid policies in Aceh.

Video Of Saddam Hanging

Officials taunted Saddam on the gallows

After he falls through the trap, abruptly cut off in his recitation of the Muslim profession of faith, someone in the room cries "The tyrant has fallen!" and the film shows the 69-year-old former strongman swinging on the rope, his eyes open and his neck twisted at a 90-degree angle to his right.

WARNING

Some viewers may find the video disturbing. It should only be watched by a mature audience.

12/30/06 Runtime 3 Minutes

Saddam Execution

Saddam Hussein received so called ‘justice’ as he was executed on the 30^th December 2006 just before the dawn prayer. The former president of Iraq, 69, was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November over the killings of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s. We saw the video of him taken to the gallows, the noose placed around his neck we all know what happens next.

Saddam Hussein had already seen his two sons killed by the Americans and now it was his turn to die. The video shows people taunting him, “God damn you” a guard said, “to Hell” someone is heard saying, another man says “Long live Muhammed Baqir al-Sadr” the uncle of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Saddam replies questioning their bravery. Saddam Hussein recites the article of faith “There is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammed is the messenger of God. There is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammed...” the trap doors open and the former president is executed.

Amnesty International called it an unfair trial, a trial which saw three people to be assassinated including Saddam Hussein’s defense lawyer. There was political interference during the trial undermining the independence and impartiality of the court which caused the first presiding judge to resign.

This is still considered a fair trial by the coalition just as long as the person being tried is an enemy of the West. The trial is only fair if the verdict given is what the American administration wants it to be. Is this justice?

The court was set up by the Americans, the Iraqi government is in place because of the Americans, the trial took place in Iraq because of the Americans, and the death sentence was from the Americans. This is obviously considered justice, dished out American style.

News media across Britain carried headlines of the former Iraqi presidents execution as an execution for his ‘crimes against humanity’. Yet there are many who carry out such crimes, but we do not see them bought to justice. We are witnessing history being written before our very eyes. Those who write history are the ones that have the power to manipulate it to agree with their world view. We are oblivious to the many ‘crimes against humanity’ America and Britain have committed. Due to the illegal war with Iraq we have over six hundred thousand dead civilians, women and children. The very people the so called coalition claimed it was going to help have paid with their lives at the hands of the ‘liberators’.

This dictator who at one time was an ally of the west, who we supplied with weapons, who we supported covertly as he used chemical weapons against Iran, who we turned a blind eye to as he massacred the Kurds. The very same man who we built up was finally executed, thanks to Iraqi ‘justice’.

Saddam Hussein was used to fight Iran in an attempt to weaken the Islamic Republic. The Arab world supported his as they feared the Shia threat, but they turned their backs on him when he invaded Kuwait. The leaders of the Arab world saw it a step to far and a threat to their own leadership.

But it was America that gave Saddam Hussein the green light for the invasion of Kuwait via Ambassador Gilaspie. When discussing the issue with the former President regarding his dispute with Kuwait, she said “We have no opinion on your Arab - Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary (of State James) Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960's, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America.”

When the Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait the Western powers were quick to react, we showed fake satellite images to Saudi Arabia, of Iraqi troops amassing on the border preparing to invade the kingdom. The Saudis gave their support and invited the Americans on to their soil, and so it began. The Osama Bin Ladens were born, angered at the presence of American troops so close to the Muslim sanctuaries of Mecca and Medina. The entire Muslim world saw the extent of the corruption of the house of Saud, supporting the Americans in their quest for oil.

The embargo which affected the Iraqi people, depriving them of essential medicine, was due to the west. After the first gulf war over half a million children died because of the depleted uranium we used to fight this dirty war. If we are to claim the moral high ground and begin executing people for ‘crimes against humanity’ then let us begin with Bush and Blair for their hand in the murder and constructive chaos of Iraq. Let us hang the Israeli leadership for the death of the Palestinian civilians and policies of apartheid and for their war crimes in Lebanon. Did we forget about Pinochet? Once praised by Margaret Thatcher. The hypocrisy is sickening, the truth is scarce.

With Saddam Hussein’s death comes an assurance to the West that the knowledge of the extent of Western support over the years has died with the former President of Iraq. But what the West fails to realize is that unlike the people of Britain and America the people of the rest of the world do not have short memories. The Muslim world will remember that the execution took place on Eid al-Adha, they will remember it was due to the Americans, an insult to Muslims around the world. Saddam Hussein had his final show, he battled in the court, and he put on a performance that the Arab and Muslim world witnessed. After the pictures of him captured by the Americans and undergoing a humiliating medical were broadcast across the world, the trial inadvertently helped restore his image as a strong and outspoken leader.

The blood bath will continue. Congratulations are in order for the ‘liberators’. Well done for the rape of a country, well done for your constructive chaos, well done for making those in Israel feel slightly more at ease. The corporations are still filling their pockets; the revenues of the oil and gas taken from Iraq are not going towards the Iraqi people. Yet again America has achieved its two main objectives 1) carrying out Israel’s foreign policy 2) Securing Iraq’s oil and gas supplies. Enjoy the blood bath.

By Michael Olson