Just another dent in the damage…

There seems to be a lot of stuff flying around at the moment about what the Noughties will be remembered for. What has happened in the last decade that will make it stand out from other decades? Well…

In general:

9/11?
The ‘War on Terror’ (i.e. two unjustified unending wars)?
America’s first black President?
Iran’s disputed elections?
The Large Hadron Collider?
The horrific Mumbai terror attacks?
The death of Michael Jackson?
Global warming?
Google?
The Indian Ocean tsunami?
Swine flu?

(notice a theme?)

Personally:

A whole load a shit and not so much shit.

This week’s Channel 4 Dispatches focused on piecing together the horrific terrorist attacks that hit Mumbai last November. It is incredibly detailed in its tracking of the young terrorists’ movements and their communications with their ‘commanders’ in Pakistan, featuring original voice recordings of mobile interceptions, amateur video footage and CCTV, interviews with eye-witnesses and news coverage of the time.

It’s pretty difficult to watch given the inclusion of extremely graphic images depicting the carnage that left at least 173 dead and a further 308 injured but an excellent documentary nonetheless. They’ve done remarkably well in reconstructing the group’s movements across the city and collating detailed descriptions of the plot that took the city of Mumbai hostage for three days.

It makes me question what the Indian authorities were doing at the time during these intercepted telephone conversations, was there contact with Pakistani administration? Were they able to trace the calls to find any further information out about the ‘controllers’? What has been/is being done to identify the leaders of the mob and how will Lashkar-e-Taiba be held accountable? What is to come of the Kasab trial (the sole surviving terrorist caught by the Indian forces and currently held in custody) given that on May 6th he pleaded not guilty to 86 charges? Surely there is enough evidence here which says otherwise?

And finally was it really appropriate for the Dispatches team to end the documentary with the ‘controller’s’ message to the media? – ‘this was just the trailer. wait for the rest of the film’.

There are 28 days left on the 4oD platform to catch-up or see Youtube’s five part break down:

• Part 1;
• Part 2;
• Part 3;
• Part 4;
• Part 5.

If you’re still not convinced though have a quick peek at this Channel 4 News report for a taster:

I’ve been wanting to write something about the rise in horrific acid attacks for some time but it’s just so difficult. The stories I read are heart-breaking. One particular story I read today is about an Iranian woman called Ameneh Bahrami, a victim of a vicious acid attack in 2004.

In all honesty though I don’t know what angers me more, the fact that this awful thing happen to her or the fact that she is battling to punish her attacker with the acid treatment. Yes you read correctly, she is willing to condone the blinding of Majid Movahedi with acid under a court order. A blatant violation of basic human rights! She says “if I don’t do this and there is another acid attack, I will never forgive myself for as long as I live” but hang on a minute two wrongs don’t make right. I know there’s a lot of people who’d suggest ‘an eye for an eye’ serves as some kind of justice (it certainly does in Sharia Law). but seriously people, you can accept pouring acid into some-one’s eyes is some kind of redemption! She is making a decision to accept the use of acid to disfigure Movahedi and so surely she’d never be able to forgive herself for that either for as long as she lives.

I obviously agree that this man should be punished, left to rot in a cell somewhere for a very long time but come on. Ameneh knows first hand what it’s like to have acid poured all over her, the pain she suffered I’m sure still plays on her mind day-in-day out, the surgeries shes needed and her recovery would certainly have broken her spirit yet to want to condemn someone else to this kind of treatment is unfounded, it’s completely absurd and it frightens me much more than the initial attack.

The Progression Women’s Association is an NGO based in Pakistan ‘fighting against the horror of violence against women’ and Shabnaz Bokhari is a remarkable woman. We need more of these!! There is also The Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (no website), a voluntary organisation in Southern India striving to help victims of acid attack. Whilst alls I can do is raise awareness, these women risk their lives to speak out and I applaud their courage.

So in three weeks time I’ll be arriving in Mumbai!

Eleven mintues, seven bombs, one hundred and eighty three dead and seven hundred and fourteen injured (so far ) - SHIT. This is bad bad news only four days after the anniversary of 7/7. Already fingers are pointing to Islamic militants and Muslim fundamentalists operating in Kashmir but responsibility is yet to be claimed.

Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has announced.

Read More

God 1:Satan nil!

UPDATE 09/06/06:

I just read that the two 500lbs bombs dropped on Zarqawi’s safe house DID NOT instantly kill him! Wow. He apparently died on a stretcher he’d been lifted onto by Iraqi police after muttering ’something indistinguishable and short’.

What the hell is wrong with these people!! Is this what Bush/Blair envisioned when fighting a ‘war on terror?’ Is this how they intended to free the Iraqi people of Saddam Hussein’s regime? When disgusting images such as these get released to the media it begs the question — why on Earth has there been so much uproar/violence/death/racial hatred/Islamophobia concerning a dozen satirical cartoons?

A statement from the SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) says “The extent of abuse shown in the photos suggests that the torture and abuse that occurred at Abu Gharaib in 2004 is much worse than is currently understood.” No kidding, glad they cleared that one up.

From Lenin:

How many prisoners were tortured, sexually humiliated and killed? How many died from having their chest crushed and ribs snapped like Manadel al-Jamadi? How many continue to be tortured and murdered in Bagram, Guantanamo and the other torture centres in America’s global gulag? And since when was it sufficient to say “we don’t want these pictures of our wrongdoing released in case it stirs anger in The Muslim World?” Should it not arouse anger? And much else besides?

Are these images representative of the US-led occupation? I wonder, too just how many prisoners have been tortured, sexually humiliated and subsquently killed. Oh wait, that’s our ‘human right’ as ‘westerners’ isn’t it? To take away the rights of others i.e. non-westerners?

…a ballet dancer!

Hamas thinks when Palestinian chilidren grow up they should want to be terrorists!!!

The children’s magazine named Fatah — Arabic for the Muslim who conquers the Kufir States — in its last two issues carried an illustrated story about the heroism of a very young but courageous Palestinian child, who is determined to be a jihad fighter like his older brothers.