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Outsourcing a U.S. war: Ugandans in Iraq
August 24, 2010
Last week the Pentagon proclaimed that the last U.S. combat forces had left Iraq. The U.S. has long outsourced the Iraq occupation to troops from some of the world’s poor nations, and many of the mercenaries due to replace other U.S. troops will also come from those countries, especially from Uganda.
Trial of police torturer Jon Burge: POCC Minister of Information JR interviews POCC Chairman Fred Hampton
July 18, 2010
Former Lt. Jon Burge was equipped with a special unit that included individuals such as Joe “Machine Gun” Gorman, who participated in the assassination of Chairman Fred Hampton and Defense Captain Mark Clark. That is how he got his moniker “Machine Gun.”
Those who would destroy Haiti would destroy all sovereign peoples
March 21, 2010
Haiti, your awesome revolt in 1791 against the revolting barbarity of French enslavement of the Africans was preceded by many revolts of the enslaved African-Haitians beginning as early as 1522. You never accepted that Africans at home and in the Diaspora can be enslaved, can be deprived of their property, liberty and humanity with impunity.
China chides U.S. on rights record
March 17, 2010
The Chinese government responded March 12 to the release of a U.S. human rights report critical of China by issuing its own report criticizing the U.S. human rights record. The report covered issues relating to crime, racial discrimination and poverty and accused the U.S. of using its hegemonic power to continue “trampling” on the sovereignty of other countries while “posing as the world judge of human rights.”
John Prendergast’s selective outrage at African crimes
March 7, 2010
If a person really cared about human suffering – torture, mass rape, pillage, torching of homes with people alive inside, targeted rapes to spread HIV/AIDS, burying people alive, chopping off of limbs – then such a person would condemn these acts wherever they may occur and demand that the perpetrators of the crimes be brought to justice.
Riot at Ely State Prison: It was a battle!
February 14, 2010
This is not my first riot but it was definitely the best. It’s so good to see solidarity in action, to see prisoners of different races and factions coming together like this. We need more of this before we can really start making positive changes in this system!
Haiti on our minds
February 5, 2010
Haiti, once the colonial-era “Pearl of the Antilles” (Caribbean), then the “Mother of Revolutions,” has suffered for nearly two centuries for daring to fight for – and win – its freedom from European colonialism, slavery and plunder. If it hadn’t been bled and exploited for centuries, Haiti would’ve had the wherewithal to protect its people.
Letter to Obama: Bring our troops home now!
December 2, 2009
I am writing to urge you to announce an immediate cease-fire followed by a withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in the fastest way consistent with the safety of our forces. Sadly, war crimes and torture are now committed with your name on them.
Jerry Brown: Drop all charges against Cisco, Free the SF8
October 5, 2009
Once again we are asking for your help with a phone and fax campaign to demand that California Attorney General Jerry Brown drop the charges against Francisco Torres, the last of the San Francisco 8 still facing prosecution. Brown knows there is no case against him. He needs to get the message from people all over the country that we will not give up this just demand.
California’s mean streak, from Native annihilation to Oscar and Lovelle: Ishmael Reed on history
September 7, 2009
Ishmael Reed is one of the most read writers of his generation, along with Toni Morrison and Amiri Baraka, living in America. In 1962, Reed co-founded “East Village Other,” a well known underground publication at the time, and was a member of the Umbra Writers Workshop, which helped to give rise to the Black Arts Movement. He has published nine novels, four collections of poetry, six plays, four collections of essays and a libretto. He currently lives in Oakland, and I approached him one day while he was visiting KPFA’s studios to ask him what he thought about the state of affairs between the police and Oakland’s Black community, with the backdrop of the police murder of Oscar Grant and, in a separate incident, the police murder of Lovelle Mixon, after Mixon allegedly killed four Oakland police officers.
Cynthia McKinney discusses her upcoming Triumph Tour, Aug. 20-24
August 16, 2009
The SF Bay View newspaper is in dire financial straits, and former presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney is bailing us out with her stimulus plan that comes by way of the Triumph Tour through Northern California that is being organized as a series of fundraisers for a very essential media outlet that amplifies the people’s voices in times of need and in times of triumph.
Supervisors’ resolution urges AG Jerry Brown to drop charges against SF 8
June 12, 2009
San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar announced June 8 to 300 people rallying at 850 Bryant that he would introduce a resolution to the Board of Supervisors calling on California Attorney General Jerry Brown to drop the charges against the San Francisco 8. “San Francisco does not tolerate torture,” he said, braving the wrath of the Police Officers Association, who evidently tolerate torture in defense of one of their own.
How can I watch while they strip us of our humanity and not rebel?
March 1, 2009
On Jan. 6, after 27 days of fasting and an incredible effort on the part of the pigs to interfere and frustrate my fast in protest of what has been happening to me and other men being denied medical care, I was all but forced to end it.
Why they fear Eric Holder, why we need him
February 18, 2009
There are those who fear this warrior for justice. They are afraid of the accountability that must be applied to the transgressors, no matter who they are.
The Obama-Nation
February 12, 2009
Will the Obama-Nation become an abomination if it fails to
stop the bombing of nations? From Gaza to Afghanistan, the
American people must take a stand and tell Obama to forge
a better plan to free the land.
Torture at Angola Prison
January 27, 2009
The torture of prisoners in U.S. custody is not only found in military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. If President Obama is serious about ending U.S. support for torture, he can start here in Louisiana.
Why we have to look back
January 19, 2009
This week, I released “Reining in the Imperial Presidency,” a 486-page report detailing the abuses and excesses of the Bush administration and recommending steps to address them.
U.S. police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons
January 16, 2009
The research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice is working on two portable non-lethal weapons that inflict pain from a distance using beams of laser light or microwaves, with the intention of putting them into the hands of police to subdue suspects.
Thirty-five years of isolation, introspection and torture
December 16, 2008
When imprisoned and placed in an isolation unit, you begin to live inside yourself, measuring how you are doing against the challenges that you are confronted by to gauge how well you are getting on.
U.S. and Rwanda to blame for Congo’s human catastrophe
November 14, 2008
I know no honest, informed Congo watchers who doubt that Gen. Laurent Nkunda and his ruthless militia are tools of the U.S. and its African proxy, Rwanda, in the imperial resource war now raging in Eastern Congo.