Russian Firms Rush to Buy Anti-Drone Def... Wed Apr 17, 2024 08:58 | Bloomberg
Ukraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva
Turkey Has Sent Ukraine Cluster Munition... Thu Jan 12, 2023 00:26 | Jack Detsch
New Israeli Government Promises to Talk ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 21:13 | Al Majadeen
Russia Training Iranian Pilots Ahead of ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:19 | The Times of Israel
Anti-Empire >>
A Blog About Human Rights
UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights
5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights
Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights
Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights
Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights
Human Rights in Ireland >>
The Scandal of the Thousands Sacked for Wrongthink Thu Apr 18, 2024 19:00 | C.J. Strachan
In the wake of the Cass Report vindicating critics of child gender transition, a workplace survey reveals that millions of British workers may have been sacked for falling foul of woke ideology.
The post The Scandal of the Thousands Sacked for Wrongthink appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Let?s Spare the Environment From the Greens Thu Apr 18, 2024 17:00 | Alan Bunce
From the 3,200 acre solar farm built on prime green belt farmland in Oxford to the 16 million Scottish trees felled to make way for wind farms, somehow we have to save the environment from the greens, says Alan Bunce.
The post Let’s Spare the Environment From the Greens appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Insane World of Intersectional Climate Change Thu Apr 18, 2024 15:00 | Steven Tucker
Why are the mainstream media suddenly desperate to spuriously link climate change to unrelated woke issues like transgenderism? 'Intersectionality' is to blame for the insanity, says Steven Tucker.
The post The Insane World of Intersectional Climate Change appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Electric Car Demand Plunges Across Europe Thu Apr 18, 2024 13:00 | Will Jones
Electric car sales plummeted by 11.3% across Europe last month, rising to 29% in Germany, as demand dried up despite the EU's push to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by the middle of the next decade.
The post Electric Car Demand Plunges Across Europe appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Deadly African Heatwave ?Impossible? Without Climate Change, Claims BBC Thu Apr 18, 2024 11:00 | Sallust
A deadly heatwave in West Africa was "impossible" without climate change, claims the BBC. But read the fine print and you learn that El Niño was the more likely culprit.
The post Deadly African Heatwave “Impossible” Without Climate Change, Claims BBC appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
The cost of war, by Manlio Dinucci Wed Apr 17, 2024 04:12 | en
Angela Merkel and François Hollande's crime against peace, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Apr 16, 2024 06:58 | en
Iranian response to attack on its consulate in Damascus could lead to wider warf... Fri Apr 12, 2024 13:36 | en
Is the possibility of a World War real?, by Serge Marchand , Thierry Meyssan Tue Apr 09, 2024 08:06 | en
Netanyahu's Masada syndrome and the UN report by Francesca Albanese, by Alfredo ... Sun Apr 07, 2024 07:53 | en
Voltaire Network >>
dublin |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
Saturday January 12, 2008 20:23
by Seán Ryan
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13.
I did a quick check of the ages of the protesters at the embassy yesterday and the youngest person there was 38! I didn't count the children that had come with parents. The oldest protester was in his 70's. I assume that the youngsters were at College/ Work or whatever. We waited in vain for the usual rant from passers-by of 'get a job' ( as most of those there were retired) but it never came.
Last Years Banner - amended
Fintan Does His Thing
On Vigil
Braving The Cold
and the night started to draw in, the rush hour traffic increased. Fintan ensured the car horns kept beeping in support. One parent walking his young son home from school was faced with an awkward question when the boy spotted Colm kneeling in his orange suit. 'Daddy, why is the man dressed like that?' The Father had to explain about Guantanamo and that prisoners were kept there. The child came back with that question that still hasn't been answered - 'But why?'
Colm
Line Up
Crescent Moon Above
Collecting Signatures
Well done to everyone who turned out to protest at the continuing use of the US military's Guantanamo base for the torture of people suspected of being enemies of the US. It is heartening to see such dedicated people highlighting the plight of those detained indefinitely by the US military at this most secretive base.
Well done to Colm Roddy who is such a dedicated activist and who I frequently see manning a protest outside Leinster House and letting the politicians know what he thinks of their decision to permit the US military's use of Shannon Airport as a stopover whilst en route to perpetrate an illegal war.
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch, Mr. Bush has looked into his crystal ball and has declared to himself that when the history books are written he predicts his decision to invade Iraq will be viewed as a victory for the USA - it would indeed be funny if such a proclamation had not such bloody serious implications for peace and stability in the Middle East, could someone tell him to actually think before he speaks, what a lúdramán!
Great report and wonderful to see the images. Well done to all involved.
Here is my report of our action in Warsaw:
http://cia.bzzz.net/international_day_of_action_to_clos...th_08
Reports
www.witnesstorture.org
Some Visuals of NVDA at Supreme Court
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcivey/sets/72157603695361494/
More visuals, updates and reports on
www.witnesstorture.org
I'd rather be in Guantanamo, than in the care of of Al Qaeda. I know just because you oppose one does not mean you support the other. However why are there never any protests outside the Iranian embassies or the Saudi embassy?
I'd be up for a weekly anti-death penalty vigil when they do their weekly executions at the Saudi embassy if you would initiate it Andrew.
Why folks have prioritised the U.S. embassy here is that it is the 6th. annniversary of the Gitmo gulag and CIA rendition (kidnapping)flights are passing through Shannon Airport regularly. You intend to prioritise the shite you're most complicit and ocnnected with. etc etc
Because the Iranians aren't using Shannon Airport as a military base.
We've all been where Andrew's at, trying to assume a balanced perspective in an imbalanced world.
It's hard to get your head round the reality of modern state backed corporate imperialism and its portfolio of resource war. It's distressing to concede that you soaked up the bullshit for so long and then when you see the light to realise that activism is not a black and white arena, complicated as it is by semantics, conspiracy and futility.
What we are witnessing today is the emergence of a pattern leading up to the opening of a century of resource conflict. The struggle is to get the public in the west to realise the implications of our lifestyle, our corporate and political affiliations and of our intellectual naivety.
As for a death penalty campaign... it needs to be universal in character, which would of course lead you back to the US as well as the Saudi Embassy, not to mention of course the uncanny propensity of our own police to accidentally kill those in custody (Terence Wheelock) victims of depression (John Carthy) and of drug addiction (Dean Lyons).
Mistakes will happen but sometimes the pattern is symptomatic of an underlying malaise. The convenient scape-goating of the vulnerable in a society where patronage determines who's in and who's out of the loop, ultimately leads to the death of reason and the acceptance of the farcical, the absurd, the outlandish, as alternatives to truth.
What we have is Paddywhackery and Gombeenism vandalizing the civic and political mindscape of Ireland, while dressed up in sophisticated Celtic
Tiger clothing. But still, it is what it is and is, and is increasingly been seen for what it is.
Take the latest episode in our absurd Tribunals where Bertie - the one time Min of Finance who said he'd chase someone for not declaring €20 - is caught out... Need I go develop the point? And just after the Dail mega-rise debacle, which effectively constituted buying of dissent in advance of the
Mahon Tribunal crisis, telling us in the process all we need to know about the true motives of our political elite: ‘Comfort is a drone zone called Dail Eireann’. Perhaps we could brand it as an alcoholic drink to be consumed during episodes of Dail TV.
Anywhos Andrew welcome to the mind-value game where you get to decide what’s more important your preconceived assumptions or your values. The truth is that right now your trying to get your values to fit into a world-view that’s distorted by vested interests, a world view you’ve downloaded for free from society.
To make sense of your world or of yourself you can either chip away at this world-view or at your values. If you choose the latter you will find that your values become variables to be redefined from place to place from scenario to scenario. And you will find much comfort there and many fair weather friends to boot. But you will never ever find YOURSELF because YOU are not a compromise…. so make sure not to get lost in one.
....but then again "Andrew -none" could just be another contrary fucker!
How many times have you been staging an under resourced underpersoneled demonstration in the street like these good folks outside the embassy here, when someone like Andrew comes up and says "Why aren't you do something else?"
A. "Well sunshine I'm pretty busy trying to sustain this statement against enormous corporate and state interests right now, maybe you could go and do what you just suggested and I'll send you all the supportive vibes I can muster!"
There's a deep confusion amongst such people between being rebelious and merely passive aggressive contrary, between cynicism and wisdom.
Well done! to all who protested against the horrendous torture of so many troops. It is truly remarkable that this is going on, on a day to day basis and that so many are aware of the situation and still refuse to do anything about it.
What is totally sickening is that anyone who dares to speak out in the name of human rights is labelled an agitator with ulterior motives. What has happend to our society, that we are afraid to voice our opinions.
Andrew wrote:
"I'd rather be in Guantanamo, than in the care of of Al Qaeda."
You might also say: "I'd rather eat moss peat than horse manure." We compare good things with other good things, and bad things with other bad things.
And he wrote:
"However why are there never any protests outside the Iranian embassies or the Saudi embassy?"
This raises a few questions:
1. How many countries have Iran and Saudi Arabia invaded since these states were founded in the last century?
2. How many political prisoners has Iran captured in overseas wars, or by abducting them in Germany, Italy or the Balkans?
3. How many Iranian intelligence aircraft registered to shell companies have landed at Shannon since the airport was built?
(Please give registration numbers of recent ones so that Conor Cregan and Ed Horgan can keep an eye out for them.)
4. Why do you thiink there should be protests outside these embassies?
5. When are you going to call one? Put it up on Indymedia events, post a story to Indymedia and send me an e-mail.
NB: Remember to invite Alan Shatter. I never saw him demonstrating outside the Iranian embassy.
Here's a report on a demo criticising the Iranian death penalty, which was held on Dame Steet in July 2006:
Iran Hangs Two Gay Teens: Protest
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/77340
Note the picture of David Norris, and comment that he "spoke exceptionally well."
Note also NO pictures of Alan Shatter. (Ctrl-F Shatter finds nothing. Zip. Nada. Dada ar bith.) Where were you, Alan?
---
Speaking in Abu Dhabi yesterday, George W. Bush said:
“Iran is today the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. It sends millions of dollars to extremists around the world, while its own people suffer… at home.’’
Meanwhile, President Ahmadinejad might make a simple substitution and make the same accusation against the United States:
“The US is today the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. It sends millions of dollars to extremists around the world, while its own people suffer… at home.’’
For example, the United States has been fickle in its support of a variety of unlawful militias in Iraq. In recent months, the United States has been backing unlawful Sunni militias in Anbar province. And these militias have inflicted great violence on the civilian population:
American-backed killer militias strut across Iraq
November 25, 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/articl...4.ece
So, for supporting extremists around the world, Bush need look no further than the Pentagon.
---
Andrew, maybe you can understand this as a matter of friendhip. We demand more from our friends. We are embarrassed by the bad behaviour of our friends in breaching the values we hold most dear. We look to our friends for leadership in promoting freedom, justice and peace. We are being disappointed, but we go on asking our friends to set the standard. Not to sink to the standard of Al-Qaeda, as your comparison above indicates, but to set a high standard and strive to reach it.
Best,
Coilín.