Forty years ago, on April 3, 1969, more than 800 people met in Stanford University’s Dinkelspiel Auditorium to form what became known as the April Third Movement (A3M). This movement called upon Stanford and the Stanford Research Institute, which was owned by the university, to halt chemical and biological warfare research, classified research and other programs related to the Vietnam War. The April Third Movement was more than just an activist movement that took place at Stanford. It was part of a national youth movement that mobilized against America’s colonial and atrocious war in Southeast Asia. This movement occurred on university campuses across America, in which students organized sit-ins, teach-ins and rallies, printed flyers and occupied buildings to express moral outrage against and put an end to the war in Vietnam. Through their hard work and passionate organizing, Stanford students were successful in eliminating classified research at Stanford and contributed to the popular movement that ended the Vietnam War. Read the rest of this entry »
Washington Post (Incorrectly) Asserts that Torture Worked
Trying to provide a justification for the effectiveness of torture, the Washington Post published an article, on August 29, called “How a Detainee Became An Asset: Sept. 11 Plotter Cooperated After Waterboarding”. The article’s main argument can summed up in these paragraphs:
“After enduring the CIA’s harshest interrogation methods and spending more than a year in the agency’s secret prisons, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stood before U.S. intelligence officers in a makeshift lecture hall, leading what they called ‘terrorist tutorials.’…
These scenes provide previously unpublicized details about the transformation of the man known to U.S. officials as KSM from an avowed and truculent enemy of the United States into what the CIA called its ‘preeminent source’ on al-Qaeda. This reversal occurred after Mohammed was subjected to simulated drowning and prolonged sleep deprivation, among other harsh interrogation techniques….
[F]or for defenders of waterboarding, the evidence is clear: Mohammed cooperated, and to an extraordinary extent, only when his spirit was broken in the month after his capture March 1, 2003, as the inspector general’s report and other documents released this week indicate.”
Pakistanis see US as biggest threat, says recent poll
A recent Al-Jazeera-Gallup survey in Pakistan (released Sunday, August 9, 2009) revealed that a large majority of the Pakistani public views the United States as the biggest threat to Pakistan. According to the poll, 59% see the U.S. as the greatest threat to Pakistan, while 18% considered India and 11% considered the Taliban to pose the greatest threat. This could be a result of the U.S.’s drone attacks in Pakistan, which have massive civilian casualties, and are opposed by 67% of the Pakistani public.
To view the entire poll, click here.
Here’s the Al-Jazeera article: “Pakistanis see US as biggest threat” by Owen Fay (Al-Jazeera, August 10, 2009).
Immortal Technique freestyle – real hip-hop
This is a great freestyle by rapper Immortal Technique and an example of what real hip-hop is – speaking truth. It’s not like that Soulja Boy crap you hear on the radio and MTV.
Blues African 