Habib Siddiqui

  Tens of thousands protested against the skyrocketing cost of living and against Macron in France October 16, led by left-wing politician Jean Luc Melenchon, but there were few front page or top-of-the hour headlines in the U.S. Huge protests occurred in Rome the same day to demand an end to Italy’s involvement in NATO, but no coverage on the west side of the Atlantic. Thousands protesting in Paris October 22 against NATO, but little notice in North America. Massive protests against NATO and inflation due to sanctions on Russian energy in France, Germany and Austria in September, but little news of it here in the heart of the empire. German police beat citizens protesting energy shortages and record-high inflation, both due to Russia sanctions, the week of October 17, but that was not covered in the USA. Seventy thousand Czechs protested in Prague September 3 against NATO involvement in Ukraine, demanding gas from Russia (before some mysterious imperial somebody with means and mot...

  Much mirth is expressed over President Joe Biden   mispronouncing the new Prime Minister’s   name as “Rashee Sanook”. Many see this as showing how the merry-go-round of British leaders has confused the rest of the world. Some take up the opportunity to sideswipe Biden, saying that he was pretty confused to begin with. I doubt if it matters that much: world leaders tend to know surprisingly little about allied and hostile states because they single-mindedly focus on their own domestic politics. Biden’s attention will be fixed these days on the midterm congressional elections and his own prospects in the presidential election of 2024. More important for Rishi Sunak will be the real standing of Britain, regardless of name recognition or lack of it. A telling but negative omen about his abilities is perhaps not receiving enough attention because of the wave of relief that Liz Truss has gone from Downing Street and Boris Johnson is not going to re-enter it. There is  up...

  Amnesty International  has applauded the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing for recognising that   Israel  is committing the crime of "apartheid" against Palestinians in a damning report released on Friday.  Special Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal presented an "Adequate Housing" report to the UN General Assembly which condemned Israel for overseeing an "institutionalised regime of systematic racial oppression and discrimination against the  people of Palestine" .  The report, which compared the forcible transfer of Palestinians to the  Syrian  regime’s destruction of civilian homes, concluded that Israel’s routine abuse - including forced evictions and illegal demolitions - amounts to "the crime against humanity of apartheid".  "Israel authorities’ domination and control of the Palestinian population, including through discriminatory land, planning and housing policies, is well documented, and extends to Palestini...

  by  Andrew P. Napolitano   Posted on October 31, 2022 Last week, the government announced that it does not want to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four of his colleagues whom it claims are the remaining conspirators of the attacks on 9/11. All five are awaiting trial at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The allegations are that these five conspired to commit mass murder, a capital offense. Even though conspiracy is not a war crime, the feds are planning to try these defendants before a military tribunal under the rules utilized in federal criminal trials. All five were detained from around 2003 to 2006 at CIA black sites, where they were kept in solitary confinement and egregiously tortured. After the CIA torture was concluded, the five were transferred to military custody at Gitmo in 2006. There, the tortures resumed until FBI agents arrived to interrogate them. For all of its faults in other cases, the FBI put a stop to the military torture and solitary conf...

  by Dave DeCamp   Posted on October 30, 2022 Categories News Tags Russia ,  Turkey ,  Ukraine Russia has pulled out of a Turkey and UN-brokered deal that allowed grain exports to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports in response to a drone attack against the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. In an attempt to revive the deal, the Turkish Defense Ministry said that the Turkish defense minister, Hulusi Akar,  is speaking with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts. Since the deal was signed in July, grain shipments have been overseen by a coordination center in Istanbul, which is stationed by personnel from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN. The agreement had been a success before its suspension, with over 9 million tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs shipped out of Ukraine since its signing. Turkey said the Russian personnel will remain at the center but said no grain will be moving out of Ukraine’s ports. “The Russian personnel of the Joint Coordination Center is ...

Saifullah Paracha, 75, returns to Pakistan after being held, but never charged, over suspected al-Qaida ties Saifullah Paracha pictured at the Guantánamo Bay detention centre.  Photograph: AP Haroon Janjua  in Islamabad and agency Sat 29 Oct 2022 10.40 EDT A 75-year-old Pakistani man who was the oldest prisoner at the  Guantánamo Bay  detention centre, has been released and returned home, the foreign ministry in Islamabad said. Saifullah Paracha was reunited with his family after more than 17 years in custody at the US base in Cuba, it said. Paracha had been held since 2003 on suspicion of having links with al-Qaida, but was never charged with a crime. He was notified that his release had been approved in May 2021 having been cleared by the prisoner review board, along with two other men, in November 2020. As is customary, the notification did not provide detailed reasons for the decision and concluded only that Paracha was “not a continuing threat” to the US, accord...