Starting with Jimmy Dore.
If you missed it, by the way. Hillary Clinton was doing better in the polls than Joe Biden is at this time in 2016. And she lost. Joe may very well lose as well.
If so, don't lie that it was Russia. It was Joe. An elderly, dottering fool who clearly isn't up to the job of being president.
If Bernie were the candidate, you'd see enthusiasm and Bernie ruling the polls. Bernie was the candidate the country needed. Joe is the candidate we were forced to take. It could have been so different if we'd had Bernie.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, August 31, 2020. Question: Why do we need multiple outlets when they all 'cover' the same story and all miss the topics that are actually news?
Yesterday was an important day globally. I'm finding only one article in English that was published in the last 24 hours about The International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances and that's at RUDAW -- the English language version of Iraq's Kurdish news outlet.
That's it for English language outlets.
Why is that?
This is a pretty damn important topic, it's a global topic, it matters. And yet not one word on it from the US corporate media. And in the alleged 'alternative' media? I see the Trump garbage at COMMON DREAMS -- that's really all they offer these days -- that and articles that try (but fail) to excite people about Joe Biden. Whores like Missy Comley Beattie can show up -- such White privilege -- to wring their hands over how -- in November! -- they're going to have to vote for Joe and you should too. They can do that in August. They just can't cover the disappeared.
Can't?
Won't.
They don't give a damn, they don't give a f**k.
Never forget that. Never forget that when the United Nations was attempting to draw attention to the disappeared, the US's whorish 'left' couldn't offer a single word on it. We're going to repost all of last night's piece on the disappeared so that it will appear at all community sites today.
The number of the disappeared only increases
No circumstance can justify someone's disappearance.
The United Nations Tweeted that yesterday. Today is the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances. In previous years, countries like Argentina came to mind (under the tyrant and criminal Augusto Pinochet) came to mind. Sting wrote and recorded "They Dance Alone" about the disappeared in Argentina on his 1987 album . . . NOTHING LIKE THE SUN.
I've seen their silent faces, they scream so loud
If they were to speak these words
They'd go missing, too
Another woman on the torture table
What else can they do?
Dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
Dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
Danzan con los muertos
Danzan con amores invisibles
Con silenciosa angistia
Danzan con sus padres
Con sus hijos
Con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas
The Iraq War, ongoing, is the story of the disappeared. Ethnic cleansing has taken place (especially carried out by Shi'ite forces from 2006 through 2008). Nouri al-Maliki's government (2006 through 2014) terrorized the people of Iraq -- everyone was an enemy to Nouri, even Shi'ites. He had secret torture cells and hidden prisons. Hundreds of thousands were disappeared in Iraq. This is part of turning Iraq into a land of widows and children. It's why the median age in Iraq now is 21-years-old. Neighboring Iran? 31.3-years-old. Neighboring Kuwait? 36.8-years-old. Neighboring Turkey? 31.5-years-old. Are you getting it?
Because some days it seems like no one gives a damn except BRussels Tribunal.
The disappeared include the people of Anbar Province, the people of Mosul, the people throughout Iraq.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued the following today:
The crime of enforced disappearance is rife across the world. We see new cases almost daily, including the disappearance of defenders of the environment, who are often indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, the excruciating pain of old cases is still acute, as the fate of thousands of disappeared people remains unknown, making the crime a continuous presence in the lives of the loved ones of the lost.
The United Nations Committee and Working Group on Enforced Disappearances have identified additional worrying trends, including reprisals against relatives of the victims and members of civil society, often in the name of security and counter-terrorism. Enforced disappearance also has gendered consequences particularly affecting women and LGBTI persons.
Impunity compounds the suffering and anguish. Under international human rights law, families and societies have a right to know the truth about what happened. I call on Member States to fulfil this responsibility.
With the support of international human rights mechanisms, States have a duty to strengthen their efforts to prevent enforced disappearances, to search for victims, and to increase assistance to victims and their relatives. It is equally critical to pursue credible and impartial judicial investigations.
On this International Day, let us renew our commitment to end all enforced disappearances. I call on all States to ratify the Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances and to accept the competence of the Committee to examine individual complaints. This is a first, but crucial step, towards the elimination of this atrocious crime.
António Guterres
Sadly, the disappeared exist around the world. Our focus is Iraq so that's what we're zooming in on.
Netherlands Embassy in Iraq Tweets:
Each conflict in #Iraq has resulted in a new generation of disappeared, putting Iraq among the countries with the highest number of #MissingPersons. Families of up to a million people are waiting for answers #DayoftheDisappeared #TheSearchMustGoOn
#Iraq: UN report on #EnforcedDisappearances calls for independent/effective investigations to establish the fate of 1,000 civilian men and boys disappeared during military operations against ISIL in #Anbar in 2015-2016 and to hold perpetrators accountable
Human Rights Watch's Belkis Willie Tweets the following thread:
Any "@" whatever in a Tweet is taken out by me because otherwise some browsers will show this page with a big, black box covering words. I've noted before the browsers you can use to avoid that; however, e-mail still come in complaining about those black squares. For that reason, we remove any @ that I notice. We also cannot include the Twitter id because the 'blue check' also creates a black square.
The Committee to Protect Journalists Tweets:
If the disappeared of Iraq don't matter to you, you just might be Paddy Cock-burn. The supposed Middle East journalist -- notorius in the region for his bias against the Sunnis -- did file a report yesterday. Not on Iraq's disappeared. No, Ireland's trashy son wrote about the RNC because that's what you do when you are useless trash, you write about a political convention in the US -- as though America hadn't already weighed in on that? -- the week after it's over -- instead of noting the disappeared. It's cheap coverage (from a cheap person) and it is forgotten about two-seconds after anyone reads it.
He tells you that Donald Trump reminds him of Saddam. Really? I didn't think the CIA installed Donald. I know they installed Saddam.
Think of all the outlets in corporate media (including REUTERS, AFP, etc) and all the outlets in 'alternative' media (THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, IN THESE TIMES, COMMON DREAMS, COUNTERPUNCH, etc) and not one of them could offer a single article about the disappeared on the global day of recognition of the disappeared.
"57 channels and there's nothing on," as Bruce Springsteen once sang.
In the US, why are we supporting this crap-ass beggar media that always asks for money but never does anything of value? Name the last column or 'article' that THE NATION published that made a difference -- and was on a topic that wasn't all over the internet already? We gave like crazy to PACIFICA in 2005 and 2006 and what did they do with the money? Nothing of value. KPFA EVENING NEWS -- which is usually something to applaud -- couldn't even do a story last night. (It's still THE KPFA EVENING NEWS on Saturday and Sunday when other PACIFICA stations like KPFK and WBAI don't feel that their listeneres need a 30 minute newscast on the weekends. So much more important to air those dead-on-arrival 'cultural' shows that no one listens to and whose hosts should be forced into retirement.)
As noted above, The Committee To Protect Journalists Tweeted about the day on Sunday. A few minutes ago, they issued the following:
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Attn: Experts of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which holds consultative status with the U.N., is an independent, nonprofit organization that defends the rights of journalists worldwide to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal. CPJ reports on and mobilizes against hundreds of attacks on the press each year, such as killings, assaults, restrictive legislation, imprisonment, media closures, online harassment, and other threats.
According to CPJ’s research, at least 64 journalists are missing around the world. Nearly one-third of them disappeared while covering armed conflict in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
Over the past year, CPJ has been searching for updates on the whereabouts and fate of missing journalists in these countries and tracking down their families — many of whom are themselves displaced. Invariably, the families have been pursuing rumors and have relentlessly approached local and national authorities, as well as international and local organizations, in search of help to find their loved ones, but their efforts have yielded no results.
CPJ believes that these families deserve answers, and that authorities in these countries have a responsibility to conduct investigations and use all the tools at their disposal to find the missing journalists. To that end, CPJ has launched a campaign, #MissingNotForgotten, urging governments to do their utmost.
CPJ has also secured consent from relatives of missing journalists to submit their names to the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and request special action.
In line with the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which affirms the right of any victim to know the truth about the circumstances of an enforced disappearance and the fate of the disappeared person, as well as the right to freedom to seek, receive and impart information to this end, CPJ makes the following recommendations:
The governments of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen should:
- conduct thorough and credible investigations into enforced disappearances of journalists committed by either state security forces or persons or groups acting with or without the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, and bring those responsible to justice
- take the necessary measures to search for, locate and release missing journalists and, in the event of death, to locate, respect, and return their remains to their families
- update relatives of missing journalists regularly on the progress and results of the investigation and the fate of the disappeared person
The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances should:
- request the governments of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen to supply information about the situation of the missing journalists within a reasonable time limit
- U.N. Special Mandate holders should:
- Publicly call for credible and thorough investigations into enforced disappearances of journalists
- Publicly urge the aforementioned governments to step up their efforts to locate missing journalists and treat their relatives with dignity by providing regular updates on the status of their investigations
Today, the International Day of the Disappeared, we must not only heed the uncertainty and the pain that the families of missing journalists endure daily, but also help them find answers. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Courtney C. Radsch
CPJ Advocacy Director
My name is Local Observer & I stand with the protesters & activists of the Tahrir Uprising in Iraq who have been disappeared by "unknown" entities. May the torturers and those that make people's homes a living hell be confronted by their own darkness!
In other news, the government of turkey continues to terrorize Iraq with bombings and troops on the ground. ARMEN NEWS notes:
The Kurdish community of Armenia held a protest today outside the UN Office in Yerevan, trying to draw the attention of the structure to the ongoing Turkish actions against the Kurdish settlements in Iraq.
Head of the Kurdistan Committee Slo Drboyan told reporters that they are asking to prevent Turkey’s operations.
“We are here to present the concerns of our relatives. Turkey’s leadership today is conducting such a policy which is a threat for all peoples of the region. The Kurdish nation in Iraq is almost on the verge of extinction”, the head of the Kurdistan Committee said, adding that they are concerned over the events taking place in that country.
He said they are expecting the UN Office to take measures to prevent Turkey’s genocidal actions.
The following sites updated:
