- America's dirty war, in fact, targets Blacks, Latinos,
Native Americans, political activists, and Muslims for their faith, ethnicity,
and at times prominence and charity, exploiting them as "war on terror"
scapegoats.
-
- On July 9, a Press TV US prison system racket interview
highlighted the problem and urgency to address it, accessed through the
following link:
-
- http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188396.html
-
- America's media ignore how unjustly it harms millions
of disadvantaged people. Instead, they regurgitate spurious high-profile
case accusations, always when Muslims are affected. Most often they're
men, occasionally women, bogusly charged with terrorism or conspiracy to
commit it, when, in fact, they're guilty only of being targets of choice
and/or being in America at the wrong time.
-
- Why Muslims when, in fact, Islam teaches love, not hate;
peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism;
or that Islam, Christianity and Judaism have common roots.
-
- Who'd know though in today's climate of hate and fear
at a time America wages global wars on Islam, including at home.
-
- Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame is America's latest high-profile
target, illegally captured, interrogated (and likely tortured) at sea for
over two months, based on spurious allegations of Islamic terrorist ties.
-
- Post-9/11, the same pattern repeated ruthlessly against
hundreds of innocent victims. Pronounced guilty by accusation, America's
media shamelessly regurgitate fabricated hate charges, not legitimate honest
accounts, doing what good journalists should - their job.
-
- On July 5, New York Times writers Charlie Savage and
Eric Schmitt headlined, "US to Prosecute Somali Suspect in Civilian
Court," saying:
-
- Obama's Justice Department will "prosecute (Warsame)
in civilian court," likely "reignit(ing) debate about (whether)
to bring newly captured detainees to" Guantanamo, try them before
military commissions, or do it "in civilian court."
-
- While admitting Warsame plotted no attack, and that administration
officials gave contradictory accounts of his importance, the article presumed
guilt by accusation.
-
- It failed to question whether or not charges are legitimate,
let alone his illegal capture, detention, interrogation, and likely torture
at sea secretly for over two months.
-
- A same day Karen DeYoung, Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe Washington
Post article headlined, "US indicts Somali on terrorism charges,"
was just as one-sided, presuming guilt because administration officials
say so.
-
- Quoting "human rights attorney" John Sifton,
his best shot was saying, "It is not exactly satisfactory, from a
legal point of view," adding "that the Justice Department is
better suited to prosecute" than a military tribunal, instead of explaining
what authority gives either the right.
-
- In addition, he didn't question the core guilt or innocence
issue or whether Warsame can get due process and judicial fairness in any
court, given the circumstances of his capture, charges with no evidence,
and America media's acting as judge, jury and executioner.
-
- On July 5, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release
headlined, "Accused al Shabaab Leader Charged with Providing Material
Support to al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," saying:
-
- "AHMED ABDULKADIR WARSAME, aka "KHATTAB,"
aka "FARAH," aka "ABDI HALIM MOHAMMED FARA," aka "FAREH
JAMA ALI MOHAMMED" has been indicted on charges of providing material
support to al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ("AQAP"),
two designated foreign terrorist organizations, as well as conspiring to
teach and demonstrate the making of explosives, possessing firearms and
explosives in furtherance of crimes of violence, and other violation."
-
- In fact, no evidence exists when suspects are charged
with providing material support or conspiracy to commit terrorism. Moreover,
in 2008, the State Department bogusly designated Al Shabaab a "foreign
terrorist organization" like it's shamelessly done to other groups,
scapegoating them for political advantage. More on that below.
-
- DOJ said America's military captured Warsame on April
19, 2011, "question(ing him) for intelligence purposes for more than
two months," allegedly after (but very likely never) reading him his
Miranda rights."
-
- Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara called him "a
conduit between al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - two
deadly terrorist organizations - providing material support and resources
to them both."
-
- In fact, Al Shabaab members are Somali freedom fighters,
not terrorists, and Al Qaeda is a 1980s CIA creation. Moreover, no nation
may charge citizens or residents of another one with alleged internally
committed crimes. Only host countries may do it, but it doesn't deter America's
military or covert CIA agents from lawlessly operating anywhere, at times
with complicit regimes - pressured, intimidated or willingly going along.
-
- Warsame's indictment alleges that "at least (from)
2007 until April 2011, (he) conspired to provide and provided material
(support) to al Shabaab (and) allegedly fought on (its) behalf (in) Somalia
in 2009 and provided other forms of support....including explosives, weapons,
communications equipment, expert advice and assistance, and training."
-
- Other allegations included providing money, training,
various other weapons, facilities and personnel, with no evidence proving
anything only host countries may address if legitimate.
-
- In total, Warsame's indictment included nine counts:
-
- "Count One: Conspiracy to provide material support
to al Shabaab, causing death;
-
- Count Two: Providing material support to al Shabaab,
causing death;
-
- Count Three: Use, carrying, and possession of firearms
(machine guns and destructive devices) in furtherance of crimes of violence
(in Counts One and Two);
-
- Count Four: Conspiracy to provide material support to
AQAP;
-
- Count Five: Providing material support to AQAP;
-
- Count Six: Use, carrying, and possession of firearms
(machine guns and destructive devices) in furtherance of crimes of violence
(in Counts Four and Five);
-
- Count Seven: Conspiracy to teach and demonstrate the
making of explosives;
-
- Count Eight: Conspiracy to receive military-type training
from AQAP; (and)
-
- Count Nine: Receiving military-type training from AQAP."
-
- If convicted on most or all charges, Warsame faces life
in prison even though all the above charges are spurious.
-
- The full press release can be accessed through the following
link:
-
- http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/accused-al-shabaab-leader-charged-with-providing-material
- -support-to-al-shabaab-and-al-qaeda-in-the-arabian-peninsula
-
- Notably post-9/11 alone, America committed horrific crimes
of war and against humanity in multiple theaters, including Somalia, waging
imperial wars on Islam, killing millions in the process - genocide by any
standard.
-
- Established by the Rome Statute in July 2002, the International
Criminal Court is mandated to prosecute individuals for genocide and aggression,
as well as crimes of war and against humanity. Instead, it functions solely
as an imperial tool, targeting victims, not mega-criminals like US warlords
and co-conspirators.
-
- Al Shabaab - Somali Freedom Fighters, not Terrorists
-
- On the Horn of Africa, Somalia is strategically adjacent
to the Red Sea, Suez Canal, the area's vital commercial waterways, and
neighboring Sudan, valued for its oil and gas reserves nation's like America,
China, India and others covet.
-
- In December 2006, Washington-backed Ethiopian forces
unseated the governing Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), replacing it with
a Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Thousands were killed. Over a
million became refugees.
-
- In January 2009, Ethiopian forces temporarily withdrew,
following an agreement between the TFG and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation
of Somalia (ARS), a UIC coalition with other opposition forces. However,
fighting continues with America backing TRG/African Union forces to keep
Islamists from regaining power.
-
- Including moderate and radical elements, UIC members
aren't terrorists. They're freedom fighters, struggling to liberate their
country and end years of conflict, divisions and instability. Mogadishu
traders initially set it up to bring order to the city's insecurity, and
end clan divisions after years of instability and civil war in most parts
of the country.
-
- Al Shabaab and other opposition forces continue the struggle.
Portions of its rank and file call themselves the Mujahideen Youth Movement
(MYM). Estimates of its strength size vary from several thousand to double
that number or more, new recruits replacing others injured or killed.
-
- In May 2009, AFP reported Ethiopian forces back in Somalia
despite its communications minister, Ermias Legesse, claiming otherwise.
Witnesses, however, saw troops and dozens of armored vehicles engaged in
fighting.
-
- On March 7, 2011, New York Times writers Mohammed Ibrahim
and Jeffrey Gettleman headlined, "Militias Help Somalia Force Regain
Towns Near Borders," saying:
-
- "Somali government troops and allied militias (battled)
Islamist militants....near the Kenyan and Ethiopian borders," claiming
"a string of victories," according to Somali officials who lie
like American ones and major media.
-
- On February 29, 2008, the State Department designated
Al Shabaab a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Section 219 of the Immigration
and Nationality Act (as amended) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
under Section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224 (as amended).
-
- On July 13, 2010, The New York Times called the organization
"one of Africa's most fearsome militant Islamic groups....affiliat(ed)
with Al Qaeda since 2007. (For) years, (it) threatened Uganda, Burundi,
and terroriz(ed) the Somali public, chopping off hands, stoning people
to death and banning TV....in their quest to turn Somalia into a seventh-century-style
Islamic state."
-
- As usual, Times reports bear no relation to reality.
Instead, they regurgitate official Washington's position, without explaining
Somalia's strategic importance, and America's imperial interest, waging
direct and proxy wars of conquest and domination unendingly for years,
causing a longstanding humanitarian crisis in the process.
-
- On May 25, 2011, Eritrea-based analyst Thomas Mountain
headlined his CounterPunch article, "UN Cuts Food, Expands War in
Somalia," saying:
-
- The UN/African Union army was "increased by thousands
of Ugandan troops along with dozens of additional tanks, heavy artillery
and helicopter gun ships."
-
- At the same time, "the UN is overseeing the slow
death by starvation of the million Somalis they are responsible for,"
as part of America's "war on terror." For over 20 years, in fact,
Washington turned Somalia into a "hell on earth," what major
media reports, including The Times, won't report or highlight Mountain
asking, "Where is our humanity?"
-
- It's nowhere in sight anywhere, waging imperial wars
abroad and dirty ones at home against Islam. Legitimate journalism would
highlight it in feature reports.
-
- However, instead of comforting the oppressed and oppressing
the comfortable, America's mainstream does the opposite, shamelessly supporting
wealth and power, not popular needs, truth and justice, or right over wrong,
complicit for their own self-interest.
-
- No wonder, growing numbers value alternative sources
for real news, information and analysis like this web site and programs
like the Progressive Radio News Hour.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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