By Ernesto, TorrentFreak, June 11, 2010
BitTorrent is the most effective way to share large files online, but it can also be used to stream live events. In some cases it’s the only way for people to access cultural events. After a Palestinian filmmaker was denied a visa to visit a film festival in Norway where one of his films is to be screened, the festival’s organizers are turning to BitTorrent to stream the festival live to Gaza.
This weekend, the International “Nordic Youth Film Festival” takes place in Tromsø, Norway. As is the case every year, the festival’s organizers have invited young filmmakers from all over the world to show their work, but not all were allowed to come. Despite an invite, the Palestinian director of Ticket to Azrael was prevented from flying to Norway by the authorities.
“It’s not a secret that the blockade in the Middle East prevents vital resources like water, food and medicines going to the needy people in Palestine. But it is perhaps not as general known that normal people who are traveling out of the area are denied a visa,” the festival organizers write in a blog post commenting on the issue. Luckily, with BitTorrent the filmmaker can still follow the festival.
The Norwegian film festival has close ties to the people of Gaza. The festival’s organizers have previously invited its young filmmakers and after the 2008/2009 siege they continued to collaborate on film workshops over the Internet. This year, due to the political situation, they’re going to take it up a notch by offering a BitTorrent-powered live stream to people all over the world, including Gaza.
The BitTorrent stream that the festival will use is facilitated by The Far North Living Lab which has experience with the technology. Last year the lab kicked off with a spectacular experiment in which they used BitTorrent to stream a 2K resolution film onto the big screen, and a few months later they hosted the first BitTorrent-powered live streamed concert.
The Far North Living Lab start their live stream from the festival tonight during the opening. In order to get the stream to Gaza and other parts of the Internet they’ve set up a BitTorrent-powered live stream (approx 1.1mbit h264, full PAL resolution) that will be transmitting from Norway’s oldest still-used cinema. Similar to the previous projects, the lab’s researchers are using the P2P-Next codebase.
“This is an important opportunity to reach our goal for an international awareness of Youth Cinema,” festival director Hermann Greuel told TorrentFreak.
An important aspect is that through the stream young filmmakers in Gaza can follow the festival. “The current stream will not be possible on a central place or event in Gaza due to special permissions from the Gaza government, but the stream is available in Gaza,” he added.
It’s good to see that there are filmmakers and enthusiasts who put BitTorrent to creative use, rather than simply accusing the technology of facilitating copyright infringement.
Readers who want to check out the stream can do so from 6 PM CET.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Oct. 14: Rethinking Afghanistan film screening
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
7:30pm - 9:30pm
UNCC, After Hours (UNCC map)
9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
As we approach the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, the concept of "victory" remains more undefined and less tangible than ever. After a particularly violent summer, U.S. public support of "the Good War" is at an all-time low. Obama himself, surrounded as he is by Bush-era military brass, seems to be growing more ambivalent. Yet the dilemma, as articulated by his administration, is merely a matter of troop levels. We need to begin strongly speaking out against the absurd occupation of a country that has never been subdued militarily in the history of civilization.
Robert Greenwald's new documentary "Rethink Afghanistan" is a fresh, frontlines chronicle of this quagmire. It seeks out those perspectives which U.S. generals have consistently failed to take into account: those of the Afghani people, as well as voices of dissent from former troops and members of the CIA. What is really at stake here? Are the Afghani people truly any safer because of our bombardments and our proxy government in Kabul? Are we?
We'll be screening the film at around 7:30. Stick around for a lively discussion afterwards with members of Charlotte ISO and SDS about Afghanistan, Pakistan and U.S. imperialism.
7:30pm - 9:30pm
UNCC, After Hours (UNCC map)
9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
As we approach the eighth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, the concept of "victory" remains more undefined and less tangible than ever. After a particularly violent summer, U.S. public support of "the Good War" is at an all-time low. Obama himself, surrounded as he is by Bush-era military brass, seems to be growing more ambivalent. Yet the dilemma, as articulated by his administration, is merely a matter of troop levels. We need to begin strongly speaking out against the absurd occupation of a country that has never been subdued militarily in the history of civilization.
Robert Greenwald's new documentary "Rethink Afghanistan" is a fresh, frontlines chronicle of this quagmire. It seeks out those perspectives which U.S. generals have consistently failed to take into account: those of the Afghani people, as well as voices of dissent from former troops and members of the CIA. What is really at stake here? Are the Afghani people truly any safer because of our bombardments and our proxy government in Kabul? Are we?
We'll be screening the film at around 7:30. Stick around for a lively discussion afterwards with members of Charlotte ISO and SDS about Afghanistan, Pakistan and U.S. imperialism.
Everything That Happens in Afghanistan Is Based on Lies or Illusions
A Film That Captures Some Edgy, Fearful Truths
By Ann Jones, TomDispatch.com, July 16, 2009
Kabul, July 2009 -- I've come back to the Afghan capital again, after an absence of two years, to find it ruined in a new way. Not by bombs this time, but by security.
The heart of the city is now hidden behind piles of Hescos -- giant, grey sandbags produced somewhere in Great Britain. They're stacked against the walls of government buildings, U.N. agencies, embassies, NGO offices, and army camps (of which there are a lot) -- and they only seem to grow and multiply. A friend called just the other day from a U.N. building, distressed that the view from her office window was vanishing behind yet another row of Hescos. Urban life as Kabulis knew it in this once graceful city has been lost to the security needs of strangers.
The creation of Hescostan in the middle of Kabul is both an effect of, and a cause of, war: an effect because it seems to arise in response to devious enemy tactics that are still relatively new to Afghanistan, such as the use of roadside bombs (IEDs) and suicide bombers (though there has actually been no attack in Kabul for six months now); a cause because it is so clearly a projection, an externalization of the fears of men out of their depth. It is a paradox of such "force protection" that the more you have, the more you feel you need. What's called security generates fear. Now comes a documentary that projects that fear onto the screen.
It is 2006, late in the year. A reporter stands on a rocky hillside near the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and points a wobbly camera at dark-clad gunmen ranged at a distance before him. They've wrapped the tails of their turbans to mask their faces. They carry their Kalashnikovs at the ready. The reporter shouts a question: "Does the Taliban receive support from Pakistan?"
As the camera jumps about to find the Talib who is speaking, a translator voices his answer: "Yes, Pakistan stands with us. On the other side of the border, we have our offices there. Some people in Pakistan is supporting us and the government of Pakistan does not say anything to us. They provide us with everything."
The reporter -- Christian Parenti of the Nation magazine -- has his story. For years, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has charged Pakistan with backing the Taliban, while Pakistan's then-President Musharraf denied it, and officials of the Bush administration looked the other way. Now, Parenti has the word of armed Taliban. This is the kind of story a foreign correspondent can't get without a fixer; that is, a local guy who knows the language, the local politics, the protocols of custom -- and how to arrange a meeting like this in the middle of nowhere with men who might kill you.
A Talib warns of an approaching reconnaissance plane. "We should go," the scared reporter says. The camera spins wildly across a vast empty expanse of rock and pale sky. "We should go." Moments later, safely back in a car speeding away, Parenti turns the camera on his own grinning face: "This is the most relieved American reporter in Afghanistan," he says, and describes the man sitting beside him -- Ajmal Naqshbandi, a 24-year-old Pashtun from Kabul -- as "the best fixer in Afghanistan." But we already know what Parenti doesn't (because filmmaker Ian Olds has told us up front before the titles even hit the screen): soon the fixer will be dead, murdered by the Taliban. We will be witnesses.
If this sounds harrowing, it is. Fixer is the best documentary I've seen on Afghanistan -- so good it's hard to imagine a better one. It's all jagged edges, blurs, and disconnects, catching as it does both the forbidding emptiness of the land and the edginess of war-weary Afghans. One long segment, apparently showing the inside of Parenti's shawl as he conceals a camera from potentially hostile villagers, seems the visual correlative of the feeling that unsettles all outsiders from time to time in this country: the sense of being completely in the dark. In 2006-2007, as the Taliban surged back with kidnappings, murders, bombs, and jihadi suicide attacks, this is how Afghanistan felt. It's the feeling that still drives Hesco sales in the capital.
Full disclosure: both Parenti and I have written about Afghanistan for the Nation for several years. I write mostly about women, Parenti mostly about the war, and I admire his work. We met for the first time only a couple of months ago, after both of us were invited to take part in a conference on Afghanistan. He told me about Fixer, then playing at the Tribeca Film Festival. I went to see it, and when it ended I could hardly get out of my seat. Watching it again on DVD in Kabul made me weep.
By refusing to exploit Ajmal's murder for the sake of suspense -- by revealing it at the start -- Olds has chosen to make a film full of the kind of fear that seems to inhabit international centers of power in Afghanistan today. The film's nervous visual style is strikingly different from the clean-cut look of Occupation: Dreamland, his earlier documentary about American soldiers in Iraq. Critics will surely have much more to say about Fixer's importance as a film. It has already won a raft of prizes, including firsts at Documenta Madrid and the Pesaro (Italy) Film Festival, and Olds took home a Tribeca award this year as the best new documentary filmmaker.
How Lies Begat Illusions Begat Lies
What I want to focus on, though, is the way the film resonates with conditions in Afghanistan today. Olds has the good sense to insert a quick history lesson in this film, on the grounds that you can't understand the Taliban without knowing about America's covert operations in the region in the 1980s. Back then, President Ronald Reagan's administration, mainly through the CIA, used the Pakistani Intelligence services to fund, arm, and train Afghan and foreign Islamist jihadis to defeat the Soviet army in Afghanistan. Pakistan subsequently used "channels built with U.S. money" to install in Afghanistan a friendly government -- the Taliban.
Later, after the George W. Bush administration invaded the country and the U.S. ousted the Taliban, it installed Hamid Karzai as president and returned many of the old Islamist jihadis to power in his government. Thus, this peculiar, well-established fact underlies the current war in Afghanistan: the United States sponsored both sides.
Some analysts say the U.S. "invented" all the "enemies" involved; others, that the U.S. (and Saudi Arabia) merely paid the bills, while Pakistan directed the action to its own advantage. Either way, this history -- much of it still secret or repeatedly re-spun -- leaves all parties to the current conflict in an intellectual sweat. They must plan for the future on the basis of a past they can't acknowledge. With national elections set for August 20th, the United States is planning for an Afghan future that still includes the jihadi buddies its officials know they should long ago have left behind.
Only the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has called, year after year, for a moral accounting. Its surveys of Afghan citizens consistently find that the people want lasting peace, and to attain it, they would prefer some sort of truth and reconciliation procedure, like the one that took place in South Africa, to cleanse the country and set it on an honest intellectual and moral footing.
For obvious reasons, the United States wants no part of the truth that would emerge from such a process. Just this week, the Obama administration first claimed it had no grounds to investigate General Abdul Rashid Dostum's infamous 2001 massacre of Taliban prisoners, even though Dostum seems to have been on the CIA payroll at the time, and his troops were backed by U.S. military operatives. Later, the president reversed course, ordering national security officials to "look into" the matter. In the end, President Obama may prefer to "move on." As does Dostum, who recently rejoined the Karzai administration.
I've elaborated here on Olds's quick history lesson to more fully explain why you may be finding it hard these days to understand how we got into what's already being called "Obama's War" -- and how to get out. Think of it this way: everything that happens in Afghanistan is based on (1) a lie, (2) an illusion, or (3) both. Then throw in mass illusion as well, carefully constructed so that each person tells others only what they want to hear.
Which brings us back to Fixer, a film steeped in stories of duplicity and self-delusion that are the personal and political currency of Afghanistan today. In one telling incident, Parenti pushes to observe the famously corrupt Afghan judiciary in action. He's rewarded with a front row seat at a murder trial, only to learn that it has been staged for his edification.
In fact, a court official admits, the production Parenti witnessed didn't depict the way the court really works, but the way "it should work" according to international standards. The judiciary knows those international standards very well, since NGOs and private contractors supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development and other aid agencies have offered them training, and what's called "capacity building," for years. The trainers report success, which of course is what the aid agencies want to hear; and the trainees may be encouraged (as in this case) to perform for the public. If Parenti had played the part assigned to him in this exercise in mass illusion, he'd have reported a glowing story about the success of Afghanistan's new rule of law. (He didn't.)
Afghans have an expression -- "pesh pa been" -- referring to people who move relentlessly ahead by watching their own feet. Parenti, at least, could see when he was being tripped up. But the incident leaves you wondering: if officials of the Karzai government go this far for a single American reporter, what extravagant performances have they mounted all along for junketing Senators and cabinet members, and the likes of Donald Rumsfeld and Laura Bush, not to mention the recent rounds of Obama era visitors?
Even Ajmal the fixer repeatedly misjudges situations and his own people; and in the end, he proves to have been more of an innocent than Parenti. In an eerie moment captured on screen, Parenti predicts that one day the Taliban will kidnap a Western journalist. No way, says Ajmal, assuming that he and his clients are protected by Pashtunwali, his (and the Taliban's) tribal code of honor. Later, working for the Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Ajmal fixes a fatal appointment with Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah. Taken hostage, Ajmal reassures his family in a Taliban video: "These are Muslims. We are in the hands of Islam."
Behind the Hescos Where History Is Being Re-Spun
Illusion and duplicity entrap the fixer, too, and spin his personal story into a political event. The Italians, who notoriously negotiate with hostage takers, persuade Karzai to exchange five Taliban prisoners for Mastrogiacomo and Ajmal. In the excitement of being freed, however, Mastrogiacomo fails to keep track of his fixer. The Taliban see an opportunity to recapture Ajmal and demand the release of two more prisoners. Karzai and his foreign minister, having freed the foreigner, then scramble to the moral high ground, refusing to negotiate with terrorists. Orders come down from Pakistan to kill Ajmal -- on April 8, 2007 -- to make Karzai look bad in the eyes of his own people. Mullah Dadullah sends a video of the beheading.
Ajmal's stricken father asks, "What kind of government doesn't protect its own citizens?" The answer is: a government that's bought, paid for, and answerable to outsiders, a government that has neither the need nor the inclination to care for its citizens. As Karzai explains the matter, "The Italians built us a road."
That's the government the international community is now spending more than $500 million to reelect. (Most of that money comes from the U.S.) International election officials, of course, are neutral -- so neutral that they look the other way as Karzai makes deals with rival warlords to ensure his reelection. One by one they come over to his side, and word leaks out about which ministries they've been promised.
International agencies responsible for mounting the election have already abandoned the goal of a "free and fair" vote. They're aiming for "credible," which is to say, an election that looks pretty good, even if it's not. In the context of accumulated illusions, this goal is called "realistic," and perhaps it is. As the fixer's grieving father says, "Our government is a puppet of foreigners. That is why we expect nothing from it."
As I write, 4,000 newly arrived U.S. Marines are trudging through the blistering heat of Helmand Province to push back the Taliban so local Pashtuns can turn out to vote next month for Karzai, their fellow Pashtun. What's wrong with this new Obama strategy? For one thing, in some areas the local Pashtun population has instead turned out to fight against the foreign invaders, side by side with the Taliban (who, it should be remembered, are mostly local Pashtuns). They're as fed up as anybody with the puppet Karzai. Like millions of other Afghans, they say Karzai has done nothing for the people. But saddled with history, Karzai remains the horse the U.S. rode in on.
Let me make it clear that Olds and Parenti don't draw these comparisons to current affairs in Afghanistan. Fixer is simply and appropriately subtitled The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi. It's a tribute to a trusted colleague. But watch the film yourself and you'll be immersed in duplicity: officials manipulate the truth, citizens fear to tell it, Americans can't bear to look it in the face. Watch the film and maybe you'll understand how hard it has become, here behind the Hescos where history is being re-spun, to size anything up, pin anything down, recognize an enemy, or help a friend.
[Note: Fixer will first be shown on HBO on Monday night, August 17th. It will be re-aired on August 20th, 23rd, 25th, 29th, and 31st. Check your local listings for the exact times.]
Ann Jones is the author of Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan (Metropolitan Books, 2006). She is in Kabul this summer, working with women's organizations, as she has done intermittently since 2002.
By Ann Jones, TomDispatch.com, July 16, 2009
Kabul, July 2009 -- I've come back to the Afghan capital again, after an absence of two years, to find it ruined in a new way. Not by bombs this time, but by security.
The heart of the city is now hidden behind piles of Hescos -- giant, grey sandbags produced somewhere in Great Britain. They're stacked against the walls of government buildings, U.N. agencies, embassies, NGO offices, and army camps (of which there are a lot) -- and they only seem to grow and multiply. A friend called just the other day from a U.N. building, distressed that the view from her office window was vanishing behind yet another row of Hescos. Urban life as Kabulis knew it in this once graceful city has been lost to the security needs of strangers.
The creation of Hescostan in the middle of Kabul is both an effect of, and a cause of, war: an effect because it seems to arise in response to devious enemy tactics that are still relatively new to Afghanistan, such as the use of roadside bombs (IEDs) and suicide bombers (though there has actually been no attack in Kabul for six months now); a cause because it is so clearly a projection, an externalization of the fears of men out of their depth. It is a paradox of such "force protection" that the more you have, the more you feel you need. What's called security generates fear. Now comes a documentary that projects that fear onto the screen.
It is 2006, late in the year. A reporter stands on a rocky hillside near the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and points a wobbly camera at dark-clad gunmen ranged at a distance before him. They've wrapped the tails of their turbans to mask their faces. They carry their Kalashnikovs at the ready. The reporter shouts a question: "Does the Taliban receive support from Pakistan?"
As the camera jumps about to find the Talib who is speaking, a translator voices his answer: "Yes, Pakistan stands with us. On the other side of the border, we have our offices there. Some people in Pakistan is supporting us and the government of Pakistan does not say anything to us. They provide us with everything."
The reporter -- Christian Parenti of the Nation magazine -- has his story. For years, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has charged Pakistan with backing the Taliban, while Pakistan's then-President Musharraf denied it, and officials of the Bush administration looked the other way. Now, Parenti has the word of armed Taliban. This is the kind of story a foreign correspondent can't get without a fixer; that is, a local guy who knows the language, the local politics, the protocols of custom -- and how to arrange a meeting like this in the middle of nowhere with men who might kill you.
A Talib warns of an approaching reconnaissance plane. "We should go," the scared reporter says. The camera spins wildly across a vast empty expanse of rock and pale sky. "We should go." Moments later, safely back in a car speeding away, Parenti turns the camera on his own grinning face: "This is the most relieved American reporter in Afghanistan," he says, and describes the man sitting beside him -- Ajmal Naqshbandi, a 24-year-old Pashtun from Kabul -- as "the best fixer in Afghanistan." But we already know what Parenti doesn't (because filmmaker Ian Olds has told us up front before the titles even hit the screen): soon the fixer will be dead, murdered by the Taliban. We will be witnesses.
If this sounds harrowing, it is. Fixer is the best documentary I've seen on Afghanistan -- so good it's hard to imagine a better one. It's all jagged edges, blurs, and disconnects, catching as it does both the forbidding emptiness of the land and the edginess of war-weary Afghans. One long segment, apparently showing the inside of Parenti's shawl as he conceals a camera from potentially hostile villagers, seems the visual correlative of the feeling that unsettles all outsiders from time to time in this country: the sense of being completely in the dark. In 2006-2007, as the Taliban surged back with kidnappings, murders, bombs, and jihadi suicide attacks, this is how Afghanistan felt. It's the feeling that still drives Hesco sales in the capital.
Full disclosure: both Parenti and I have written about Afghanistan for the Nation for several years. I write mostly about women, Parenti mostly about the war, and I admire his work. We met for the first time only a couple of months ago, after both of us were invited to take part in a conference on Afghanistan. He told me about Fixer, then playing at the Tribeca Film Festival. I went to see it, and when it ended I could hardly get out of my seat. Watching it again on DVD in Kabul made me weep.
By refusing to exploit Ajmal's murder for the sake of suspense -- by revealing it at the start -- Olds has chosen to make a film full of the kind of fear that seems to inhabit international centers of power in Afghanistan today. The film's nervous visual style is strikingly different from the clean-cut look of Occupation: Dreamland, his earlier documentary about American soldiers in Iraq. Critics will surely have much more to say about Fixer's importance as a film. It has already won a raft of prizes, including firsts at Documenta Madrid and the Pesaro (Italy) Film Festival, and Olds took home a Tribeca award this year as the best new documentary filmmaker.
How Lies Begat Illusions Begat Lies
What I want to focus on, though, is the way the film resonates with conditions in Afghanistan today. Olds has the good sense to insert a quick history lesson in this film, on the grounds that you can't understand the Taliban without knowing about America's covert operations in the region in the 1980s. Back then, President Ronald Reagan's administration, mainly through the CIA, used the Pakistani Intelligence services to fund, arm, and train Afghan and foreign Islamist jihadis to defeat the Soviet army in Afghanistan. Pakistan subsequently used "channels built with U.S. money" to install in Afghanistan a friendly government -- the Taliban.
Later, after the George W. Bush administration invaded the country and the U.S. ousted the Taliban, it installed Hamid Karzai as president and returned many of the old Islamist jihadis to power in his government. Thus, this peculiar, well-established fact underlies the current war in Afghanistan: the United States sponsored both sides.
Some analysts say the U.S. "invented" all the "enemies" involved; others, that the U.S. (and Saudi Arabia) merely paid the bills, while Pakistan directed the action to its own advantage. Either way, this history -- much of it still secret or repeatedly re-spun -- leaves all parties to the current conflict in an intellectual sweat. They must plan for the future on the basis of a past they can't acknowledge. With national elections set for August 20th, the United States is planning for an Afghan future that still includes the jihadi buddies its officials know they should long ago have left behind.
Only the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has called, year after year, for a moral accounting. Its surveys of Afghan citizens consistently find that the people want lasting peace, and to attain it, they would prefer some sort of truth and reconciliation procedure, like the one that took place in South Africa, to cleanse the country and set it on an honest intellectual and moral footing.
For obvious reasons, the United States wants no part of the truth that would emerge from such a process. Just this week, the Obama administration first claimed it had no grounds to investigate General Abdul Rashid Dostum's infamous 2001 massacre of Taliban prisoners, even though Dostum seems to have been on the CIA payroll at the time, and his troops were backed by U.S. military operatives. Later, the president reversed course, ordering national security officials to "look into" the matter. In the end, President Obama may prefer to "move on." As does Dostum, who recently rejoined the Karzai administration.
I've elaborated here on Olds's quick history lesson to more fully explain why you may be finding it hard these days to understand how we got into what's already being called "Obama's War" -- and how to get out. Think of it this way: everything that happens in Afghanistan is based on (1) a lie, (2) an illusion, or (3) both. Then throw in mass illusion as well, carefully constructed so that each person tells others only what they want to hear.
Which brings us back to Fixer, a film steeped in stories of duplicity and self-delusion that are the personal and political currency of Afghanistan today. In one telling incident, Parenti pushes to observe the famously corrupt Afghan judiciary in action. He's rewarded with a front row seat at a murder trial, only to learn that it has been staged for his edification.
In fact, a court official admits, the production Parenti witnessed didn't depict the way the court really works, but the way "it should work" according to international standards. The judiciary knows those international standards very well, since NGOs and private contractors supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development and other aid agencies have offered them training, and what's called "capacity building," for years. The trainers report success, which of course is what the aid agencies want to hear; and the trainees may be encouraged (as in this case) to perform for the public. If Parenti had played the part assigned to him in this exercise in mass illusion, he'd have reported a glowing story about the success of Afghanistan's new rule of law. (He didn't.)
Afghans have an expression -- "pesh pa been" -- referring to people who move relentlessly ahead by watching their own feet. Parenti, at least, could see when he was being tripped up. But the incident leaves you wondering: if officials of the Karzai government go this far for a single American reporter, what extravagant performances have they mounted all along for junketing Senators and cabinet members, and the likes of Donald Rumsfeld and Laura Bush, not to mention the recent rounds of Obama era visitors?
Even Ajmal the fixer repeatedly misjudges situations and his own people; and in the end, he proves to have been more of an innocent than Parenti. In an eerie moment captured on screen, Parenti predicts that one day the Taliban will kidnap a Western journalist. No way, says Ajmal, assuming that he and his clients are protected by Pashtunwali, his (and the Taliban's) tribal code of honor. Later, working for the Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Ajmal fixes a fatal appointment with Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah. Taken hostage, Ajmal reassures his family in a Taliban video: "These are Muslims. We are in the hands of Islam."
Behind the Hescos Where History Is Being Re-Spun
Illusion and duplicity entrap the fixer, too, and spin his personal story into a political event. The Italians, who notoriously negotiate with hostage takers, persuade Karzai to exchange five Taliban prisoners for Mastrogiacomo and Ajmal. In the excitement of being freed, however, Mastrogiacomo fails to keep track of his fixer. The Taliban see an opportunity to recapture Ajmal and demand the release of two more prisoners. Karzai and his foreign minister, having freed the foreigner, then scramble to the moral high ground, refusing to negotiate with terrorists. Orders come down from Pakistan to kill Ajmal -- on April 8, 2007 -- to make Karzai look bad in the eyes of his own people. Mullah Dadullah sends a video of the beheading.
Ajmal's stricken father asks, "What kind of government doesn't protect its own citizens?" The answer is: a government that's bought, paid for, and answerable to outsiders, a government that has neither the need nor the inclination to care for its citizens. As Karzai explains the matter, "The Italians built us a road."
That's the government the international community is now spending more than $500 million to reelect. (Most of that money comes from the U.S.) International election officials, of course, are neutral -- so neutral that they look the other way as Karzai makes deals with rival warlords to ensure his reelection. One by one they come over to his side, and word leaks out about which ministries they've been promised.
International agencies responsible for mounting the election have already abandoned the goal of a "free and fair" vote. They're aiming for "credible," which is to say, an election that looks pretty good, even if it's not. In the context of accumulated illusions, this goal is called "realistic," and perhaps it is. As the fixer's grieving father says, "Our government is a puppet of foreigners. That is why we expect nothing from it."
As I write, 4,000 newly arrived U.S. Marines are trudging through the blistering heat of Helmand Province to push back the Taliban so local Pashtuns can turn out to vote next month for Karzai, their fellow Pashtun. What's wrong with this new Obama strategy? For one thing, in some areas the local Pashtun population has instead turned out to fight against the foreign invaders, side by side with the Taliban (who, it should be remembered, are mostly local Pashtuns). They're as fed up as anybody with the puppet Karzai. Like millions of other Afghans, they say Karzai has done nothing for the people. But saddled with history, Karzai remains the horse the U.S. rode in on.
Let me make it clear that Olds and Parenti don't draw these comparisons to current affairs in Afghanistan. Fixer is simply and appropriately subtitled The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi. It's a tribute to a trusted colleague. But watch the film yourself and you'll be immersed in duplicity: officials manipulate the truth, citizens fear to tell it, Americans can't bear to look it in the face. Watch the film and maybe you'll understand how hard it has become, here behind the Hescos where history is being re-spun, to size anything up, pin anything down, recognize an enemy, or help a friend.
[Note: Fixer will first be shown on HBO on Monday night, August 17th. It will be re-aired on August 20th, 23rd, 25th, 29th, and 31st. Check your local listings for the exact times.]
Ann Jones is the author of Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan (Metropolitan Books, 2006). She is in Kabul this summer, working with women's organizations, as she has done intermittently since 2002.
MOVIE: Afghan Women: A History Of Struggle
click here for screenings & movie trailer
Kathleen Foster’s latest film, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, is a feature-length documentary that captures the resilience and courage of a group of remarkable women who risk their lives daily to stand up for their rights. Rare archival footage illustrates the disturbing and amazing stories of their struggle for equality, reflected in the history of this Central Asian country during the past quarter-century of political turmoil. The women shed light on the little-known story of the last battle of the Cold War that was played out on Afghan soil, and the role of the CIA in the creation of the terrorist groups that plague the world today.
The film goes inside a women's prison and records the drafting of an Afghan Women's Bill of Rights by women from across Afghanistan at a conference in Kandahar in 2003. In scenes like these, women debunk the commonly-held myth that the U.S. intervention and the fall of the Taliban brought Afghan women freedom, and expose "Operation Freedom" as a euphemism for U.S. domination of the region with its oil and gas reserves.
In its short history, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle has been very well received by the general public, generating interest even before it was completed. That attention led to several screenings, some followed by lively discussions with the audience.
click here for reviews, screenings, trailer, & more info
Kathleen Foster’s latest film, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, is a feature-length documentary that captures the resilience and courage of a group of remarkable women who risk their lives daily to stand up for their rights. Rare archival footage illustrates the disturbing and amazing stories of their struggle for equality, reflected in the history of this Central Asian country during the past quarter-century of political turmoil. The women shed light on the little-known story of the last battle of the Cold War that was played out on Afghan soil, and the role of the CIA in the creation of the terrorist groups that plague the world today.
The film goes inside a women's prison and records the drafting of an Afghan Women's Bill of Rights by women from across Afghanistan at a conference in Kandahar in 2003. In scenes like these, women debunk the commonly-held myth that the U.S. intervention and the fall of the Taliban brought Afghan women freedom, and expose "Operation Freedom" as a euphemism for U.S. domination of the region with its oil and gas reserves.
In its short history, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle has been very well received by the general public, generating interest even before it was completed. That attention led to several screenings, some followed by lively discussions with the audience.
click here for reviews, screenings, trailer, & more info
DROP THE CHARGES: FREE THE SAN FRANCISCO 8
A Space, Wed June 10, 2009 7-9 pm in Philadelphia
DROP THE CHARGES: FREE THE SAN FRANCISCO 8 is an event to discuss case updates and watch the short movie, Legacy of Torture, and raise awareness about who the San Francisco 8 are and the impact of repression on our movements today. This is a showing as part of a video blitz in response to the start of the pretrial of the case on June 8th.
------------------
Eight former Black community activists – Black Panthers and others – were arrested January 23, 2007 in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973. Free the SF 8!
icffmaj@aol.com
Free The SF 8
DROP THE CHARGES: FREE THE SAN FRANCISCO 8 is an event to discuss case updates and watch the short movie, Legacy of Torture, and raise awareness about who the San Francisco 8 are and the impact of repression on our movements today. This is a showing as part of a video blitz in response to the start of the pretrial of the case on June 8th.
------------------
Eight former Black community activists – Black Panthers and others – were arrested January 23, 2007 in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973. Free the SF 8!
icffmaj@aol.com
Free The SF 8
Fri., Feb. 13 Mumia: A Case For Reasonable Doubt? film screening
EVENT CANCELED
Journalist & former Black Panther Party member Mumia Abu-Jamal was framed for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The film documents witnesses that were intimidated by police into lying & others who had charges dropped and got out of jail in exchange for lying about Mumia as well as numerous other injustices.
Read the latest legal update on Mumia at http://charlotteaction.blogspot.com/2009/02/legal-update-on-mumia-abu-jamal.html
Listen to & read Mumia's weekly columns from Death Row at http://www.prisonradio.org/mumia.htm
Spnsored by Students For A Democratic Society (SDS) - UNCC
Info: Scott at 252-943-9037 or scotty28223@gmail.com
Journalist & former Black Panther Party member Mumia Abu-Jamal was framed for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The film documents witnesses that were intimidated by police into lying & others who had charges dropped and got out of jail in exchange for lying about Mumia as well as numerous other injustices.
Read the latest legal update on Mumia at http://charlotteaction.blogspot.com/2009/02/legal-update-on-mumia-abu-jamal.html
Listen to & read Mumia's weekly columns from Death Row at http://www.prisonradio.org/mumia.htm
Spnsored by Students For A Democratic Society (SDS) - UNCC
Info: Scott at 252-943-9037 or scotty28223@gmail.com
July 19 War Made Easy film screening & A2 organizing meeting
Sat., July 19 War Made Easy film screening & A2 organizing meeting at 7:00 pm at Charlotte Energy Solutions, 337 Baldwin Ave, Charlotte, NC 28204. WAR MADE EASY: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Narrated by Sean Penn. This film is particularly important at this time in light of U.S./Israeli threats to attack Iran.
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon's meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse, and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer.
For more about the movie see http://www.warmadeeasythemovie.org.
For more info on this screening see www.charlotteaction.blogspot.com or call 704-492-5226.
War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon's meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse, and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer.
For more about the movie see http://www.warmadeeasythemovie.org.
For more info on this screening see www.charlotteaction.blogspot.com or call 704-492-5226.
The Real Stakeholder's Meeting - Debt, Dinner & a Movie
April 22 The Real Stakeholder's Meeting 12:30 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. at Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. 7th St, Charlotte, NC. (Free Parking at the 7th St Tower). Listen to testimonies from families hit hardest by the big banks' worst practices and take steps to make sure the big banks treat our communities fairly.
April 22 Debt, Dinner & a Movie 8:00 P.M. Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. 7th St, Charlotte, NC. (Free Parking at the 7th St Tower). Come to the "Red Carpet Premiere" of the top videos submitted in a national video contest by students from around the country in an effort to warn youth about the dangers of debt.
Charlotte is a center for American banking. But North Carolina families are suffering from banks' bad practices.
Our community is getting together to talk about how the nation's biggest banks like Bank of America and Countrywide are impacting our families and our communities. Join consumers and national advocacy organizations on April 22nd and April 23rd to act together and hold the banks accountable.
Download Flyers to pass out, click here.
For more info on these events contact Estefania San Juan, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) at 704.877.9466, bigbadbanks@gmail.com or see www.bigbadbanks.org.
April 22 Debt, Dinner & a Movie 8:00 P.M. Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. 7th St, Charlotte, NC. (Free Parking at the 7th St Tower). Come to the "Red Carpet Premiere" of the top videos submitted in a national video contest by students from around the country in an effort to warn youth about the dangers of debt.
Charlotte is a center for American banking. But North Carolina families are suffering from banks' bad practices.
Our community is getting together to talk about how the nation's biggest banks like Bank of America and Countrywide are impacting our families and our communities. Join consumers and national advocacy organizations on April 22nd and April 23rd to act together and hold the banks accountable.
Download Flyers to pass out, click here.
For more info on these events contact Estefania San Juan, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) at 704.877.9466, bigbadbanks@gmail.com or see www.bigbadbanks.org.
April 12 "My War, My Story" film & Iraq Vet Jason Hurd
3:00 pm at Heaton Hall in Myers Park Baptist Church, Charlotte, NC
A special showing of "My War, My Story", a film by Andy Blood. Following the film there will be a discussion lead by Jason Hurd of Iraq Veterans Against The War.
Presented by and for the benefit of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 150, Charlotte. Contributions are appreciated but not required.
For more info and to reserve a seat contact John at mywarmystory@johnautry.net or 704-537-2735.
A special showing of "My War, My Story", a film by Andy Blood. Following the film there will be a discussion lead by Jason Hurd of Iraq Veterans Against The War.
Presented by and for the benefit of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 150, Charlotte. Contributions are appreciated but not required.
For more info and to reserve a seat contact John at mywarmystory@johnautry.net or 704-537-2735.
April 9 Iraq for Sale film screening
7:00 PM in McKnight Hall in the Cone Center at UNCC. The film documents the wide spread war profiteering in Iraq including by mercenary companies. See www.IraqForSale.org for more about the film. Sponsored by UNCC Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Contact Chris at cmcameri@uncc.edu for more info on this screening.
April 5 Solidarity with Political Prisoner Dr. Sami Al-Arian
6:15 p.m at The Islamic Center of Charlotte-South, 559 N. Polk St. Pineville, NC
A screening of the award-winning film, U.S.A. vs. Sami Al-Arian will be shown, along with the filmmaker, Line Halvorsen and Sami Al-Arian's attorney, Peter Erlinder. U.S.A. vs. Sami Al-Arian is an intimate family portrait that documents the American-Muslim family's desperate attempt to fight terrorism charges leveled the U.S. goverment.
The film raises questions on whether it is possible for a man like Sami Al-Arian to receive a fair trial in the U.S. given the current hostile enviroment against Muslims and the strong support of Israel. It presents democracy in a new light in a post 9/11 culture of fear, where "security measures" trump free speech and punishment is melted out in the name of protection.
Sami Al-Arian has been a tireless voice for freedom and justice at home and abroad. He worked hard to raise awareness in the U.S. about the plight of the Palestinians. He also attended briefings at the White House and Justice Dept., adised several members of Congress and met both President Clinton and Bush.
A panel discussion will follow the showing of the film, with filmmaker Line Halvorsen, Attorney Peter Erlinder and Muslim activist Jibril Hough and other invited guests.
This event is being sponsored by The Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA) Contact: Jibril Hough @ (704)258-0304 or email @ jibrilhough@hotmail.com
A screening of the award-winning film, U.S.A. vs. Sami Al-Arian will be shown, along with the filmmaker, Line Halvorsen and Sami Al-Arian's attorney, Peter Erlinder. U.S.A. vs. Sami Al-Arian is an intimate family portrait that documents the American-Muslim family's desperate attempt to fight terrorism charges leveled the U.S. goverment.
The film raises questions on whether it is possible for a man like Sami Al-Arian to receive a fair trial in the U.S. given the current hostile enviroment against Muslims and the strong support of Israel. It presents democracy in a new light in a post 9/11 culture of fear, where "security measures" trump free speech and punishment is melted out in the name of protection.
Sami Al-Arian has been a tireless voice for freedom and justice at home and abroad. He worked hard to raise awareness in the U.S. about the plight of the Palestinians. He also attended briefings at the White House and Justice Dept., adised several members of Congress and met both President Clinton and Bush.
A panel discussion will follow the showing of the film, with filmmaker Line Halvorsen, Attorney Peter Erlinder and Muslim activist Jibril Hough and other invited guests.
This event is being sponsored by The Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA) Contact: Jibril Hough @ (704)258-0304 or email @ jibrilhough@hotmail.com
Rachel Corrie Memorial & "The Unrecognized" film
Saturday, March 15 at 8:00 p.m.
at The Islamic Center of Charlotte-South, 559 N. Polk St. Pineville, NC
This March 16th, 2008 will mark the 5th anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. Rachel Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She spent the last six months of her life in the Gaza Strip defending Palestinian homes from being demolished by the Israeli Zionist Forces.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel had to meet her fate at the hands of a heartless Israeli caterpillar operator. On that day, Rachel was standing in front of Dr. Masri's house with a bullhorn in her hand. She was calling out to the Israeli driver to stop moving his Caterpiller machine forward. It was to no avail. The Israeli driver kept driving, defying her pleas. Rachel attempted to run away from path of the giant Caterpillar machine. Sadly, it was too late, the heartless driver of the American made Caterpiller went over Rachel Corrie, crushing her to death.
So, in order for us to honor Rachel, we sought to do one of the things that mattered to her the most, to educate ourselves about the inhumane Israeli policies toward home demolition. We will do so by showing a film, called the "the Unrecognized". This film is about a group of Palestinians inside Israel whose houses are threatened to be razed by the state of Israel. We will also show some clips about Rachel Corrie, days before she died. Please make an effort to attend. Please tell you friends and encourage them to come to this event.
Sponsored by The Islamic Center of Charlotte-South.
Contact: Jibril Hough @ (704) 258-0304
at The Islamic Center of Charlotte-South, 559 N. Polk St. Pineville, NC
This March 16th, 2008 will mark the 5th anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. Rachel Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She spent the last six months of her life in the Gaza Strip defending Palestinian homes from being demolished by the Israeli Zionist Forces.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel had to meet her fate at the hands of a heartless Israeli caterpillar operator. On that day, Rachel was standing in front of Dr. Masri's house with a bullhorn in her hand. She was calling out to the Israeli driver to stop moving his Caterpiller machine forward. It was to no avail. The Israeli driver kept driving, defying her pleas. Rachel attempted to run away from path of the giant Caterpillar machine. Sadly, it was too late, the heartless driver of the American made Caterpiller went over Rachel Corrie, crushing her to death.
So, in order for us to honor Rachel, we sought to do one of the things that mattered to her the most, to educate ourselves about the inhumane Israeli policies toward home demolition. We will do so by showing a film, called the "the Unrecognized". This film is about a group of Palestinians inside Israel whose houses are threatened to be razed by the state of Israel. We will also show some clips about Rachel Corrie, days before she died. Please make an effort to attend. Please tell you friends and encourage them to come to this event.
Sponsored by The Islamic Center of Charlotte-South.
Contact: Jibril Hough @ (704) 258-0304
Feb. 22 Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers film screening & discussion
7:00 pm
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave, Charlotte, NC 28204
Join us to watch the documentary film "Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers" and brief presentation on war profiteers, the Iraqi oil law, & discussion. This part of the Feb. 22-23 International Days of Action Against the Iraqi Oil Law.
Watch the trailer, click here.
About the film:
"Regardless of the war, the administration, or the various sophistries for expending human lives as a matter of government policy, profiteering from it universally offends all citizens, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, other parties or no shows." Read more →
--Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.
Brave New Films are both funded and distributed completely outside corporate America. Over 3000 people donated to make Iraq for Sale, and it is up to you to distribute it. Give copies to co-workers and organize a screening in your neighborhood. Get involved →
The film is 75 minutes long.
For more info on this screening contact Action Center For Justice at bringthemonhome@yahoo.com, 704-492-5226, or see www.CharlotteAction.org.
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave, Charlotte, NC 28204
Join us to watch the documentary film "Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers" and brief presentation on war profiteers, the Iraqi oil law, & discussion. This part of the Feb. 22-23 International Days of Action Against the Iraqi Oil Law.
Watch the trailer, click here.
About the film:
"Regardless of the war, the administration, or the various sophistries for expending human lives as a matter of government policy, profiteering from it universally offends all citizens, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, other parties or no shows." Read more →
--Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.
Brave New Films are both funded and distributed completely outside corporate America. Over 3000 people donated to make Iraq for Sale, and it is up to you to distribute it. Give copies to co-workers and organize a screening in your neighborhood. Get involved →
The film is 75 minutes long.
For more info on this screening contact Action Center For Justice at bringthemonhome@yahoo.com, 704-492-5226, or see www.CharlotteAction.org.
Wed., Feb. 13 "Uncounted" film screening
7:00pm at Charlotte Energy Solutions, 337 Baldwin Ave, Charlotte, NC 28204.
Do you want to know what really happened in 2000, 2004 and 2006 at the electronic ballot box?
Uncounted is an explosive new documentary that shows how the election fraud that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006 - and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election. This film examines in startling terms how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S. The film is a call to action to take our elections back. Offering ideas, identifying possible coalition partners, and providing the tools to get the job done.
This is a great way to have fun watching a movie with friends while working to move America forward.
Attendees get the added bonus of DFA Chair Jim Dean and Uncounted director, David Earnhardt for a live conference call and Q&A.
That's why hundreds of Uncounted House Parties have been scheduled by members through out the country.
RSVP for Charlotte screening at http://dfalink.com/event.php?id=27824
More info: 704-333-4358
Do you want to know what really happened in 2000, 2004 and 2006 at the electronic ballot box?
Uncounted is an explosive new documentary that shows how the election fraud that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006 - and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election. This film examines in startling terms how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S. The film is a call to action to take our elections back. Offering ideas, identifying possible coalition partners, and providing the tools to get the job done.
This is a great way to have fun watching a movie with friends while working to move America forward.
Attendees get the added bonus of DFA Chair Jim Dean and Uncounted director, David Earnhardt for a live conference call and Q&A.
That's why hundreds of Uncounted House Parties have been scheduled by members through out the country.
RSVP for Charlotte screening at http://dfalink.com/event.php?id=27824
More info: 704-333-4358
Malcolm X: The Man, The Times, The Legacy - Charlotte
Join us for a commemoration of the life of Minister Malcolm X (May 19, 1925-February 21, 1965) as we view the documentary video "Malcolm X: Make It Plain" with discussion to follow the video.
When: February 23, 2008, 6PM
Where: Islamic Center of Charlotte-South, 559 N. Polk St. (off South Blvd.) Pineville, NC
Directions: 77 S. To 485 towards Pineville
Take first exit (Pineville) go right
about a mile, turn right at Arby's
Islamic Center of Charlotte-South is in the
second building on the left. Its front door faces the rear of the property.
OPEN TO ALL-------
Info: Ahmad Daniels 704 537-1533
Ahmad Daniels, Transformation Facilitator
Creative Interchange
"Where Changed Philosophies
Lead to Changed Behavior"
704 537-1533
On the web: http://www.creative-interchange.com
When: February 23, 2008, 6PM
Where: Islamic Center of Charlotte-South, 559 N. Polk St. (off South Blvd.) Pineville, NC
Directions: 77 S. To 485 towards Pineville
Take first exit (Pineville) go right
about a mile, turn right at Arby's
Islamic Center of Charlotte-South is in the
second building on the left. Its front door faces the rear of the property.
OPEN TO ALL-------
Info: Ahmad Daniels 704 537-1533
Ahmad Daniels, Transformation Facilitator
Creative Interchange
"Where Changed Philosophies
Lead to Changed Behavior"
704 537-1533
On the web: http://www.creative-interchange.com
Our Crimes in Iraq Must Not Be Forgotten
If the alliance was arrogant at the time of the invasion,
it is even more so today
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Guardian, Feb. 4, 2008
Don't bring up the catastrophe in Iraq, not in polite circles or at dinner parties, or anywhere in public really. Better to burp or fart loudly. That is the message for 2008. What war? We have moved on, you bore, say the frightfully busy great and good, their eyes glazing over.
The people responsible for the war have, of course, moved on, and we must follow their fine example. Still they rise, praise be to them. Such self-belief, such resilience, no sign of weakness, no dribble of an apology. Awesome. Instead of being marched off to face war crimes tribunals they are forgiven their trespasses and rewarded generously.
The Catholic Church blesses and receives the deceiver (Mr Blair); fat banks and oil companies welcome them on boards (Jonathan Powell, Mr. Blair et al); they are called to make peace in the Middle East and lecture us on ethics ( Mr Blair and Mr Campbell) and invited in to the Cabinet (Jack Straw).
For some (still) enthusiastic warmongers - boys who never forgot the excitement of running around shooting their toy guns at strangers - the invasion and colonisation is the best thing ever. The "surge" has worked, they declare - our boys and American soldiers are not dying in the numbers they were, and look!, Iraqis are coming out to play, buy and sell, smoke their pipes in tranquillity, and thousands are returning from exile in Syria. Hip hip hooray. For we're the jolly good fellows.
In the US with the primaries going full blast, John McCain is anointed as the noble saviour, the man who promises to crush all those aliens out there who are plotting to kill the US of A. I attended the BBC Radio 4 Alistair Cooke Lecture delivered by McCain, and what I heard was a man who uses his terrible experiences in Vietnam to justify all future wars he wants his country to wage.
Bill and Hillary both actively and tacitly supported the invasion of Iraq and never once defended the UN route. These candidates are "liberals", we are told. Only in America. None of the above are exactly in the habit of mentioning the caged of Guantanamo or the anguish of Iraqis. Obama did fleetingly touch on these ugly American transgressions, but not for long, and not with intense moral purpose. At least the guy tried, and had the guts to vote against the invasion. The others still seem to believe fervently that the attacks on 9/11 outweigh all other acts of political violence.
If the alliance, its leaders and brass bands were imperiously arrogant when they went into Iraq, they are even more so today. Failure has given them no humility at all and completes the cycle of villainy. They lied and broke international law and appear to have no duty of care towards the innocent inhabitants of that blighted land.
Iraqi deaths are now calculated at around one million. According to international organisations monitoring migrations, Iraq is going through one of the largest and most serious humanitarian crises in the world, with population displacement within and from Iraq. Last November, cholera figures were the worst for 40 years, says an Iraqi health minister. Childhood diseases are rampant. There are relentless bombardments across the country, for reasons not given, on people unseen and labelled al-Qa'ida.
The current hand-wringing about British journalistic standards concentrates entirely on small, domestic matters. The real shame and scandal is that air attacks on Iraq go on and on and get hardly any serious coverage. In 2006, there were 229 such raids; in 2007 there were 1,447 raids (dead uncounted and unidentified). The ghastly, ruthless General David Petraeus says they have now reached a "sustainable level of violence". That is, at least, a truthful assessment and one that explains why we went into Iraq. If the allies allow Iraqi Sunnis, Shias and Kurds to carry on murdering each other day after day, not so many that it turns into a full-blown civil war, we can steal their oil and control the place.
Meanwhile, here Lord Guthrie, once Chief of Staff, and others of his ilk are furious with Gordon Brown for promising that the consent of Parliament will be sought before any future war is launched by the Government. These generals have become extraordinarily bullish after the lamentable collapse of all their strategies in Iraq - thereby fending off any accountability and reasonable interrogation as to why even Basra became disillusioned with our presence.
There are, thank God, people who keep alive truth and awaken our collective conscience. On Tuesday there is a public meeting in London (courtesy of the Stop the War Coalition) organised by Phil Shiner, public interest lawyer and an indefatigable campaigner for justice. For years he has tried to expose the brutality of some of our soldiers in Iraq who have committed heinous crimes against the populations and got away with it. At the meeting, which all good people should attend, Shiner will be talking about the British state and how it tolerates the torture, mutilations and killings of Iraqi civilians.
This Thursday the Jordanian Jamil el-Banna and Libyan Omar Deghayes go to court to argue against extradition to Spain to face charges of terrorism. These are the two men who were last year released from Guantanamo Bay, where they were caged and tortured for five years. Imagine the state of their minds and bodies, their fears of incarceration.
Here they were interrogated by our spooks and police officers, and released without charge. Yet Spain clamours for them and we will deliver them into yet another jurisdiction unless the lawyers can win the case. Helena Kennedy and Geoffrey Bindman have spoken up to defend these poor men; journalist Victoria Britten has investigated charges against them for four years and tells me she is absolutely sure they are innocent. Great Britain, Mr Brown? Tell me about it.
Just released too is the film Battle for Haditha by the exceptionally diligent director Nick Broomfield (I must remember him in my prayers). He has bravely brought to the screen an untold story of the war - the massacres of innocents by the allies in Hathida, a middle-class Sunni city where he says "couples would honeymoon on the Euphrates". Fallujah was similarly "punished". Both places at first supported the invasion and learnt to their cost that their saviours had dark intent and too many had lost their own humanity.
If Blair is elected President of the EU and either Clinton or McCain get the US presidency, the final insults will be added to the endless injury suffered by the Iraqis. They will know conclusively that there ain't no justice in the world. And some of them will turn to terrorism. And the peace we hope for will never come.
it is even more so today
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Guardian, Feb. 4, 2008
Don't bring up the catastrophe in Iraq, not in polite circles or at dinner parties, or anywhere in public really. Better to burp or fart loudly. That is the message for 2008. What war? We have moved on, you bore, say the frightfully busy great and good, their eyes glazing over.
The people responsible for the war have, of course, moved on, and we must follow their fine example. Still they rise, praise be to them. Such self-belief, such resilience, no sign of weakness, no dribble of an apology. Awesome. Instead of being marched off to face war crimes tribunals they are forgiven their trespasses and rewarded generously.
The Catholic Church blesses and receives the deceiver (Mr Blair); fat banks and oil companies welcome them on boards (Jonathan Powell, Mr. Blair et al); they are called to make peace in the Middle East and lecture us on ethics ( Mr Blair and Mr Campbell) and invited in to the Cabinet (Jack Straw).
For some (still) enthusiastic warmongers - boys who never forgot the excitement of running around shooting their toy guns at strangers - the invasion and colonisation is the best thing ever. The "surge" has worked, they declare - our boys and American soldiers are not dying in the numbers they were, and look!, Iraqis are coming out to play, buy and sell, smoke their pipes in tranquillity, and thousands are returning from exile in Syria. Hip hip hooray. For we're the jolly good fellows.
In the US with the primaries going full blast, John McCain is anointed as the noble saviour, the man who promises to crush all those aliens out there who are plotting to kill the US of A. I attended the BBC Radio 4 Alistair Cooke Lecture delivered by McCain, and what I heard was a man who uses his terrible experiences in Vietnam to justify all future wars he wants his country to wage.
Bill and Hillary both actively and tacitly supported the invasion of Iraq and never once defended the UN route. These candidates are "liberals", we are told. Only in America. None of the above are exactly in the habit of mentioning the caged of Guantanamo or the anguish of Iraqis. Obama did fleetingly touch on these ugly American transgressions, but not for long, and not with intense moral purpose. At least the guy tried, and had the guts to vote against the invasion. The others still seem to believe fervently that the attacks on 9/11 outweigh all other acts of political violence.
If the alliance, its leaders and brass bands were imperiously arrogant when they went into Iraq, they are even more so today. Failure has given them no humility at all and completes the cycle of villainy. They lied and broke international law and appear to have no duty of care towards the innocent inhabitants of that blighted land.
Iraqi deaths are now calculated at around one million. According to international organisations monitoring migrations, Iraq is going through one of the largest and most serious humanitarian crises in the world, with population displacement within and from Iraq. Last November, cholera figures were the worst for 40 years, says an Iraqi health minister. Childhood diseases are rampant. There are relentless bombardments across the country, for reasons not given, on people unseen and labelled al-Qa'ida.
The current hand-wringing about British journalistic standards concentrates entirely on small, domestic matters. The real shame and scandal is that air attacks on Iraq go on and on and get hardly any serious coverage. In 2006, there were 229 such raids; in 2007 there were 1,447 raids (dead uncounted and unidentified). The ghastly, ruthless General David Petraeus says they have now reached a "sustainable level of violence". That is, at least, a truthful assessment and one that explains why we went into Iraq. If the allies allow Iraqi Sunnis, Shias and Kurds to carry on murdering each other day after day, not so many that it turns into a full-blown civil war, we can steal their oil and control the place.
Meanwhile, here Lord Guthrie, once Chief of Staff, and others of his ilk are furious with Gordon Brown for promising that the consent of Parliament will be sought before any future war is launched by the Government. These generals have become extraordinarily bullish after the lamentable collapse of all their strategies in Iraq - thereby fending off any accountability and reasonable interrogation as to why even Basra became disillusioned with our presence.
There are, thank God, people who keep alive truth and awaken our collective conscience. On Tuesday there is a public meeting in London (courtesy of the Stop the War Coalition) organised by Phil Shiner, public interest lawyer and an indefatigable campaigner for justice. For years he has tried to expose the brutality of some of our soldiers in Iraq who have committed heinous crimes against the populations and got away with it. At the meeting, which all good people should attend, Shiner will be talking about the British state and how it tolerates the torture, mutilations and killings of Iraqi civilians.
This Thursday the Jordanian Jamil el-Banna and Libyan Omar Deghayes go to court to argue against extradition to Spain to face charges of terrorism. These are the two men who were last year released from Guantanamo Bay, where they were caged and tortured for five years. Imagine the state of their minds and bodies, their fears of incarceration.
Here they were interrogated by our spooks and police officers, and released without charge. Yet Spain clamours for them and we will deliver them into yet another jurisdiction unless the lawyers can win the case. Helena Kennedy and Geoffrey Bindman have spoken up to defend these poor men; journalist Victoria Britten has investigated charges against them for four years and tells me she is absolutely sure they are innocent. Great Britain, Mr Brown? Tell me about it.
Just released too is the film Battle for Haditha by the exceptionally diligent director Nick Broomfield (I must remember him in my prayers). He has bravely brought to the screen an untold story of the war - the massacres of innocents by the allies in Hathida, a middle-class Sunni city where he says "couples would honeymoon on the Euphrates". Fallujah was similarly "punished". Both places at first supported the invasion and learnt to their cost that their saviours had dark intent and too many had lost their own humanity.
If Blair is elected President of the EU and either Clinton or McCain get the US presidency, the final insults will be added to the endless injury suffered by the Iraqis. They will know conclusively that there ain't no justice in the world. And some of them will turn to terrorism. And the peace we hope for will never come.
No End In Sight film screening
Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007
6:00pm
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave.
Charlotte, NC 28204
Watch the trailer:
Find out more about No End In Sight, click here.
For more info on this screening email bringthemonhome@yahoo.com or call (704) 333-4358.
6:00pm
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave.
Charlotte, NC 28204
Watch the trailer:
Find out more about No End In Sight, click here.
For more info on this screening email bringthemonhome@yahoo.com or call (704) 333-4358.
SiCKO film screening & discussion
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007
7:30 pm
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave
Charlotte, NC 28204
Join us this Saturday, Nov. 10 at 7:30pm to watch Michael Moore's latest, greatest film SiCKO, followed by discussion. You will also have the opportunity to get involved in the movement for universal health care here in the U.S.
About SiCKO:
Writer/producer Michael Moore interviews Americans who have been denied treatment by our health care insurance companies -- companies who sacrifice essential health services in order to maximize profits. The consequences for the individual subscribers range from bankruptcy to the unnecessary deaths of loved ones.
Moore then looks at universal free health care systems in Canada, France, Britain, and Cuba, debunking all the fears (lower quality of care, poorer compensation for doctors, big-government bureaucracy) that have been used to dissuade Americans from establishing such a system here. The roots of those health care systems are explored, and our failure to establish free health here care is traced to a) President Richard Nixon's deceptive support of the then-emerging HMOs pursuing huge profits and b) subsequent pressures for Congress to sacrifice sound health care in favor of corporate profit.
A group of Americans who became ill from volunteering at 911 Ground Zero, but were refused health coverage for their illnesses, are ferried by Moore to Cuba, where they receive the top-rate, free care one would hope they'd get here at home.
In his interviews, historical reportage, and typical sarcastic wit, Moore soundly condemns American health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the politicians who have been paid millions to do their bidding. He makes the case that there is something wrong with Americans that we cannot learn from the successes of other countries in providing better quality-of-health than we enjoy in the USA.
Watch the DVD trailer at http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/dvd/trailer.html
Sponsored by Charlotte Energy Solutions & Action Center For Justice. For more info email bringthemonhome@yahoo.com.
7:30 pm
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave
Charlotte, NC 28204
Join us this Saturday, Nov. 10 at 7:30pm to watch Michael Moore's latest, greatest film SiCKO, followed by discussion. You will also have the opportunity to get involved in the movement for universal health care here in the U.S.
About SiCKO:
Writer/producer Michael Moore interviews Americans who have been denied treatment by our health care insurance companies -- companies who sacrifice essential health services in order to maximize profits. The consequences for the individual subscribers range from bankruptcy to the unnecessary deaths of loved ones.
Moore then looks at universal free health care systems in Canada, France, Britain, and Cuba, debunking all the fears (lower quality of care, poorer compensation for doctors, big-government bureaucracy) that have been used to dissuade Americans from establishing such a system here. The roots of those health care systems are explored, and our failure to establish free health here care is traced to a) President Richard Nixon's deceptive support of the then-emerging HMOs pursuing huge profits and b) subsequent pressures for Congress to sacrifice sound health care in favor of corporate profit.
A group of Americans who became ill from volunteering at 911 Ground Zero, but were refused health coverage for their illnesses, are ferried by Moore to Cuba, where they receive the top-rate, free care one would hope they'd get here at home.
In his interviews, historical reportage, and typical sarcastic wit, Moore soundly condemns American health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the politicians who have been paid millions to do their bidding. He makes the case that there is something wrong with Americans that we cannot learn from the successes of other countries in providing better quality-of-health than we enjoy in the USA.
Watch the DVD trailer at http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/dvd/trailer.html
Sponsored by Charlotte Energy Solutions & Action Center For Justice. For more info email bringthemonhome@yahoo.com.
Sept. 22: Unity/Solidarity Cook-Out for Jena 6 & film in Charlotte
Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007
Unity/Solidarity Cook-Out for Jena 6 & film in Charlotte
Cook-Out starts at 5:30pm
Guest speakers at 7:00pm
Film starts at 8:30pm
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave
Charlotte, NC 28204
Join us this Saturday, Sept. 22 for a very special Unity/Solidarity Cook-Out for the Jena 6 & the film “Passin’ It On”. It is important that all justice loving people stand with the Jena 6 and the growing movement to support them & stand against racism in all its vile forms.
Invited guests include:
Rev. James Barnett, The Crusade, Stop The Killing
Ahmad Daniels, Director, Creative-Interchange & reparations activist
Sylvia Grier, Vice-President, Millions More Movement – Charlotte
Jibril Hough, Chairman, Islamic Political Party of America
Our film will be the documentary “Passin’ It On”: Follow the startling true story of Dhoruba Bin Wahad, a leader of the New York City chapter of the Black Panther Party, who served 19 years in prison for killing two policemen, a crime he did not commit. Archival footage, interviews and courtroom testimony chronicle Dhoruba's struggle, including the overturning of his sentence in 1990, and the U.S. Governments war on the Black Panther Party & black liberation movement.
Please bring something to throw on the grill, your favorite beverage, and family and friends. (We will have some hotdogs & hamburgers to get started).
Donations will be accepted for the Jena 6 Defense Fund & for local organizing for the Sept 29 March on Washington & future events.
All supporters of Jena 6 welcome, no one turned away for lack of money.
Info: Action Center For Justice
www.CharlotteAction.org
704.492.8527
********************
Sept. 29 National March on the White House
Sept. 22-29 Encampment in Front of Congress
Stop the War At Home & Abroad!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!
Bring The Troops Home Now!
*Buses from across the U.S., find one near you
*For details, flyers, & to endorse, click here
********************
There are peace & justice actions all through out Sept & Oct.
See www.CharlotteAction.org for more of them.
********************
Donate Now to support Action Center For Justice online by using the Orange Donate link at http://www.CharlotteAction.org
Or send check or money order to:
Action Center For Justice
7100 Mapleridge Dr
Charlotte, NC 28210
Unity/Solidarity Cook-Out for Jena 6 & film in Charlotte
Cook-Out starts at 5:30pm
Guest speakers at 7:00pm
Film starts at 8:30pm
Charlotte Energy Solutions
337 Baldwin Ave
Charlotte, NC 28204
Join us this Saturday, Sept. 22 for a very special Unity/Solidarity Cook-Out for the Jena 6 & the film “Passin’ It On”. It is important that all justice loving people stand with the Jena 6 and the growing movement to support them & stand against racism in all its vile forms.
Invited guests include:
Rev. James Barnett, The Crusade, Stop The Killing
Ahmad Daniels, Director, Creative-Interchange & reparations activist
Sylvia Grier, Vice-President, Millions More Movement – Charlotte
Jibril Hough, Chairman, Islamic Political Party of America
Our film will be the documentary “Passin’ It On”: Follow the startling true story of Dhoruba Bin Wahad, a leader of the New York City chapter of the Black Panther Party, who served 19 years in prison for killing two policemen, a crime he did not commit. Archival footage, interviews and courtroom testimony chronicle Dhoruba's struggle, including the overturning of his sentence in 1990, and the U.S. Governments war on the Black Panther Party & black liberation movement.
Please bring something to throw on the grill, your favorite beverage, and family and friends. (We will have some hotdogs & hamburgers to get started).
Donations will be accepted for the Jena 6 Defense Fund & for local organizing for the Sept 29 March on Washington & future events.
All supporters of Jena 6 welcome, no one turned away for lack of money.
Info: Action Center For Justice
www.CharlotteAction.org
704.492.8527
********************
Sept. 29 National March on the White House
Sept. 22-29 Encampment in Front of Congress
Stop the War At Home & Abroad!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes!
Bring The Troops Home Now!
*Buses from across the U.S., find one near you
*For details, flyers, & to endorse, click here
********************
There are peace & justice actions all through out Sept & Oct.
See www.CharlotteAction.org for more of them.
********************
Donate Now to support Action Center For Justice online by using the Orange Donate link at http://www.CharlotteAction.org
Or send check or money order to:
Action Center For Justice
7100 Mapleridge Dr
Charlotte, NC 28210
Volunteers for video activism needed
Calling for Activist video trainees and volunteers!
Work with Peoples Video Network!
Train to use cameras, large and small! Edit!
Use DVD technology! Stream and distribute your work!
First Workshop Series coordinated with Sept 22-29 Anti-War Encampment and demonstrations in Washington DC: http://www.troopsoutnow.org
Series of workshops in video documentation, camera, editing and distribution. Work with Peoples Video network in hands-on classes and field-work in video activism. Mentoring with seasoned video activists. Final presentation to an appreciative audience. Opportunity to learn distribution to wider audiences. Our goal is to encourage you to take this course from beginning to end and to participate in Peoples Video Network on an ongoing basis.
Camera:
Workshop 1: Learning the Canon XL1 series. Focus, lighting, sound, care of equipment. Work with a team
Workshop 2: handling a small camera in action situations. Care of equipment and safeguarding footage. Coordination with field editors, camera crew
Workshop 3: Interview technique. Lighting, sound, conducting interviews.
Field-Work:
Field-work will go on throughout training and provide the raw material for viewing, editing and discussion. Document the encampment Sept 22-29 in Washington DC. Learn to shoot at demonstrations and in other action situations. Shooting formal events. Working with the sound crew.
Interview technique. Opportunity for independent work as well as mentoring and
feedback sessions.
Workshop 4: Viewing the raw footage. Group comments and feedback in a
supportive environment.
Editing:
Workshop 5: Basics of Final Cut Pro. Beginning the editing process; using raw footage from field-work and also from archival material.
Workshop 6: More basics of Final Cut Pro
Distribution:
Workshop 7: Finishing a project and exporting it. Streaming, printing,
dvd making
Workshop 8: More concepts of distribution. Discussion of festivals,
internet, grants
Final Workshop Presentation
Each video activist will present a sample of work to be shown at a commencement recital event with invited guests.
Sign up for PVN WORKSHOPS: pvn@action-mail.org or call (212) 340-1286. Leave your name, phone number and e-mail and the best time to reach you.
To learn more about Peoples Video Network go to www.peoplesvideo.org or www.peoplesvideo.tv
Work with Peoples Video Network!
Train to use cameras, large and small! Edit!
Use DVD technology! Stream and distribute your work!
First Workshop Series coordinated with Sept 22-29 Anti-War Encampment and demonstrations in Washington DC: http://www.troopsoutnow.org
Series of workshops in video documentation, camera, editing and distribution. Work with Peoples Video network in hands-on classes and field-work in video activism. Mentoring with seasoned video activists. Final presentation to an appreciative audience. Opportunity to learn distribution to wider audiences. Our goal is to encourage you to take this course from beginning to end and to participate in Peoples Video Network on an ongoing basis.
Camera:
Workshop 1: Learning the Canon XL1 series. Focus, lighting, sound, care of equipment. Work with a team
Workshop 2: handling a small camera in action situations. Care of equipment and safeguarding footage. Coordination with field editors, camera crew
Workshop 3: Interview technique. Lighting, sound, conducting interviews.
Field-Work:
Field-work will go on throughout training and provide the raw material for viewing, editing and discussion. Document the encampment Sept 22-29 in Washington DC. Learn to shoot at demonstrations and in other action situations. Shooting formal events. Working with the sound crew.
Interview technique. Opportunity for independent work as well as mentoring and
feedback sessions.
Workshop 4: Viewing the raw footage. Group comments and feedback in a
supportive environment.
Editing:
Workshop 5: Basics of Final Cut Pro. Beginning the editing process; using raw footage from field-work and also from archival material.
Workshop 6: More basics of Final Cut Pro
Distribution:
Workshop 7: Finishing a project and exporting it. Streaming, printing,
dvd making
Workshop 8: More concepts of distribution. Discussion of festivals,
internet, grants
Final Workshop Presentation
Each video activist will present a sample of work to be shown at a commencement recital event with invited guests.
Sign up for PVN WORKSHOPS: pvn@action-mail.org or call (212) 340-1286. Leave your name, phone number and e-mail and the best time to reach you.
To learn more about Peoples Video Network go to www.peoplesvideo.org or www.peoplesvideo.tv
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