PRAGOTI

IT is now ten years since September 12, 1998 when five fighters against terrorism, three Cubans and two US citizens of Cuban descent were arrested on the remarkable charge of being “illegal officers” of Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence, about whose real status the US authorities were vague. They were young, talented and well-educated human beings whose lives are being destroyed by a savage regime.

Sami al-Haj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was beaten, abused and humiliated in the name of the war on terror. He tells Robert Fisk about his struggle to rebuild a shattered life.

Unite against Terrorism!
Unite against harassment and communal stereotyping of innocent Muslims!

Democracy Now! Host Amy Goodman was arrested on September 1, 2008 while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, who were arrested earlier while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul's. During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several dozen demonstrators were also arrested during this action, as was a photographer for the Associated Press. Amy Goodman writes about the crackdown on journalists.

Generating hysteria about the state of India's internal security often is a way for arguing that we become a surveillance state, more or less on the lines of Israel, a country that the Sangh Parivar greatly admires. Neurosis of the kind that Israel harbours leads to mindlessness of a high order, as was evident last May during my trip to that country.

Courtesy: Sabrang

In an article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the insidious militarisng of Britain as the effects of two colonial wars and the cover-up of atrocities come home.

Courtesy: New Statesman

Where the executive is making intolerant orders and the courts are routinely upholding them, it is imperative that Parliament acts.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Israel's treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern.

The Young Communist League of South Africa has protested at the detention and interrogation of its national secretary, Buti Manamela, at London’s Heathrow Airport on Wednesday.

YCL spokesman Castro Ngobese condemned the British action against Manamela.
“This barbaric interrogation of the national secretary demonstrates the imperialist inclination of Britain and its authorities,”Ngobese said. “It is deplorable that a young communist is interrogated in Britain, known for its left-leaning politics and activism. This does not auger well for bilateral relations.”

He demanded an apology from the British authorities. He said failure to do so would force the league to mobilise its members in protest and expose the “imperialist scare tactics” camouflaged as anti-terror measures.

The national secretary of the Young Communist League (YCL) in South Africa, Buti Manamela, was interrogated for hours by the anti-terrorist unit of the British police last week at Heathrow Airport in London. He tells the Mail & Guardian of his experience.