Posts Categorized: Government Documents

Ainu and Okinawan Human Rights- United Nations Forum on indigenous issues

A coalition of Asian Indigenous Peoples advocacy groups delivered a Collective Statement to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in United Nations Headquarters, New York, 16-27 May, 2011, which brings up the issue of U.S. militarization in Okinawa (Henoko & Takae) < http://okinawabd.ti-da.net/e3421074.html>.    The groups utilized the U.N. Declaration on on the Rights… Read more »

Call for solidarity with Jeju anti-bases activists

Resistance to a military base on the island of Jeju (South Korea) are at a critical stage.  One of the leaders of the protest movement Professor Yang was arrested and has been on a hunger strike for 50 days.  Another artist and activist Sung Hee Choi was recently arrested for holding a banner at the… Read more »

Breaking the conspiracy of silence

Betsy Kawamura is originally from Hawaiʻi.  She writes about being sexually assaulted in Okinawa by a man she believes was an American stationed at Kadena.  She campaigns internationally for human rights for women.  Her organization is Women4Nonviolence. >><< http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-9161520/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5vcGVuZGVtb2NyYWN5Lm5ldC9iZXRzeS1rYXdhbXVyYS9icmVha2luZy1jb25zcGlyYWN5LW9mLXNpbGVuY2U= Breaking the conspiracy of silence Betsy Kawamura, 20 May 2011 “I was 12 years old…..my anguish… Read more »

Pressure builds for US shift on Okinawa

The Japan Dispatch blog has very interesting analysis about the possibility of shifts in U.S. policy about the military bases in Okinawa, and a larger shift in foreign policy toward an emphasis on Asia.   He points to the APEC summit in Honolulu and the Trans Pacific Partnership as indicators that the Obama administration is… Read more »

Lines between intelligence and military functions becoming blurred

The New York Times reports that President Obama will announce that Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, will replace Robert Gates has Secretary of Defense, and that General David Petreaus will become director of the CIA.   But this trend towards the blending of intelligence and military functions is moving into dangerous territory where it is… Read more »

Tomgram: Noam Chomsky: “Who Owns the World?”

In the introduction to Noam Chomsky’s article “Who Owns the World?” Tom Englehardt writes: Military bases R U.S.  Or so it seems.  After the invasion of 2003, the Pentagon promptly started constructing a series of monster bases in occupied Iraq, the size of small American towns and with most of the amenities of home.  These… Read more »

Mubarak regime falls, but what will be the legacy?

Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak has been toppled by a people’s power revolution. Al Jazeera reports: Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has resigned from his post, handing over power to the armed forces. Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, announced in a televised address on Friday that the president was “waiving” his office, and had handed over authority to… Read more »

WikiLeaks: US and China in military standoff over space missiles

Thanks to Bruce Gagnon for sharing this Daily Telegraph article about the secret military standoff between the U.S. and China over anti-satellite tests as revealed in Wikileaks cables: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8299495/WikiLeaks-US-and-China-in-military-standoff-over-space-missiles.html WikiLeaks: US and China in military standoff over space missiles The United States threatened to take military action against China during a secret “star wars” arms… Read more »

‘I didn’t think of Iraqis as humans,’ says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family

Steven Green, the former soldier sentenced to five life terms for raping and killing a 14 year-old Iraqi girl and killing her family spoke to a reporter for the Daily Mail newspaper: An Iraq War veteran serving five life terms for raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her parents and sister says… Read more »

Alfred McCoy: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

Source: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175327/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_taking_down_america/ Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Taking Down America Posted by Alfred McCoy at 5:11pm, December 5, 2010. Trying to play down the significance of an ongoing Wikileaks dump of more than 250,000 State Department documents, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently offered the following bit of Washington wisdom: “The fact is, governments deal with the… Read more »