Members of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center and Baltimore
Peace Action will participate in Keep Space for Peace Week by going to the
National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland from 11 AM to noon on Sunday,
October 14. Our main message will be to condemn the idea of creating a Space
Force. These are very dangerous times. We will carpool, and if
interested in joining us contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at
Comcast dot net.
Join with the Global Network Against Nuclear Power & Weapons in Space and
the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (U.S. Section) during
Keep Space for Peace Week to promote social justice and a sustainable
environment on Earth rather than a new arms race in the heavens. Donald
Trump has announced plans for a Space Force—a separate branch of the military.
Congress must make the final decision. The Los Angeles Times recently
reported that aerospace industry pressure and lobbying got Trump to announce
the Space Force. Big $$$ to be made. The industry has long said that ‘Star
Wars’ would be the largest industrial project in human history. Who will pay
for it? The industry has for years been pressuring Congress to cut
the ‘entitlement programs’ (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and what is
left of the social safety net) to pay for Star Wars. The United Nation’s Outer
Space Treaty declared in 1967 that space must be preserved for all of humanity.
The treaty needs updating to include new high-tech space weapons
programs.
Image from October 10, 2018 demonstration outside the Saudi
Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)
Make
Saudi Arabia Pay for Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance
Shaun King
October 11, 2018
The Intercept
MANY
OF MY greatest heroes were assassinated.
I am
thinking about Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of post-colonial
Congo. Orchestrated by American and Belgian governments, his murder is
sometimes called “the most important assassination of the 20th century.” He was
just 35 years old.
I am
thinking about South African intellectual Steve Biko, who was the 46th
political prisoner killed while in police custody during Apartheid — which
allowed imprisonment without trial or any type of due process. He was just 30
years old and died of a traumatic brain injury.
I am
thinking of the fierce South African resistance leader, Chris Hani, who was
shot and killed in 1993. Hani was the second most popular leader in the country
and was murdered by a white supremacist with the support of a longtime bigoted
member of parliament.
I am
thinking of Tom Mboya of Kenya. I am thinking of Amílcar Cabral of Guinea-Bissau.
I am thinking of the brilliant scholar and activist Walter Rodney of Guyana.
Of
course, I am thinking of Martin, Malcolm, and Medgar.
I am
thinking of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner — the three young Freedom Riders who
traveled to Mississippi to register Black folk to vote. This summer, I spoke
for the Andrew Goodman Foundation and was so touched to meet his family. Fifty
years later, they are still grieving the loss.
And I
am thinking of the brave Brazilian activist Marielle Franco, gunned down in a drive-by
assassination this by March.
In
many of those cases, nobody was ever held responsible. Not legally or even in
the court of public opinion. In fact, governments around the world have
participated in targeted assassinations with little to no blowback for decades.
I
think social media, and the way it democratizes information — and confrontation
— has a chance to change all that.
ON THE
AFTERNOON of Tuesday, October 2, Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi
walked into the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to finalize some
paperwork for his upcoming marriage. Exterior security camera footage clearly
shows him entering the building. But not a single shred of evidence, from
eyewitnesses or cameras, shows him leaving. The Saudi consulate now says they
don’t have any footage from inside the building and give no explanation for why
Khashoggi was never seen leaving.
What
we do know is that Khashoggi, while careful to not call himself a dissident,
was an informed critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS,
and the manner in which he manages the country. Now, according to media
reports, Turkish investigators believe that the Saudi government assassinated
Khashoggi and literally cut his body into bits inside of the consulate. As
heinous as this is, it doesn’t quite come as a surprise — for people who follow
the exploits of Saudi Arabia — considering how the government arrested and
imprisoned activists across the country.
Not a
surprise, but a new low nonetheless.
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The Intercept Newsletter. Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to
you.
Maybe
inside the kingdom’s bubble, the Saudi royal family didn’t really understand
that we’d find out and that we’d care. Maybe they listened to President Donald
Trump repeatedly ramble on about how the press is the enemy of the people, and
they assumed we all thought that. We don’t. And unlike previous generations,
outraged strangers around the world are connecting with one another via social
media.
In the
past 24 hours, I’ve connected with various associates of Khashoggi. They are
distraught — “I met with his family to tell them that we were pretty sure Jamal
had been murdered by Saudi government — it was devastating,” Khashoggi’s friend
told me.
But, even
more than that, they are ****ed — and they are determined to get to the bottom
of this. These aren’t men and women who will soon let go. Several have
emphatically said that they will make it their life’s mission to get justice
for Jamal Khashoggi.
Every
journalist, activist, organizer, and peace-loving person in the world should
make that their mission. If we don’t hold them accountable, who will? Trump? It
damn sure won’t be the American business community, who seems so pumped to cozy
up with MBS that they are willing to look past every repressive action he’s
ever taken.
Social
media can be an ugly place. I see that ugliness up close every single day. But
it’s also what allowed me to identify and track down the bigots who attacked
and maimed a young man in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a white supremacist
rally. Social media brought people together to take down Bill O’Reilly at Fox
News. It forced companies to stop disseminating the callous conspiracies of
Alex Jones. When used well, it’s a powerful tool that allows an everyday person
to confront powerful brands and leaders face to face.
In
Saudi Arabia, you just can’t call out MBS without fear of being arrested or
killed, but Twitter is an irreverent medium when addressing that type of power.
And that’s a good thing.
Shaun
King is a Brooklyn-based columnist who focuses on civil and human rights,
racial justice, mass incarceration, and law enforcement misconduct. Before
joining The Intercept, he was the senior justice writer at the New York Daily
News and the writer-in-residence at Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment
Project. shaun.king@theintercept.com
@ShaunKing
Donations
can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The
master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought
the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while
the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially
their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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