The outrageous case of Guantanamo Nazi prison, which has not yet been dismantled by Barack Obama in spite of his electoral promises, goes one step further as Omar Khadr is going to face a farce trial under his military captors who took him from Afghanistan when he was 15 years old.The accusation, for which he could face a life sentence, is to throw a grenade killing a US soldier, in the context of the US/NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, of more than questionable legitimacy itself.The only evidence: his own confession, obtained under the system of torture that is well known to operate in the colonial base in Cuba.Under international law, child soldiers are to be considered victims.Under any sensible law as well, confession obtained under tortures or possible tortures cannot be evidence. Otherwise it is going back to the times of the Inquisition.However the military tribunal that is to judge Omar Khadr has accepted this only piece of "evidence" as valid. Khadr is however still hopeful that justice will prevail and rejects to enter a plea bargain.The young Omar Khadr, now 23, has seen some of the best years of his life wasted in one of the worst prisons on Earth.While he initially cooperated with his captors, he is now set not to accept the impositions of the farce trial and may even dismiss his military attorney out of lack of faith on the system.The world doesn't get it, so it might work if the world sees the US sentencing a child to life in prison, it might show the world how unfair and sham this process is. And if the world doesn't see all this, to what world am I being released to? A world of hate ... and discrimination.
I hate to say this but he is damn right. It may cost him dearly but it is on this kind of fearless heroism that justice is built upon.Source: Al Jazeera
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Update (Aug 13): Daphne Eviatar reports at the Huffington Post on the first day of the farce-trial which was suspended indefinitely (or for 30 days, not fully clear) after the defense lawyer suddenly collapsed while interrogating a witness. It is interesting the report on the actual facts that seem to transpire in the trial: Omar Khadr was not just a minor at the time of the alleged "crime" (fighting in a war, defending his country from a foreign invasion if anything) but there is absolutely no evidence that he even fought at all. There are reports that the person who threw the grenade, killing a US soldier, was someone else and that Khadr did not even participate in the combat at all, where he had been brought by his father in a clear case of parental coercion. They also report that he was shot in the back twice in spite of being unarmed, (i.e. a civilian minor) surviving almost miraculously. Daphne Eviatar asks: who is the real war criminal here?
This post continues the previous post of the series. As the other one it is mainly intended for the people in that sad site to know the truth of what happened. The truth they will never be allowed to know there.What follows (in blue) is a copy (with minor format modifications: just those needed to change from BBcode to HTML - nothing else) of the post that was first agreed I could post (the exact content was not discussed) and then censored. It explains the events from the beginning until a hopeful point in which I thought I would be able to stay:I am NOT leaving (and why)First of all and most importantly: I AM FINALLY NOT LEAVING. I'm going to try to explain the matter as briefly and fairly as possible here. Also, thanks to all the people who replied with messages of sympathy. I'm not sure I can really reply to all - though I'll try. My apologies for the "false alarm" but I was determined to leave at the moment. Things have changed since then though. Let's go step by step. As you may know, certain moderator with whom I have got lengthy discussions on Zionism, decided last Thursday that certain paragraph of mine was "racial slur". The paragraph in question was this one:
It's clear that Zionism is not good for Jews either, at least not for working class Jews. It's probably good for the financial and political aristocracy and the occasional Madoff (how many of the rest are just Madoffs filling their pockets and grabbing positions of power with the pretext of Zionism?)
Though the first sentence was cropped from the sanction notice. Judge yourself. I felt (also for previous warning/threats) that he was acting inquisitorially from an ideological viewpoint and just looking for anything that could be somehow sanctionable. Additionally he was both judge and part. Not finding anything else, he picked this sentence that apparently excited his imagination. I was quite pissed off, as you can imagine, but followed the procedure. I appealed to him to no avail (rule 14) and then I was given the choice to appeal to one out of three administrators (rule 15): Ayepod, Augustus Khan and Aino Tuitti. I had thought to appeal to Ezana (who's presence as admin here was the main reason I decided to join first of all) but it was then when I learned he was not anymore and admin. After careful consideration, I chose Aino. Who had only recently promoted to admin. I argued my innocence and asked the removal of the sanction and the disciplining of the mod in question for abuse of power. I was rather disappointed when she wrote back saying she was going to consult with Ayepod. I protested that by rule 15 it was one admin and not the whole administrative board who should consider the matter. I got no reply.Beforehand, I had already decided that, if the system was not able to impart justice in this so clear matter, I would leave. I told that to Artbro, who did not care, but I omitted in my appeal (did not want to pressure the system more: if it failed, it was clear that I was in the wrong place).So yesterday, as many of you already know, I got notice from Ayepod saying that the sanction was to stay. I wrote a lengthy reply announcing my leave and the whole set of irregularities of this process. I also posted a copy with a brief explanation to all members I could think I had some sort of sympathy for, who are many. I was obviously determined to quit, otherwise would not have sent so many PMs. I was attending to some concerned replies when I got replies from Ayepod and Aino. Actually there was a cut of service in between and only after it I got these replies. They will surely explain themselves better but essentially Ayepod said he should not have interfered and that they were willing to follow the procedure this time. After some consideration, I replied that ok and that, in order to allow for a fair retrial, I could only take compromise on not leaving on this matter, whatever the final result. I also mentioned that I would have to make a post like this one in order to explain. The mark is not the issue, obviously, but the fairness and neutrality of the process. I felt under some sort of Zionist inquisition willing to split the non-existent hairs of Yul Brynner's head in order to "scare" me or even get rid of me altogether. Obviously I was not in the mood of taking part in such a mockery of justice nor there was any point in suffering under such a system when it's so easy to just take the door and leave.At this moment the sanction has been reppealed by Aino anyhow. But, as I said and repeat here, I felt it was needed that I revoked my decision completely in order for a fair appeal to take place without any pressure. They were willing to correct their errors and I could not take any other stand that was fair for all. So I'm staying. I'll try to reply individually to all who have written but, if I fail to, please accept my apologies. Also my apologies for whatever confusion I may have created. Sadly, the issue did not end here: minutes later I learned from Ayepod himself that the post had been deleted (Artbro I guess). Some time later he said that the post had been properly deleted: that I was challenging a moderator. Hm, whatever. Are you going to let common users be persecuted ideologically and the perpetrators to remain beyond scrutiny? In my concept of democracy and justice, people invested with power are much more subject to public scrutiny and have to bear the weight of their decissions much more than those that, like me, are just commoners. I was just being gagged again, this time in order to protect some Torquemada. So I could not stay. I have been thinking on the matter for some 48 hrs and could not come to any other conclussion. Minutes ago I noticed I could not even reply to private messages in the site anymore. The Inquisition at its best. Sadly for them their power does not reach beyond their petty forum. Here I can write freely and nobody seems to want to gag me. Good riddance!.
Sorgin (pl. sorginak) , normally translated as "witch". From sor(-tu): "to create", and -gin or -gile: "doer". Sorgin: creator, possibly also linked to their role as midwifes.
Legend tells of sorginak as real people, leaders of the akelarre, practitioners of "magic" (rather herbal knowledge) and members of a secret yet widespread society. Ez geala ba geala, hamalau mila ba geala: we are not, yes we are, fourteen thousand indeed we are.
Legend tells of sorginak as genie too: the main aids of Mari, the Basque Goddess.
History tells of sorginak too: as victims of persecutions by the Inquisition: thousands were perseucted by the Inquisition or lesser judiciary, all of whom suffered tortures and many of which were burnt at the stake. The worst period by far was the 16th century.
500 years of Inquisition have left few remains to be picked up in the more illustrated 20th century by scholars, ironically some of them Christian priests.
Still we know something.
Basque religion is (as still shatters our souls in ways no other faith can) first and foremost a dualist-monotheistic religion focused on fertility. We know of only two gods: Mari and Sugaar (aka Maju), representing the female and male halves of such unique, yet dual cosmological principle.
Basque religion is an Earth-centered (ctonic) religion, where the sky is just a passage for the Goddess and God to travel and shepherd their herds of clouds and other metereological phenomena. They dwell in caves, in the most outstanding peaks sometimes. It's believed that whole ill-known realm lies underground. There, along with the dual Divinity, many magical criatures like lamiak (nymphs), iratxoak (imps) and jentilak (giants), along with the dead ancestors may live.
Izena duen guztia izan omen da. All that has a name may exist. Izena izana. The name [is] the existence.
Basque religion used to be celebrated specially on friday nights, the day of the akelarre (sabbat). It was a common practice still in the 15th century if we are to believe the inquisitors. Avellaneda was a skeptic: he did not believe in witches, so he went to the Pyrenees to find out what were all those rumors about. The locals welcomed him and made him participant of their celebration. Possibly under the effects of stramonium (or some other drug of similar type), Avellaneda flied and saw things that he would otherwise never have believed in. Back to Logroño he initiated one of the worst witch-hunts ever.
The case is that their "god" could not make such "miracles" and he was jealous.
It's said that certain witch apprentice had to recite the following enchantment to arrive to the akelarre: under the clouds, over the thorns. But he recited it wrongly: under the thorns, over the clouds, with disastrous effects. Same with Avellaneda.
But there were many other witch-hunts. And eventually the old religion went underground and vanished. Legend says that in other times lamiak were very common, being found almost in every stream, taking care of their long hair with their golden combs. Why did they disappear? The myth also has an answer: because of chapel building. In every holy spot the Christians built a chapel, one after the other, until all the mountains were Christianized, by grade or force.
And mythos in Greek means thread: Ariadne's thread.
You can follow the thread or get lost in the Labyrinth of Christian deceit.
Just the last abhorrent crime of the fundamentalist regime of Saudi Arabia: an illiterate woman is going to be killed on witchcraft grounds after a process that has nothing to envy to the methods of Torquemada or De Lancre.
Why is Steven Spielberg silent? Why the so-called "western democracies" don't boycott the machista realm of inquisition? Why Muslims aren't boycotting the pilgrimage to Mecca this year in protest? Why are you still driving?
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In the same line it's worth mentioning that a couple of days ago it was news that the Arab League had decided to impose major curbs on freedom of speech to Arab satellite TV channels. The agreement was obviously concerned about criticism to Arab leaders, national and religious symbols. Only Qatar (seat of Aljazeera) and Lebanon opposed. The few other presumed Arab democracies, like Iraq, the Palestine National Authority or Mauretania said not a word. And a real problem is that in all the Arab world most regimes are totalitarian, ranging from absolute monarchies like Saudia, single party regimes like Syria or Tunis, to fake controlled pseudodemocracies like Egypt, Morocco or Jordan. In most of these countries there is no sort of real freedom of speech, with maybe the partial exception of troubled Lebanon. Satellite channels as well as the Internet threaten that obsolete concept of total control and this declaration is actually a major expression of deep fear by the dictators of this part of the world.
Edit: read Aljazeera's reaction.
Posts
The outrageous case of Guantanamo Nazi prison, which has not yet been dismantled by Barack Obama in spite of his electoral promises, goes one step further as Omar Khadr is going to face a farce trial under his military captors who took him from Afghanistan when he was 15 years old.
