Iran: Who is the real threat?

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Cheers!

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist, author of Persepolis:

"If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same...

"The secular people, we have no country. We the people — all the secular people who are looking for freedom — we have to keep together. We are international, as they” — the fanatics of all religions — “are international.”

From an interview conducted in 2005:

WikiLeaks

Discover the truth

of the unjust, illegitimate war in Iraq and Afghanistan: WikiLeaks releases hundreds of thousands of military records revealing thousands of civilian deaths, execution squads,
other war crimes.

The Guantánamo Files

documenting torture, abuse, and years of unjust imprisonment.

Watch "Collateral Murder"

The military's own video documenting the killing of 12 Iraqis from a helicopter circling above

Help Stop these Crimes: Collateral Murder Video Showings and more...

Support Bradley Manning

The young soldier accused of releasing the US military records.
Find out more.

NATO Summit Protests

Chicago Spring:
Protest the War Criminal (NATO) Summit!

The "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" (NATO) promotes its mission as “security, cooperation among nations, and peace keeping.”
In fact,it is an organization led and dominated by the world's best-armed war criminals, led by the United States.
Join us in protesting NATO
in Chicago May 20/21!

Stop the Drones

Drone Wars

The use of Predator drones (unmanned flying vehicles
that are often armed with video-guided missiles) by the
US military and CIA is a largely untold story of the "Global
War on Terror / Global Contingency Operation" - yet has caused thousands of deaths in Pakistan and Afghanistan, many of whom are women and children.
Find out more and take action to stop the drones.

Obama Signs Law to Continue Fascist Path of Bush Regime

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 05:00

By Kenneth J. Theisen

With the stroke of a pen President Obama did much to continue the fascist direction of the Bush regime last week. He signed legislation to maintain kangaroo justice, to fund U.S. imperialist wars, and to cover-up torture.

On Wednesday, October 28^th, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which extends the illegal military tribunals established under the Bush regime. He also signed legislation to cover up the torture photos of the Bush regime. The legislation he signed this week further funds the various imperialist wars begun by the Bush regime and continued by the Obama administration.

The NDAA fails to bring the military tribunals in line with the U.S. Constitution and international law under the Geneva Conventions. It continues to apply the military commissions to a much broader group of individuals than should be tried before them under the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions and does not prohibit military commission trials of children. In effect, Obama has continued kangaroo justice for those captured in the U.S. war of terror, even for children.

The ACLU has called for the military commissions to be shut down for good as they remain a second class system of justice that cannot shed the shameful legacy of Guantánamo and all it stands for. Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project said, “It will be a shame if the law that the president signed today gives new life to the military commissions. The Obama administration has committed to closing the prison at Guantánamo, but closing the prison will have little meaning if the administration leaves in place the policies that the prison has come to represent…The commissions remain not only illegal but unnecessary…"

Center for Constitutional Rights Executive Director Vincent Warren said this of the signing, “These are now President Obama's military commissions: he owns them and all of the problems that come with them, and their inevitable failure will scar his legacy and embolden our critics in the world. Military commissions are an unnecessary, jury-rigged creation, second-rate in comparison to our legal system. Obama is tinkering with the Constitution for no good reason.”

President Obama also affixed his signature to a Homeland Security appropriations bill that grants the Department of Defense (DOD) the authority to continue suppressing photos of prisoner abuse. The amendment, which would allow the DOD to exempt photos from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), is aimed at photos ordered released by a federal appeals court as part of an American Civil Liberties Union FOIA lawsuit for photos and other records related to detainee abuse in U.S. custody overseas, although it would apply to other photos in government custody as well.

ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer stated, "We are disappointed that the president has signed a law giving the Defense Department the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and we hope the defense secretary will not take advantage of that authority by suppressing photos related to the abuse of prisoners...The last administration's decision to endorse torture undermined the United States' moral authority and compromised its security. A failure to fully confront the abuses of the last administration will only compound these harms."

Many people who supported Obama expected him to institute changes in the direction that the Bush regime began in its eight years of power. But Obama has continued to show that he is a commander-in-chief that can be counted on to defend and expand the U.S. Empire. Soon he will make the decision to further escalate the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If people really want change they will have to mobilize with millions of others to institute such change. Remember it was Congress that passed this fascist legislation and Obama who signed it. What will you do about this and all the other crimes of your government?

image by Ryan Kowalchik