Interview w/ MP Thomas Mulcair

Canadian Government and security services have been implicated in knowingly transferring detainees and prisoners in Afghanistan to torture.

This paints the stigma of war crime guilt on all Canadians.

We spoke to MP Thomas Mulcair from Outremont to discuss how Canada can show the world Canada’s attitude towards war crimes and rectify Canada’s international reputation.

press play to listen: 16min35sec

April 9, 2010 Posted by | FMA Audio, Interviews, Michael, Tariq | , , , , | 1 Comment

April 9th FMA Runsheet

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am05 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

10 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

15 Weather

20 Community Listings
 
25 More to Life Than Hummus w/ chef Ali Hassan

something for the vegans this week:

recipe for Chick Peas and Lentils – 4min23sec

30 Discussion About Recycling in Montreal

Michael Werbowski, Craig Sauve, Tariq Jeeroburkhan et al. will discuss the expanded commitment to recycling in the city of Montreal .

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve

 
57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10

Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation – April 9, 2010

-To follow up on the story we reported on the program last week
regarding the NATO assault and killings of a wedding party in Pakita
Province, Afghanistan on Febuary 12, 2010. The story was uncovered by
the London Times and not only exposed the NATO killings of Afghani
civilians, but also how NATO had knowingly lied to cover up its
actions. Original investigations by the London Times “suggested that
NATO’s claims were either willfully false or, at best, misleading.” 

-Further verifications by Afghani investigators as reported this week
by the London Times have also indicated that "US special forces
soldiers dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody
aftermath of (the) botched night raid, then washed the wounds with
alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened"

-The Times also reported that "NATO admitted responsibility for all the deaths
for the first time on (Sunday night)."

-Just to give you, the listener, some insight as to how the North
American meanstream media coverage of the events in Afghanistan attempt
to manipulate your understanding of what is going on and alter your
preceptions of the truth, compare the investigative journalism of the
London Times with the CNN coverage of the same event on February 12,
2010 that reported the deaths of the 3 civilian women and 2 Afghani
government officials were "honour killings" and insinuated that it was
the families of the victims themselves or even the taliban who were
responsible.

-Granted, the CNN report did appear only hours after the incident
occured, but this misinformation is STILL posted on the CNN website two
months later. 

-It becomes clearer and clearer as the misinformation in the
meanstream media is exposed that these media outlets are no longer
reliable sources for credible information about the situation in
Afghanistan. 

-We hope you, the listener, accepted our challenge last week, and
analyzed how the meanstream media covered Afghani President Hamid
Karzai's sarcastic remarks that he was considering joining the taliban.
These comments, made off the cuff and taken out of context by every
meanstream media outlet from Yellowknife to Key West, were used to
demonize the Afghani government and as an excuse not to report on the
cause of the frustration that led Karzai to make such a remark. The
continued killing of Afghani civilians by NATO and foreign coalition
forces has actually rendered the taliban a viable alternative for
Afghani civilians to safeguard the welfare of Afghani people. That is
the legacy of what 8 years of NATO and foreign occupation has done to
the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan.

-Thousands marched in the streets of Germany this past week to protest
against the invasion and continued occupation of Afghanistan. There
were 30 organized rallies at locations across the country to call for
an immediate and complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Over 1000
people marched in Munich and about 2000 more people marched in
different towns and cities across Germany. The protest movement, which
is celebrating 50 years of Easter demonstrations this year, is also
calling for a world free of nuclear weapons and an end to German arms
exports. This demonstrates the point that we have made clearly on the
FMA over the past weeks that there is an undeniable link between the
opposition to the "imperialism" and empire the countries occupying
Afghanistan seek to maintain and the global movement of the true
international community towards prioritizing people and humanity over
war and conquest. 

-In the United States, there have been protests and marches that have
not stopped opposing the occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan. In
late March, there was a protest, against the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, that began with a noon rally in Lafayette Park across the
street from the White House and followed with a march.

Brian Becker, national coordinator of the antiwar ANSWER Coalition,
which called for the demonstration, said: "There is growing a body of
sentiment in the country . . . that opposes the expanding war in
Afghanistan, the continued occupation of Afghanistan, the continued
occupation of Iraq."

Maggie Pondolfino, a representative of Military Families Speak Out,
said: "I'm the proud mother of an active-duty infantry soldier. . . .
We love and support our troops. And it is because we do that we will
vocally show our opposition whenever our government sends them to
ill-advised, immoral, unwinnable wars."

-Here in Canada, we will continue our look at how this government is
handling the accusations and stigma of war crimes guilt that hangs over
the head of every Canadian because of the actions of this government
and its security forces.
 
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/19-7
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7087637.ece
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/12/afghanistan.bodies/index.html
http://www.rebelnews.org/politics/europe/203899-german-easter-rallies-decry-afghanistan-killings


15 Interview w/ MP Thomas Mulcair - What the Afghani Detainee Documents Show 

1/ What have you learned from studying the released government documents?

2/ Will Canadians get a full public inquiry into the Afghan Detainee Situation?


25
 Michael Werbowski Presents

Discussion of situation in Kyrgyzstan –

1.update for the listeners the latest situation regarding the stability of the community
2.What does this mean for the US and their ocupation of Afghanistan which depends on Kyrgyzstan as a Northern supply post?

35 Weather  

40 Interview w/ Composer Anatoly Orlovsky in-studio

 

My friend, the contemporary composer Anatoly Orlovsky, 43, will have two piano concerts in Place Des Arts small concert hall in late April, 2010.
He was born in the Ukraine and has been composing here since 1989.
His iconoclast music is in the tradition of Shostakovitch and in tune with Canada’s and Russia’s northern nature.
He is now composing for himself  – and a score for the Quebecois cellist Claude Lamothe, as part of  the same concert.
50 Bike Report w/ Tom
55 Community Listings
55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

 

Municipal headlines so far:
-recycling containers, which is the best?
-a short commentary on Vision Montréal breaking party finance laws.
-Analysis of “Operation Hammer” // Charest-gov’t anti-corruption task force (Roche Construction)

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

April 9, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , | Leave a comment

Interview with Abdullah Al Malki

Abdullah Al Malki, a Canadian citizen and graduate of Carelton University,  was incarcerated and tortured in Syria based on false and misleading information that the RCMP and CSIS provided to the Syrian government.

Three years after government inquiries identified the mistakes and sloppiness of Canada’s security forces in their treatment of Abdullah and other Canadian citizens, there has still been no corrections made to procedure, no apologies to the individuals like Abdullah who have been victimized by their own country, and the misleading information about these individuals is still circulating within the “intelligence” community even though it has been three years since it was identified as incorrect.

I spoke with Abdullah Al Malki on Friday, April 2nd and we discussed the details of his case and the awareness of Canadians about his story.

Click here to play: 14min41sec

April 7, 2010 Posted by | FMA Audio, General, Interviews, Tariq | , , | Leave a comment

April 2nd FMA Runsheet‏

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

05 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

10 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

15 Weather

20 Community Listings

25 More to Life Than Hummus w/ chef Ali Hassan

30 Interview w/ Ali Hassan


Ali Hassan Hosting – WE AINT TERRORISTS Comedy Show – TICKETS go on sale this Friday March 26th at noon: $15, available at RUBIKS Solutions, 1208 St-Denis OR CALL 514.791.8569 between 10am – 7pm to reserve. Woo HOO!

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve

57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation – April 2

US President Barak Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan over the past week and there is speculation as to what exactly was its purpose. We revealed on the program last week that Hamid Karzai and the Afghanistan government clearly announced that they will not accept the transfer of detainees from Guantanomo, Cuba to Bagram Military Prison in Afghanistan. This has been the de facto US plan for closing down Guantanomo as promised by Obama during his election campaign. The Afghani Government, however, announced last week that they will not accept such a move as it would be a violation of Afghani soveriegnty. It could be that Obama’s visit to Afghanistan this past week was meant to discuss the situation regarding the transfer of prisoners with Karzai and the Afghani government. This is something that the US should have cleared up with the Afghanis before announcing their intentions for the Guantanomo prisoners.

-Other reasons that have been proposed for Obama’s surprise visit to Afghanistan, mainly by the US meanstream and alternative medias, are that after posting his health care triumph domestically, this was a show of solidarity with the troops to appease the hard-core right wing of American politics. It has also been contended that after the intensity of the domestic health care battle, Obama just wanted to “get away” from Washington for a while.

-Governmental hearings into the issues surrounding the Afghani detainee issue and Canada’s involvement continued in Ottawa yesterday, however, it is clear to any and all who have viewed, even briefly these proceedings, that the intent is not necessarily to discern Canada’s role in the torture of prisoners, but to protect Canada’s image when the questions of Canada’s culpability arise. One of the clearest examples of this that I witnessed yesterday was the Chairman of the committe, Kevin Sorensen, whose role as chairman is to objectively mediate the proceedings, actually cross-examining a witness from the Canadian Department of International Affairs and Cooperation, by making statements that the witness could agree or disagree with – not by asking questions of the witness on the stand.

-The witness did uphold that the Afghani security, NDS, had different legal definitions of torture then their Canadian counterparts and he also maintained that although Canadian forces were aware of this for at least 2 years, Canada continued to hand over detainees to the NDS – The Canadian government assertion that the NDS “took” these detainees from Canadian custody without Canadian complicity did not come through in the various testimonies.



Discussion Topic – Canadian Government hands over 2500 pages of documents relating to Afghnai Detainee Situation to Parliament – problems:
– 75% of the documents have been censored (the gov’t is using the word “redacted”)
– Opposition parties claim 2 things – this document dump will undermine Frank Iaccobucci’s inquiry / Providing the censored version of the documents is just another stalling tactic.

Interview w/ MP Thomas Mulcair – What the Afghani Detainee Documents Show

15 Michael Werbowski Presents: Interview w/ John Carlos Frey


John Carlos Frey has recently finished his latest film entitled, “The 800 Mile Wall.” This powerful new documentary takes an unflinching look at the U.S. border security strategy that many believe violates fundamental human rights.

25 Interview w/ Abdullah Al Malki
1. Discussion of the documentary film “Ghosts” which chronicles the struggles of all the victims of Canada’s Security Certificate policy which, according to the Iaccobucci Inquiry, was in part responsible for the unjustified and unwarranted detention and surveillance of the people in question.

2. Adil Charkaoui, one of the individuals targeted by Canada’s security certificate program, launched on Feb. 22nd a 24.5 million dollar civil lawsuit against the Federal Government for reparations, what do you think of the action by Charkaoui, and are you considering a similar move?

40 Interview w/ Ehab Lotayef

Discussion of the Launch of Ehab’s new book of poetry

50 Weather and Bike Report w/ Tom
55 Community Listings
55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

April 1, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , | Leave a comment

Interview w/ Lawyer Murray Klippenstein

On March 6, 2009 we spoke with Marcia Ramirez, Carlos Zorilla and their Canadian lawyer Murray Klippenstein. These Ecuadorian villagers were in Canada to generate awareness about the lawsuit they were launching against the Copper Mesa Mining Company and the Toronto Stock Exchange in response to the environmental devastation that had been reeked on their community as a result of the Canadian mining company’s actions.

In January of 2010 the Toronto Stock Exchange de-listed the Copper Mesa Company from the scrolls and the company lost 60% of its stock value over the next 48 hours. On March 25, 2010 the lawsuit against the Stock Exchange itself, as an enabler to the environmental devastation, proceeded with pre-trial hearings.

We spoke with lawyer Murray Klippenstien about the successes and challenges.

16min45sec press arrow to play:

March 29, 2010 Posted by | General, Interviews, Tariq | Leave a comment

March 26th FMA Runsheet

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

05 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

10 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

15 Weather

20 Community Listings

30 More To Life Than Hummus w/ Chef Ali Hassan

We started last week giving you some incredible barbeque recipies for kababs with summer just around the corner, Today, The Chef will give us some more mouth-watering recipies for the grill – Here is an inspiring recipie for making lamb burgers

kingston/03hummuslambburgers.mp3 – 5min

Ali Hassan Hosting – WE AINT TERRORISTS Comedy Show – TICKETS go on sale this Friday March 26th at noon: $15, available at RUBIKS Solutions, 1208 St-Denis OR CALL 514.791.8569 between 10am – 7pm to reserve. Woo HOO!

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve

57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation – March 26

-A night raid carried out by US and Afghan gunmen led to the deaths of two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials and is an atrocity which Nato then tried to cover up, survivors have told The London Times in England.

The assault by Nato was carried out before dawn on the morning of February 12, 2010 in Pakita Province, Eastern Afghanistan; Despite the fact that two weeks earlier Nato had promised to eliminate night time raids specifically because of the high rate of civillian casulaties caused by these raids.  Nato issued a statement after the raid which claimed that the victims were already dead and had been found already “tied up, gagged and killed”.

Investigations by the London Times however, which included interviews with more then a dozen survivors of the Nato assault, officials, police officers and a religious leader at and around the scene of the attack “suggest that Nato’s claims are either wilfully false or, at best, misleading.”

Nato’s original statement said: “Several insurgents engaged the joint force in a firefight and were killed.” The family, who were celebrating the wedding of one of the victims, maintain that no one threw so much as a stone. Rear Admiral Greg Smith, Nato’s director of communications in Kabul, denied that there had been any attempt at a cover-up, but did not respond to the allegations that laws and rules of conduct requiring Afghan-International and Nato units to identify themselves by leaving leaflets of identification were not respected. In fact, local US forces denied any involvement.

Nato’s director of communications did admit that the original statement had been “poorly worded” but said “to people who see a lot of dead bodies” the women had appeared at the time to have been dead for several hours.

Although the family of the victims were offered 2000$ US dollars for each of the victims, a family member said “There’s no value on human life. They killed our family, then they came and brought us money. Money won’t bring our family back.”

-Last week we reported that the UK-based group “Save the Children” had stressed the importance of seperating humanitarian aid from military strategy and attack. In fact, the UN has withdrawn from Afghanistan for precisely that call not being heeded by Nato and its allies. Now, over the past week more NGOs trying to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan have joined in the call.

Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontiers issued a press release strongly objecting to a recent statement by NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in which he implied that aid groups should be the “soft power” component to the military strategy NATO and the international coalition forces have employed in Afghanistan.

The NGO press release re-inforced the points made on this program last week: that the international military coalition has also co-opted the aid system – at times with the aid community’s complicity – to the point where it is difficult for Afghani Civilians and taxpayers at home to distinguish between assistance and political or military action.

To quote Doctors Without Borders reps in the US and Afghanistan –

“When confusion is sown about the intentions of aid workers, it can raise suspicions in affected communities or even lead armed groups to consider health centres and medical personnel as legitimate targets.

This draws humanitarian aid into the battlefield, with populations subsequently denied health care. After eight years of war, emergency medical care for Afghanis should not depend upon the parties waging it.”

In Brief:

-Afghani President Karzai signed several economic agreements with Chinese leaders which indicate that it is possible to develop a prosperous economic future without having to resort to military force. Canadians should try to find out how the Chinese did it.

-Afghanistan will need another 500 million US dollars to clear the country of mines, according to Afghan Technical Consultants, a private mining company

-The government of Afghanistan made two annoucements, that may undermine American plans for the country – The transfer of prisoners from Guantanomo Bay to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan will violate the national soveriegnty of Afghanistan and – The taliban is ready and willing to join Karzai’s government but only when the foriegn troops leave the country.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7060395.ece
http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/63672/2010/02/18-125742-1.htm
http://unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Details&mid=1882&ItemID=8270

Discussion Topic – Canadian Government hands over 2500 pages of documents relating to Afghnai Detainee Situation to Parliament – problems:
– 75% of the documents have been censored (the gov’t is using the word “redacted”)
– Opposition parties claim 2 things – this document dump will undermine Frank Iaccobucci’s inquiry / Providing the censored version of the documents in another stalling tactic 


20 Michael Werbowski Presents

-Russia Missle Defense

-European Opposition to US missle deployment on European Soil
30 Interview w/ Murray Klippenstein – lawyer representing the Ecuadorian Village that is suing Copper Mesa, 2 of its Execs, and the TSX –


March 6, 2009 – Community Leaders in Canada to Sue the Toronto Stock Exchange and a
>> Canadian Mining Company
>>
>> Marcia Ramirez and Carlos Zorrilla, community activists from the Intag
>> area of Ecuador, will be visiting Canada from the 25th of February
>> until the 7th of March as part of a tour to announce lawsuits against
>> a Canadian mining company and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Updates

– In January 2010, the Toronto Stock Exchange Delisted the Canadian Mining Company in Question – Copper Mesa – and the company lost about 60% of its value over the next 48 hours.
-On March 25, 2010 the court case opened: the Ecuadorian village, represented by three plaintiffs, is suing the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Mining company and 2 Copper mesa company directors.

45 Weather

50 Bike Report w/ Tom

55 Community Listings
55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

March 29, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , , | Leave a comment

March 19th FMA Runsheet

all times EST
 
www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro
 
05 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

 
10 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast
 
15 Weather 
 

20 Community Listings
 

30 More To Life Than Hummus w/ Chef Ali Hassan
  
As the Barbeque Season approaches with summer just around the corner, The Chef gives you some mouth-watering recipies for making Kababs
 
kingston/09hummuskabab.mp3 – 6min

 
40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve
   
57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

 
00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation – March 19

  
-A Los Angeles Times report from this past Saturday announced that Taliban militants were now refusing to collaborate with Al Qaeda fighters. Newsflash!: The Taliban has refused to co-operate with Al Qaeda since at least 1998. Afghanis fighting foriegn-occupation in their country, of whom the Taliban make up only about 10% (despite what your meanstream media tells you), have always seen Al Qaeda as a foriegn entity and therefore no different from the Soviet, American or Canadian armies as an occupying force of imposition.
 
-In fact, evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, show that the Taliban regime imposed strict isolation on Al Qaeda affiliates, including Osama Bin Landen, as early as 1998 in order to prevent any terrorist plots against the United States, which the Taliban have never supported.

-The evidence contradicts all claims by top officials of the Barack Obama administration that the Taliban was complicit in the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sep. 11, 2001. It also bolsters the credibility of Taliban statements in recent months asserting that the Taliban has no interest in Al Qaeda’s global jihadist aims.
 
-It is becoming increasingly clear to the citizens of Afghanistan and the Middle East that Al Qaeda is a ghost organization that serves the purpose of giving US politicians and media the pretext and justification for invading and occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan have long realized this and don’t need to be micro-managed by people who haven’t, or worse, by the people who use the narrative of Al Qaeda to serve their own interests at the expense of others.
 
-A US State Department report released on March 11, 2010 declared that:
 
“The country’s human rights record remained poor. Human rights problems included extrajudicial killings, torture, poor prison conditions, official impunity, prolonged pretrial detention, restrictions on freedom of the press, restrictions on freedom of religion, violence and societal discrimination against women, restrictions on religious conversions, abuses against minorities, sexual abuse of children, trafficking in persons, abuse of worker rights, the use of child soldiers in armed conflict, and child labor.”
 
and this is a US State Department description of the government that US and Canadian soldiers are dying to keep in place.
 
-CNN announced this past week that the US military was changing its policies regarding holding Afghani Detainees. Previously, the US military was allowed to hold Afghanis for 96 hours without charge during questioning. This week the US military announced that it would expand this time frame to 14 days for holding prisioners without charge. This news might come as a shock, no pun intended, to prisoners still in Guantanomo Bay who have been held without charge for as long as 8 years in some cases.

  
An Ottawa University professor, Amir Attaran, claimed on the CBC that he has seen first-hand some of the documents that the Canadian government refuses to release to Canadian Parliament and the Canadian Public and that these documents show that Canda is involved in the torture of Afghanis up to their eyeballs:
 
“If these documents were released [in full], what they will show is that Canada partnered deliberately with the torturers in Afghanistan for the interrogation of detainees,” he said.
 
The professor further states that what these documents show is that Canada is guilty of war crimes.
 
“There would be a question of rendition and a question of war crimes on the part of certain Canadian officials. That’s what’s in these documents, and that’s why the government is covering up as hard as it can.”
 
-On the program last week we speculated that these documents might reveal Canada’s hands-on particpation in the torture of Afghanis. Professor Attaran, from the University of Ottawa, who has seen some of the documents, makes it clear that these documents will implicate Canadian government officials in War Crimes.
 
-The FMA contacted Amir Attaran for an interview but he told us that he is unable to reveal more information because of “the limits of his promises to others”

-No wonder the conservative Government has gone to such extraordinary lengths to keep these documents secret. Even as far as shutting down parliament through prorogation. Opposition MPs clearly state that the government-proposed Iacobucci-inquiry to address the issue of Afghani Detainees is simply a tactic to avoid proper accountability on the issue.

 
Frank Iacobucci, despite his credentials, is not a sitting judge and therefore can’t legally rule or force the government to do anything, it isn’t even clear if the government will make his recomendations or the hearing itself public. Canadians should take note and demand a full public inquiry into the Afghani Detainee issue. Anything less would be unpatriotic. Because the actions of the Conservative government have hung the stigma of war crimes over the entire country, a full, open public inquiry is the only way to answer the question of Canada’s guilt to ourselves, as well as the rest of the world.

20 Michael Werbowski Presents

-Russia Missle Defense

-European Opposition to US missle deployment on European Soil
-Straining Relations Between US and Israel: Losing the PR War as the money runs out
 
35 Interview w/ Dalit Baum – http://www.whoprofits.org

volunteers/fridaymorningafter/contributions/whoprofits

5min50sec

45 Weather
 
50 Bike Report w/ Tom  
 
55 Community Listings
 
55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

March 18, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , , | Leave a comment

Poem “Co-Existence” by Remi Kanazi

Poets For Palestine was published to unite a diverse range of poets, spoken word artists, and hip-hop artists who have used their words to elevate the consciousness of humanity. Sixty years after the dispossession of the Palestinian people, this anthology presents forty-eight poems alongside original works by Palestinian artists. All proceeds from the sale of this collection will go toward funding future cultural projects that highlight Arab artistry in the United States – 2min25sec

http://www.poetsforpalestine.com

click arrow to play:

March 12, 2010 Posted by | Commentary, World Events | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Interview w/ Marei Spaola: Connecting Indigenous People from US to Palestine

Marei Spaola was member to a delegation of 18 Native and Xicana youth from the United States/Turtle Island that traveled to the Illegally-Occupied Territories in the summer of 2009 to connect with Palestinian youth.

He is part of the 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries (7thGIV), a grassroots collective at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas where he currently studies. – 14min45sec

click arrow to play:

March 12, 2010 Posted by | FMA Audio, Interviews, Tariq | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Interview w/ Tony Smith from LEAP

Retired Vancouver police officer Tony Smith discusses the work and mandate of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and the future of drug policy in Canada and the US – 22min48sec

Introduction from Canadian MP Libby Davies

click arrow to play:

March 12, 2010 Posted by | FMA Audio, Interviews, Tariq | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

March 12th FMA Runsheet

all times EST
 
www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro
 
02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

 
05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast
 
08 Weather
 

10 Community Listings
 
15 Intro from Libby Davies – Canadian Member of Parliament Vancouver East

volunteers/fridaymorningafter/contributions/LEAPintroLibbyD

3min22sec

20 Interview w/ Tony Smith –
retired Vancouver police officer and LEAP rep

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) 

March 2, 2010-An international group of cops, judges and prosecutors
who oppose the "war on drugs" is criticizing a gag order from the
Victoria Police Department that limits the freedom of expression of one of
its officers. The officer, David Bratzer, who volunteers with the group
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) while off-duty, has been
ordered not to speak at an official City of Victoria-sponsored event on
harm reduction.

 

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve
   
57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

 
00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation – March 12

-As the number of allies willing to continue supporting the US-led occupation of Afghanistan continues to decline, the United States is having to reach deeper and deeper into the “loot bag” to pay off the remaining allies that it is desperate to hold on to. In addition to the 65 billion dollars the US will be spending in Afghanistan this year, an additional request for 700 million dollars in payoffs to Pakistan has also been requested. This is in further addition to the 1.5 billion over 5 years that the US originally promised Pakistan for its support, as well as the “Preferential Partner” trade arrangement between Germany and Pakistan that was part of Pakistan’s reward for helping the US-occupation of Afghanistan.

-Clearly, this is a payoff to Pakistan in return for allowing Afghani refugees to remain in Pakistan until 2012. The scariest part of the equation is wondering why only now, after 8 years of foreign NATO-led occupation, have the occupiers played the only card they have left and expanded their bribery-strategy to the international level. There are two possible answers. One, obviously, with international support for the occupation of Afghanistan collapsing at the government level to match popular opinion of their electorates, the US needs to hold on to all the allies it has by “any means necessary”, the clear corruption of the bribery-strategy notwithstanding. Two, much more scarier, is the indication that the occupation forces are preparing to create hundreds of thousands more Afghani refugees and want to make sure that there is somewhere to put them. That is as clear an admission of defeat by NATO forces as you will see. An acknowledgment of NATO’s inability to win the hearts and minds of the Afghani people which will result in the forced exodus to Pakistan of Afghani citizens.

-“The Helmand Blog”, which is a British army propaganda website run by something called the UK Forces Media Ops Team, reports that the results of Operation Moshtarak proves that the war in Afghanistan is “winnable”. This leads us to question what the British Army definition of “winning” is, considering that Operation Moshtarak has killed more Afghani civilians than it has insurgents, even using the biased occupation-forces definition of “insurgent”. If this is what the British Army considers a “success”, then it is no wonder that they will never have the faith and trust of the Afghani people. Not until they put their guns down and realize that Afghanistan belongs to the people of Afghanistan and not the British, American or Canadian armies. The alternative will be Afghani refugees by the thousands.

Here at home, the Afghani detainee scandal has had some new developments. Former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci, who was in charge of looking into the abuses by Canadian Security agents against security-certificate detainees here in Canada and therefore knows a little something about the dirtiness of Canada’s security agencies, was appointed last Friday to review the secret documents relating to the handling of Afghani prisoners. The government has refused to hand over the documents to Parliament and even shut down Parliament in hope that the issue would just “go away”. It won’t.

-The opposition parties claim that the move to convene the Iacobucci-inquiry is simply a move to appease the Canadian public’s demands to know what really happened and is a political trick to avoid releasing the internal CSIS documents to the public and the Canadian Parliament. What we know for sure is that these documents will show that Canada’s security forces were aware for two full years that Afghani detainees faced torture, yet Canada continued to hand over the detainees despite this awareness. So why the refusal to release these documents to the public? What other misdeeds will be exposed? One possible answer is that these documents will reveal that Canadian forces participated in the actual physical torture of the prisoners themselves. Canadians should take note and demand a full public inquiry into the Afghani detainee scandal.
 
15 Michael Werbowski Presents

-Iceland and the referendum on repaying the bank debt to U.K and Holland
-Poem about Turkey and Istanbul

 
25 Weather
  
30 Bike Report w/ Tom 
 
35 Interview w/ Marei Spaola Israeli Apartheid Week March 4-11

During the summer of 2009, a group of 18 Native and Xicana youth from the United States/Turtle Island traveled to the Occupied West Bank and Israel to connect with Palestinian youth and to collectively imagine a future more just for all indigenous peoples.

The Indigenous Youth Delegation to Palestine, the first of its kind, is a project of grassroots organizations in both the U.S. and Palestine who have come together with the purpose of connecting Native and Xicana youth in the U.S with youth in Palestine. By creating a forum to reflect together and to share common struggles, this cross-continental exchange was an opportunity for youth to learn first hand from each other by sharing tools and strategies of resistance against displacement and colonization.

Marei Spaola was member to the delegation, and is part of the 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries (7thGIV), a grassroots collective at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas, where he currently studies.

45 Interview w/ Dalit Baum – http://www.whoprofits.org

volunteers/fridaymorningafter/contributions/whoprofits

5min50sec

50 Poetry Reading – Remi Kanazi “Co-Existence” – from the anthology entitled Poets for Palestine

volunteers/fridaymorningafter/contributions/remikanazi

2min10sec

Poets For Palestine was published to unite a diverse range of poets, spoken word artists, and hip-hop artists who have used their words to elevate the consciousness of humanity. Sixty years after the dispossession of the Palestinian people, this anthology presents forty-eight poems alongside original works by Palestinian artists. All proceeds from the sale of this collection will go toward funding future cultural projects that highlight Arab artistry in the United States.

http://www.poetsforpalestine.com

55 Community Listings

  
55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

March 11, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , | Leave a comment

March 5th FMA Runsheet‏

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

08 Weather

10 Community Listings

15 Interview w/ Dr. George Grayson
_Nafta and Mexico
-A Narco-State? A victim of US farm subsidies? Michael Werbowski Presents
30 National Discussion

-New Angus Ried poll numbers come out indicating 3 things:
1. Most Canadians believe there will be a Federal election this year
2. Jack Layton has the highest approval rating of any party leader – Ignatieff has lowest approval rating
3. Conservatives on pace for a smaller minority gov`t (No numbers for voter turnout expectations)

-CanWest sale to Shaw Cable expected to go through
*If you can bone up on this topic we can have a lengthy discussion specifically about:
-US controlling interest of CanWest (through Goldman Sachs)

-CRTC right to collect royalties/service fees on the sale considering that CanWest is US-controlled.
-Canadian Federal Budget
-Canadian Federal throne Speech
40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve

57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-As Canadian Parliment returned from two months of prorogation – the issue to be discussed is how pressing the demand from the opposition parties into an official inquiry about the treatment of Afghani detainees by Canadian forces shall be.
We hope that the Conservative gov’t trick of shutting down parliment to mute discussion on issues surrounding the treatment by Canadians of Afghani detainees will not have succeeded. The first thing that the Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff announced was that he will be demanding an inquiry into the legality of the prorogation process, and lost in the shuffle of the throne speech and the budget appears to be the Afghani detainee issue. If this truely is the case, then the shuting down of Canadian parliment obtained its objective and will be an option for future canadian governments to resort to. Canadians should take note.

-Once more, charity and relief organizations are voicing their opinions of how linking relief efforts with the military occupation is destroying the credability of those relief efforts within Afghanistan. This time it is the london-based organization “Save the Children” that is pointing out the inheirent lack of credability that is created when relief efforts are embedded within military structures. We first realized this with the so-called “Provincial Reconstruction Teams” (PRTs) in Iraq and the lesson still has not been learned for implementation in Afghanistan. Even more disturbing is to see the repeat of the same mistakes that have led to failures throughout other american-led occupations. The recent American decision to provide weaponary to various Afghani Militias threatens to make the life of Afghani civilians even more dangerous, just as every single gun or bomb in the country already does. The recent American strategy is literally only adding more “fuel to the fire”. The idea is that these militias will use the us-provided weapons to fight the Taliban. NewsFlash!: that was the same logic and thinking that armed the Taliban in the first place to fight the Russians. Those are the same weapons that the taliban are using today against the occupying forces.

-The Frontline Club, based in London, which calls itself a “Champion of independant journalism”, held a panel discussion and press conference on Wednesday that involved journalists, UK military officials and the Afghan ambassador to the UK; all agreed that the full story of Afghanistan is not reaching the public. Journalist Stephen Grey summarized the mood of the discussion as well as the challenges of reporting about Afghanistan:

“As journalists we’re being put in a very uncomfortable position because we are central to the strategy.  We have essentially become combatants in this.  If we start reporting challenges to this message that people are trying to put out, we are automatically part of the enemy.”

The founder of the Frontline Club, vaughn smith, had this insight –  “Afghanistan is a large PR operation. There’s an attempt to manage the news. It would be better addressed if we had more press out there and it was better approached.”

Afghan ambassador to the uk, Homayoun Tandar, responded that it was the British perception of Afghanistan that had created this biased coverage and that Afghanistan is a dynamic culture that is rarely properly portrayed in the Western media:
“Your vision on Afghanistan is an expired vision… You’re in Helmand, that’s all. One in 34 provinces.  Afghanistan is more than Helmand.”

-Also in store for Afghani civilians over the next several weeks will be the seasonal flooding that will make their lives even more challanging. Not one word of this annual obstacle to life in Afghanistan in the meanstream press here reporting on how much we like to think we are helping Afghani citizens.

-As the UN leaves Afghanistan, Kai Eide, special rep for the Secrerary general made it very clear at his last press conference in Kabul before UN departure, that if the US and their lackies like Canada do not get their act together this year and realize that their actions are causing more harm then good for the Afghani people, then the foriegn occupiers will find that they have reached a point of no return in the country.

-Basically the UN is leaving Afghanistan not because the challange of supporting the Afghani people is too difficult, but because the challenge of massaging the ego of the dying US super-power and its allies like Canada is not in the mandate of united nations. The situation of aiding the Afghani people is made complicated by these foriegn occupying forces who want to maintain a control over the Afghani people that has never been established, nor will it ever be.
————————————————————————————-

decision by the Netherlands to begin withdrawing troops in August

The Australians, who have about 1,500 troops in Uruzgan, say they will not take over the lead role once the Dutch leave.

“Domino effect”

Many analysts, such as Sean Kay with Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, ask whether the decision by the Netherlands to begin withdrawing troops in August will have a domino effect on other countries.

“If you listen to NATO officials, they will tell you no,” said Kay. “But at the end of the day, decisions on military contributions are taken in the capitals.  And they are taken by politicians who have to be responsive to and reflective of public opinion.”

“And public opinion in Europe in particular, but also in Canada has been turning away from this mission for years now.  And the elites in government have been trying to make a stand-up case for the commitment to the alliance and NATO.  But that is just becoming increasingly difficult for them,” he added.

Canada is expected to begin withdrawing its 3,000 troops in mid-2011.

What NATO fears is that this example of backbone from the Netherlands will set a precedent where by the countries in Europe will prioritize the opinion and voice of their electorates over the pipe-dreams of the US and NATO. Here are some numbers:
Canada – 60% out
USA – 60% out
Australia – 55% out
Britain – 70% out
Poland – 75% out
France – 55% out
Germany – 55% out
-The European opposition to the occupation of Afghanistan may be just the tip of the iceberg for NATO’s titanic. Over the next few weeks five NATO states, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Luxembourg will call on the US for the removal of all its nuclear weapons from European soil. Canada should take note.
20 Weather
25 Bike Report w/ Tom
30 International – w/ Andre Seleanu
we are a collective of ten Latin American artists and me as a theorist-
last September we presented : The Passionate Gaze at the Bolivar Centre on Maisonneuve in collaboration with an arts organism called Latinarte.
It has been a unique event because of its ideological independence.
Now we are working on a visual catalogue – a  book on the same subject.
These are very good artists who are now Canadian, but they maintain the optic of their Latin American origins.
There will be a dinner on March 20 to collect money for the book and sometime this year the book will be launched.
Fundraising supper for Regard et Passion book
Entry $40
The first catalogue of Montreal Latin-American visual artists
Saturday March 20 2010  7p.m.
basement church Saint-Pierre Apôtre, Montreal
2312 René Lévesque Blvd.
contact numbers:
514 836-7792
514 739-0034
514 276-1075
438 380-3761
514 368-0176
514 524-3791
email contacts:
quord@yahoo.com Andre Seleanu
gvilla@gmail.com Genny Villa
damora@videotron.ca David Alvarado
40 Interview w/ Shadi Rohana Alternative Information Centre, Jérusalem – Israeli Apartheid Week March 4-11
Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions – celebrating the success and confronting the challanges


Discussion regarding week of events to take place at UQAM, McGill and Concordia between the 4th-11th of March and the reasons behind them.

**6th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week**

March 4-11, 2010 – Montreal
FULL SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED!

Join us and over 40 cities around the world this year in marking the 6th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). IAW is a week of lectures, workshops, film screenings, and cultural events to educate about Israel/Palestine, and also to give momentum to the growing campaign of Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid. Events in Montreal will take place at UQAM, Concordia, McGill, and other locations around the city. Full schedule of events is below!

–>See the online trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2vBvjcovd0

–>Follow us on Twitter and Facebook:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SAI_Montreal

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ydqpkgk

55 Community Listings

55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

March 8, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , | Leave a comment

February 26th FMA Runsheet

all times EST
 
www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro
 
02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

 
05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast
 
08 Weather
 

10 Community Listings

15 Headlines from CiTR – Vancouver

20 Interview w/ Dr. George Grayson
 
_Nafta and Mexico
 
-A Narco-State? A victim of US farm subsidies?
  
30 National Discussion 
 
-New Angus Ried poll numbers come out indicating 3 things:
1. Most Canadians believe there will be a Federal election this year
2. Jack Layton has the highest approval rating of any party leader – Ignatieff has lowest approval rating
3. Conservatives on pace for a smaller minority gov`t (No numbers for voter turnout expectations)
 
-CanWest sale to Shaw Cable expected to go through
*If you can bone up on this topic we can have a lengthy discussion specifically about:
-US controlling interest of CanWest (through Goldman Sachs)
-CRTC right to collect royalties/service fees on the sale considering that CanWest is US-controlled.
40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve
   
57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

 
00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-the commander of US and NATO forces went on National Afghani television on Tuesday to apologize for the latest round of Afghani civilians killed by NATO forces in the country. Between 21 and 33 civilians were killed in NATO airstrikes that mistook civilian cars for insurgents and resulted in the deadliest attack on citizens in Afghanistan over the last six months. At that time, In September, U.S. pilots dropped bombs in a German-ordered airstrike near the northern town of Kunduz in which as many as 142 people are believed to have died or been injured.
 
-despite the apology, the NATO commander defended the repeated NATO action of civilian deaths by saying that the Taliban uses civilians as human shields. Claiming Taliban exploitation as an excuse for killing Afghani civilians simply re-inforces the civilian populations`opinion that NATO does not have the welfare of Afghanis in mind, but is pre-occupied with death, destruction and body-counts. It also leads to questions from Afghani civilians as to whether NATO ever had the best interetst of Afghanis in mind or simply see civilians as un-important pawns in NATO`s chess game with the Taliban.
 
-President Hamid Karzai signed a decree last week giving him the power to appoint all members of the Electoral Complaints Commission, a group previously independant and dominated by U.N. appointees that uncovered massive fraud in last year`s presidential election won by Karzai.
The decree, which was made public Monday, suggests that Karzai wants to tighten his control of the electoral process ahead of parliamentary balloting next September. The election was due in May but was postponed because foreign donors would not help pay for it without reforms.
 
-Speaking of foriegn donors here is the update into the latest situation regarding foriegn complience with the continued occupation of Afghanistan:
 
-In the Netherlands, the Labour Party, part of a government coalition, refused to `go-along` with a NATO request to extend the Dutch mission in Afghanistan, and, along with the members of the opposition brought down the minority conservative-right government. Canada should take note. New local elections will be held within two weeks. What is most indictive of the new European attitude towards involvement in Afghanistan is that this government was brought down because it wouldn`t rule out a time-extension for Dutch troops, not simply because it was proposing one. The Labour Party’s actions reflect the growing majority of Dutch who want out of Afghanistan. A quote from an independant Netherlands blog (www.quirksmode.org):
 
“continuing presence in Afghanistan does not serve any Dutch or European interest, only a US domestic politics one. The US strategy of occupying Afghanistan while chasing the pipe dream of making it a democratic country that will somehow magically transform itself into a reliable Western ally and a denouncer of everything Taliban is just wrong. Obama is just wrong with his troop surge; it does not serve any vital Western interest but is instead aimed at pacifying the proto-fascist wing of the Republican party that is beyond pacifying anyway. Besides, this policy will fail both in Afghanistan and in the US. So why not end our involvement now?”
 
-Although Germany did undergo some cabinet-shuffling, the Dutch government was the first European and NATO administration to fall because of the war in Afghanistan. What NATO fears is that this example of backbone from the Netherlands will set a precedent where by the countries in Europe will prioritize the opinion and voice of their electorates over the pipe-dreams of the US and NATO. Here are some numbers:
 
Canada – 60% out
USA – 60% out
 
Britain – 70% out
Australia – 55% out
Poland – 75% out
France – 55% out
Germany – 55% out
 
-The European opposition to the occupation of Afghanistan may be just the tip of the iceberg for NATO’s titanic. Over the next few weeks five NATO states, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Luxembourg will call on the US for the removal of all its nuclear weapons from European soil. Canada should take note.
 
20 Weather
 
25 International – w/ Andre Seleanu 
 
Afghanistan – NATO apologizes for more civilian deaths, but has yet to change operational tactics that led to those deaths
Netherlands – Coalition gov`t collapses over opposition to Afghanistan War – Labour Party refuses to support the gov`t unless the dutch troops are brought home from Afghanistan
Sri Lanka – protests continue over politically-motivated jailings – specifically General Sarath Fonseka, accused of plotting against the President
Greece-Changes made in National Debt Management Agency to address worker protests
Mexico-A failed Narco-State? interview

30 Michael Werbowski Presents

  
French leaving Africa to China and the U.S
40 Interview w/ Samer Sefian – Israeli Apartheid Week March 4-11

  
Discussion regarding week of events to take place at UQAM, McGill and Concordia between the 4th-11th of March and the reasons behind them.
 
**6th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week**

March 4-11, 2010 – Montreal
FULL SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED!

Join us and over 40 cities around the world this year in marking the 6th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). IAW is a week of lectures, workshops, film screenings, and cultural events to educate about Israel/Palestine, and also to give momentum to the growing campaign of Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid. Events in Montreal will take place at UQAM, Concordia, McGill, and other locations around the city. Full schedule of events is below!

–>See the online trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2vBvjcovd0

–>Follow us on Twitter and Facebook:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SAI_Montreal

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ydqpkgk

50 Bike Report w/ Tom

 
55 Community Listings
  
55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

February 25, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , | Leave a comment

February 19th FMA Runsheet

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

08 Weather

10 Community Listings

15 Headlines from CiTR – Vancouver


20 Interview w/ Mary Foster

BLACKlisted Then and Now:
> Linking Histories of Racism and National Security in Montreal
>
> Wednesday, 24 February 2010, 7pm
> Dawson College, Rm 4C1, 3040 Sherbrooke W (Atwater Metro)
>
> February is Black History Month. Join Project Fly Home and the Alfie
Roberts
> Institute in a panel discussion about state surveillance and repression of
> members of
> Montreal's black community in the name of national security in the 1960s
and
> today.

This panel is part of a six-month campaign launched by Project Fly Home to
> demand that Canada immediately free Abdelrazik from the sanctions he is
> subject to under the "1267" regime, that Canada put pressure on members of
> the 1267 committee to delist Abdelrazik, and that the 1267 regime be
> scrapped. For more information or to get involved:
> www.peoplescommission.org/en/abdelrazik.

35 CLR James Bio

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve


57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-This past week, there was a major announcement that the Afghan Taliban’s No.2 figure had been captured by the US – led coalition in Afghanistan. This was announced by the meanstream media as a successful result of the US surge of 15 000 troops into an area of Southern Afghanistan which is home to about 1500 Afghani freedom fighters.

-What the foriegn press and even more shocking, the foriegn US-led coalition, have never understood is that there is no “Taliban” with a hierarchy of troops and officers that mirrors what the foriegn concept of an army is. Instead, what you have in Afghanistan are various groups and pockets of opposition to foriegn domination which don’t take orders, but have been able for thousands of years to co-exist without the need for a military hierarchy.

-What the capture of anyone in a position of presumed authority within the so-called “Taliban” does, if anything, is create a vacuum which then leads to a power struggle which, in turn, leads to an intensification of the attacks on the foriegn soldiers occupying Afghanistan as everyone within the Afghani freedom movement step up their efforts to fill the hole.

-Ultimately, the Afghani people themselves will find that they will be the ones most-effected by foriegn-led efforts to justify the troop surge because the need to produce results measured by artificial standards like “body-count” numbers and “high-profile” arrests lessens the security of an average citizen as clearly seen by the US-led failures in Vietnam and Iraq.

-There still is only one solution to consensus-resolution in Afghanistan, that is peaceful negotiations and dialogue. This is precisely what the so-called “Taliban” proposed in 2003-2004 when they presented a six-point plan for discussion and negotiation to the foriegn armies, who along with their foriegn media outlets, have left that idea on the shelf for too long.

-The only alternative to peaceful negotiations with the benefit and welfare of Afghanis in heart and mind, with no militaristic or geographical objectives based on occupying a land without its people, is for the foriegn troops to get out of the country and to let the people of Afghanistan get on with their lives.

-It may be exactly this reasoning, based on the lessons of history integrated with the notion of human rights for all, that led Robert Watkins, deputy special representative of the United Nations’ secretary-general to officially announce that the UN will oppose NATO forces’ “militarization of human aid”. He also announced that UN agencies will not take part in the US-led “reconstruction efforts” –

“We are not part of that process, we do not want to be a part of it. We will not be part of that military strategy”.

15 Discussion of Hannah Arendt’s work Imperialism w/ independant journalist Andre Seleanu

Hannah Arendt’s view of imperialism and its relevance in the context of today’s war in Afghanistan, in which Canada also takes part.

25 Paul Robeson Bio

30 weather

35 Bike Report w/ Tom

40 Michael Werbowski Presents

-Ukrainian Election results and other topics for discussion

50 James Baldwin Bio

55 Community Listings

55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

February 18, 2010 Posted by | General, runsheets | , , | Leave a comment

February 12th FMA Runsheet

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

08 Weather

10 Community Listings

15 Headlines from CiTR – Vancouver

20 Interview w/ Rebecca Erol

English/Turkish Photographer - Experiences in Istanbul and Photographic Expositions


Rebecca Erol
Editorial & Photography Services
www.rebeccaerol.com

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve


57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-As the American political establishment continues to argue amongst itself as to who poses the greatest “terror” threat to the US – Democracts like vice Prsident joe biden say Pakistan while the Republicans are still ranting about Iran, former gun-slinging Texas congressman Charlie Wilson died this past week at age 76.

-Charlie Wilson was the man responsible for engaing US Congress to arm the Aghanistan “freedom fighters” in their efforts to repel the invading foriegners, who at that time in the early 80s were the soviets. The legacy of that decision was one that gave birth to a great sense of civic and national pride in all afghans as they were ultimately succseeful, once again, in repeling an invading foriegn force.

-What we are seeing today in Afghanistan is that the Afghans who were armed and trained to fight in defense of their land, life and culture during the 80s are being replaced by foriegn contractors who are hired by NATO and other foriegn entities to do the work that should be done by the indigenous people.

-There are currently more foriegn, independent contractors, who are legally accountable to no one, then there are foriegn soldiers, who at the very least are accountable to the Geneva conventions and universal law. Even after Obama’s recent troop surge, there are over 100 000 foriegn contractors in Afghanistan as compared to about 70 000 foriegn soldiers.

-The foriegn contractors are comprised mainly of ex-criminals, bounty hunters and other ne’er do-wellers who have become  mercenaries with neither the discipline nor the morality to be integrated into an official army, which means they are even more in need of accountability then regular soldiers, with the afghan civilian death toll evidence of the price paid.

-Iraq has already suffered close to a million civilian deaths, if not more, based on the “destruction with impunity” carried out by a foriegn invasion force that felt no limits to their actions. As a result, this week, Iraq ordered out of the country all mercenaries from the Blackwater company. This is too little too late as Blackwater has since changed its name and the damage has been done, but Iraq is sending a message to all foriegn contractors, the governments and entities like NATO who employ them, that it is the mercenaries who are one of the root problems.

-Unfortunately for Afghanistan, because either NATO does not understand or care about the basic problems that mercenaries continue to cause, the vast majority, if not all of the private contractors that are expelled from Iraq are going to head straight for Afghanistan without missing a beat, or most importantly for the mercenaries themselves, a paycheck.

15 Candian Headlines

1/-Harper`s press secretary getting his facts about Omar Khadr wrong on a Newsworld Interview :

Khader was never accused of planting roadside bombs, he has been imprisoned for 8 years because of his proximity to the scene of the death of an American soldier who was killed by an American hand-grenade. The story according to the other American soldiers in the unit is that they threw the grenade to where Khadr was and he threw it back when it exploded and killed the American soldier.

Even if that story is true, it underlines and validates Khadr’s lawyers claims of self-defense. The more likely story is that, based on testimony from the same American soldiers in the unit that met with Khadr that day, in the confusion, killed their own soldier in a “friendly-fire” incident and instead of admitting this have let the then-15 year old Khadr rot for the last eight years of his life in Guantanamo.

-The current government has not changed its stance on repatriating Khadr despite three Supreme Court of Canada orders to do so – a lack of respect for Canadian legal authority that hasn’t even been shown by the Taliban.

2/ Canada`s exemption from Buy American regulations in the States. Here`s the catch: in return Canadian Government and Federal spending projects are now going to be opened up to all American companies. Instead of our tax money going back into Canadian companies, we are going to see more of what we saw last year with American companies contracting our army. Free Trade on crack…

3/ Russell Williams, base comander at Trenton canadian Army Base implicated in the disapearence of 5 women at the base. Continuing the “Destruction with Impunity” culture and attitude that the canadian army has sullied the image of Canada with around the world.

20 weather

25 Bike Report w/ Tom

30 Interview w/ Yves Engler

Book Launch – Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid

Feb 27 – Divan Orange

Yves’ fourth book, after his most recent “Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy”, outlines the history of Canadian complicity from the creation of Israel and the expulsion of the Palestinian people in 1947 until today’s military and financial support and ties in the continued oppression of the Palestinian people all with an eye towards refining the system of apartheid which is meant to justify it all.

45 Michael Werbowski Presents

55 Community Listings

55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

February 11, 2010 Posted by | General, runsheets | , , | Leave a comment

February 5th FMA Runsheet

all times EST
 
www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

 
05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast
 
08 Weather
 

10 Community Listings
20 Interview w/ Richard Sanders (Coalition Opposed to Arms Trade COAT) –  ———————————————————————————————————

-list of more than 100 web links to articles on the hyper-militarisation of development assistance to Haiti.  
“InvAID: The Militarisation of Aid to Haiti,”

Dozens of previous issues of COAT’s magazine are also online — full text — at COAT’s website:
http://coat.ncf.ca

————————————–
Justin Podur Conference on Haiti Video –

http://killingtrain.com

30 Interview w/ Grace Batchoun - Thomas Woodley : Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)

Canada to withdraw its funding to UNRWA

(Montreal, Jan. 21st, 2010) – Last week, the government of Canada quietly announced it would discontinue its long-standing financial contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and redirect the monies to strengthen the judicial system of the Palestinian Authority and other food assistance programs. The news came out as UNRWA launched a special fundraising campaign to collect millions of dollars needed to support programs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
UNRWA provides assistance to 4.67 million Palestinian refugees scattered throughout the Middle East and administers programs in the areas of education, health and other social services in 59 Palestinian refugee camps.

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve

 
57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

 
00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-Hamed Karzi, the mayor of Kabul, has left for Saudi Arabia to try to get the Saudis to assist in diplomatic efforts at “reaching out to the armed militants” in Afghanistan. Judging by the fact that the Saudis have worsened the situation with civilians and armed militants in Yemen, this strategy should be re-examined. The sad truth is that by comparisson to what the NATO forces have done to Afghanistan over the past 8 years in terms of civilian casualties of Afghans, the Saudis actually might be the better option. That is how low the bar has been set.

-NATO, meanwhile, was at it again, this time in Istanbul, Turkey, where defense ministers met, again on the taxpayers’ dime, to discuss a variety of topics including the “mission” in Afghanistan. After already squeezing what they could in terms of contributions, both financial and physical, from involved countries who are looking for a way out of Afghanistan, NATO once again demonstrated its insatiable demands in the form of its secratery-general asking these countries for more. This is precisly what the majority of contributing countries were worried about originally, that there is no limit to the amount of demands that NATO will put on the rest of the world because the situation in Afghanistan is “unwinnable”.

-Not on the agenda at the Istanbul conference is one of the basic problems that many of the potential police and military are being “poached” by private security companies.

-NATO’s secretary-general this week asked for more police, more military, more trainers but thankfully, the European Union is only going to send those police who volunteer to go to Afghanistan and that number has been tapped out and squeezed dry. Thursday night was spent discussing the “streamlining of NATO structures” and this morning is when the discussion will turn to Afghanistan.

10 Interview w/ Raj Patel author – The Value of Nothing
-Discussion of the gap between price and value
 
20 weather

25 Bike Report w/ Tom

30 Interview w/ Gerald Celente publisher – TrendsJournal

-Gold as the International monetary standard
-What is the value of gold?
 

 

-Discussion of some of the trends analysis :

US/China relations over arms sales to Taiwan
Gays in the American Military – don’t ask don’t tell

45 Michael Werbowski Presents

55 Community Listings

 

55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

February 4, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | Leave a comment

January 29th FMA Runsheet

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

08 Weather

10 Community Listings
15 Interview w/ Matt Salbia

-Producer of DVD “Frankenstein Unlimited”
-six films in one compilation from independent filmmakers

-Preview of upcoming “Frankenstein Burlesque Show”
-Feb 13, 2010

25 There’s More to Life Then Hummus w/ Chef Ali Hassan

-Recipe for Lamb Biryani –

35 Michael Werbowski Presents

Municipal/National

-Pro-rogation demonstrations held across Canada and in Montreal
-Validity of Facebook as a “grass-roots” organizer
-Announcement of conference to be held at UQAM on Friday

International

-Discussion and synopsis of state of affairs in Latin America

50 The Real News Network (14/01/10) – Corruption in Afghanistan 75% Western caused and enabled

http://therealnews.com/t2/component/seyret/?task=videodirectlink&id=5448

53 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-Yesterday in London, France, England and Germany held a conference, in conjunction with the United Nations, to discuss the issues and try to establish methods of advancement that will be acceptable to the Afghani people and NOT just delegated by the United States and accepted by American policy followers like Canada.

-The UN, understandably, re-affirmed itself and the role it plays in “upholding a secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan”. Individual countries and their representatives, including the Karzai Afghani government were on hand to make media-friendly statements such as this one:

“Together we are committed to make intensive efforts to ensure that the Afghan Government is increasingly able to meet the needs of its people through developing its own institutions and resources.”

-The conference participants also commended a promise made by the Karzai government to reward Afghanis who renounce violence with “an honorable place in society”. A bit of a different carrot then the cold cash paid to Taliban members by NATO-countries in order to prevent Taliban members from attacking their soldiers in Afghanistan, but the ambiguity of the statement “an honourable place in society” has the potential to create just as many problems as the NATO bribery program did.

-One interesting point that was included in the Conference communique was the following: “Conference Participants noted that most civilian casualties are caused by insurgent attacks.” However there was no definition of “insurgents” offered, sort of an open-ended term like “national security”. A proper definition of “insurgents” would have to include all foriegn entities in an occupied land, and this is not what I think the conference participants were referring to.

-The WebsterDictionary defines “insurgent” as a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; – The statement issued by the London Conference participants did not acknowledged the percentage of Afghani people who maintain that Karzai’s government is NOT “a civil authority”, let alone “established”. In fact, there is a significant percentage of Afghani people who actually see the Taliban as the legitimate civil authority.

-Perhaps the most important declaration made at Yesterday’s London Conference was the acknowledgment that Non-NATO members will have a say in establishing a plan for “phased transition” from the current foriegn occupying forces to Afghan Security forces themselves. This plan must be prepared before the Kabul Conference, which will take place later this year, and will be implemented on a province-by-province basis.

-This “National Security Policy”, as it has been labeled, is intended to be created by the external forces in Afghanistan, supposedly in conjunction with the Karzai government – It remains to be seen whether or not the Afghani people will have a say in the formation of their “National Security Policy”, or Karzai’s role will simply be to rubber-stamp an agenda made by and for the foriegn occupiers themselves.

-One problem is that the say of the Afghani people in the formation of this plan is still to be represented by the Karzai government – And the assumption made by foriegn entities that the Karzai government speaks for all the Afghani people is one of the root problems in the continued occupation of the country by foreigners.

-Now, while one of the points made in the summary of the London Conference was a recognition of the importance of “Non-intervention in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and mutual non-interference” – Conference Participants “recalled that the international community was engaged in Afghanistan in support of the Government of Afghanistan.” It is the people of Afghanistan, not its government, that are suffering and dying.

-So a mixed bag of old rhetoric and new manipulations have not laid a plan, but the foundations for a plan to be laid. Whether it will have a more helpful effect on the people of Afghanistan remains to be seen, but in my opinion is doubtful, which is why the participants at this conference made it clear that they were working “in support of the government of Afghanistan” and was careful not to include the welfare of the Afghani people as one of the benchmarks of success.


57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Interview w/ Stefan Christoff – Movements for Manilla – in-studio

A photo exhibition presenting portraits and visual mediations from
Manila, Philippines captured by Stefan Christoff showing throughout the
month of February 2010 at Kaza Maza.

In striking colors Christoff's photos portray moments, symbols and faces
from the Philippines, focusing particularly on grassroots social movements.

Present in the photographs is the human impacts of an economic crisis in
the Philippines, fueled by corporate globalization and free trade policies.

Today the majority of people in the Philippines live below the poverty
line, according to the U.N. more than 15 million people survive on less
than one U.S. dollar a day.

In the Philippines extreme economic disparity is leading to increasing
political unrest, channeling grassroots support towards revolutionary
political parties in the cities and guerrilla movements in the countryside.

In photographs this exhibition offers images that attempt to capture the
mood of a country struggling against intense poverty, state corruption
and for national liberation.

* on twitter:
http://twitter.com/spirodon

20 weather

25 Bike Report w/ Tom

30 Interview w/ Justin Podur – http://www.killingtrain.com

Justin Podur is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at York University and a member of the Pueblos en Camino Collective. He visited Haiti in 2005 to study the UN occupation and the government after the 2004 coup.


Relief, Occupations and the Haiti Crisis:

Canada/US policy and the regional response

with Justin Podur and Dan Freeman-Maloy

Tuesday, February 2

Centre for Social Justice
489 College St (W of Bathurst), Suite 303
7 – 9pm


Limited Compassion for Haiti

Justin Podur
January 24, 2010

http://killingtrain.com/node/723 
40 Interview w/ Michael Perez

michael hureaux perez is a writer, musician and teacher who lives in southwest Seattle, Washington.  He is a longtime contributor to small and alternative presses around the country and performs his work frequently.

On Jan 23, 2009 Michael was interviewed on FMA about his article:

Obama’s message to the world

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=972&Itemid=1

One Year Later, after Obama’s State of the Union Address on wednesday Night, we will discuss the efficiency of Obama’s presidency – what has been expected and unexpected in the last year – and what to look for in the next three years of Obama.

55 Community Listings

55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

January 28, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , | Leave a comment

January 22nd FMA Runsheet‏

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

08 Weather

10 Community Listings

15 Interview w/ Yves Engler – Haiti Reconstruction Conference

there will be a reconstruction conference Monday in montreal (front page of Globe & Le devoir today) probably with people like H. Clinton, B Kouchner, L Cannon and other big shots. Its an important opportunity for us to say that this catastrophe should not be used as a disaster capitalist endeavor. To that end we’d like to organize a statement signed by prominent international figures (Chomsky, Klein, Claude Ribbe, Haitian intellectuals etc..)

-We’d need to draft statement in next 48 hours, spend 72 collecting signatures & then go live. We might want to invite N Klein & other figures to montreal to launch. I’m hoping we can do a demo here as well in support of (as much as possible) positive demands.

28 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-An article in the most recent edition of the New Yorker magazine concludes that the decisions of the Afghani people will be more decisive then the decisions of westerners in the outcome of the current foriegn occupation of Afghanistan.

-Nonetheless, all systems scream GO for the London Conference to be held with the participation of the western states that are not happy with the lead the US has taken in coordinating efforts in Afghanistan with their own best interests in mind and NOT those of the Afghani people.

-On January 28th in London, France, England and Germany will convene a conference, in conjunction with the United Nations, to discuss the issues and try to establish methods of advancement that will be acceptable to the Afghani people and NOT just delegated by the United States and accepted by American policy followers like Canada.

-US President Obama’s technique for keeping his campaign promise of shutting down Guantanamo Prision will simply be to transfer all the detainees at Guantanomo to Bagram military base in Afghanistan, and other US-operated “Black Hole Sites” throughout the world, such as the hijacked island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean.

-The US finally released a list this week, naming 645 detainees held at Bagram military base in Afghanistan, the vast majority still without charge, and it is unclear whether or not the other foriegn entities within Afghanistan are willing to accept the US proposal to send another 400 detainees from Guantanomo into Afghanistan.

-Poverty and violence are usually portrayed as the biggest challenges confronting Afghanistan. But ask the Afghanis themselves, and you get a different answer: corruption is their biggest worry, as revealed in a United Nations report released this week.

-According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), corruption tops the list of concerns for Afghanis.  An overwhelming 59% of the population suffer the daily experience of public dishonesty, making it a greater concern than insecurity (54%) and unemployment (52%).

The Real News Network (14/01/10) – Corruption in Afghanistan 75% Western caused and enabled

http://therealnews.com/t2/component/seyret/?task=videodirectlink&id=5448

35 The Real News Network (14/01/10) – Corruption in Afghanistan 75% Western caused and enabled

http://therealnews.com/t2/component/seyret/?task=videodirectlink&id=5448

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve

My topics will be
-budget stuff again.
-Bonaventure (a follow-up).
-and Gazette for sale

Craig Sauvé
Attaché politique


57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

10 Interview w/ Dr.Wolfgang Wodard – Chair of the Health Committee in The European Council

– we will discuss what he views as over-exaggerated health scares: swine flu, h1n1, etc;
– Dr.Wodard calls them “Fake Pandemics” and we will discuss why they exist and how they are used

25 weather

30 Interview w/ Gerald Celente publisher of the Trends Journal

to talk about the recent financial crisis, its impact on the global economy..his outlook on the Obama administration and what might the most destabilising trends internationally.

-future of the US dollar – implications of the bailout – Obama’s call for the bailout money to be paid back to the public treasury

-among the topics to discuss – connect the dots: recent Republican-gained control of the Senate -> what THAT means for Obama’s Health Reform Bill – what THAT means for the value of pharma stocks – and, what THAT means for the DOW Industrial Average

45 There’s More to Life Then Hummus w/ Chef Ali Hassan

-Recipe for Lamb Biryani –


50 Bike Report w/ Tom

55 Community Listings

55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

January 21, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , | Leave a comment

2010 – January 15th FMA Runsheet

all times EST

www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

listen live on the web – http://www.ckut.ca

For Listener Comments, Requests and Shoutouts: fridaymorningafter@hotmail.com

7-8am

00 Fusion Opal – theme intro

02 show preview and greetings

-plug website www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com

05 ads/promos

-thank you to Dusty’s montroyal/parc for providing the breakfast

08 Weather

10 Community Listings

15 Interview w/ Yves Engler

-Discussion of Yves’ most recent book to be released this week

25 Interview w/ Matthew Angelus – Organizer: Montreal Rally Canadians against Prorogation

-Anti-Democracy gov’t attitude -> shutting down Parliament, again.
-2 separate Montreal Work groups / Over 180,000 Facebook members
-Jan 23rd Day of Action

40 Municipal Headlines w/ Craig Sauve


57 8am warning and 8-9am preview

8-9am

00 Democracy Now! headlines

http://www.democracynow.org

08 The Real News Network (14/01/10) – Corruption in Afghanistan 75% Western caused and enabled

http://therealnews.com/t2/component/seyret/?task=videodirectlink&id=5448

10 Weekly Update into Afghanistan Situation

-Gordon Brown, British prime minister, has refused to testify at a public hearing into the Iraq War, and this while he continues to fight popular public opinion about his desire to continue an armed presence in Afghanistan. This is not a good prelude to London’s hosting of a conference to take place on Afghanistan at the end of January.

-Afghan President Hamid Karzai, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, NATO allies, Afghanistan’s neighbours, regional powers and key international bodies will get together at a conference in London on Jan 28 to set a political and security timetable for Afghanistan in 2010 and beyond.

Germany, England and France are the organizers of this conference and the intent is to define a strategy of collaboration in Afghanistan that is more acceptable to Afghanis then the American strategy, seen basically as “shoot first, questions later, if at all.”

The task includes setting out a roadmap for Afghani forces to gradually take over  and refining an exit strategy for NATO forces sooner, rather then later.

-Only 27 percent of Germans still support the troop deployment in Afghanistan according to a poll by the German broadcaster ARD. One reason for the loss of confidence is the scandal surrounding the Kunduz airstrike on 4 September 2009, when a German request for a US air strike resulted in the deaths of at least 20 civilians.

-Washington: The cost of fighting the war in Afghanistan will overtake that of the Iraq conflict for the first time in 2010, Pentagon budget documents showed Thursday.
On top of the basic defense budget of 533.7 billion dollars, the White House is requesting a further 130 billion dollars for overseas missions, including 65 billion for Afghanistan and 61 billion for Iraq.

– Major General Michael Flynn, the top US military intelligence officer in Afghanistan issued a scathing assessment of the state of the US and their followers’ intelligence effort in Afghanistan. Major General Flynn said that US intelligence in Afghanistan had focused too much on gathering information on insurgent groups and was “unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade.”

-former CIA officer Jack Rice provided the same opinion last week when he said that NATO troops and security services don’t know what the country’s people really need. “Afghani people themselves are interested in such things as schools, clean water and hospitals.” “(Not paying attention to what the people want) makes the US military and NATO troops essentially blind and that is a disaster.”

-The annual death toll of international troops in Afghanistan has surpassed 500 for the first time.

The total last year was 502, compared with 286 in 2008. A U.N. report says the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan last year was higher than in any year since the U.S.-led coalition began. The report says more than 2,400 civilians fell victim to the war-related incidents in 2009.

-Amid a busy news week, the indictment Wednesday of a pair of former Blackwater contractors for the alleged murder of two Afghan civilians hasn’t gotten much attention. But the case has the potential to become a big problem for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and for Blackwater’s future business prospects in that country.

They are charged with second-degree murder and other counts under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows cases to be tried against people employed by the military abroad, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to interviews with the AP, the men say that the shooting occurred when two U.S. vehicles, each holding a pair of contractors, were driving in Kabul. An Afghan car slammed into the first vehicle, flipping it over.

Residents, however, say that the U.S. contractors opened fire without provocation after one of their vehicles tipped over in a traffic accident. The two men killed were Rahib Mirza Mohammad and Romal Mohammad Naiem, a passenger in a Toyota sedan on his way home from work. …

Mohammed Shafi, a neighborhood elder who ran to the shooting scene that night, said the Toyota driver told him that the Americans ordered him to stop, then told him to move on. When the driver began pulling away, the Americans started shooting.

The Los Angeles Times in August quoted an Afghan police investigator saying that one of the slain men was walking home from prayers when he was shot in the head, 200 yards away from the traffic incident. The investigator also said the Toyota sedan that was involved in the incident did not have any weapons in it.

Attorney Daniel Callahan, an attorny for the charged contractors, said that Blackwater was attempting to turn them into “scapegoats.” He told the Wall Street Journal: “We believe Blackwater is trying to paint these men as out on a lark and drinking so that the company can maintain its ability to work in Afghanistan after losing its work in Iraq.”


20
Michael Werbowski Presents

-What is Next For Haiti?
-Haitian Disaster Relief
-Bringing Back Aristide in Haiti

30 Weather

33 More to Life Than Hummus w/ Chef Ali Hassan

-Episode 8 – Pomegranate Fruit – 6min48sec

40 Interview w/ Christopher White – founder of Canadians Against the Proroguation of Parliament

-the movement Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament and the upcoming rallies and marches nation-wide Jan 23rd…

1.In view of the prorogation is there a need for some kind of institutional reforms , such as introducing proportional representation to parliament?

2.What can be done in the future to prevent this abusive and arbitrary usage of the prorogation decree?

50 Bike Report w/ Tom

55 Community Listings

55 Fusion Opal – outro- plug website http://www.fridaymorningafter.wordpress.com
00 jazz amuck w/ John B.

January 14, 2010 Posted by | runsheets | , , , | Leave a comment

2010 Global Preview – Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski

A discussion w/ Zbigniew Brzezinski – 26m35s

Michael Werbowski/Tariq Jeeroburkhan

Summary: A discussion with the former US National Security Adviser (1977-1981) assessing Barrack Obama’s first year of foreign policy actions.

Click Arrow to Play:

January 8, 2010 Posted by | Interviews, Michael, Tariq | , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment