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Photo by: joanneleon. August, 2013.
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Harry Belafonte.
Martin Luther King: Harry Belafonte remembers 'I Have a Dream'
On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King made his 'I Have a Dream' speech at the culmination of the March on Washington, giving the civil rights movement an unstoppable momentum. Here, the singer, actor and social activist recalls an epoch-defining day
The atmosphere that day in Washington was a mixture of hope and excitement. I think that everyone who attended the march felt empowered. There was a tremendous sense that we were pursuing a cause that was honourable, but, equally, that what we wanted was achievable. We were there as Americans and all of America was represented that day. It felt like we were witnessing a new moment, a renaissance of hope and activism. It was truly inspiring.
But, you know, it was not just the day, but the weeks and months and days leading up to it. As a civil rights activist, I had many conversations with Robert Kennedy, who was worried because he had listened too much to J Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the rightwing voices of white America and the media who did not wish us well and were predicting great violence. We assured Robert Kennedy that it would be focused, well marshalled and non-violent and he wanted to believe us, but our detractors had his ear also. The city was surrounded by police and state troopers on the ready. So, we also had something to prove. And prove it we did.
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One of my abiding memories of the day was something I will probably never experience again: such a tide of people leaving with such a sense of satisfaction and hope. That was America at its greatest. And I have no doubt we can get back there again by moving forward. We need leaders, though, spokesmen and women we can have faith in, not this compromised form of leadership that is cynical and speaks out for the power of the few at the cost of the many.
There is a new challenge now and a more complex one. Part of the dilemma is that, as Americans, we have talked ourselves into still believing in the nobility that America supposedly represents. But, the truth is that, right now, we are more villainous than we are righteous. For the moment, we cannot accept that. Black people are still bearing the brunt of that villainy, but today, the prism through which we must view the struggle is not just race, it is gender, it is economics, it is human rights, it is the growth of powerful elites and populist rightwing movements that seek to undermine American democracy while peddling their version of America the great.
Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream Speech - August 28, 1963
US embassies to reopen in Middle East and Africa after terror threat
Yemen mission stays closed amid fear of al-Qaida attack but 18 other offices will open doors on Sunday
Eighteen of the 19 US embassies and consulates that were closed in the Middle East and Africa over fears of attack will reopen on Sunday, according to the US state department.
The embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, will remain closed. The consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, which was closed on Thursday because of what officials say was a separate credible threat, is also not scheduled to reopen.
A state department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, did not give a reason for the decision to reopen the 18 missions but cited "ongoing concerns about a threat stream indicating the potential for terrorist attacks emanating from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula", or AQAP, for keeping the embassy in Sana'a closed.
Truthdigger of the Week: Lavabit’s Ladar Levison
Americans love an underdog. So they should be cheering Ladar Levison, a 32-year-old digital security specialist who closed the email service he operated for 10 years rather than help the U.S. government spy on his customers.
Until Thursday afternoon, Levison was the owner and operator of Lavabit, a secure email service developed by a group of programmers in Texas in 2004 that used encryption technology to prevent the content of its users’ emails from being read by anyone who didn’t possess the numerical “keys” required to “unlock” them. Levison’s decision appears to be unprecedented. Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was quoted by The Guardian as saying: “I am unaware of any situation in which a service provider chose to shut down rather than comply with a court order they felt violated the constitution.”
No amount of encryption can completely protect online activity from determined snoopers, but Lavabit’s methods appear to have been among the most sound and reliable available to people desiring to communicate privately online. In an article about certain consequences of Lavabit’s shutdown, New Statesman technology reporter Alex Hern asserted that “based on everything we know about the intelligence services, even they can’t break that sort of encryption. If they don’t have the key, they don’t have the data.”
Amy Goodman.
Suggested Vacation Reading for President Obama: ‘Catch-22’
As the Obama family heads to their annual summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, perhaps the president should take along a copy of “Catch-22” for some beach reading. Joseph Heller’s classic, satirical anti-war novel, published in 1961 and based on his experiences as a bombardier in World War II, is sadly relevant today, as Obama’s wars, in Afghanistan and beyond, drag on.
Heller’s title refers to a fictional military rule that said you could get out of military duty if you were crazy, but if you requested relief from military duty, you were clearly sane, so must serve. He wrote, “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr [a pilot in the novel] was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions.”
Barack Obama ran as the anti-war alternative when he was a primary challenger to Hillary Clinton, whose nomination as Democratic presidential candidate in 2008 was widely held to be inevitable. It was his Oct. 2, 2002, speech in Chicago where he declared his opposition to the imminent invasion of Iraq, calling it “a dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.” As a U.S. senator, he pledged to filibuster any bill that granted retroactive immunity to large telecommunication corporations that cooperated with the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens. And on his first day in office, you might recall, he vowed to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Has Obama ended the war in Iraq? Certainly not for the Iraqis. July was one of the bloodiest months there since the height of the insurgency against the U.S.-imposed Iraqi government. [...]
US Drones on Yemen: 'al Qaeda's Public Relations Officer'
As the Obama administration continues surge of drone attacks, Yemenis see innocent lives lost
As the U.S. continues to bombard Yemen with drones this weekend, one Yemeni activist says that for ordinary people of Yemen, there is very little difference between what al-Qaeda and the U.S. are doing to the country.
On Saturday, the U.S. unleashed its ninth drone strike in two weeks on the poverty- and water crisis-stricken country, striking a car traveling through Lahj province and killing at least two people described by corporate media reports as militants or suspected militants.
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One Yemeni tweets that at least two civilians, including one child, have been killed in this recent drone blitz, with possibly three other civilians among the dead.
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Further, its actions to wipe out "terrorists" are counter-productive. Yemeni youth activist and writer Farea al-Muslimi writes that "in its recent actions, the US has become al-Qa'ida's public relations officer."
Jennifer Hoelzer's Insider's View Of The Administration's Response To NSA Surveillance Leaks
Tim Cushing made one of my favorite points of the week in his Tuesday post "Former NSA Boss Calls Snowden's Supporters Internet Shut-ins; Equates Transparency Activists With Al-Qaeda," when he explained that "some of the most ardent defenders of our nation's surveillance programs" -- much like proponents of overreaching cyber-legislation, like SOPA -- have a habit of "belittling" their opponents as a loose confederation of basement-dwelling loners." I think it's worth pointing out that General Hayden's actual rhetoric is even more inflammatory than Cushing's. Not only did the former NSA director call us "nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twenty-somethings who haven't talked to the opposite sex in five or six years," he equates transparency groups like the ACLU with al Qaeda.
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But my main reason for singling out Tim's post this week is that Hayden's remark goes to the heart of what I continue to find most offensive about the Administration's handling of the NSA surveillance programs, which is their repeated insinuation that anyone who raises concerns about national security programs doesn't care about national security. As Tim explains this "attitude fosters the "us vs. them" antagonism so prevalent in these agencies dealings with the public. The NSA (along with the FBI, DEA and CIA) continually declares the law is on its side and portrays its opponents as ridiculous dreamers who believe safety doesn't come with a price."
To understand why I find this remark so offensive, I should probably tell you a little about myself. While the most identifying aspect of my resume is probably the six years I spent as U.S. Senator Ron Wyden's communications director and later deputy chief of staff, I started college at the U.S. Naval Academy and spent two years interning for the National Security Council. I had a Top Secret SCI clearance when I was 21 years old and had it not been for an unusual confluence of events nearly 15 years ago -- including a chance conversation with a patron of the bar I tended in college -- I might be working for the NSA today. I care very deeply about national security. Moreover -- and this is what the Obama Administration and other proponents of these programs fail to understand -- I was angry at the Administration for its handling of these programs long before I knew what the NSA was doing. That had a lot to do with the other thing you should probably know about me: during my tenure in Wyden's office, I probably spent in upwards of 1,000 hours trying to help my boss raise concerns about programs that he couldn't even tell me about.
Action
Stop Watching Us.
The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus, if true, represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights. We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs.
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