CounterCurrents: Sudan, Africa And The Mosaic Of Horrors, US-Led Sanctions Targeting Syria Risk Adjudication As War Crimes, We Never Voted For Corporate Rule,

Dear Friend,

Bizarre news is coming from Mosul. AFP reported that ISIS terrorists blew up a sulphur factory in the city and several civilians have died. The coalition forces are inching ahead to the city. 

As we noted yesterday Turkey's bombing of Syria's Kurdish region can trigger a wider war in the region writes Bill Van Auken 

Franklin Lamb writes "the continuing conflict in Syria has created a devastating humanitarian crisis: the magnitude of humanitarian needs is overwhelming in all parts of the country and affects the region and beyond. The Syrian conflict has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, the estimated number of people in need of the protection of International Humanitarian Law is approximately 14 million, more than two-thirds of Syria’s pre-war population." He also points out that the US-EU sanction on Syria is contributing to this crisis. Lamb says that it is a war crime and may be challenged in Internation Criminal Court. 

Staying on the imperialist sanctions, Andre Vltchek, the indefatigable chronicler of imperialism reports from Sudan, how that country is affected by decades long western sanctions. 

A campaign is taking shape for people to own Twitter as a co-operative. 

And also more stories from around the world. 

If you don't mind, and if you think the content of this news letter is critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/. 

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org



Turkish Bombing In Syria Threatens Wider War
by Bill Van Auken 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/turkish-bombing-in-syria-threatens-wider-war/

The threat of the US military intervention in Iraq and Syria erupting into a far wider war has increased sharply in the wake of a series of Turkish air strikes against Syrian Kurdish militia forces that are aligned with Washington.




US-Led Sanctions Targeting Syria Risk Adjudication As War Crimes
by Franklin Lamb 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/us-led-sanctions-targeting-syria-risk-adjudication-as-war-crimes/

As many of us would agree, the continuing conflict in Syria has created a devastating humanitarian crisis: the magnitude of humanitarian needs is overwhelming in all parts of the country and affects the region and beyond. The Syrian conflict has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, the estimated number of people in need of the protection of International Humanitarian Law is approximately 14 million, more than two-thirds of Syria’s pre-war population.




Sudan, Africa And The Mosaic Of Horrors
by Andre Vltchek 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/sudan-africa-and-the-mosaic-of-horrors/


The West has always claimed that it has been liberating Sudan from someone or something. In the end, the Sudanese people have suffered immensely. Those who were supposed to be ‘freed’ were actually mercilessly sacrificed. Some things never change!




We Never Voted For Corporate Rule
by David Korten 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/we-never-voted-for-corporate-rule/

As individual corporations grow in size, global reach, and political power, we see a corresponding shift in the primary function of national governments—from serving the interests of their citizens to assuring the security of corporate property and profits. They apply police and military powers to this end, subsidize corporate operations, and facilitate corporate tax evasion. They let corporations off the hook with slap-on-the-wrist fines for criminal actions. Rarely, if ever, do they punish top executives.




What If Twitter Were Owned By The Users Who Love It
by WeAreTwitter 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/what-if-twitter-were-owned-by-the-users-who-love-it/

We have an idea—a proposal. Your CEO, Jack Dorsey, recently called you “the people’s news network.” What if you really were the people’s? Why don’t we figure out a way for us to buy you instead?





Creepy Clowns And Clownish Creeps: A Global Craze
by Dr Binoy Kampmark

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/creepy-clowns-and-clownish-creeps-a-global-craze/

The fear-inducing clowns have seen a global reach of supposed terror for members of the public, and more specifically, those engaged in rather stretched notions of entertainment. The last laugh, it would seem, lies with those who have brought back the historically sinister aspect to clowning, using very conventional devices.    Could it really be said that line of entertainment was ever really funny?





No To Executions In Ahwaz:  Ahwazis Protest Outside German Parliament
by Yaqoub Hor Al-Tostari  

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/no-to-executions-in-ahwaz-ahwazis-protest-outside-german-parliament/

Ahwazi freedom activists and supporters held a mass demonstration against Iranian regime executions outside the German Parliament in Berlin on Friday, with many members of the country’s Arab communities joining their call for freedom and human rights.





Pivoting The Plus | A Radical Call For Recognizing Intersectionality In The LGBTQIA Community
by Aleksandr Chandra 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/pivoting-the-plus-a-radical-call-for-recognizing-intersectionality-in-the-lgbtqia-community/

While a nod to quare studies (i.e., a formulation of queer theory with attention given to race and class) is a move in the right direction, a certain attention also needs to be given to the acronym that enunciates subject formation and calls identities into existence. While quare studies quaresqueers theory, it’s about damn time we quare the same cue (+) that has left certain bodies out of our collective imagination. All it takes is a quick swivel of a sign to change the trajectory of the LGBTQIA(plus) paradigm.





War Hysteria And The Kashmir Dispute
by Mir Liyaqat Nazir 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/war-hysteria-and-the-kashmir-dispute/

It is in the interest of entire South Asian to stop playing with the fire, and ignore war hawks who are trying hard to stir up the negative emotions of the masses so that to divert the world attention from the Kashmir dispute which needs immediate political solution. The more we delay the more destabilize will be region as well Kashmir which the hawks in both the sides of border envisage. It would be more prudent to concentrate on raising awareness of the destructive nuclear war and the importance of Kashmir dispute among the people in both the countries so that we live amicably and not with the animosity.




BJP Manifesto May Be Reviewed, Hindu Nationalist Parties Might Be Banned Again
by Anandi Sharan

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/bjp-manifesto-may-be-reviewed-hindu-nationalist-parties-might-be-banned-again/

On 19 and 20 October 2016 the Supreme Court held its first two days of hearings to review the Hindutva Judgement that had been pending for 20 years. The next hearing is on October 25. In the two days of discussions to kick off a process that according to Supreme Court Advocate Rana Raj K Singh may last up to a year, Chief Justice TS Thakur said “the essence, the ethos of our constitutional system is secularism… religion and politics don’t mix.” For secular democrats the statement is a sweet song of hope following two decades of orchestrated Hindu nationalism in the wake of the Babri Masjid Ram Temple violence





Muslims Didn’t Commit All These Crimes!
by Shamsul Islam 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/22/muslims-didnt-commit-all-these-crimes/

I am sharing it with friends so that whenever Hindutva fascists attack secular activists with Muslim names the latter must confront this gang with this list. In fact, this list can work as a source material for all those who want to expose Hindutva gang’s polarizing agenda. Amazing part is that Islamists declare me as anti-Islam and Hindutva gang brands me as a Islamist!