Terrorism | VivirLatino

Posts Tagged ‘terrorism’

Terrorism is Brown : Quick Reflection on Joseph Stack III

9:49 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · media justice · 7 Comments

19 Feb 2010

As a woman of color living in the U.S.
As a Puerto Rican woman, a woman whose homeland is a colony of the United States
As a woman who has had loved ones and has herself been called a terrorist
As an educator who has had a 13 year old sit at my table after she was called a terrorist
As a woman who survived 9-11-01 in downtown NYC and walked through the ash filled streets
As a woman who has mothered children with fathers whose families survived 9-11-73
I call terrorism.

My 12 year old and watched the news coverage of the plane crash in Austin. It was hard not to draw comparisons with 9-11-01, the flames inside building frame. That was something I lived through personally and can still smell as I write this. I remember the hours I thought my mother was dead and her thinking the same of me. I remember yes looking up in the sky, scared. But why the hell is this not terrorism? Why the hell is the government falling over itself to not use that word? Even my damn 12 year old was able to pick apart that message.

When it’s a white man or a white woman (like Shawna Forde who killed Brisenia Flores), terrorism is not a word we use.
The news coverage goes out of it’s way to announce over and over, hypnotizing people so we believe it and then presents us with experts to talk about terrorism.
Read more…

Explosives found in Paris Shopping Mall

12:59 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · france · Comments Off

16 Dec 2008

french%20explosives.jpg It looks as if this war against terrorism thing has far reaching implications for more countries than just the U.S. The latest news out of France is that an upper-class mall in Paris was the target of an organization that calls itself the Revolutionary Afghan Front:

Detectives were alerted to the package by a note sent to Agence France-Presse, police spokeswoman Celine Diguignard said by telephone. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the explosives couldn’t be set off as they didn’t have detonators. Sarkozy, speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, told reporters he was “vigilant” and wouldn’t compromise with terrorists.

Responsibility was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front which sent the note to AFP. The group is demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan before the end of February, according to a copy of the note obtained by Bloomberg.

“Pass this message to your president and tell him to withdraw his troops from our country, otherwise we will take direct action in your capitalist department stores, and this time without warning you first,” the group said in the note.

Although this organization is calling for a withdrawal of troops, the news on CNN this afternoon is that as of April of this year, Sarkozy was actually planning on increasing French troop presence. We’ll see if that actually pans out.

Ohio Mosque Prayers of Mothers and Children Gassed

11:42 am By Maegan La Mala · children|Ohio|Religion|Women · 2 Comments

29 Sep 2008

It’s hard for me not to take a terrorist attack against Muslim children, women and men saying their Ramadan prayers in an Ohio mosque personally. No I am not Muslim pero many of my friends and neighbors are. I see the 12 year old girls, their toddler cousins and sisters being led in the early morning, before the sun rises, to say prayers with their grandmothers, mothers and fathers. Even the youngest among them knows to say they are going to church, not to mosque. They know the conversations in school about what terrorism looks like and they are told it looks like the faces they see in the mirror every morning.

Friday, September 26th ended a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West — the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail — were distributed by mail in Ohio. The same day, a “chemical irritant” was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers.

Deadly Blasts During El Grito Celebrations

2:09 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs|mexico|military · Comments Off

16 Sep 2008

Last night, Mexico celebrated it’s independence day from Spain with El Grito celebrations throughout Mexico. Unfortunately, one of those events was marred by two explosions that killed seven and wounded at least fifty:

The explosions occured shortly before midnight (0500 GMT) and just after the beginning of a re-enactment of the cry of independence known as “El Grito,” a traditional ceremony celebrated throughout the country.

Responsibility for the explosions, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of Mexico City, was not immediately clear, but dozens of police engaged in a shootout after chasing suspects in the vicinity, the El Sol de Morelia newspaper reported.

The army also took control of the entryways and exits of Morelia as well as city nightspots, the paper said.

Organized criminals are the main suspects behind the blast, although exploding bombs on a major national holiday seems to be far too symbolic of a practice for drug traffickers. I’m not sure, either, what the point would be for drug traffickers to blow people up? What would they be trying to prove/protest by doing that?

I wonder if there is something else going on that the Mexican government is trying to hide? Not the first time something like that has ever happened, right?

First Poem Since…

11 Sep 2008

I’m feeling a lot like Mala today, I just don’t have any more words to talk about 9-11. That does not mean, however, that there isn’t still a storm of unnameable feelings hidden away that I don’t want to share. So I’ll leave my speaking to Suheir Hammad–the one commentary about 9-11 that I feel said everything that needed to be said.

Terrorist Caught at the Border and No He’s Not Mexican!

11:50 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|mexico · Comments Off

4 Feb 2008

Paul Brennan was arrested by officers at a border checkpoint in southern Texas on Monday night.

The US Border Patrol said Brennan was now in custody and was awaiting deportation.

It said he had been serving a 23-year prison sentence in Northern Ireland on charges of possessing a bomb and a firearm.

So I guess score for all those strong border activists. I think it’s interesting to note that despite the brown scare, the accused is a white man.

Via / BBC and the Mex Files

Jose Padilla aka Puerto Taliban Sentenced to 17 Years

7:55 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice|Politics|Puerto Rico|race · Comments Off

22 Jan 2008

37 year old Jose Padilla, a Brooklyn born Nuyorican once accused of plotting to set off a dirty bomb with al-Qaida, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges that he supported terrorism. There was never any proof of any of the original charges so this lesser charge of being part of a support cell that sent recruits, money and supplies to Islamic extremists worldwide was a consolation prize so to speak. The judge who sentenced Padilla actually went below the minimum guidelines citing harsh treatment (torture) Padilla had received while held as an enemy combatant.

Via / Yahoo News

No Justice in London for Murdered Brazilian

11:54 am By Maegan La Mala · Brazil|Controversia|Justice|World · 1 Comment

21 Dec 2007

In the wake of the London bombings of July 2005, Scotland Yard police mistook Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes for a terrorist and shot him to death. This “accident” shook the world and had Brazilians everywhere demanding justice. Unfortunately, it looks as if they will get just the opposite:

No Scotland Yard officers will face disciplinary action over the fatal shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, the police watchdog announced.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said four senior officers, including Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, should not be disciplined over the killing.

Shocking but true. It seems that in England, just like in so many other countries, skin color profiling and “shoot first, ask questions later” are considered proper protocol. Just despicable.

Earlier this month the head of anti-terrorism at Scotland Yard stepped down due to death threats associated with the case.

Via / The Press Association

Luis Posada Carriles a Free Man Revealing US Terrorism Double Standard

11:38 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia|Cuba · Comments Off

9 May 2007

When is a terrorist not a terrorist? When your name is Luis Posada Carriles and when you have government officials across the U.S. asking for mercy on his behalf. Well it looked like it worked.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone threw out immigration charges against Posada Carriles, and ordered his electronic tracking bracelet removed. He had been free on bail, pending an immigration trial that was scheduled to begin this week.

Texas judge wants Cuban accused of terrorism freed

6:29 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cuba|Justice|Texas · 1 Comment

6 Apr 2007

Many don’t walk away from Texas courtrooms with freedom, but Luis Posada Carriles (age 79), a man accused of bombing an airplane and plotting to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba did just that today:

The judge in the El Paso federal court ordered his release on $350,000 (£180,000) bail and on the basis that he remain in his Miami home and submit to electronic monitoring.

According to the BBC, Posada Carriles was employed by the CIA, is of accused of plotting the bombing that resulted in the death of 73 Cubans in 1976, and is wanted in both Cuba and Venezuela.

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