NEWS AND VIEWS:

SUPPORT TALIBAN CAUSE: TALIBAN’S VIDEOS:

About half a century ago, as a young journalist with “Alsahafa” Arabic daily newspaper in Sudan, I, almost daily and for many years, covered the Vietnam War, and especially the US military intervention in South Vietnam, its bombardment of North Vietnam and its war against the Viet Cong rebels (who, at the end, won, expelled the US and united North and South Vietnam).

I wasn’t a Communist, a socialist, a progressive or a leftist – and never was – but I was strongly supporting the Viet Cong. The US was the aggressor and its excuse of the “domino theory” has been proven wrong.

Another proof: Last week, the US and Vietnam navies conducted a joint exercise, an indirect message to China. (During the Vietnam War, China was the main supporter and supplier of the Vietnamese Communists).

Now, I am

not an Islamist, a Jihadist, a Sharia-supporter, a West-hater or a Caliphate-believer – and never was – but I strongly support Taliban cause. The US is the aggressor and its excuse of “draining the swamps” (words of former President George W. Bush) has been proven wrong. The so-called “war of terrorism” has no specific fronts, enemies, goals and definition of “victory.”

Another proof: after 10 years of fighting Taliban, the US decided to negotiate with them.

Déjà vu.

—————————————————————-

NEWS: TALIBAN VIDEOS: “WASHINGTON POST”:

Kabul — On a street of pulsing electronic shops, young men with spiked hair and tight jeans browse through DVD stalls and huddle over sidewalk computer stands, downloading the latest hot song or video clip and passing them instantly via bluetooth technology from cellphone to cellphone…

Often the content is sexually alluring and semi-forbidden in Afghan society… But in recent months, another craze has gripped the capital circuit…

The images are of real war and shocking violence: U.S. military vehicles exploding; Western troops tossed high in the air; terrified foreigners being dragged and mutilated. The soundtracks are a mix of gunfire and chants in male voices praising fallen heroes and calling for sacrifice in the name of Islam.

“O Talib, come to my dreams,” begins one. “The brave infidel slayers are everywhere. We will burn their tanks and set them on fire. The brave infidel slayers are turned to ashes, but they still live. . . . O Talib, come to my grave. The infidel dragons have killed me; follow my footsteps when I am gone.”

On the surface, most urban and educated young Afghans seem to have little in common with the rural Taliban fighters — and zero desire to fight. Yet they might also be ambivalent about whom to root for in a war that pits increasingly unpopular NATO forces against homegrown fellow Muslims…

————————————————————————-

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: CHEERS FOR VIET CONG, CHEERS FOR TALIBAN

About half a century ago, as a young journalist with “Alsahafa” Arabic daily newspaper in Sudan, I, almost daily and for many years, covered the Vietnam War, and especially the US military intervention in South Vietnam, its bombardment of North Vietnam and its war against the Viet Cong rebels (who, at the end, won, expelled the US and united North and South Vietnam).

I wasn’t a Communist, a socialist, a progressive or a leftist – and never was – but I was strongly supporting the Viet Cong. The US was the aggressor and its excuse of the “domino theory” has been proven wrong. Last week, the US and Vietnam navies conducted a joint exercise, an indirect message to China. (During the Vietnam War, China was the main supporter and supplier of the Vietnamese Communists).

So, now, after 10 years of fighting Islamist Taliban, the US decided to negotiate with them.

(Read below).

I am not an Islamist, a Jihadist, a Bin Laden-supporter or a Caliphate-believer – and never was – but I strongly support Taliban.

The US is the aggressor and its excuse of looking for Bin Laden has been proven wrong. Bin Laden was in Pakistan for more than five years, until the US killed him two months ago.

That the US didn’t earlier know his whereabouts shouldn’t be an excuse. Shouldn’t be like former President George W. Bush’s excuse: true, we didn’t find WMD after we invaded Iraq, but the CIA had said there were; it is not my fault.

Obama shouldn’t say: true, for five years we killed many Muslims as we were looking for Bin Laden, but the CIA didn’t know where he actually was; it is not my fault.

————————————————

NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: TALIBAN LEADER: “NO REGRET”

KABU: … At 60, Maulvi Qalamuddin still wears the thick black beard and imposing turban that defined him during his tenure as deputy minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice. But his rhetoric has mellowed since Taliban rule ended in 2001, and last year he was named by President Hamid Karzai, along with five other former Taliban officials, to the High Peace Council set up to negotiate with the insurgency…

“All human beings need peace, even if they were once enemies,” the former minister said during an interview this week, pouring tea for visitors at his modest home in the capital.

Qalamuddin’s rehabilitation has been neither swift nor smooth. He is more controversial than the handful of other ex-Taliban officials to whom the Afghan administration has reached out, including former U.N. envoy Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, former ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef and former foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil …

Even today, Qalamuddin is defiantly unrepentant… “We carried out our duties under the laws of the government and according to sharia,” he said. “What I did, I do not regret at all. If some people say it was cruel, I object. It was like night and day compared to the new generation of Taliban. They are blowing up their fellow Muslims and cutting off their heads”…

Soraya Parlika, a women’s rights activist in Kabul, ran secret academic classes for girls during the Taliban era, said: “The Taliban were strict, but under them there were no rockets, no robbery and no rapes. When we first heard they were coming, we were all so happy and excited. It wasn’t until later that they became more repressive and misinterpreted Islam as a religion of violence.”

————————————————-

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: CHEERS, FBI: POLITICIANS’ CORRUPTION

Throughout the years, I have been critical of the FBI for its role in the so-called “war on terrorism.”

If the Pentagon and the CIA have been engaged in the invasion, occupation and bombardment of Muslim countries, and of killing, injuring, jailing, torturing, chasing, spying on, harassing, insulting and humiliating Muslims all over the world, the FBI has been engaged in spying on, harassing, insulting and humiliating Muslims in the US.

Also, throughout the years, I have been very critical of politicians, for their hypocrisy, and, more importantly, for their corruption. (Of course, there is more hypocrisy and corruption all over the world and particularly in where I came from, in the Muslim and African countries).

This year’s corruption cases of two politicians, Jack Johnson, Prince George County (MD) Chief Executive, and his wife, Leslie Johnson, member of the Country Council, show the important role played by the FBI.

(Read below).

So, three cheers for the FBI for its role in this case, and in other similar cases.

Having said that, I have a dream that, one day, the FBI would stop its unnecessary spying on, harassing, insulting and humiliating Muslims in the US, and use its talents to catch corrupt politicians and other law violators.

—————————————-

NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST” LESLIE JOHNSON’S POSSIBLE GUILTY PLEA

Prince George’s County Council member Leslie Johnson (D), who faces criminal charges in connection with a sweeping corruption investigation, is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday for a plea hearing…

Johnson (D-Mitchellville), 59, is accused of destroying evidence on the November day she and her husband, former county executive Jack B. Johnson (D), 62, were arrested as part of a federal investigation into whether county officials accepted and solicited bribes…

Federal officials said that as FBI agents banged on the Johnsons’ door Nov. 12, Leslie Johnson hid $79,600 in cash in her underwear and flushed a $100,000 check from a developer down the toilet.

If Johnson is convicted of a felony, Maryland law requires she step down from her council seat…

————————————————

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: 225,000 MULIMS KILLED BY THE US IN 10 YEARS

In 2004, one year after the US invasions of Iraq and three years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, General Tommy Frank, commander of the US forces in the Middle East, said: “We don’t count the number of people we have killed because it is impossible to do so.”

Now, at the respected Brown University, more than 20 academicians spent years trying to count, and declared the number as 225,000 (divided as follows: 140,000 civilians, 6,000 US soldiers, 2,000 contractors with US soldiers, 10,000 Afghani soldiers, 10,000 Iraqi soldiers and 4,000 Pakistani soldiers)

But, the report said the real numbers are higher…

(Read below).

The US is responsible for the killing of quarter of a million Muslims during the last 10 years, in the so-called “war on terrorism.” And the killing is continuing, probably for a long time to come.

9/11 attacks killed about 3,000 people; so it is about 70 Muslims for everyone.

How many Christians and Jews killed in these wars? Probably a thousand Christians (mainly in sectarian conflicts in Iraq and Pakistan) and few Jews (including journalist Daniel Pearl who was seen in a video being slaughtered in Pakistan).

The report expected its estimate of $4.4 trillion bill to rise because of about $I trillion interest on government loans from banks to spend on the war. Probably another $1 trillion for taking care of the wounded (physically and mentally) American soldiers.

The report tried to estimate the long run cost. In another ten years, counting the continuous so-called “war on terrorism,” taking care of soldiers, paying interests and other items, the total cost might be $10 trillion.

(Total US debt is $14 trillion).

———————————————————–

NEWS: “AP”: $4.4 TRILLION COST OF WARS SINCE 9/11

The final bill for U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan could be as high as $4.4 trillion, according to a comprehensive new report by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

The report calculates not only direct spending on the conflicts but also the long-term costs of caring for wounded veterans and projected war spending from 2012 to 2020.

At a minimum, say the authors of the study, the final cost for these military engagements will be $3.7 trillion. But the report also points out that their estimates do not include at least $1 trillion more in interest payments and other costs that cannot yet be quantified.

Indeed, the report criticized the U.S. Congress and the Pentagon for poor accounting.

Although the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been made public, the report notes, it is not yet clear how many soldiers return to the United States with injuries and illnesses. New disability claims are being submitted on an ongoing basis

The report asserts that conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will continue through the decade, adding to both financial and human cost.

The report puts the number of civilian deaths to date at approximately 137,000, and the total number of deaths attributable to military conflict in these countries, in uniform or out of uniform, to around 225,000.

The study also suggests that the number of war refugees and displaced persons now number around 7.8 million.

“Costs of War,” as the study was titled, was a joint project that involved the work of over twenty academics, including economists, anthropologists, political scientists, legal experts and a physician.

——————————————–

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: AL-BALAWI: “TERRORIST” OR “MARTYR”?

“The Washington Post” published the last days of Humam Al-Balawi in a long piece in its “Style” section.

(Read below).

Why the “Style” section? I don’t know. Why the confessions of the Jordanian pediatrician who, in 2009, donated himself in a CIA base in Afghanistan and killed nine of its agents, seven of them Americans, in the “Style” section?

Before reading the piece, I knew it would be very emotional. I also knew I would be tortured between accepting Al-Balawi as a “terrorist,” as was described by the book, or as a “shaheed” (martyr) as he described himself in the videos and the diaries that the book quoted.

I kept the “Style” section and didn’t read the piece until three days later (when I sent a summary to my newspaper). Why? I think because I was scared of reading the piece.

What does the “shaheed”/”terrorist” think during his last days, hours and minutes before he explodes himself? It doesn’t matter if I accept Al-Balawi as a “shaheed” or “terrorist”; I just can’t imagine anyone would do that.

Upon reading the piece, I remembered what I have recently learned from the Koran and I understood very well what Al-Balawi believed in: He had moved upwards from one stage in his religion to another stage:

First, he had reached the highest level of being one of “Almoslimoon” (Muslims, those who submit to God), and, then, moved upwards to the level of being one of “Almominoon” (the Faithful, those who wholly put their faith in God).

Second, he had moved to the highest level of being one of “Almominoon” (the Faithful) by deciding to be one of “Almojahidoon” (the fighters, the Jihadists, for the sake of God, against injustice). Not “Alqa’idoon” (the Faithful who don’t want to fight).

But, in the eyes of the American journalist who wrote the book about him, Al-Balawi was nothing more than a “terrorist.”

——————————————————-

NEWS: “THE TRIPLE AGENT”: JOBY WARRICK, “THE WASHINGOTN POST”

The CIA believed he was a “golden source,” a top-secret informant who had penetrated al-Qaeda and brought the agency within striking distance of the terrorist group’s senior leadership. But Humam al-Balawi, a Jordanian pediatrician turned spy, was not what he seemed…

In late 2009, he killed himself and nine intelligence operatives, including seven Americans, at a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan. The strike was the deadliest blow in the CIA in a quarter-century…

“I have often wished to know what is going on in the head of a martyr before the martyrdom-seeking operation,” he had written in his diaries. “It is now my turn today to fulfill the wishes of others.” He acknowledged that one could “only do it once in your life,” and there was a real chance that he would fail and squander his life for nothing…

“Do you not fear to be cowardly at the last moment,” he asked himself, “and be unable to press the button?”…

Al-Balawi had many doubts his writings, had imagined the djinn — devil — and their whispered doubts. “Are you going to perform jihad and get yourself killed, and let your wife remarry and your children become orphans? “To whom are you leaving your pretty wife? Who will be dutiful to your frail mother? “How can you abandon your wonderful work?”…

But, at the end, he decided to be a “martyr”.

“It is said in the Hadith that he who says, ‘There is no God but God alone and praise be to Him,’ he is protected by God from Satan on that day,” Balawi had written. “On the day of the martyrdom-seeking operation, the enemy of God will not reach you.”

And that his martyr’s message should be in English, to ensure the widest audience if the video made its way to the Internet…

“We will get you, CIA team. Insha’Allah (God willing), we will bring you down,” he said. “Don’t think that just by pressing a button and killing mujaheddin, you are safe,” a reference to missile strikes from CIA drones. “Insha’Allah, we’ll come to you in an unexpected way”…

He added in the video:”This is my goal: to kill you, and to kill your Jordanian partner, and Insha’Allah, I will go to Al-Firdaws (paradise),” he said. “And you will be sent to hell.”

With the final phrase his voice cracked, as though he were straining to fight back tears. Balawi looked away, and the image went dark.

(When Balawi arrived at the CIA’s camp and walked to meet the agents), he mouthed the words softly in Arabic. “La ilaha illa Allah (There is no god but God).”

“La ilaha illa Allah!”…

Balawi closed his eyes. His finger made the slightest twitch.

—————————————————–

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: MY LOW-CARB DIET

During two decades in my village (on the Nile River in northern Sudan, south of the borders with Egypt), everyone was thin and some were very thin. The average family ate meat twice a week; desert was a rarity; and working hard in the fields, and walking to and from schools, were compulsory exercises.

The only fat men (and women) were in the nearby town, merchants and rich people who, most probably, ate meat and have desert daily. They probably could have been heavier if they used cars, but, there were only three trucks in the whole town.

During the following decade in the city, where I went to a boarding high school and a boarding university, I gained few pounds from eating “modern” food (like a dinner of meat, bread and an orange).

During the first decade in America, my weight jumped from 170 to 190 pounds (I am five feet and seven inches tall), and I spent the following two decades trying to lose weight, to no fail.

As I entered my fourth decade, I started annual Caribbean cruises and because of their most delicious (and big) meals, my weight jumped to 197 pounds after each cruise. I spend the rest of each year trying to bring my weight down to the “normal” 190 pounds. But, I would like to bring it down to 180 pounds.

Ten years ago, I became diabetic and started leaning towards less carbohydrates and more meat (for many years, I followed Atkins Diet). Now, I fluctuate between “no-carb” (not even fruits and milk) to “low-carb” (fruits, milk and small quantities of whole wheat bread and pasta).

Strict “no-carb” makes me lose up to four pounds a week, but I soon stop it.

Now, I feel vindicated by the recent Harvard research. (Read below).

High carbohydrates (bread, rice but mostly potatoes) were declared not good. My usual snacks (cheese, nuts and yogurt) were declared very favorable.

I may not be losing a lot of weight, but, at least, Harvard agreed with me to try to avoid carbohydrates.

——————————————-

NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: POTATOES NO, YOGURT YESS:

Everyone knows that people who chow down on french fries, chug soda and go heavy on red meat tend to pile on more pounds than those who stick to salads, fruits and grains.

But is a serving of boiled potatoes really much worse than a helping of nuts?

Is some white bread as bad as a candy bar?

Could yogurt be a key to staying slim?

The answer to all those questions is yes, according to the provocative revelations produced by a big Harvard project that for the first time details how much weight individual foods make people put on or keep off.

The federally funded analysis of data collected over 20 years from more than 120,000 U.S. men and women in their 30s, 40s and 50s found striking differences in how various foods and drinks — as well as exercise, sleep patterns and other lifestyle choices — affect whether people gradually get fatter.

The findings add to the growing body of evidence that getting heavier is not just a matter of “calories in, calories out,” and that the mantra: “Eat less and exercise more” is far too simplistic. Although calories remain crucial, some foods clearly cause people to put on more weight than others, perhaps because of their chemical makeup and how our bodies process them. This understanding may help explain the dizzying, often seemingly contradictory nutritional advice from one dietary study to the next…

The findings help explain why many people put on weight little by little over the years without even realizing it. Just by picking the wrong combinations and portions of foods, and making unhealthy lifestyle choices, people imperceptibly enlarge their girth as time goes by, eventually becoming overweight or even obese, the study indicates…

—————————————————–

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: NETANYAHU’S SON INSULTS ISLAM; WHAT IS NEW?

Thanks to the US Supreme Court, I have come to accept – reluctantly though — that freedom of expression includes freedom to verbally insult others, their opinions and even their religions.

The reluctance is most probably due to my background: I lived in a very conservative Muslim village (on the Nile River in northern Sudan, south of the borders with Egypt) from my birth until I went to high school. It was a blasphemy to just say “God” without adding “subhanahu wa ta’ala” (the Powerful and the Uppermost) and to say “Prophet Mohammad” without adding “salla Allahu alaihi was salam” (God’s prayer and peace upon him).

But, I have come a long way. I now believe that freedom, as defined by the US Constitution, allows people (even the “infidels”) to insult my God, my Islam and my Prophet.

Why am I saying that?

Because I just read that Yair, son of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had been insulting Islam and Muslims in the Internet.

(Read below).

I am angry not because of his insults, but because he, a military official, and his father are part of Israel’s expansionist policy and its occupation of Muslim lands and its subjugation of Muslims.

It was obvious that the father was behind the son’s decision to delete the insults within two hours after “Haaretz,” the Israeli newspaper that first revealed the insults, called the Prime Minister office seeking comments.

——————————————————-

NEWS: “HAARETZ” (ISRAEL)”: ISRALE’S PRIME MINISTER’S SON DERISIVE COMMENTS ON ARABS, MUSLIMS

JERUSALEM — The Israeli prime minister’s 19-year-old son — a military spokesman — posted derisive comments about Arabs and Muslims on his Facebook page, drawing a slap on the wrist from his superiors and focusing new attention on the controversial first family…

Earlier this year, Yair Netanyahu posted that Muslims “celebrate hate and death.” In the same post, written after Palestinian assailants entered a West Bank settlement and stabbed five members of an Israeli family to death, he wrote that “terror has a religion and it is Islam”…

Yair Netanyahu also wrote that he hoped “there would never be” a Palestinian state, and two years prior, he ran a Facebook group of 23 people that had called for a boycott of Arab businesses and products…

The comments in question were removed from the Facebook page within two hours of “Haaretz” requested a response from the prime minister’s office.

Israel’s military has suffered a series of online embarrassments.

Soldiers have posted pictures on Facebook of themselves mistreating detained Palestinians and dancing on patrol. In one case, the military had to cancel an operation after a soldier revealed plans on his Facebook page…

—————————————————-

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: GOOGLE’S ANTI-MUSLIMS PROJECT

I am a little suspicious about Google’s new adventure to tackle “violent extremism.” I am not convinced by Google’s definition that includes former criminals and neo-Nazis. I believe Google’s project is another attempt to taint Islam and Muslims, and is influenced by Washington Jewish Leaders (WJL; my description and initials).

As I wrote many times before, I have become interested in the WJL (most prominent: Sen. Joe Liebermann) few years ago, after I became convinced that: (a) the so-called “war on terrorism” is but a subtle and indirect war on Muslims, if not on Islam; and (b) the US policy towards the Muslim countries have been greatly influenced (but not controlled) by the WJL.

I don’t criticize the WJL because of their dedication to their causes, skill to organize and ability to finance themselves; I criticized them because of their support of Israel’s expansionist policies.

Jared Cohen, one of the WJL and head of the Google’s project, just wrote an anti-Muslims book: “Children of Jihad.” Jane Rosenthal, one of Cohen’s advisers, is a New York Jewish leader.

Of course, Google’s two founders are Jewish. But, that is less important than for Google to be fair to the Muslims: Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers are occupying the West bank by force. Isn’t that “violent extremism”?

———————————————————–

NEWS: “WASHINGTON POST”: GOOGLE IDEAS GATHER FORMER EXTREMISTS

Technology giant Google, having conquered the Internet and the world around it, is taking on a new challenge: violent extremism.

The company, through its eight-month-old think tank, Google Ideas, is paying for 80 former Muslim extremists, neo-Nazis, U.S. gang members and other former radicals to gather in Dublin this weekend to explore how technology can play a role in de-radicalization efforts around the globe…

“We are trying to reframe issues like radicalization and see how we can apply technology to it,” said Jared Cohen, the 29-year-old former State Department adviser who now heads the project…

Google Ideas may be setting its sights too high, said Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “You’ll never make a hard-core jihadi into a Jeffersonian democrat — it’s just not going to happen,” he said. He also noted that while there may be common threads to why individuals join extremists groups, the remedies to that problem are more likely to be “culturally, and even country, specific”…

Officials at Google express little concern that their efforts are overly ambitious or will tread in others’ territory…

Cohen also turned to the Tribeca Film Festival, which was founded to help bring people back to the lower Manhattan neighborhood after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the festival, is making a film about de-radicalization that will draw on the work coming out of the conference. “You have to create deeper opportunities for involvement,” she said.

————————————————

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: MY WHITE HOUSE JIHAD: ALL OVER THE WORLD

My “until I die!”, silent, lonely and on some weekends, White House jihad that started in 2008 doesn’t involve, the way I see it, any heroism.

I am not a hero.

I am just voluntarily scarifying some of my time and efforts to express my opinion with two important conditions: (a) peacefully and (b) for the sake of justice.

Are there heroes?

Of course yes; two famous ones: George Washington fought for justice and Nelson Mandela (South Africa) spent almost 30 years in jail because he called for justice.

But, there are less famous heroes. (Read below).

I was inspired by the one-million demonstrators in London against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, few weeks earlier. I was also inspired by a similar demonstration in Australia; aware that the Australian government sent troops to Afghanistan and then to Iraq, I asked myself: “Why are people in far away Australia so concerned about Middle Eastern Muslims?”

————————————————–

NEWS: (JUST SEARCHED):”WIKIPEDIA”: PROTESTS AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR:

Beginning in 2002, and continuing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, protests against the Iraq War were held in many cities worldwide, often coordinated to occur simultaneously around the world. After the biggest series of demonstrations, on Feb15, 2005, “The New York Times” writer Patrick Tyler claimed that they showed that there were two superpowers on the planet, the US and worldwide public opinion.

These demonstrations against the war were mainly organized by anti-war groups, many of whom had been formed earlier opposing the invasion of Afghanistan. In some Arab countries demonstrations were organized by the government. Europe saw the biggest mobilization of protesters, including a rally of three million people in Rome, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever anti-war rally.

According to the French academic Dominique Reynie, between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.

In the United States, even though pro-war demonstrators have been quoted as referring to anti-war protests as a “vocal minority”, Gallup Polls updated September 14, 2007 state, “Since the summer of 2005, opponents of the war have tended to outnumber supporters. A majority of Americans believe the war was a mistake.”

^{————————————————————————-}

NEWS AND VIEWS:

VIEWS: MY WHITE HOUSE JIHAD: LONDON

My “until I die!”, silent, lonely and on some weekends, White House jihad that started in 2008 doesn’t involve, the way I see it, any heroism.

I am not a hero.

I am just voluntarily scarifying some of my time and efforts to express my opinion with two important conditions: (a) peacefully and (b) for the sake of justice.

Are there heroes?

Of course yes; two famous ones: George Washington fought for justice and Nelson Mandela (South Africa) spent almost 30 years in jail because he called for justice.

But, there are less famous heroes. (Read below).

One is Brian Haw (62) who had been camping outside the Parliament in London since 2001, protesting UK and US foreign policies in the Middle Eat, particularly the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq .

—————————————————-

NEWS: “ASSOCIATED PRESS”: LONDON DEMONSTRATOR DIES OF CANCER

English peace campaigner Brian Haw, who camped outside the UK’s Houses of Parliament for the past decade, has died of lung cancer at the age of 62.

Mr Haw set up camp in London’s Parliament Square in 2001 in protest against UK and US foreign policy, particularly sanctions against Iraq.

His protest grew broader after the invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq and his makeshift camp over the road from Big Ben and Westminster Abbey became a familiar sight to millions of Londoners and tourists.

Over the past decade, Mr Haw fought a lengthy court battle to keep his camp in place.

His family said Mr Haw died in Germany , where he had been receiving medical treatment.

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn has praised Mr Haw for his daily demand for peace and reminder to MPs about the consequences of their decisions.

Another Labour MP, Paul Flynn, said on Twitter that Mr Haw’s “24/7 protest in all weathers against the futile wars in Iraq/Helmand deserves the nation’s thanks and admiration”.

——————————————————————-