People of Afghanistan and the world, I greet you. There has been much speculation over the past several weeks focusing on how many additional U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan. Americans and its allied coalition forces in Afghanistan have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into that country over the past eight years. Clearly, mistakes have been made. I have reviewed the situation very carefully and concluded that the following is the only course of action that will restore peace and security for the people of Afghanistan, its neighbours, and the world.

Just thirty minutes ago, I instructed General McChrystal to arrest President Hamid Karzai, his vice-president, all members of his cabinet, all members of the Afghan Supreme Court, and the Afghan Parliament, and place them under custody at Bagram Airbase.

On November 27th, Mariano Abarca Roblero, a community activist known for his opposition to mining, was assassinated in Chicomuselo, a town in Chiapas, Mexico.

Mariano was shot in the head and chest by a man on a motorcycle. He had been abducted in August, and again received death threats in the week prior to his death.  Mariano was one of the strongest activist working against mineral exploitation by the Canadian company Blackfire in the hills around Chiapas, Mexico.

This past August, Mariano was up for charges from Blackfire.  The charges included organized crime.  Because of the vocal international calls for justice, he was freed a week later.  He immediately joined the sit-in with his compadres pressing to get the company removed from the area.

According to data from REMA (Network of Mexicans Affected by Mining - REMA in Spanish), the federal authorities have authorized 54 permissions for mining exploitation to Canadian Companies in their municipalities: to Blackfire extracting barite, gold and antimony in more than 10 concessions; Linear Gold Corp, with 24 concessions, mostly gold and some of them granted for 50 years; Frontier Dev. Group with 12 projects, and also with New Gold Inc. with three concessions and Radius Gold with 7, although apparently these last ones have been withdrawn.

The demonstration election held in Afghanistan turned out to be a total farce, Around the world people are asking how the regime of Hamid Karzai could have any legitimacy. Our political leaders, the military and the mainstream media say the low turnout of 35% was due to the threat of the Taliban insurgency. But it was no higher in Kabul.

For the majority of the Afghan people, the political structure created by the U.S. government and its allies has never had legitimacy. From the time of the occupation of Afghanistan in October 2001 all major political decisions have been made by the U.S. government, and the people of Afghanistan have had very little influence.

Above: Afghan soldiers unload ballot boxes. Photo by Thomas Dow. 

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Hi there!  This is a reminder about the Arts/Fashion/Music Centre currently under construction in downtown Regina... and our attempt to get funding for it!

We have a new opportunity to raise the money to convert the Loggie’s Building into an artist centre!  The Aviva Community Fund is providing up to $500,000 to projects across Canada that garner the most support from their community.  All you need to do is register on the Aviva site and then cast your vote!  Once you’re registered, you can return to the site every day to cast another vote!  Here’s a direct link to our page including info on the project:

You will be asked to register before you vote, but that only takes a second.  And once you’ve registered, you can come back to the site every day to log another vote for our project!

Help us make this happen!  Spread the word!  We only have one more day to register enough votes to make it in the top 20 and be sent on to the semi-finals (if not, our vote count is set to 0 and we have to start racking up votes again).   They’ll make their final decision in December 2009, so it could have a big impact on what we’re doing here!  If we get this building financed, that would help us build a case to get additional projects like this underway in Regina!  Do it now!  Do it again tomorrow!  Check it out! Forward this to everyone you know!

Thanks for your support.