BeyondGeography
BeyondGeography's JournalOsama (2003)
Click here for the whole film:
Cinema at its powerful best, IMO, and, unhappily, newly relevant. Anchored by an incredible performance by Marina Golbahari:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2004/05/the-movie-review-osama-and-kandahar/69427/
Golbahari now lives in exile (France) and has received death threats for being photographed at a South Korean film festival without her head covered.
https://twitter.com/nouvelles2025/status/1430930860782624780
Looks like we have a new bestie in the world
Scott Morrison is reliable?
https://twitter.com/SyedaShabanaAsh/status/1440400903299756034
SMH: Australia's foreign policy is getting clumsy and arrogant
https://twitter.com/lisazdavies/status/1439365751018647555It’s a sentence that has been heard a few times over the past 48 hours, as Coalition MPs rubbish any suggestion that Australia has seriously harmed itself in infuriating France over dumping the $90 billion submarine deal.
It’s a thuggish mentality, devoid of humility, that encapsulates everything that is wrong about Australian foreign policy at the moment. The idea that we couldn’t have done this any other way is laughable for a number of reasons.
First, the Morrison government should not have given France the impression that the submarine deal was back on track over the past six months. As recently as June this year, French President Emmanuel Macron backed Australia in its worsening tussle with China, standing alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the Elysee Palace courtyard in Paris. What Macron didn’t know was that four days earlier, Morrison had used a meeting with US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the secret plan to ditch the French submarines and build a nuclear-powered fleet with the United States and Britain.
Second, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Peter Dutton should not have agreed to significantly enhance defence cooperation with their French counterparts less than a month ago when they were about to announce the submarine deal was dead.
…Australia hasn’t just angered the most important European power in the Indo-Pacific. It has dragged its greatest ally, the US, into a diplomatic row with Europe at a time when Biden is trying to mend relations in the continent after years of Donald Trump publicly snubbing European allies. Australia’s actions right now have serious implications on the world stage and there are questions about whether our diplomacy has been strong enough to support our strategic intentions…
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-s-foreign-policy-is-getting-clumsy-and-arrogant-20210918-p58ssr.html
Secret Talks and a Hidden Agenda: Behind the U.S. Defense Deal that France Called a 'Betrayal'
In meeting after meeting with their French counterparts, U.S. officials gave no heads-up about their plans to upend France’s largest defense contract.Mr. Macron’s decision was a stunning and unexpected escalation of the breach between Washington and Paris, on a day that the two countries had planned to celebrate an alliance that goes back to the defeat of Britain in the Revolutionary War.
Yet it was driven by France’s realization that two of its closest allies have been negotiating secretly for months. According to interviews with American and British officials, the Australians approached the new administration soon after President Biden’s inauguration and said they had concluded that they had to get out of a $60 billion agreement with France to supply them with a dozen attack submarines.
…But it was unclear how they would terminate the agreement with France, which was already over budget and running behind schedule. “They told us they would take care of dealing with the French,” one senior U.S. official said.
…American officials insist it was not their place to talk to the French about their business deal with Australia. But now, in light of the blowup, some officials say they regret they did not insist that the Australians level with the French about their intentions earlier.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/us-france-australia-betrayal.html
We farmed out the dirty work to the Aussies and, surprise, surprise, they didn’t do it, right up until an August 30 meeting in Paris between the Australian and French defense ministers. Did we even ask them if they gave France a heads-up? Did we even care?
Wherever you come down on AUKUS, the Biden Adminsitration badly mishandled this.
France recalls its ambassador to the US in protest of Biden's submarine deal with Australia
Source: NY Times
France announced on Friday that it is immediately recalling its ambassador to the United States, Philippe tienne, in protest of President Biden's announcement of an agreement to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without consulting French officials.
In a statement, the French foreign minister said the decision was made by French President Emmanuel Macron.
"At the request of the President of the Republic, I have decided to immediately recall our two ambassadors to the United States and Australia to Paris for consultations," Jean-Yves Le Drian, the foreign minister said. "This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on 15 September by Australia and the United States.
In the statement announcing that the ambassador, Philippe tienne, would return temporarily to Paris -- a severe diplomatic step that is usually used against adversaries -- Mr. Le Drian made it clear that his country sees the actions of the two nations as a serious breach of trust. He said the U.S.-Australia partnership constitutes "unacceptable behavior between allies and partners, the consequences of which affect the very conception we have of our alliances, our partnerships and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/france-ambassador-recall-us-australia.html
US in damage control mode: Biden angers France, EU with new Australia, UK initiative
Grand jury in Elijah McClain investigation indicts officers, medics in 2019 death
Source: NBC News
Police and paramedics in suburban Denver will face charges in the case of Elijah McClain, the young Black man who died in 2019 after he was detained and placed in a chokehold by officers, following eight months of a grand jury investigation convened by Colorado's top prosecutor.
State Attorney General Phil Weiser on Wednesday said that two officers with the Aurora Police Department and one former officer and two paramedics will be charged with one count each of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, as well as other charges. The indictment is a total of 32 counts, Weiser said.
…McClain's encounter with police began just after 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2019, after he bought iced tea from a corner store. At the time, McClain, a massage therapist, was wearing a ski mask — which he typically did because of a blood condition that made him feel cold, according to his family.
Three Aurora police officers were called to the area on a report of a suspicious person wearing a mask and waving his arms. Bodycam video later released showed officers ordering McClain to stop. He responded that he was an introvert and to "please respect the boundaries that I am speaking."
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/grand-jury-elijah-mcclain-investigation-indicts-officers-medics-2019-death-n1278240?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma
Indifferent Dance Centre - Flight & Pursuit
A family says 10 of its members were killed in a US drone strike in Kabul
Source: NY Times
Hours after a U.S. military drone strike in Kabul on Sunday, Defense Department officials said that it had blown up a vehicle laden with explosives, eliminating a threat to Kabul’s airport from the Islamic State Khorasan group.
But at a family home in Kabul on Monday, survivors and neighbors said the strike had killed 10 people, including seven children, an aid worker for an American charity organization and a contractor with the U.S. military. Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for the charity organization Nutrition and Education International, was on his way home from work after dropping off colleagues on Sunday evening, according to relatives and colleagues interviewed in Kabul.
As he pulled into the narrow street where he lived with his three brothers and their families, the children, seeing his white Toyota Corolla, ran outside to greet him. Some clambered aboard in the street, others gathered around as he pulled the car into the courtyard of their home. It was then that they say the drone struck.
…On Monday, Capt. Bill Urban, the spokesman, reaffirmed an earlier statement that the military hit a valid target, an explosives-laden vehicle. He also repeated that the military was investigating claims of civilian casualties. Mr. Ahmadi was a technical engineer for the local office of Nutrition and Education International, an American nonprofit based in Pasadena, Calif. His neighbors and relatives insisted that the engineer and his family members, many of whom had worked for the Afghan security forces, had no connection to any terrorist group.
They provided documents related to his long employment with the American charity, as well as Mr. Naser’s application for a Special Immigrant Visa, based on his service as a guard at Camp Lawton, in Herat.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/30/world/afghanistan-news/a-family-says-10-of-its-members-were-killed-in-a-us-drone-strike-in-kabul
Capitol Police officers sue Trump, extremists alleging conspiracy, terrorism on Jan. 6
Source: USA Today
Seven officers from the United States Capitol Police are suing former President Donald Trump, his longtime adviser Roger Stone and members of far-right extremist groups, alleging they conspired to use violence to attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6.
The lawsuit, expected to be filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Thursday morning, alleges that Trump and the other defendants conspired with one other through the use of force, threats and intimidation that culminated in the attack on the Capitol.
Officer Jason DeRoche, an 18-year veteran of the Capitol Police and a Navy veteran, said the civil lawsuit isn't about winning a financial settlement. Rather, he said, the lawsuit aims to set the record straight about what happened on Jan. 6 and make sure history doesn't repeat itself.
"We don't want something like this happening ever again," DeRoche said. He added that he wants Trump and the other defendants to be held accountable for what they did, so that "if they were to do this ever again, there would be consequences."
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/26/capitol-police-sue-donald-trump-roger-stone-far-right-extremists/5593486001/
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