The Latest attacks In France Are About More Than Free Speech

 

Artist Brian Waterman

 

 

This is my latest article at Loonwatch

Paris attacks are about Al Qaeda trying to re-assert their power in light of the rise of ISIS

It has been a crazy, disturbing week with attacks in Paris and the massacre by Boko Haram in Nigeria, among many newsworthy worldwide events. I’ve been busy with school and doing research for future articles about Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, and ISIS but I wanted to highlight a few issues.
First, hopefully all responsible parties will be caught and tried in court and brought to justice. By trying them in court we will gain valuable information on their ideology and radicalization and also what connections they had to terrorist networks. However, it seems that the main suspects have been killed in police shootouts.
My hunch is that we should not expect it to be revealed that there was much planning for these attacks which are often ill-planned and not well though out. As professor Scott Atran describes in his book Talking To The Enemy, “Terrorism involves spectacular and often unexpected killings in order to destabilize the social order and promote a greater cause.” Atran also points out in a Guardian article that “publicity is the oxygen of terrorism” and of course there’s been plenty of that since the attacks.
Competition Between Al Qaeda and ISIS
What I want to discuss is the alleged connection between the Kouachi brothers and Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula(AQAP) and why it is relevant given the rise of ISIS. Terrorist networks are not static, they are constantly evolving and responding to their environment. At first, AQAP did not officially accept responsibility for the attacks, they did however praise them.
Now it has been confirmed that AQAP has officially accepted responsibility; it is likely that they are challenging ISIS, showing them that they are still “top dog” in terms of transnational terror.  This is worrying especially if this rivalry develops into a competition, in which both groups attempt to out-do each other in both operations and scale of terror attacks.
Interestingly, the hostage taker at the Kosher grocery, Coulibaly, claimed allegiance to ISIS. His later involvement begs the question: how much actual coordination is there between ISIS and AQ? (We will also have to wait and see if AQAP decides to forge their own path or if they are  seeking to ally with ISIS.) Either way at the moment their goals and even the extent of their coordination are a relative mystery.
AQAP’s  hand in the coordination, even if minor, is a power play to remain relevant and a challenge to ISIS. AQAP will attempt, to the best of its ability, to use the attack as a propaganda ploy and claim to be the real “defenders of Islam.” While the brothers’ full motivations are a mixed bag of statements and not altogether clear, it is worth noting that AQAP did not only say that this was revenge for the “honor” of the Prophet Mohammed (SAW) but also for France’s involvement and crimes in “Mali and the Islamic Maghreb” and France’s support for the “annihilation of Muslims in Central Africa in the name of race cleansing.”
In what may be an attempt at stealing some of the “spotlight,” which as mentioned these groups need to survive, ISIS apparently hacked The U.S. military’s Central Command social media accounts (Twitter and YouTube accounts which have now been temporarily suspended).
AQ, Marc Sageman has pointed out has a very low acceptance rate, lower than Harvard’s, the connection to the parent organization, especially in their transnational attackers, was very weak. It was usually self-seekers (“Lone-Wolfs”) inspired by the group. People went looking for AQ, not the other way around and AQ was picky. The original AQ was very much a clan but transitionally AQ was not a command and control organization. It’s sympathizers and volunteers overseas (in the West) more closely resembled the violent strain of the late 19th/early 20th century anarchist movement, a largely decentralized movement.
ISIS on the other hand wants Muslims to join them and they are targeting young disenfranchised Muslims for recruitment. (I touch upon the subject of what draws youth to political violence and some of the motivations of ISIS volunteers here.)

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YorkU Physics Professor Randy Lewis's research confirmed by CERN

Sketch by: Razainc and B-Dubb

My latest article in Excalibur I will write an expanded version Inshallah.

Physics prof Randy Lewis research confirmed by CERN

CERN confirmed Randy Lewis’s theory when they detected two new baryon particles Xi_b’- and Xi_b*-. In a paper published in 2009 by Lewis, a York physics professor, and Richard Woloshyn, a Simon Fraser University professor, predicted the mass of these two new baryons, by using a numerical method called lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

“It’s always good to see the calculation we worked hard at is agreeing with experiments. That means that everybody is a little bit closer to understanding the world of particle physics,” says Lewis.
The building blocks of the universe are matter (m) which is made of particles, and energy (E) they are related by Einstein’s formula E = mc^2 where c is the speed of light.

Atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks. Lewis explains quarks come in six states[Edit 6/23/2015 this should have been flavors not states]: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm, and they also have two spin states.

“People have known for a long time you can piece the quarks togather in many different ways.”
“The word baryon just means something that gets its properties from its three important quarks. If they happen to be two ups and a down we happen to name that baryon a proton. If they happen to be one strange, one bottom , and one down then we happen to name that baryon a Xi_b.”
“These two new particles… each of them is a combination of one bottom quark, one strange quark , and one down quark. It turns out they do stick togather and we predicted the mass, and it agrees rather well with what we see in real life.”

 

 

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Angela Davis and Bobby Seale At The Activist Assembly

Angela Davis and Bobby Seale At The Activist Assembly

Entering to thundering applause and a standing ovation entered Bobby Seale and Angela Davis.

 This is an expaned version of my article in Excalibur from a few months back.

Speaking first was Seale with a standing ovation. Seale spoke of his early childhood, his work in the Air Force, and the Hi Tek industry and his studies. In the midst of all this he read a book by an anthropologist that connected him with his roots. Bobby learned about slave revolts and all the wars that African American had fought in for America all of this influenced him. 

Seale would be influenced by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. He would go on to create a grassroots jobs based tutorial program for youth in the community. 

After founding the Black Panther Party (BPP) with Huey Newton and others, Seale still focused on programs like BPP’s 10 point plan and Breakfast Program for youth. Seale said that communist and capitalist imperialism were two opposite extremes for him.  Seale spoke about how the goals for his programs was about putting the money back in the community while at the same time educating youth and giving them skills.

 Seale spoke about wanting all power to all the people and changing how black people were underrepresented in the system, by doing things like voter registration and getting more black politicians, jurors and community leaders. He spoke of empowering women in the BPP teaching them self-defense. BPP’s guns were for self-defense according to Seale. BPP wanted to empower black and brown people to be in politics, and be judged by more black and brown jurors, and have a say in their communities. An example was endorsing Shirley Chisholm an African American woman who ran for president. BPP also did voter registration. But the police and the FBI did not look at it that way they would see the BPP as a threat. An FBI program called COINTELPRO would be directed against the BPP and among many African American leaders. Seale spoke of a time when the local police would collaborate with the KKK. Even the BPP’s children’s breakfast program would be seen as a threat by the Director of the FBI J Edgar Hoover.

When asked about holding politicians accountable, Seale said you vote them out if they don’t do their job, and protest to try to unseat them. Seale said that even if most of them don’t keep their promises having a few good politicians who do keep their promises is better than none. Seale stated it was important to work with politicians, and that it was more important that they fight for their promises not weather they succeed. 

When asked about his advice to young activists: Seale said try understand your ideas beliefs as much as possible and that they correspond to reality, he or she who assume without investigation 9/10 is wrong so learn to investigate.

 

Next up was Angela Davis . Davis approached the podium with a standing ovation, Davis started by speaking about education stating “Public universities weather in Canada or the US are no longer public Education has become a commodity”  going to say “People strove for education because it had a connection to freedom and liberation”. Davis began talking about when she grew up it was not possible for majority of Black people to vote including her parents who were teachers

Davis went on to state “just as the black struggle in the US was a struggle acknowledged by people all over the world, the 1980’s  especially the eyes of the world were focused on South Africa” she said now “the eyes of the world should be focused Palestine”.

But she cautioned about the environment and the dangers of fossil fuels saying “No struggle can be successful if we cannot manage to guarantee that there will be a habitable environment “

Davis spoke of the need to globalize struggles against racism. How she came to see prison as it functions as tool for racism. Davis then spoke of the soaring prison population in Canada, especially among Aboriginals and a sharp increase in Aboriginal women according to Howard Sapers report. Davis went on to highlight that one of the fastest growing sections of the prison population globally is women. 

When discussing the Michel Brown another case in long line of police killings, she stated that we rarely hear about African American women who are killed or a are victims violence. 

Davis discussed police and security militarization and its intersections with anti–Muslims racism and Islamophobia. She highlighted the Islamophobia directed against Muslim women referencing the headscarf bans and veil bans.  

Davis went on speak of the militarization of the police in America with aid of the Israeli government, and spoke of the continuous assault on Occupied Palestine. 

Davis also said there is a need for a 50^th anniversary commemorating the founding of the Black Panther Party. And She went on to state how the Black Panther Party's 10 Point Plan was still relevant.

  

Davis when talking about South Africa said that although wonderful things are happening in South Africa there are also things like the prison system. Davis then went on to talk about the influence private security corporations and that also own private prisons around the globe. Davis stated that women were the most consistent target of violence in the world. 

When asked about holding politicians accountable, Davis emphasized the importance of protesting saying that even with progressive politicians you shouldn’t stop protesting so that you push them to go further and keep more of their promises than they normally would have. Saying “so a lot of these responsibilities are our responsibilities”

Davis ended with discussing alternatives to prison system for justice.