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This week on Uprising —

* Death of Another Dictator – Ahmed Rashid and Boris Kagarlitsky on Turkmenistan’s Niyazov
* Civil War in Palestine?
* New Report Urges Action on Darfur
* The USDA Stacks the Organics Board with Business Reps
* This week’s commentaries, Empire Notes and Black Agenda Report

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Death of Another Dictator

GUEST: Ahmed Rashid, Pakistani journalist and best-selling author; his books include Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia; Boris Kagarlitsky, writer and political commentator, and senior research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Political Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-proclaimed lifetime president of Turkmenistan, died on December 21, 2006. Niyazov, who named himself Turkmenbashi – meaning Father of the Turkmen – died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 66. The former Soviet state had been ruled by the authoritarian leader for more than 20 years. Niyazov had developed a cult of personality, renaming the month of January to Turkmenbashi in his honor, erecting a gold statue of himself in the capital, and turning schools into instruments of political indoctrination. Amnesty International has called Turkmenistan’s human rights record “appalling,” and the European Parliament passed a resolution saying that Turkmenistan had “acquired one of the worst totalitarian systems in the world.” Turkmenistan happens to sit atop the world’s fifth-biggest reserves of natural gas. The late President Niyazov did not name a successor and his sudden death is expected to spark instability, succession battles, competition over the gas reserves.

Empire Notes on Dennis Kucinich

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on Dennis Kucinich.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Civil War in Palestine?

GUEST: Mubark Awad, President of Non-violence International

Following a failure to form a Palestinian unity government, factional violence has recently broken out in the Palestinian territories. Earlier this year, the militant organization, Hamas, won the majority of seats in municipal elections. In response, Israel, the US and other countries have enforced an economic blockade, impoverishing government agencies and workers. Additionally, earlier this year, Israel carried out several brutal incursions into Gaza. President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah party, has repeatedly made calls for a new election. But Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas, has rejected them, referring to new elections as a coup. Haniya had just finished a fund raising tour in other Arab nations and was returning to Gaza via the Rafah border carrying millions of dollars in cash donations for the government. Israeli forces prevented him from entering. Several people, including children, have been killed in several days of internal violence between Hamas and Fatah forces. The BBC sums it up this way: “Hamas refuses to renounce violence or recognise Israel – a crucial demand of the international community,” while “Fatah believes that ending anti-Israel attacks is the key to forcing Israel into negotiations on an independent Palestinian statehood.”

Black Agenda Report on the Democratic Win in Congress

GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator and the Executive Editor of The Black Agenda Report

This week’s commentary is on the Democratic win in Congress. Visit www.blackagendareport.com for more information.

Group Urges Action on Darfur

GUEST: Ann Louise Colgan, Director of Policy and Communications at Africa Action

It has been over two years since the U.S. government labeled the systematic violence in Darfur, Sudan, genocide. Recently, Africa Action released a major new report entitled, “Leveraging New International Action on Darfur,” as the genocidal death toll continues to mount in Sudan. Coming at a time when the international community is running out of options on Darfur, the report lays out various ways in which the United States could use its diplomatic influence to engage key governments in committed efforts to end the genocide. Africa Action has urged the U.S. government to make Darfur a top priority in its foreign policy by placing the victims of the genocide above “war on terror” ties with the Sudanese government. In addition to the new report, Africa Action has also released an open letter to the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, signed by hundreds of prominent religious leaders urging for the implementation of Security Council resolution 1706 authorizing the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan.

For more information, visit www.africaaction.org.

Read the report on Darfur here: http://www.africaaction.org/resources/page.php?
op=read&documentid=2235&type=6&issues=1024

USDA Stacks the Natl’ Organics Board with Business Reps

GUEST: Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association

Earlier this month, the US Department of Agriculture announced its new appointments to the National Organic Standards Board. Alarming food-safety activists, all of the new appointees have industry ties to companies such as Campbell Soup and General Mills. Three of the four positions appointed by the USDA include seats reserved for diverse representatives in the scientific, environmentalist and consumer and public interest fields. The National Organic Standards Board, among other things, advises the USDA on federal organic laws and national organic standards. In response to the controversial appointments, the Organic Consumers Association is mobilizing its national grassroots network to call on companies such as General Mills in order to pressure the new appointees into declining their positions. The OCA is also hoping to pressure Congress to hold Congressional hearings and intervene.

For more information, visit www.organicconsumers.org.

OCA’s Action Alert can be found here:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/
organizationsORG/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6204

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“We have not inherited the world from our forefathers — we have borrowed it from our children.” – Kashmiri proverb