Failure By Design

As if it wasn’t obvious…

An article appearing in The Independent yesterday argues that the US global war on terror works to acerbate the very ideas and actions it claims to be fighting. In his article, Johann Hari interviews several former Islamic militants attempting to understand their mindsets and motivations. Hari concludes that foreign policy of the United States is wholly counter-productive. Rather than induce a softening of tensions, US strategies work only to intensify the attitudes and emotions that encourage such violent actions. Hari writes, “But once they had made that leap to identify with the Umma – the global Muslim community – they got angrier the more abusive our foreign policy came. Every one of them said the Bush administration's response to 9/11 – from Guantanamo to Iraq – made jihadism seem more like an accurate description of the world.” Clearly the widespread bombing of Muslim cities and holy areas coupled with the kidnapping, extradition and torture of community members could only serve to inflame anti-US attitudes and encourage violent retribution.

Could it truly come as a surprise that these tactics would be so ineffective at reducing anti-American sentiment in the Middle East? Such actions serve only to provide propaganda for fundamentalist-nationalist groups and aid recruiting measures for future actions aimed at ending the US occupation and economic control. In fact, the United States has maintained military forces all over the Arabian Peninsula for decades, coercively upholding favorable economic policies in the region. Did anyone ever really believe that Bin Laden and his cohorts attacked the United States because of their eternal hatred for freedom? Certainly the attacks on September 11, 2001 were not motivated by irrational hatred but rather represented an attempt to end the exploitive, imperialistic policies of the United States in the region.

Despite the evidence that the employed anti-terrorism measures are entirely counter-productive, the current administration continues to engage in these tactics. These policies continue to fuel anti-American radicalism and essentially perpetuate terrorist actions. Only with a complete break in policy and an adjustment in attitude can there be any hope at reducing the anti-American sentiment that we have so carefully cultivated in the region over the past few decades.

But I wouldn’t hold your breath... that change isn’t coming anytime soon.

Pray For Rain

My life has been pretty crazy as of late, but I found some time this week to print a few things for my friend's record label. I've been busier the past few weeks than I've ever been before, but I think I'm starting to like it. I'm sleeping less and getting a lot more done. I've been staying home to work on a bunch of projects rather than hanging out, but it's getting cold out anyway. It feels good to be more productive and hopefully that won't change.

Backtrack Record Release

About a week and a half ago I went out to Long Island to see my friends' band play their record release show. Traveling out there is usually a drag as I either have to deal with the Long Island Railroad or risk sitting in traffic for hours on end. Regardless, I still find myself out there almost every week for whatever reason.

I ended up riding out to Long Island with a couple of my friends from Staten Island. We made it to the show a little late and missed the first band. The show was at a small club in Amityville, and was sold out before we even got there. We still managed to get inside in time to see Naysayer, Title Fight and Cruel Hand play. They are three of the most talented and hardest working bands in hardcore right now and, as expected, each set was awesome. Backtrack was last to play and their set was incredible. The place was packed and kids were losing their minds. The atmosphere was nothing short of amazing and they sounded perfect. It has been really cool to see the band progress over the past year or so since I first met them and really come into themselves.

These types of experiences have the ability to remove me from reality for a period of time. I forget about all my problems and the work that's piling up on my desk at home. I’m truly able to enjoy myself as all my worries vanish for the time being. This type of release is important and is probably what keeps me sane in my everyday life. Hardcore offers a tight knit community which is very appealing in a way. I've never truly felt like I've belonged to any other group I've ever been exposed to, but was immediately attracted hardcore since I discovered it when I was 12 or 13. Shows like this really bring back those feelings and remind me why I fell in love with hardcore in the first place.

Here is a video of Backtrack's set from the show:

Backtrack @ Broadway 9/25/09 from Chris Albin on Vimeo.

Authoritarian Irresponsibility

Upon his election as president, Barack Obama vowed to close the illegal detention center at Guantanamo Bay. While very commendable, this idea has brought with it several other problems. First of all, the closing of Guantanamo does not mean an end to illegal detention and torture policies by the United States. There are still many other secret prisons around the world, including the Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan to which the Obama Administration (yes, the bringer of hope and change itself) continues to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists against whom it has little or no evidence at all. These secret prisons, or black holes as they are known, serve also as sites to which Obama can send those detainees currently being held at Guantanamo. Rather than being freed as is implied by Obama’s vow to close the prison, these individuals will simply be moved to another location further away from the public eye. Many of these prisons are even worse than the notorious Guantanamo Bay. Policies of torture and poor conditions have resulted in the deaths of many detainees held at these secret prisons. Detainee deaths due to mistreatment is such a major problem that the Department of Defense has repressed prisoner death reports of detainees in Afghanistan since 2004. These policies of indefinite detainment and secrecy surrounding the deaths of detainees persists under the Obama administration despite its vow to be the most open and transparent administration in history.

The second issue that arises is what to do with the detainees who are to be released. After maintaining for years that those held in Guantanamo Bay had some connection to Al Qaeda or other terrorist organization, officials are finally admitting that many of these individuals have been held with absolutely no evidence against them and no connection to any sort of illegal activities. However, the fact that they served numerous years as a suspected terrorist in a prison run by the great defender of peace of democracy has left these individuals with a permanent stigma. The prisoners’ countries of origin oftentimes refuse to allow these detainees back within their borders and the Obama Administration is increasingly having difficulty finding places to send the detainees that had been unjustly detained. Recently, two Yemenis prisoners were accepted by Spain. However, these individuals will not be treated as politically refugees, but as immigrants and will be kept under surveillance and denied freedom of movement. This treatment is repulsive. It is the duty of the United States to ensure that these individuals are able to live free lives. After destroying families, careers and community ties, the Obama Administration must compensate for the suffering these detainees endured. If other countries are unable to guarantee the freedom of these individuals, the United States is obligated to accept these individuals into its own society. Policy makers cannot expect the international community to take responsibility for the crimes they themselves committed. These are individuals who are innocent of any terrorist activities, yet were kidnapped off the street and held for years and denied habeas corpus. The illegal detainment policy of the United States ruined the lives of these individuals and now policy makers must not shirk their duty to compensate these former detainees for the pain and destruction that was brought upon them.

The plan to close Guantanamo is much more difficult than it initially appears, particularly when the United States refuses to truly accept responsibility for the lives it has ruined. The persistence of illegal renditions and indefinite detainment coupled with the issue of freeing detainees (Not to mention the problems and lack of impartiality associated with creating a separate system of justice to try suspected terrorists, a suggestion of the Obama administration.) is evidence of both the difficulty in ending the illegal detention policy and the insincerity of the Obama administration to do so.

The Hard Way

I bought a screen printing press about 3 months ago and I've finally had some time to use it recently. Luckily the new apartment has a basement perfect for what I need and I've been able to put together a pretty cool set up. A lot of screen printing is trial and error and I've spent many frustrating afternoons and sleepless nights trying to fix out problems in order to get the shirts printed in time. For the most part I've been printing pretty basic designs. Here are some photos of the more recent shirts.


This is a shirt I printed for my band. It's one of the earlier shirts I printed and is a very simple, straight forward image.




This was a last minute shirt I printed for a friend's band from Richmond, VA. They needed some shirts for a festival they were playing in Philadelphia and although I had to scramble to get these together, I feel like they came out pretty well.






This is a shirt I did for an indie band from Long Island called Weed Hounds. The bassist of this band also plays drums in my band. I really like the hand drawn artwork for these shirts. I was worried the image would not come out great since the lines were so fine, but they actually came out very nicely.

We Gotta Know

We moved into a new apartment about a month ago and I've been working on building my bedroom. I've finally started to make progress and I'm really excited on the way it starting to shape up. Here are some photos of the different stages of the building process.







I'm hoping to get the rest finished before school starts in a week. We'll see if I can pull myself away from the beach for the next few days to actually get some work done.

CIA Hires Private Contractors to Carry Out Assassinations

A recent New York Times article reveals that the CIA hired Blackwater contractors to carry out assassinations. Blackwater is in essence a private mercenary company which the United States government contracts to carry out military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. Blackwater was even called in to restore order in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The problem with the outsourcing of military procedures and more specifically assassinations (besides the immorality of killing individuals without due process) is that there is very little accountability. This particular agreement and many like it are made in secret. It is difficult to prevent them from being carried out and once discovered it is difficult to hold individuals responsible because they are made outside the bounds of the democratic decision making process. Groups such as Blackwater allow the administration to sidestep legal boundaries and carry out illegal activities that violate international and domestic policy.