This Island Earth
Sunday February 21st, 2016 with Manmohan Panesar
25th Anniversary of bombing of the Al-Amariyaa bomb shelter in Baghdad and other anti-war music

"In the morning of February 13, 1991, just before dawn, U.S. planes dropped two 2,000-pound “smart bombs” on a civilian shelter in the Amiriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 400 civilians. The Pentagon was fully aware that the facility had been used as a civilian shelter during the Iran-Iraq War and never made any announcements indicating that they considered the shelter’s protected status to have ended. The tragedy of Al Amiriyah resulted in the largest loss of civilian lives to occur in one incident over the course of the First Gulf War, a U.S.-led military response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Brutal sanctions sponsored by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations followed the war and remained in place for over a decade, blocking the entrance of medicine, food, school supplies, and other essentials into Iraq." (See link below) As this past week marked the 25th anniversary of that event, we begin with a homage to the victims of that crime as well as to people from around the world that continue to resist imperialism, capitalism and all injustices in the world. We will hear a moving and powerful piece from the Iraqi master of the oud, NASEER SHAMMA, "Happened at All - Amiriyaa. Following that we will hear a number of oustanding new releases (including an amazing new album by JERUSALEM FROM MY HEART on the Constellation label - with the same anti-war theme, this time provoked by the events of Gaza and Syria). https://ccrjustice.org/home/blog/2016/02/12/25-years-later-remembering-amiriyah-shelter-massacre-iraq