Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blocking Iran's internet (illustrative). (credit: Albi, KHAMENEI.IR, Walla)The diplomats had also discussed whether Iranian nuclear sites could be secured, and the environmental consequences for their allies in the region as a result of attacking nuclear facilities like Fordow.
Khamenei has been hiding since Israel's exchange of missiles with Iran broke out one week ago, with US President Donald Trump saying on Tuesday that the US knows exactly where he is. The Iranian leader is also believed to be battling cancer, the report noted, and cited an assessment by US intelligence that concluded Khamenei hasn't resumed his country's nuclear weapons program, which halted operations in 2003.
International calls and internet connection in Iran have notably weakened due to the current conflict, CBS cited regional sources as saying, adding that diplomats have raised complaints that arranging meetings with Abbas Araghchi, the country's foreign affairs minister, has become more difficult. Khamenei is also reportedly concerned about communicating with other officials due to concerns of signal interception to reveal his location, the report added.
Top Iranian officials are also reportedly quietly making preparations for a wide range of outcomes as the war continues, including the possible entry of the US into the fray.
Talks about who would succeed Khamenei as Iran's leader were held confidentially by diplomats from Europe and the United States, speaking theoretically about a scenario where the Islamic Republic would collapse, CBS News learned on Friday.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blocking Iran's internet (illustrative). (credit: Albi)The diplomats had also discussed whether Iranian nuclear sites could be secured, and the environmental consequences for their allies in the region as a result of attacking nuclear facilities like Fordow.
Khamenei has been hiding since Israel's exchange of missiles with Iran broke out one week ago, with US President Donald Trump saying on Tuesday that the US knows exactly where he is. The Iranian leader is also believed to be battling cancer, the report noted, and cited an assessment by US intelligence that concluded Khamenei hasn't resumed his country's nuclear weapons program, which halted operations in 2003.
International calls and internet connection in Iran have notably weakened due to the current conflict, CBS cited regional sources as saying, adding that diplomats have raised complaints that arranging meetings with Abbas Araghchi, the country's foreign affairs minister, has become more difficult. Khamenei is also reportedly concerned about communicating with other officials due to concerns of signal interception to reveal his location, the report added.
These reports come shortly after Araghchi met with European counterparts in Geneva the same day, in a meeting that lasted twice as long as expected, CBS reported.
A nuclear program for civilian purposes?
The US proposal on the table includes a framework where Iran would be able to operate a civilian nuclear program only, without enrichment of uranium, while purchasing nuclear fuel from other countries.
One of the options being considered includes an Omani initiative to establish a regional consortium under IAEA and US supervision "that would allow enrichment for civilian purposes," the report noted.
Huey P. Newton, national defense minister of the Black Panther Party, raises his clenched fist behind the podium as he speaks at a convention sponsored by the Black Panthers at Temple University’s McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 5, 1970. He is surrounded by security guards of the movement. The audience gathered is estimated at 6,000 with another thousand outside the crowded hall. AP Photo
While I don’t have many childhood memories of growing up in Baltimore, one experience had a major impact on my life and thinking. As a youngster, I visited the Black Panther Party headquarters in the city, probably with my aunts or mother, where I learned about Black history through Golden Legacy comic books, and saw Angela Davis, on a poster with her full-blown Afro, as the most beautiful woman in the world.
What struck me most were the powerful images of Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton, as well as images of Newton with Bobby Seale standing outside a Panther office.
I read “Revolutionary Suicide,” comrade Newton’s autobiography first published in 1973, in my early teens. Later as a teenager I read the “Autobiography of Malcolm X,” who was an inspiration for the Panthers.
The work of the Panthers, holding political education classes to awaken Blacks, standing against police brutality, running lunch and breakfast programs, free health clinics, early testing for sickle cell anemia, programs to teach and train Black children about themselves, race and oppression in America and beyond, was phenomenal.
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Many have been inspired by the bold examples of the Panthers and infused some of their activity into modern struggle, from boycotts, to prison advocacy, to political education and organizing, health awareness and services, to video monitoring of police and organizing Black youth.
We should respect the Panthers for their courage, love and even their militant style, complete with black leather jackets, sunglasses and berets, but we must never forget their intense suffering and slaughter.
We must also do more than just remember and lionize these soldiers in the Black Power and Black liberation struggle. According to the Jericho Movement, Black political prisoners languish in federal and state institutions, including Panthers and revolutionaries jailed some 55 years ago.
“Six Black radicals have endured decades of incarceration because of their 1970s membership in the Black Panthers or its offshoot, the Black Liberation Army. In 2018, there were 19 such political prisoners (and who knows how many before then).
After being incarcerated for 40 to 50 years, the other 14 were either released, died in prison, or died shortly after release. (Assata Shakur escaped prison, in 1979, to Cuba where she lives under asylum. She is now 76.),” said the Jericho Movement, which fights to free these freedom fighters.
“It is generally understood that the crimes for which these prisoners were arrested and convicted were pinned on them and/or led to disproportionate sentences by officials eager to neutralize and punish these political activists. They are political prisoners,” said the Jericho Movement.
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as Black Panther and Black revolutionary H. Rap Brown, is among these prisoners. We need to do more than quote him from 1967, “Violence is a part of American culture. It is as American as cherry pie,” or talk about him during Black History Month.
We need to act now to save him.
The family and supporters of Imam Al-Amin are fighting to get him emergency medical treatment through a transfer to a different federal prison, one with a hospital. He was an enemy of the state according to the FBI and the U.S. government and was targeted as such.
Imam Jamil Al-Amin, on left, in prison. Photo courtesy of @_freeimamjamilInstagram
During the 1960s and 1970s, he chaired the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and organized for Black voting rights and against southern segregation.
A leader of the Black Panther Party, he demanded justice for Black and oppressed people and condemned U.S. evils at home and abroad.
After years of being hunted by federal authorities, local officials and prosecutors, he served five years in a New York prison, where he converted to Islam in the 1970s, taking the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
Upon release, he moved to Atlanta, setting up a mosque in the city’s West End and organizing against violence, prostitution, crime and supporting the gang truce and urban peace movement of the 1990s.
“As far as my father’s health goes, it is deteriorating relatively rapidly. We’re dealing with a situation now where we’re in real time watching the system murder my father,” said Kairi Al-Amin, who is the imam’s son and attorney, alongside Atty. Maha ELKolalli. They talked about his life and death struggle in late December during an online forum hosted by the Islamic Circle of North America.
In Atlanta, he was accused of fatally shooting one and injuring another Fulton County deputy while facing some minor charges. He was convicted in 2000 of murder, despite another man confessing to the crime, say supporters. The man matches the description that the surviving officer gave and has a bullet wound in his shoulder the surviving officer said they put in him, they add.
Though convicted of a state crime, the imam served time in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado through an agreement where Georgia pays to have state inmates housed in federal institutions. Pressure led to his being moved to a federal penitentiary in Tucson, where he is still held far from his family and suffers today.
The 81-year-old imam’s medical issues include cancer, problems with his eyesight, blood clots in his legs, using a walker and massive swelling in his face, Kairi Al-Amin explained.
“He had a baseball-sized knot in his face and I’m just glad we were able to get that picture out to the public because saying is one thing, seeing it is another. They claim that they took him to the hospital for that knot,” he continued. But after talks with his father in December, the son said Imam Al-Amin hadn’t seen a doctor since November.
“No hospital in America is going to see a human being walk in with a baseball on their face and tell them, ‘well, you should see another doctor in two months. Maybe they can do something about that.’
And that’s essentially what they’ve done to my father. Not essentially, that’s exactly what they’ve done to my father,” he added. Pressure from supporters moved the appointment with doctors up; it was supposed to happen in January.
According to his son and Atty. ELKolalli, the growth has increased, leaving the imam unable to eat solid food, unable to see out of one eye, and having difficulty hearing.
They are pushing for his transfer to a federal prison in Butner, N.C., which has a hospital. “We want him free because he didn’t do this. But we also have to make sure that while they are holding him, that he’s being cared for adequately and that also is not being done,” said Kairi Al-Amin.
“Unfortunately, you see that Cointelpro still lives; it’s alive and well and kicking. There are things that happen that you just kind of sit back and you say, ‘oh wow, this is interesting how this is playing out.’ This is really just a simple process of transferring this man to a hospital,” Atty. ELKolalli observed.
“We want to see an immediate transfer; we want to see immediate medical treatment. We want people to make the calls and send the emails,” she added.
Supporters of the imam are producing a documentary. It’s a fundraiser. The hope is the project will be completed by summer and ready for resubmission to Netflix or other streaming platforms.
For more information about the campaign or to support the documentary, “What Happened To H. Rap Brown,” visit freeimamjamil.com.
“Confusion among the heads of the government of the wicked is destroying the foundation of their world. ‘AS THOU HAST DONE SO SHALL IT BE DONE UNTO THEE.’ This World of the wicked has confused the Black Man’s world for six thousand (6,000) years. Now, their world must be removed to make way for a better world and the All-Wise Omnipotent God Is Able and Capable of Confusing us so that we will do the things that we would not do if we were free to exercise sanity of mind and wisdom.
“IN ALL of America’s confusion, which some may refer to as her dilemma—but her condition is beyond that word—this is a grievous confusion of the head officials.
“THE BASIS of this confusion is due to the injustice that the American White people has done to her Black once-slave. Her confusion is also due to her effort to thwart the Aims and Purposes of Almighty God, to Bring About the resurrection of the blind, deaf and dumb Black Man. Allah (God) Who Came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom Praises are due forever, Will Do the reverse and Make you (White America), blind, deaf and dumb in what you are trying to do for your own security.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Speaks, July 13, 1973
It has been less than a month since Donald J. Trump returned to the White House and he has kept some promises: Freeing 1,500 Jan. 6 insurrectionists who fought police and tried to overthrow the 2020 election.
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Clearing out the leadership of the Justice Department and threatening FBI employees as part of his retribution. Halting spending and shutting down U.S. aid programs as well as offering federal employees a dubious buyout, which thousands have taken.
Moving to close federal agencies, like the Education Department, empowering billionaire Elon Musk to break government and conducting witch hunts to make sure federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are dead.
Pushing tariffs against Mexico and Canada that led to “concessions” in a policy that shook Wall Street. Going after immigrants, sometimes detaining U.S. citizens and Native Americans, and at times using military planes to remove people from the United States.
On the global stage, he made a major announcement Feb. 4, while hosting accused war criminal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump declared at a news conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza,” the president also said. “This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”
Mr. Trump said the U.S. will “own” Gaza, redevelop the area as the “Riviera of the Middle East,” and would use military force to accomplish his goals if necessary. It is estimated that just removing Gaza’s rubble, after decimating Israeli bombings, will take 15 years.
“I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East,” Mr. Trump said from the East Room of the White House. “This was not a decision made lightly.
Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent,” he added.
With his clear words dominating global headlines and news coverage, White House officials and supporters were “Trump-splaining” the next day, backing away from military intervention, America owning Gaza, the permanent removal of 1.8 million people and much of what the president said.
Confusion and anger rose in the Muslim world and among other nations.
There was even confusion inside the president’s party. “I thought we voted for America first,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said on social media. “We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood,” he posted on X.
The Democrats are confused about how to respond to the president and leader of the free world. They don’t know which way to go, which Trump challenge to address and how to appeal to White voters. They are lost, bereft of new ideas to solve serious problems the U.S. faces. Apparently not even Democratic strategists have found the magic political key.
Lawsuits were filed and federal courts held up some monarchical Trump dictates. Confusion grew. Were the president’s actions legal, would the Supreme Court get involved? What would that mean?
The American people are confused with politics dividing families, growing extremism and anger, economic uncertainty, personal insecurity and fear for the future.
Is any of this good for the United States? Does it bode well for her survival? Can she stop or check her fall? Can she end the confusion?
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warn she cannot as God Himself is bringing her to ruin for her evil done to her once slaves and their children and evil perpetrated on the Indigenous people of this land.
“I APPEAL to you Black Brothers and Sisters, you should unite with me and enjoy heaven while you live, now, or suffer the consequences through the lack of the necessities of life,” wrote the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in a July 1973 edition of the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, which was published by the Nation of Islam.
“THE WORLD OF CONFUSION is breaking up with all kinds of disagreement between factors and factors. Take for instance—never has America had so many strikes. Everyone is against the other. If this is not a CONFUSED WORLD, then point out to me one that is more confused,” he continued.
“IN the government of America, there is nothing that is at peace in it. There is no agreement. Everybody is dissatisfied. Everybody is showing their dissatisfaction by disregarding the way that they have been going. Worker is against worker. Politician is against politician. —A CONFUSED WORLD, AMERICA.”
Now, all of these wonderful men and women that are my helpers, they go through something to be a helper, you know? And everybody can’t take it, especially in a military-line organization.
The Nation of Islam: See, this is not any kind of “organization,” this is absolute military! And let me tell you something: You don’t need to be in any organization that’s not military. Christian family (you know the song): “Onward Christian Soldiers.” But how many Christians are really soldiers?
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
Paul (in the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 6) was trying to get us to put on “the whole armor of God,” that we may be able to stand against the wiles of Satan. Satan is a wily beast. And if you don’t have on “the helmet of salvation.” … well what is meant by “helmet?”
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The blood of Jesus will put a “helmet” on your head because he is so wise. If you lived the life he taught you, studied the wisdom he gave you, (then you will be able to say): “Oh man, my helmet is on strong, man!” But you can’t play this “game” (called “life” without The Armor of God); so, you have to also put on “the breastplate of” what? “Righteousness.”
We love talking “God.” It’s nice. And we’re in the church, spiritually masturbating: doing things that make us feel good, but not living the life of Christ. If you don’t want to live the life that you preach, you’re no damn good. … Do you know it is righteousness that keeps you (“sustains you”) in a world like this?
Do you know why they hate The Nation of Islam? It doesn’t mean that we are righteous, but we are striving to be righteous; and if you strive to be better today than you were yesterday, you are putting on your breastplate of righteousness. Then you have “the sword of” what? “The Spirit [which is The Word of God].” (Ephesians 6:17)
“The sword of The Spirit”: What is “spirit?” It’s the energy of life itself! You can’t go to war and not have any spirit!
See, when you know God, The Knowledge of God takes the fear out of you. … Dear brothers and sisters, fear is your worst enemy. Fear chokes you; fear won’t release you to be the great man, the great woman, the great child, the great thinker. You can think beyond where you are, you can do bigger than what you are doing if only fear were removed from your hearts.
Satan distorts past and present truth of Jesus
Did you know that the biggest trick that Satan has pulled on the human family is his deceitful way he represented Jesus Christ? Please bear with me; we can go in a little deeper water, okay? Family, look at this: The enemy knew that Jesus was the man.
To all my Christian family, you’ve got the right man! You just don’t know yet how to properly represent him, because the enemy made you think 2,000 years ago was The Jesus you fell in love with. We, The Nation of Islam, know the true history of Jesus as taught by God Himself!
Jesus 2,000 years ago was not The Messiah, he was a prophet. He was the last prophet to the Jews. (“What Farrakhan?” Yeah, I’m coming strong now.) He was the last prophet to the “House of Israel”—the entire White race.
They were made to raise hell; everywhere they have gone, they have destroyed the peace of the human family. But they decided when they translated the Bible to make the work of The Messiah, which is so magnificent, instead of putting it in the right time frame.
They made us look 2,000 years ago, and that man was not The Messiah! In fact, he learned that he was 2,000 years too soon to end the civilization of the Jews. In the civilization of the Jews, they are the boss: this is their world.
“Oh wait a minute, I know a few Jews; they’re not … see now, he’s an anti-Semite.” Stop it. I am a truth-teller.
To my Mexican family: Why aren’t the real dark indigenous Mexicans in power? Look at South America. In practically every country the ruler is White, and he claims he is “Peruvian,” he is “Bolivian,” he is “Ecuadorian,” he is “Brazilian,” he is “Venezuelan,” he is “Columbian.”
But look at the country, and look at the dark people that are there. They never reach where their power would allow them to reach, but they are so masterfully manipulated by a memetic White man.
When I say a “memetic White man” (and brothers and sisters, you pay close attention to this point): A “memetic White man” is a White man that takes on, like a chameleon, the language, the culture, the history, the folk music of the place where he goes.
So, you have Mexicans, but they are Mexican Jews; they run the country. You have German Jews; Polish Jews; Ukrainian Jews; Russian Jews; Lithuanian Jews; Estonian/Latvian/Denmark Jews; Sweden/Norway/Finland Jews; you have Italian Jews; you have French Jews.
And everywhere they are, they take on the language, the culture, but they run the money; they run the business. When there is a Jewish holiday, everything gets silent. They are very wise people. So, Jesus was their last prophet.
Prophets don’t come because things are right. That’s like the sheriff visiting your house. What is he doing there? “Something is going on here,” that’s why the sherriff comes.
Well, when God sends a prophet, it’s not because you’re doing right, it’s because you’re doing something wrong that has stirred the anger of God, and now the prophet wants to warn you and correct you, to put you back on a right course.
So, Jesus, he was no “Jew.” See, we want them to challenge what we say—and you (scared-to-death Negro), just shut up and sit down—and tell them, “Come on out and meet Farrakhan in the public!” You can’t defeat Elijah Muhammad’s wisdom! I know you can’t!
I know all of you have Jewish friends. I’ve got some, too! But when you know them, and you are not afraid to say who they really are, they move to destroy you. I have a daughter who lives in Mexico. She was educated there and has a Jewish friend.
And I guess she was staying overnight, and so she decided to ask the girl, “Why is it that you don’t like Jesus?” And the little girl told her: “Because he called us devils.”
Now, a lot of you say: “Jesus did that? He said that?” Go back home and pick up your Bible; all right, scholars, theologians, come on, go get your Bible! Jesus: His mother Mary was an Egyptian woman, and Jesus was a member of the Black nation.
He came to warn the Jews that the end of their time was coming! He thought he was the one that was to end their civilization, and he found out he was 2,000 years too soon.
So, what did White folk do? They used Jesus’ name to shield a dirty religion under the holy and righteous name of a servant of God. Jesus never taught anywhere in the Black world—not The Jesus of 2,000 years ago.
The FBI has been the worst enemy of Black advancement. “Can you prove that, Farrakhan?” Yes. See, the Jews have control over those agencies of government. … This enemy: he is so angry with Farrakhan, that now if you like me you have to either hide it (or lie about it), especially if you want advancement in the White man’s world. …
Why do they hate me with so much passion? Because Jesus, my brother, who was their last prophet, was 2,000 years too soon. I am on time.
Why Tuskegee? Booker T. Washington had his young students in architecture lay out the plans for Tuskegee Institute; they took the clay land and made bricks and built the buildings. They were not looking for somebody else to do it for them! They were learning how to make themselves useful to self, as well as others.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad loved Booker T. Washington! The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was in love with Tuskegee University; and he said to us he wanted to see Tuskegee returned to those wonderful principles upon which that institute, and now university, was built.
When I spoke to the students at Tuskegee University on March 22, 2013, I said: “You are more than who you think you are… Because of ‘who’ you are, you are in danger.
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So tonight I want to expose the danger, and by God’s Grace, give you the guidance to be exactly what I said you are: ‘The Seminal Fluid’ of The Kingdom of God.”
Tuskegee University has received high amounts of government funding for research and experimentation, the most recent being the HeLa, or “immortal cells” (the oldest, most commonly-used human cell line), which are cancer cells used in testing and creating vaccines!
I said at Tuskegee: “Your former slave masters don’t give you money without another purpose beyond what they tell us! … You have to remember history to guide you in the way you think! It’s all right to think that people have ‘changed’—but you cannot go to sleep; you have to watch to see if the change is real.”
For example, in the 1940s the U.S. government experimented by infecting the people of Guatemala with syphilis and gonorrhea and sexually transmitted diseases! The government has now acknowledged this;
On October 1, 2010, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, apologized in a statement with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding this HeLa experimentation.
And, brothers and sisters, this is what I’m afraid of; that with the research that is going on in Tuskegee with the HeLa cells, now The Enemy has created genetic weapons that are designed specifically for certain genetic groups—and they are designing different drugs for that same purpose!
Dr. Jonas Salk used the HeLa cells in producing the polio vaccine; but yet, a contaminant was introduced into the vaccine! Also, it was this HeLa cell that was the carrier of the cancer that was introduced into “SV40” (an abbreviation for “Simian vacuolating virus 40” or “Simian virus 40,”
A polyomavirus that is found in both monkeys and humans) into the polio vaccine; and that’s why the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in the ’60s, forbad his followers from taking the polio vaccine.
Now they say that 2,000 pounds of HeLa cells have been produced… And they’ve gone all over the world! So instead of these immortal cells being used to curb the rise of cancer, the opposite is true:
Cancer is proliferating all over the world, especially in Third World countries—and especially among the Black man and woman in America. Is this an “accident”?
Why, in the scheme of things, was the syphilis experiment “so important”? Why is the HeLa experiment and research “so important”? Why, in the scheme of things, was this experiment to start at Tuskegee, in Alabama, where Booker T. Washington established the principles 1.) self-reliance, 2.) self-help, 3.) commerce, 4.) industry; and 5.) agriculture—and where George Washington Carver was?
And they even told George Washington Carver that he should not marry; that he should not have any children, because these oppressors did not want to see another “Carver” in a future generation that their children would have to contend with! My question is: What type of research is this, and how will this research benefit us as a people?
Scientists took these cells without asking for permission, and have made millions of dollars off of these cells. And the woman—the Black woman, Henrietta Lacks, from which this immune cell, this great cell was taken—has not received anything, though the world is benefiting from this HeLa cell.
Farm land Photo: MGN Online
Why Tuskegee? Well, Tuskegee is like a “manger.” A manger is like a trough; it’s a feeder that is made of carved stone, wood or metal construction, and is used to hold food for animals, as in a “stable.” Jesus was born in a manger…
It is not an accident that such greatness has come out of that little city! Tuskegee is a “manger,” it’s a place of feeding ground—a “feeding place” for a people that have been made savage;
That from such an institute, which is now a university, can come that which will civilize not only the Black man and woman of America, but from it, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad saw “a world institution.”
Land of Our Own and Qualifications
When we dedicated Mosque Maryam, The National Center of The Nation of Islam, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad called it a “Center for the Re-Education and Re-Training of the Black Man and Woman of America.” Did you know, brothers and sisters, that in 1965, Tuskegee Institute invited the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to speak?
He did not go at that time, so he sent our great brother, Dr. Lonnie Shabazz, now known as Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz, a great educator; and he was received with great love and respect, and honor.
Read Message To The Blackman in America, Chapter “Land of Our Own and Qualifications,” under the section “The Unity of 22 Million” on pages 220-221. At that time, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote:
“At present, we have hundreds of clubs and organizations; thousands of teachers; hundreds of educators, scholars, scientists, technicians, doctors, lawyers, judges, congressmen, ambassadors, professors, tradesmen of all kinds and engineers of most every kind.
We have all kinds of religious believers, teachers, preachers by the thousands, agriculturists, herdsmen and cattlemen and fisherman and hundreds of hunters of wild game. …” We have all these organizations, all these talented people. The one thing we don’t have is the unity of the whole.
What actually is preventing this unity of now nearly 50 million of us? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said it is “the ignorance and foolish love and fear of our enemies” by the professional and leadership class of our people. “These are disgraceful ‘Uncle Toms’ in a world of freedom, learning an advanced science in every branch of study.
How long shall we seek the white men’s education to become their servants instead of becoming builders of a progressive nation of our own on some of this earth that we can call our own?”; so the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, “…
By the help of Allah, I have and I will still prove to you that Allah (God) has given me the only solution to our problem here under this race of [enemies]. If you can prove to me”—us—“that you have a better solution for the future of our Nation”—“Black people,” he said, “I will bring my followers and myself and [I will] join you.
[But] if the solution given to me from Almighty Allah is best”: Why don’t you come; why don’t you bring your followers? Why don’t you sit down and let’s agree on a program that will advance us beyond begging for the crumbs that fall from our enemy’s table?
The Great Honorable Marcus Garvey was inspired by Booker T. Washington’s autobiography Up from Slavery; he said, “I read ‘Up from Slavery,’ and then my dream, if I may call it, of being a race leader, dawned.”
Marcus Garvey was fond of saying, “Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!”; and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad picked up that motto, and said to us: “Up you mighty nation, you can accomplish what you will!”
Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia, and Liberia were elected on June 3 to serve as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, with two-year terms beginning in January 2026.
They will serve through the end of 2027 on the UN body responsible for maintaining international peace and security. They will join the five non-permanent members elected last year—Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia—who will serve through 2026.
The incoming members will succeed Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia, whose terms end in December 2025.
The Security Council has 15 members: five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—who hold veto power, and ten non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for staggered two-year terms.
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Elections are held annually by secret ballot, with seats allocated by regional group. Candidates must secure a two-thirds majority in the 193-member General Assembly to be elected.
Vote tally
A total of 188 Member States participated in the election, which required only one round of balloting. In the African and Asia-Pacific group, Bahrain received 186 votes, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) garnered 183 votes, and Liberia received 181 votes, with one country abstaining.
In the Eastern European group, Latvia received 178 votes while 10 countries abstained.
In the Latin America and the Caribbean group, Colombia received 180 votes, with eight countries abstaining.
Debut for Latvia
Latvia will take a seat on the Council for the first time in its history.
With the exception of Latvia, all the elected countries have previously served: Colombia seven times, the DRC twice, and Bahrain and Liberia once each.
Regional groups
The non-permanent seats on the Security Council are distributed according to four regional groupings: Africa and Asia; Eastern Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Western European and other States group.
This year’s election filled five seats: two allocated to Africa, one to Asia-Pacific, one to Eastern Europe, and one to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Protesters walk through chemical irritants dispersed by federal agents at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Following a larger Black Lives Matter Rally, several hundred demonstrators faced off against federal officers at the courthouse. (APK Photo/Albi)
Portland activists first got word of federal agents in the city a few days before they arrived. Through the organization Don’t Shoot Portland, Tai Carpenter would receive messages from hotel owners who had turned down contracts from people trying to house agents or from people saying they saw federal agents at the airport.
After about two months of nonstop protest since the death of George Floyd, Portland has now become a city of unrest and social injustice, as federal officials target, teargas and pick up protesters. Some say President Trump sent federal agents to the city as a trial for cities such as Chicago, where he has plans to carry out Operation Legend, a federal law enforcement initiative created “to fight the sudden surge of violent crime” in U.S. cities, according to the Department of Justice.
But why would he start with Portland?
“Trump knows he’s comfortable here. Portland isn’t this, a lot of people watch the show Portlandia or they think that Portland is this very liberal, mostly White, but very liberal place and it’s not,” said Ms. Carpenter, who is the board president of Don’t Shoot Portland, a social justice nonprofit that uses art and community engagement to create social and legislative change.
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Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore state’s attorney, pauses while speaking during a media availability, Friday, May 1, 2015 in Baltimore. Mosby announced criminal charges against all six officers suspended after Freddie Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody.(APK Photo/Albi)
“Our mayor sits down with the Proud Boys, who are a very dangerous far-right extremist group. Our police bureau escorts White supremacists when they come to town so that they can protest and engage in violent behavior with counter protesters,” she said.
She said people weren’t surprised when federal agents arrived because there has been a long period of distrust between Black people and the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). She said the bureau and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler were condemning the protests before the agents arrived.
“They were complaining about the graffiti. They were complaining that some protesters were angry and shouting and throwing water bottles in response to being murdered and systematically marginalized,” the activist said. “People are going to be angry and have a reaction, but the fact that they weren’t condemning the police for brutalizing people exercising their right to protest, it’s funny that now they’re trying to say that. They’ve changed their tune now because the spotlight is on Portland and they’re like, ‘oh wait, hold on. We’re supposed to be super liberal, right?’ ”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks to Black Lives Matter protesters on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Late Wednesday Wheeler joined protesters at the front of the crowd and was hit with chemical irritants several times by federal officers dispersing demonstrators. (APK Photo/Arhó)
On the contrary, she said, Portland was founded as an all-White state, and Black people could not own property until the 1920s.
“Portland has a unique history, but I think it’s because of that, people are so defiant. Stop killing us. Stop. Why do we have to keep saying it? Portland has their list of names that have been murdered by PPB. We have our own list of countless community members who have lost their lives,” she said.
President Trump cited crime statistics to justify deploying federal agents under Operation Legend. Attorney General William Barr said 200 federal agents have already been sent to Kansas City, Missouri, along with $3.6 million in grants to help hire more police officers. Chicago will see a similar number of grants and agents, according to communication between the president and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
“If Donald Trump wants to send feds to arrest the White drug traffickers and gun traffickers who are bringing guns into Chicago and into Illinois, fine,” said Father Michael Pfleger, senior pastor of the faith community at St. Sabina. “We’ve heard for years that we know where guns come from, Gary, Indiana and Mississippi and other places. If we know where they’re coming from, my question is, why are we not stopping it?”
He sees what’s happening in Portland as an appetizer of what will happen in Chicago and other cities around the country.
Minister Ishmael Muhammad, the Student National Assistant Minister to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, echoed Father Pfleger. He noted all of the problems that exist in the Black community that create the current conditions, including health disparities, food deserts, unemployment and the lack of education.
He quoted Victor Hugo, who said, “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin but he who causes the darkness,” and he questioned the hidden hand behind conditions and crime in the Black community.
“Now we have this other pandemic of Black on Black crime, but all of this is focusing America and the world on the Black problem. So Allah who has permitted all of these circumstances has everyone talking about the Black problem,” he said. “But out of that now comes the solution that Allah gave through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, that the only solution to our problem is separation.”
Minister Farrakhan has been warning for decades that America would send federal troops into Black communities, said Ishmael Muhammad.
“He warned us that when it starts, the slaughter will be so horrible, because they are not coming in to make peace. They’re going to come in with full force,” he said.
Many mayors and local officials are rejecting the president’s plan, including Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who tweeted, “If President Trump sends militarized federal agents to Baltimore City to attack our citizens by making illegal arrests, kidnapping people, assaulting them, or committing any other crime, they will be prosecuted by my office.”
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot has also expressed concern. Though she has approached Mr. Trump’s plan cautiously and hesitantly, she is allowing a partnership to help deal with Chicago’s crime.
“We welcome actual partnership, but we do not welcome dictatorship, we do not welcome authoritarianism, and we do not welcome unconstitutional arrest and detainment of our residents,” she said.
Afrika Porter, CEO of Afrika Enterprises, a consulting and public relations firm, said she’s optimistic about the mayor.
“I think we have a mayor that’s fierce and unafraid. When I think of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, I think of Shirley Chisholm,” she said. “I was nine years old watching this Black woman run for president of the United States of America. I will never forget it. I see Lori Lightfoot in that same way. She challenges the president, Donald Trump.”
Many have been issuing lawsuits against the federal agents, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Don’t Shoot Portland.
“What is happening now in Portland should concern everyone in the United States. Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping. The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered,” said Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
One ACLU lawsuit “seeks to block federal law enforcement from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force against journalists or legal observers.” Another one argues that “the law enforcement attacks on medics violates the First and Fourth Amendments.”
In response to the first lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon blocked federal agents in Portland from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or targeting force against journalists or legal observers at protests, according to an ACLU press release.
Ms. Carpenter said Don’t Shoot Portland has two class action lawsuits in the works and said that they are still taking statements from people who have been affected.
Similar to the language of the ACLU lawsuits, Attorney Barbara Arnwine called President Trump’s actions unconstitutional.
“By his own admission, he is singling out what he calls liberal, Democratic cities. That kind of unequal, discriminatory targeting of African-Americans, Latinos and Democratic strongholds is absolutely outrageous,” said Ms. Arnwine, president and founder of the organization Transformative Justice Coalition.
She said “secret police” exist in fascist and dictatorial nations to squash dissent and opposition.
“You cannot have freedom of thought. You cannot have a democratic process, a competition of ideas. You cannot have freedom of press and freedom of the right to assembly when you are having police, a secret police, unidentified police running around in militarized uniform intercepting, kidnapping and disrupting protests,” she said.
Several interviewees commented that the president’s actions are rooted in an attempt to play on the fears of the public in order to win reelection.
“This has nothing to do with protests, but it has everything to do with him rolling out and testing how he can disrupt the federal election in October and November,” Ms. Arnwine said. “I think this is all a test run for his ability to occupy, intimidate and scare voters during the electoral season, and we and every American should raise their voice in utter opposition.”
Interviewees also said that President Trump’s actions were a call back to Bill Clinton’s 1994 “three strikes” crime bill.
“That’s a part of their wicked policy, to blame the country’s woes and problems on the most vulnerable in the society, and they are the architects and they are responsible for creating the conditions and circumstances out of which violence has become a byproduct of,” Minister Muhammad said.
Father Pfleger said Americans have to be smarter and not fall for the cheap trick of the law and order card.
“Instead of sending the federal government to bring more military that we don’t need, send your housing department to help build some affordable housing. Send your department of human services to create jobs and funds for infrastructure. Send your office of economic development to help bring in and to support and build Black businesses,” he said. “Send in your department of health to develop health clinics and mental health access. You can send in the federal government. Just send in the right departments. We don’t need more militarism and law enforcement. We need investment and opportunity.”
For Ms. Porter, the Black community can do better at rebuilding the Black family and doing for self.
“Part of it, to me, is doing for self, which is part of what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us. We have to continue to do for self,” she said.
Minister Muhammad described the deployment of federal agents in American cities as the perfect storm set up to exterminate Black people.
“Since you don’t want us anymore, since you don’t care for us, we’re fine with that. But we want the opportunity to exercise independence and to be a sovereign nation. We do not want from you that which you are unwilling to give to us, but we want to do what your fathers did when they found conditions unbearable, intolerable, under the King of England,” he said. “And they separated from England to become a nation. That’s the only solution to the problem of Black and White. That’s the only solution to the problem of ignorance and despair and hopelessness in the Black community.”
