Sudanese authorities hanged today nine men from western Sudan convicted of beheading a prominent journalist since three years ago.

Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed

Sudanese editor of the Al-Wifaq daily Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed was kidnapped by armed men from his home and his decapitated body was found the following morning lying on the street in southern Khartoum on September 6, 2006.

The execution took place at Kober Prison in Khartoum on Monday. The court had initially s sentenced them to death by firing squad. But the lawyers appealed the sentence.

The crime shocked the journalism world in Sudan and echoed images of the brutal killings by Al Qaeda militiants in Iraq. A group claiming to be al-Qaida’s branch in Sudan issued a claim of responsibility for the murder soon after Ahmed’s body was found.

Taha was himself an Islamist but had angered others by reprinting an article questioning the roots of the Prophet Mohammed.

The authorities said he also angered Darfuris by writing articles questioning the documented stories of rape and sexual violence against women in Sudan’s war-ravaged region of Darfur. He also criticized rebel groups.

The nine hanged were members of the Fur tribe.

Initially the court indicted ten people of Ahmed murder but one of the suspects was later acquitted due to his young age.

File under:

War, Rebellion, Al Qaeda, Islamist Extremism, Rule of Law, Ethnic Conflict, Gender, Beheading, Open Society

Birdie in the hand for life’s rich demand
The insurgency began and you missed it
I looked for it and I found it
Myles Standish proud, congratulate me

A philanderer’s tie, a murderer’s shoe

Life’s rich demand creates supply in the hand
Of the powers, the only vote that matters
Silence means security silence means approval
On Zenith, on the TV, tiger run around the tree
Follow the leader, run and turn into butter

Let’s begin again, begin the begin
Let’s begin again like Martin Luther zen
The mythology begins the begin
Answer me a question I can’t itemize
I can’t think clear, you look to me for reason
It’s not there, I can’t even rhyme here in the begin

A philanderer’s tie, a murderer’s shoe
Example: the finest example is you

A philanderer’s tie, a murderer’s shoe
Let’s begin again, begin the begin
Let’s begin again

-REM

From a interview with David Foster Wallace:

The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates . . . The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked, and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, “then” what do we do? . . . Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists.

One of the things that’s surprised me about this blog is how much of it is about a search for finding a way to talk about this stuff.

It’s fine to say that we should work toward redeeming what’s wrong, but then your run the danger of getting this http://www.darfurisdying.com/

We need redemption without giving up insight. Irony without giving up advocacy.

Perhaps this.

Somali pirates and their hostage American sea captain were adrift in a lifeboat Thursday off the Horn of Africa, shadowed by a U.S. destroyer with more warships on the way in a U.S. show of force.

By Jef Aerosol, more work here.

He’s not going to get all that he wants, but I think when we look back we will see as the the moment where magical thinking began to end and we finally acknowledged that defense spending uses real money.

“I have a lot of memories of Iraq, but the one that will stick with me forever was when I was in my room, lying down on my back reading Slaughterhouse-Five, and got to the part where Billy Pilgrim became unstuck in time and saw the war backwards. . .

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into mineral. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody again.

“I imagined the war in Iraq in reverse. I found war to be much more enjoyable when viewed that way.”

The “boys in the creeks” are serious shit, especially if you’re Shell Oil, but,

Masks are fun.

Boats are fun.

Guns are fun.

Similarly,  a nytimes.com commenter, Luke, wrote, “Dignity is inherent, inviolable, and inalienable, meaning that we are born with it, it cannot be destroyed by sin, and nobody can take it away.”

Don’t know if the theologians would agree, but the way I read this that regardless of what you’ve done you’ve still are worthy of respect as a human being. Not that you shouldn’t be held accountable, not that you shouldn’t be punished, but simply that you still have dignity.

I think about what we inflict on each other, and the reasons we give for it, and the radicalness of this idea takes my breath away. I have a feeling I will come back to it again.