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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLawyer for Pakistani Drone Victims Denied U.S. Visa
A Pakistani lawyer who represents victims of U.S. drone strikes has been forced to cancel a trip to the United States after the U.S. government failed to grant him a visa. Shahzad Akbar was scheduled to speak later this month at an International Drone Summit in Washington, D.C. Akbar is co-founder of the Pakistani human rights organization, Foundation for Fundamental Rights. He filed the first case in Pakistan on behalf of family members of civilian victims.
Shahzad Akbar: "I think people are scared. Theyre definitely scared. Ive seen some people, Ive interviewed some neighbors whose next-door house was hit, and I could feel what theyre feeling, because theyre feeling this imminent threat. And they are actually feeling helpless at the same time, because they have no other place to relocate, because a lot of them have no skills, no education, so they cannot relocate in any other part of Pakistan."
While Akbar has traveled to the United States in the past, he has not been granted permission to return since becoming an outspoken critic of drone attacks in Pakistan.
Read more: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/10/headlines/lawyer_for_pakistani_drone_victims_denied_us_visa
So, does anyone know the justification for denying a visa to an outspoken critic of drone-strike slaughters?
Justice wanted
(2,657 posts)more by this cruel act. We will than start blaming the Military industrial complex and THIS will set a bump in their time line to go to war again. BECAUSE if we aren't killing "ermines" and Americans in the name of WAR the Military industrial complex loses the money. GAWD forbid we put that money into roads, and bridges, and schools.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)or Afghani children killed by Pakistani artillery shelling their villages have an attorney he could exchange notes with.
The Northerner
(5,040 posts)Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)think
(11,641 posts)and discuss these things.