---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
END THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MARCH AND RALLY TO STOP THE WAR NOW!
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3RD, 5PM
POWELL AND MARKET-MARCH TO 24TH & MISSION ST., S.F.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
VOTE YES ON N! MEETING THURS. OCT. 22 & OCT. 28, 7PM,
GLOBAL EXCHANGE, 2017 MISSION STREET, SUITE 303
(NEAR 16TH & MISSION STREETS)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Workers March in D.C. for Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP)
Filed at 8:04 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Workers-March.html
2) Unionists Mobilize for Work, Benefits
Thousands Drawn to Rally at Lincoln
Memorial in Prelude to Nov. Vote
By Manny Fernandez and David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 18, 2004; Page B01
3) National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality,
Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation,
on Friday, October 22nd.
Events in San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland this
week.
More info (including links) at
http://www.indybay.org/police
4) Subject: Lynne Stewart trial
From: "Larry Felson"
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 08:05:15 +0000
Post from Lynne Stewart web site:
October 13, 2004: Because of circumstances beyond our control, the
trial
will resume on Monday, October 18th.
Check back to her web site for up dated information:
http://www.lynnestewart.org/
5) Soldiers Saw Refusing Order as Their
Last Stand
By NEELA BANERJEE and ARIEL HART
October 18, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/national/18guard.html?hp&ex=1098158400&en=
b6cde713635fabbc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
6) Iraqi Premier Plans Expansion of
Arms Handover Program
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and DEXTER FILKINS
BAGHDAD, Iraq
October 18, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/international/middleeast/18CND-IRAQ.html?h
p&ex=1098158400&en=39fafcef49fdf2f4&ei=5094&partner=homepage
7) Study Says White Families' Wealth
Advantage Has Grown
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (AP
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/national/18wealth.html
8) Southwest Airlines Third-Quarter
Profit Increases
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS (AP)
Filed at 6:36 p.m. ET
October 14, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-Southwest-Airlines.html
9) Justices Weigh Executions of Young Killers
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 14, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/politics/14scotus.html
10) Militants ready for onslaught on Fallujah
By Aqeel Hussein in Fallujah and Philip Sherwell
(Filed: 17/10/2004)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/17/wirq17.xml&s
Sheet=/portal/2004/10/17/ixportal.html
11) Britain Considers U.S. Request for More Iraq Help
By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters)
Mon Oct 18, 2004 07:15 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6527746&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
12) Iraq to Widen Arms Amnesty, Bring Falluja to Heel
By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Oct 18, 2004 08:27 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6528800&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
13) Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/politics/17gitmo.html
14) 'If this isn't genocide, then what on earth is?'
Lord Alton reports on the killings, rape, burnings and
looting that continue unabated in Darfur in an impassioned
plea for action to the Prime Minister
18 October 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=573217
15) Why is war-torn Iraq giving $190,000 to Toys R Us?
Comment
Naomi Klein Iraqis are still being forced to pay for
crimes committed by Saddam
The Guardian
Saturday October 16, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1328664,00.html
16) Indian Country Today
Denver police arrest 245 for blocking Columbus Day Parade
by: Brenda Norrell
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Workers March in D.C. for Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP)
Filed at 8:04 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Workers-March.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of workers gathered at the Lincoln
on Sunday to demand health care, better wages, guaranteed Social
Security benefits and an end to the war in Iraq.
Many of the longshoremen, transit workers, carpenters and mail carriers
carried signs saying ``Bush lied, thousands died,'' ``More money for
jobs, not war'' and others. In the decidedly anti- President Bush
atmosphere, some wore T-shirts and badges advocating the election
of Democrat John Kerry or Reform Party candidate Ralph Nader.
Organizers had billed the gathering as the ``Million Worker March'' and
had obtained a permit for a gathering of more than 100,000 on the
National Mall. The turnout was much smaller, but U.S. Park Police has
not made official crowd estimates since a furor arose in 1995 over its
estimate of 400,000 at the ``Million Man March'' sponsored by the
Nation of Islam.
Standing on the Lincoln Memorial steps where his father delivered his
``I have a dream'' speech in 1963, Martin Luther King III told the crowd
that civil rights, workers and anti-war activists must come together
in common cause.
``Our most important step that we can take is the short step to the
ballot box,'' King said. ``We must vote like we never have before.''
Robert Ortiz, 45, a safety and health representative for Local 100 of
the Transport Workers Union of Greater New York, said he plans to
vote for Kerry, but the Democrats take labor for granted. ``Republicans
are an overt enemy of labor,'' he said, ``but Democrats are not as
active as they could be.''
Organizers claimed endorsements from unions representing
3.5 million workers, including chapters of the Communications
Workers of America, United Auto Workers and the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Unionists Mobilize for Work, Benefits
Thousands Drawn to Rally at Lincoln
Memorial in Prelude to Nov. Vote
By Manny Fernandez and David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 18, 2004; Page B01
Union members from across the country gathered at the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial yesterday for a rally dubbed the Million Worker
March, assembling in smaller-than-expected numbers but making a
passionate plea for workers' rights.
Linking their struggle with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by
standing on the same spot where the slain civil rights leader made
his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in August 1963, workers from a
variety of trades and causes said King's vision of social and
economic equality remains more dream than reality.
"The majority of working people in America are not doing well," said
Clarence Thomas, 57, a crane operator on the Oakland, Calif., docks
and a leader of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local
10 in San Francisco, a key organizer of yesterday's rally. "With jobs
being offshored, outsourced, privatized, our young people are looking
at a much more dismal future."
Thousands stood at the foot of the memorial and along the sides of
the Reflecting Pool on a chilly October afternoon, calling for more
jobs, universal health care and an end to the war in Iraq. But with
room to walk freely and stretches of grass visible, the crowd by
midafternoon appeared far smaller than the 100,000 that organizers
had estimated on their National Park Service permit application.
A law enforcement official estimated the crowd at less than 10,000.
Organizers said 10,000 to 15,000 attended.
The Million Worker March title was meant to evoke the imagery of the
1995 Million Man March and not to reflect a crowd count, the
organizers said. They said they were not disappointed by the turnout,
although they complained that authorities prevented about 30 buses
from dropping off passengers near the memorial and redirected them to
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, causing many to show up late or
not at all. U.S. Park Police and D.C. police officials said they were
not aware of any buses being diverted.
The protest and a few related small marches were largely peaceful.
Sgt. Scott Fear, a Park Police spokesman, said only one arrest was
made -- a woman charged with demonstrating in a restricted zone near
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a misdemeanor.
In the crowd were postal workers and longshoremen, school bus drivers
and teachers, department store staff and railway repair crews. They
said they came to Washington by car, bus and airplane just days
before Election Day to highlight the social, economic and political
hardships facing working Americans at home and on the job.
"I think we need a change," said Ronnie White, 48, a production
worker at a food plant in Kansas City, Mo., who stood on the steps
above the Reflecting Pool proudly wearing his black Teamsters Local
838 jacket. "We need the jobs here, not overseas."
An end to the outsourcing of jobs abroad was just one of the rally's
many far-reaching goals. Workers called for health care coverage from
"cradle to grave" for all Americans, a national living wage, a repeal
of the USA Patriot Act, more funding for public schools and free mass
transit, to name a few of their 22 demands.
Antiwar sentiment was also strong. Workers criticized the Bush
administration for leading the country into what they called an
unjustified war with Iraq, saying that the billions of dollars paying
for the war are needed instead in struggling schools and communities.
"We need to employ, not deploy," said Mark Barbour, 51, of
Blacksburg, Va., a longtime railway worker and member of the
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Local 551.
Steve Burns, 43, a teacher at a Madison, Wis., community college,
endured a 14-hour van ride to Washington to have his voice heard --
and his handmade sign seen. Burns's felt-pen message was "End
For-Profit Health Care." He said he does not receive health care
benefits as an adjunct math instructor and is still paying off a
recent $1,200 hospital bill for an infection. "Our health care system
is a disaster, and neither candidate wants real reform," Burns said.
Though organizers had planned their protest as nonpartisan, speakers
and rallygoers were not bashful in showing their disapproval of
President Bush.
From a podium on a wide granite landing on the memorial steps, former
U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark called for the impeachment of Bush
for war crimes. Activists in the audience carried anti-Bush stickers
and signs, and one of the most prominent banners on display was one
declaring, "The Bush regime engineered 9-11."
The turnout fell far short of the 250,000 who filled the Mall for the
labor movement's last major Washington demonstration, an August 1991
"Solidarity Day" rally that blamed political leaders, including
Bush's father, then-President George H.W. Bush, for turning their
backs on U.S. workers. That rally was sponsored by the AFL-CIO, the
nation's largest labor federation. But AFL-CIO leaders refused to
officially endorse or help organize yesterday's gathering, saying
they were focused instead on mobilizing voters for the presidential
election, a decision echoed by several major unions.
Organizers, who said unions representing more than 3.5 million
workers backed the demonstration, said the AFL-CIO's decision hurt
the turnout, but they expressed pride that their low-budget rally was
largely a rank-and-file effort.
Not all were trade unionists. About 100 protesters took part in an 11
a.m. "anarchist march," where Daniel Hall, 20, a student at the
University of Maryland, marched with a group of students holding up a
large banner that read, "Students and workers unite!" Hall said he
hoped the march "gets people thinking about labor and how things are
not getting better. It's a system of inequality."
Later in the afternoon, following speeches by King's son, Martin
Luther King III, and other civil rights and union leaders, a few
hundred marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Hotel Washington on
15th Street NW in support of District hotel workers.
Negotiators for several major Washington hotels and the union that
represents 3,800 hotel employees remain deadlocked on a new contract.
Protesters chanted outside the hotel's doors as police looked on.
Three hotel workers leaned out a third-floor window, looked down on
the crowd and waved in support.
--
Yoshie
* Critical Montages: < http://montages.blogspot.com/ >
* Greens for Nader: < http://greensfornader.net/ >
* Bring Them Home Now! < http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ >
* OSU-GESO: < http://www.osu-geso.org/ >
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
* Student International Forum: < http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ >
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: < http://www.osudivest.org/ >
* Al-Awda-Ohio: < http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio >
* Solidarity: < http://www.solidarity-us.org/ >
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality,
Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation,
on Friday, October 22nd.
Events in San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland this
week.
More info (including links) at
http://www.indybay.org/police
The week after the National Conference on Police
Accountability comes the 9th Annual National Day of
Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the
Criminalization of a Generation, on Friday, October
22nd. A variety of events will take place around the
Bay Area during that week. Many of the events provide
a way to bring out the stories of families and loved
ones of people who have been killed by law enforcement
officers or while in custody, as well as addressing
other problematic interactions between police and
civilians. This year's call to action focuses on the
parallels between what is happening in Iraq and
Palestine, and what is happening in neighborhoods like
San Francisco's Bayview/Hunter's Point; exposure of
the problems related to racial profiling in the US,
particularly of new groups such as Arabs and Muslims,
and the criminalization of the right to protest by
programs such as Homeland Security.
On Thursday the 21st in San Jose, family members of
people who died in police shootings will share their
concerns at the Justice Review Committee of the Santa
Clara County Human Relations Commission, at 5:30pm.
Members of the Rudy Cardenas Family, Bich-Cau Thi Tran
Family, and Zaim Bojcic family will attend the meeting
and speak about their issues. Speakers at the meeting
will also address the use of tasers/stun guns by law
enforcement. In the last two police shootings in San
Jose tasers were deployed but were not effective. More
info about tasers Members of the Coalition for Justice
and Accountability, which formed after the tragic
death of Bich-Cau Thi Tran last year, the October 22nd
Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the
Criminalization of a Generation, Amnesty
International, and Justice for Rudy will also be in
attendance.
In San Jose on October 22nd, an event will be held to
sensitize people to the history, culture, customs, and
different concerns that European immigrant communities
face, in order to make people more aware of the
different issues that refugees have to deal with in
their lives here in the US. This event was inspired by
the death of Zaim Bojcic.
Also on October 22nd, a press conference and speak-out
rally will be held at 4pm at 3rd St. and Palou in the
Bayview District of San Francisco.
Later in the evening on October 22nd, the No on
Measure Y Campaign will show the film Every Mother's
Son as a fundraiser, from 8-10 at the Humanist Hall,
390 27th Street (near 27th and Broadway) in Oakland.
From 9pm till late on October, 22nd, Lioness and Mr. E
presents: SF Uprock 5, with members of October 22nd
supporters Loco Bloco, as well as SAKE 1, Jennicyde,
Ren, and Mr. EB-boy & B-girl Psyher; hosted by: Hound
Dog Truckers-- at Club Six in San Francisco.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Subject: Lynne Stewart trial
From: "Larry Felson"
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 08:05:15 +0000
Post from Lynne Stewart web site:
October 13, 2004: Because of circumstances beyond
our control, the trial will resume on Monday, October 18th.
Check back to her web site for up dated information:
http://www.lynnestewart.org/
--
On behalf of the
National Office of Refuse & Resist!
305 Madison Ave., Suite 1166
NY, NY 10165
http://www.refuseandresist.org
info@refuseandresist.org
Tel: 212.713.5657
Get hooked in to the movement of resistance, subscribe to the R&R! email
list.
TO SUBSCRIBE: General information about the mailing
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Soldiers Saw Refusing Order as Their
Last Stand
By NEELA BANERJEE and ARIEL HART
October 18, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/national/18guard.html?hp&ex=1098158400&en=
b6cde713635fabbc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
JACKSON, Miss., Oct. 17 - What does it take for a man like Staff
. Michael Butler, a 24-year veteran of the Army and the Reserve who
was a soldier in the first Persian Gulf war and a reserve called up to
fight in the current war in Iraq, to risk everything by disobeying
a direct order in wartime?
On the morning of Oct. 13, the military says, Sergeant Butler and
most of his platoon, some 18 men and women from the 343rd
Quartermaster Company, refused to deliver a shipment of fuel from
the Tallil Air Base near Nasiriya, Iraq, to another base much farther
north.
The Army has begun an inquiry, and the soldiers could face
disciplinary measures, including possible courts-martial. But Jackie
Butler, Sergeant Butler's wife, and her family in Jackson say he
would not have jeopardized his career and his freedom for
something impulsive or unimportant.
The soldiers, many of whom have called home this weekend,
said their trucks were unsafe and lacked a proper armed escort,
problems that have plagued them since they went to Iraq nine
months ago, their relatives said. The time had come for them, for
her husband, to act, Ms. Butler said.
"I'm proud that he said 'no,' " Ms. Butler said. "They had complained
and complained for months to the chain of command about the
equipment and trucks. But nothing was done, so I think he felt
he had to take a stand."
Other soldiers completed the mission the platoon turned down,
the military kept functioning, and the Army has cast the incident
as isolated.
But as the soldiers involved in the refusal in Tallil and others begin
to speak out, it is growing more apparent that the military has yet
to solve the lack of training, parts and equipment that has riddled
the military operation in Iraq from the outset, especially among
National Guard and Reserve units.
Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, commander of the 13th Corps
Support Command, which the 343rd reports to, said at a news
conference in Baghdad on Sunday that he had ordered two
investigations into the incident and the concerns expressed by
the 18 soldiers "regarding maintenance and safety.''
General Chambers said preliminary findings showed that the unit's
trucks were not yet armored and were among the last in his command
to get such protection, because they usually functioned in less
dangerous parts of Iraq. None of the trucks in his command were
armored when they arrived in Iraq, General Chambers said. He told
reporters that he had ordered a safety and maintenance review of
all trucks in the 343rd.
"Based on results of this investigation other actions may be
necessary,'' the general said, but he added, "It's too early in the
investigation to speculate on charges or other disciplinary actions.''
General Chambers described the episode as "a single event that is
confined to a small group of individuals.''
A number of Army officers contacted in recent days said such an
apparent act of insubordination was very unusual, particularly among
such a large number of soldiers in a single unit and especially since
the military is all volunteer.
The incident has prompted widespread interest among military
families who have complained in months past of inadequate
equipment and protection for their soldiers.
Nancy Lessin, a leader of Military Families Speak Out, which
opposes the war, said she had been flooded with calls and e-mail
from families with a simple message: What had happened to the
reservists echoed the conditions their own soldiers experienced in
Iraq: a shortage of armored vehicles, especially for part-time
soldiers' units; convoy missions through dangerous stretches
without adequate firepower; and constant breakdowns among
old vehicles owned, especially, by National Guard and reservist units.
"This is absolutely striking a nerve," Ms. Lessin said. "People are s
aying, 'This is the same thing that happened to my son,' and if the
Army tries to spin this as 'just a few bad apples,' people need to
know that these are common problems and what these soldiers
did required a tremendous amount of courage."
Nothing seems to separate the men and women who defied their
command in Tallil from the tens of thousands of others now in Iraq,
their families say. The 343rd was drawn mainly from Southern
states like the Carolinas, Alabama and Mississippi, and the military
said Friday that the 343rd had performed honorably during its
tour in Iraq.
The soldiers in the platoon are described as devoted to the military
and unabashedly patriotic. A wall of Sergeant Butler's living room
is covered with certificates and citations from the Army. Another
member of the 343rd, Specialist Joe Dobbs, 19, of Vandiver, Ala.,
had his bedroom painted the dark blue of the American flag. And
another soldier in the unit, Sgt. Justin Rogers of Louisville, Ky., liked
to walk around town in his uniform when he was home on leave,
said Chris Helm, a 14-year-old high school student and his first
cousin.
When Sergeant Rogers went home for a two-week leave in July,
his brother Derrick asked whether the war and all the deaths were
worth it. "His answer was simple," Derrick Rogers said. "He said, 'If
I didn't feel like it was worth it, I wouldn't be there.' ''
Ms. Butler did not want to speak for her husband on his feelings
about the war. Better he should do that when he is finally home,
she said, which is scheduled to be sometime next year. But Sergeant
Butler knew he would be called up, once the war against Iraq was
begun in March 2003. Late last year, he reported to Rock Hill, and
quickly, his confidence was shaken, his wife said. He saw that the
equipment to be shipped with his unit was "not very good,"
Ms. Butler said.
Once the unit arrived in Iraq, the inadequacy of the platoon's
equipment and preparedness was thrown into sharp relief against
the dangers the country posed. Although the unit is based near
Nasiriya in the Shiite-controlled south, which is not as volatile as
Sunni-dominated areas, the whole country has been convulsed by
battles and uprisings during most of the 343rd's tour of duty.
"This is not the first time that there has been a problem with these
charges and stuff, with them not having armor, not having radios,"
said Beverly Dobbs, mother of Specialist Dobbs. "My son told me
two months ago - he called me, he said, 'Mom I got the scare of my life.'
"'I said what's wrong?'" Ms. Dobbs said. "He said, 'They sent us
out, we come under fire, our own people was shooting and we
didn't even have radios to let them know.' They're sending them
out without the equipment they need. I don't care what the
Army says."
Families that spoke to the soldiers this weekend received slightly
differing accounts of what happened the morning of Oct. 13.
They all said, however, that fuel the soldiers had to deliver was
unusable because it had been contaminated with a second liquid.
They all said the soldiers were under armed guard. General
Chambers denied both assertions. Relatives say that Sergeant
Butler, Sgt. Larry McCook of Jackson and Specialist Scott Shealey
of Graysville, Ala., have been identified as three of five "ringleaders"
of the incident and reassigned to other units on the air base.
Specialist Shealey's parents said their son said in a telephone
call that he was going to be discharged.
"He'll be home in three to four weeks, that's what he's being told,"
said Ricky Shealey, Specialist Shealey's father, a retired Postal
Service supervisor and former sergeant in the Army. "He's depressed,"
Mr. Shealey said. "He just can't believe it's happening."
Ms. Butler said her husband did not know what he might be facing
and had heard nothing about a discharge. Other families said the
military had yet to contact them to explain the situation. The families
have not hired lawyers yet, in large part because they are uncertain
what charges might be brought against their relatives.
Some families are reaching out to one another through e-mail and
phone calls, offering help and discussing strategy. They have contacted
their members of Congressmen. Others, like Ms. Dobbs and her family,
are glued to television news, awaiting some clarification of the incident.
Ms. Butler has her big family to lean on, and on this Sunday, the day
after the phone call from her husband, they went to church and turned
to their neighbors, friends and faith. Ms. Butler went to the altar rail
of Zion Travelers Missionary Baptist Church and told the congregation:
"My husband has been in the Army more than 20 years, but refused
to take those men in that convoy. He said it would be suicidal.''
"So, I'm going to ask you to pray for me," she said, "because he is
not going to take no other men's children into the land of death."
She bowed her head, and so did everyone else. "Lord, Sister Butler
needs you," the Rev. Daniel Watkins said, shutting his eyes tight.
"Her husband, he needs you. All the soldiers in Iraq, they need you."
Monica Davey contributed reporting from Chicago for this article,
and Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Dexter Filkins from Baghdad.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Iraqi Premier Plans Expansion of
Arms Handover Program
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and DEXTER FILKINS
BAGHDAD, Iraq
October 18, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/international/middleeast/18CND-IRAQ.html?h
p&ex=1098158400&en=39fafcef49fdf2f4&ei=5094&partner=homepage
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 18 - Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq
said today that a weapons-for-cash program in Baghdad
would be expanded nationwide.
Militiamen loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr started
surrendering hundreds of weapons last week in a deal struck
with the Iraqi government and the American military to end
months of fighting in the rundown eastern Baghdad neighborhood
known as Sadr City. The buy-back brought in enough arms in its
first week to prompt Iraqi officials on Sunday to extend the
program to Tuesday.
The cooperation with the buyout has raised hopes that Mr. Sadr
would go forward with plans to turn away from fighting and toward
entering the country's democratic process.
Underscoring the buyout's progress, Dr. Allawi ventured into the
heart of Baghdad's hostile Shiite district on Sunday to salute the
militia, the Mahdi Army, for surrendering more than 1,000 of its
heavy weapons in the past week. As Iraqi troops nearby assembled
stacks of surrendered weapons at a soccer stadium in the district,
Sadr City, Dr. Allawi said he was "thrilled" and urged more progress.
A senior aide to Mr. Sadr said on Sunday that the militia had no
objection to the extension.
"The government is determined to disarm cities and neighborhoods
because our forces are now ready to fight terrorists and there's
no justification for people to keep weapons at home," Dr. Allawi
told Iraqi lawmakers, according to news agency reports.
Iraqi and American officials contend that Mr. Sadr still has much
of his arsenal. But American commanders echoed Dr. Allawi's
encouragement on Sunday, though they emphasized that the militia
must deliver far more weaponry. The military said that Mr. Sadr's
militia had turned in about 700 rocket-propelled grenades and
about 400 mortar shells, along with hundreds of lighter weapons,
and that the Iraqi government had paid about $1.2 million in return.
Even as the disarmament appeared to gain momentum, insurgents
continued attacks in Baghdad on Sunday. Before Dr. Allawi arrived
at the stadium in Sadr City, mortar fire struck it, killing two people.
And news agencies reported that a car bomb had exploded near
a cafe, killing at least seven and wounding 20.
In a message posted Sunday on Islamic Web sites, Iraq's most
wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, pledged his loyalty to
Osama bin Laden and emphasized the need for unity against
"the enemies of Islam."
Outside Falluja, American marines resumed fierce clashes with
insurgents, continuing a military push that began on Friday and
appeared to be laying the groundwork for an attempt to retake
the city from insurgents. The military fired heavy artillery and
tank-gun barrages and dropped guided bombs on militant safe
houses and weapons caches, military officials said.
Dr. Allawi also said today that a $2 million aid package worth
$2 million would be extended to Falluja, according to the
Agence France-Press.
Mr. Sadr is thought to have hundreds of loyalists across southern
Iraq, in cities like Amara, Basra and Diwaniya. Iraqi officials have
long worried that unless those groups also turn in their heavy
weapons, they pose a serious threat to the nationwide elections
scheduled for January.
In recent weeks, Mr. Sadr has been meeting with leaders from
across the Iraqi political spectrum, telling them he is planning
to transform his movement from an armed group into a democratic
one. Many Iraqis, and the Americans especially, are skeptical of
Mr. Sadr, given his record of breaking similar promises.
But circumstances for Mr. Sadr have changed in recent months,
all of which may be nudging him into the political system. His
militia has suffered a pounding at the hands of the Americans
in Sadr City and Najaf. And the Americans and the Iraqi government
have promised to embark on a campaign of house-to-house
searches in the area to find whatever weapons Mr. Sadr does
not turn over.
At the same time, Mr. Sadr has come under intense pressure from
mainstream Shiite leaders, who see the elections in January as the
clearest path to political power. Shiites comprise about 60 percent
of the Iraqi population.
Mr. Sadr's own aides said he was moving in that direction. "We are
part of the political process now," said Karim Bakhati, a representative
of Mr. Sadr, after the meeting with Dr. Allawi at the weaponsfor-cash
handover. "The Iraqi government wants to have such centers outside
Baghdad, and we don't have any objections to that."
American and Iraqi officials say they believe that Mr. Sadr is playing
something of a double game: He may intend to make a foray into
democratic politics, but he is trying to keep as much as of his militia
as he can, if only because many of the country's largest political
parties have their own armed groups as well.
The Americans said they were still worried about as many as 100
homemade bombs that are thought to be planted under the streets
of Sadr City, a type of bomb that has killed and wounded dozens of
American soldiers. American commanders said that only two such
bombs had been turned in, and that it would be difficult or impossible
to restart the American-financed reconstruction program, which
employed 15,000 Iraqis until the fighting intensified in August,
until the roadside bombs were unearthed.
Still, the American commanders said they were encouraged by the
effort. "We're never going to get them to give up everything," a senior
American military officer said. "But this is not a bad deal. It gets these
weapons off the street and it helps us equip the new Iraqi security
forces. I can't imagine it's not hurting the Mahdi militia in some way."
Whatever else it has accomplished, the deal struck by Mr. Sadr and
the Iraqi government earlier this month has transformed the atmosphere
in Sadr City. Since August, the area has been the scene of intense
fighting and almost nightly air raids by American planes and jets.
On Sunday, the streets were mostly quiet, and the tension in the
area had receded significantly.
The public appeal of Mr. Sadr was driven home Sunday to Dr. Allawi.
As the prime minister prepared to leave the soccer stadium, a crowd
of Mr. Sadr's militiamen began to chant. "Long Live Moktada!" they
shouted. "Long live Moktada!"
In Falluja on Sunday, American marines engaged in gun battles with
insurgents at the outskirts of the town. The marines said that one
of their patrols was attacked by a group of insurgents firing mortars,
machine guns and grenade launchers, and that they returned fire with
artillery, tanks and seven bombs dropped from the air. The marines
said the insurgents, some of whom evidently survived the onslaught,
piled their guns into a taxi and a pickup truck and drove to a mosque.
"Marines did not fire on the mosque," the statement said.
The patrols being carried out by the marines are intended to disrupt
the insurgents and draw their fire. The operations, which began Friday,
appear to be laying the groundwork for an offensive to recapture the
city, which fell under the control of insurgents in April.
The insurgents are still very much in control of the city. One of them,
Muhammad al-Mehimmadi, took a break from the fighting on Sunday
and spoke with fervor about resisting an American-led assault.
"We are on the right side, and God is with us, and anyone who has
God on his side never loses," Mr. Mehimmadi said. "The greatest
evidence of that is what happened in April. Let the Americans do
what they intend to do, and they will see wonders."
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article,
and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Falluja.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Study Says White Families' Wealth
Advantage Has Grown
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (AP
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/18/national/18wealth.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (AP) - The enormous wealth gap between white
families and black and Hispanic families grew larger after the most
recent recession, a private analysis of government data has found.
White households had a median net worth of greater than $88,000 in
2002, 11 times that of Hispanic households and more than 14 times
that of black households, the Pew Hispanic Center said in the study,
being released Monday.
Blacks were slowest to emerge from the economic downturn that started
in 2000 and ended early in 2001, the report found.
Net worth accounts for the value of items like a home and a car, checking
and savings accounts, and stocks, minus debts like mortgage, car loans
and credit card bills.
Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said the accumulation
of wealth allows low-income families to rise into the middle class and
"have some kind of assets beyond next week's paychecks."
"Having more assets enabled whites to ride out the jobless recovery
better," Mr. Suro said.
According to the group's analysis of Census Bureau data, nearly
one-third of black families and 26 percent of Hispanic families were
in debt or had no net assets, compared with 11 percent of white families.
"Wealth is a measure of cumulative advantage or disadvantage," said
Roderick Harrison, a researcher at the Joint Center for Political and
Economic Studies, a Washington research organization that focuses
on black issues. "The fact that black and Hispanic wealth is a fraction
of white wealth also reflects a history of discrimination."
After accounting for inflation, net worth increased 17 percent for
white households from 1996 to 2002 and 14 percent for Hispanic
homes, to about $7,900. It fell for black households by 16 percent,
to roughly $6,000.
The median net worth for all American households, representing all
races and ethnicities, was $59,700 in 2002, a 12 percent gain
from 1996.
Only white homes recouped all their losses from 2001 to 2002. Both
Hispanics and blacks lost nearly 27 percent of net worth from 1999
to 2001; the next year Hispanics gained it almost all back (26 percent),
while blacks were up only about 5 percent.
Mr. Harrison said Hispanics were more insulated from the downturn
than blacks, so they suffered less. For example, Hispanics made
employment gains in lower-paid, lower-skilled areas like service
and construction.
Blacks were hit hard by job losses in the manufacturing industry and
in professional fields, where they were victims of "last hired, first fired"
policies, he said.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Southwest Airlines Third-Quarter
Profit Increases
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS (AP)
Filed at 6:36 p.m. ET
October 14, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-Southwest-Airlines.html
DALLAS (AP) -- Southwest Airlines Co. reported a 12 percent jump
in third-quarter profits on Thursday, as its decision to buy fuel in
advance helped insulate the low-cost carrier from rising oil prices.
But executives warned that competitive pressures could hurt revenues
in the current quarter.
Southwest said Thursday that it earned $119 million, or 15 cents
a share, in the July-September quarter, up from $106 million, or
13 cents a share, a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had forecast 12 cents per
share in earnings.
Revenue was $1.67 billion, up nearly 8 percent from $1.55 billion
a year earlier -- but a bit below the $1.69 billion forecast by analysts.
Chief executive Gary Kelly said the revenue shortfall was partly due
to hurricanes that dampened travel in Florida, but mostly because
carriers are adding flights, making it harder for airlines to raise fares.
``This many quarters after the official end of the recession, the
industry should be performing better,'' Kelly told analysts. ``There
are just too many seats chasing too few passengers. The revenues
are disappointing.''
Chief financial officer Laura Wright added that fourth-quarter revenue
``could be lower than a year ago.''
The result, the officials said, will be an increasing focus on containing
costs. They said, however, that Southwest, which has about 400 jets,
still expects to add 29 planes next year, matching the 2004 increase.
Kelly said the new planes would allow the carrier to expand service
next year in Philadelphia -- if it can get gates now controlled by
troubled US Airways -- or begin flying to one or two new cities.
Southwest shares closed up 57 cents, or 4.2 percent, at $14.14 on
the New York Stock Exchange.
Southwest was the first major carrier to report third-quarter results.
The airline had hedged -- or made advance purchases at fixed prices
-- for most of its jet fuel purchases, which helped offset rising fuel
prices.
Southwest said that excluding fuel, costs were flat with a year ago
and below the levels in the first half of this year.
Southwest said it has hedged 80 percent of its fourth-quarter fuel
prices at the equivalent of $24 a barrel, about half the current price,
and 80 percent hedged next year at $25 per barrel.
The carrier also saved by eliminating travel agent commissions,
closing three reservation call centers and steering customers to buy
tickets on its Web site. The company also eliminated about 1,000 jobs
through an early retirement program, although it was unclear whether
that was yet paying benefits.
As a result, Southwest reversed a four-quarter trend of rising cost per
mile flown by passengers, a key measurement of efficiency in the
airline industry.
``They are doing a good job controlling costs, and they have to,''
said Raymond Neidl, an analyst with Calyon Securities. He also praised
the company for concentrating on domestic growth, including its
new service in Philadelphia, rather than jumping into international
routes.
Tony Cristello, an analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, said Southwest
and other carriers will continue to struggle to increase revenue until
a shakeout in the industry.
``That could be US Airways going away, coupled with Delta and
United making material cuts in capacity, but it is going to take
a substantial capacity reduction,'' he said.
At Southwest, traffic as measured by miles flown by paying customers,
rose 10.4 percent. Southwest has increased its fleet to 400 planes,
which pushed capacity up 7 percent from a year ago.
Average occupancy on the Southwest planes rose to 72.7 percent
from 70.5 percent a year earlier.
For the first nine months of the year, Southwest earned $258 million,
or 32 cents per share on revenues of $4.40 billion. A year ago, the
company earned $233 million, or 28 cents, per share on revenues
of $4.05 billion. The $233 million figure excludes a $143 million
government grant the airline received in 2003.
------
On the Net:
Southwest: http://www.southwest.com
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Justices Weigh Executions of Young Killers
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 14, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/politics/14scotus.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - If American society has indeed reached
a consensus that the death penalty should not apply to those who
kill at age 16 or 17, as the lawyer for a young Missouri murderer
argued to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, no such consensus
was apparent among the justices themselves.
Two years after ruling 6 to 3 that the execution of mentally retarded
offenders is categorically unconstitutional, the court appeared
deeply divided over whether the reasoning of that decision meant
that the death penalty for acts committed while a juvenile should
likewise be seen as "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation
of the Eighth Amendment.
The Missouri Supreme Court reached that conclusion by a 4-to-3
decision in August 2003, freeing Christopher Simmons from death
row for a murder he committed in 1993 when he was 17. It resentenced
him to life in prison without parole.
Missouri appealed to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that
the state court lacked authority to reject the Supreme Court's last
decision on the question, a 1989 ruling that upheld capital punishment
for 16- and 17-year-olds. A 1988 decision barred the execution of
those who killed when they were younger than 16.
Seth P. Waxman, representing Mr. Simmons, argued that not only the
increasing rarity of juvenile executions since 1989 but also new
medical and psychological understanding of teenage immaturity
validated the step the Missouri court took last year.
"These developments change the constitutional calculus," Mr. Waxman,
a former United States solicitor general, told the justices. The new
scientific evidence, described in briefs filed by the American Medical
Association, the American Psychological Association and other
professional groups, "explains and validates the consensus that
society has drawn," he said.
Justice Antonin Scalia countered: "If all this is so clear, why can't the
legislature take it into account? All you have to do is bring these facts
to the attention of the legislature."
Mr. Waxman replied that the number of states that actually execute
people for crimes committed as juveniles is "very small." While 19
states nominally permit the execution of 17-year-old murderers,
only three states - Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma - have executed
juvenile offenders in the past 10 years.
Oklahoma has no juvenile offender on its death row. Virginia has
one, and a jury there refused last year to impose a death sentence
after finding Lee Malvo, the teenage member of a pair of Washington
-area snipers, guilty of murder. Texas, with 29 inmates now on death
row for juvenile crimes, accounts for more than half the executions
of juvenile offenders, 13 of 22, carried out in the United States since
the modern era of capital punishment began in 1976. There were
2 juvenile death sentences imposed in the United States last year
and 1 so far this year, down from 14 five years ago.
Justice Scalia told Mr. Waxman he was not surprised by the low
numbers. They demonstrated juries' ability to take a defendant's
youth into consideration, he said, adding that the question was
whether to leave it to juries or to impose a "hard rule."
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist challenged Mr. Waxman on
whether the scientific evidence contained in the briefs was even
appropriate for the court's consideration. Noting that the studies
had not been introduced at Mr. Simmons's trial, he said, "You're
talking facts, and facts are ordinarily adduced at trial for cross-
examination."
Mr. Waxman, temporarily nonplussed, replied: "The issue for this
court is not the application of law to a particular defendant, but
what the Constitution requires as a matter of law."
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked Mr. Waxman whether he would
lose the case if the court accepted neither the scientific evidence
nor the existence of a consensus.
"This is truly a case in which the whole is greater than the sum of
the parts," Mr. Waxman replied.
Four justices - John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer - have made clear in recent years
their desire to invalidate the juvenile death penalty. "The practice
of executing such offenders is a relic of the past and is inconsistent
with evolving standards of decency in a civilized society," the four
wrote in October 2002, dissenting from the court's refusal to grant
a writ of habeas corpus to a Kentucky inmate, an action that
required five votes.
Just as clearly, Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia and
Clarence Thomas, the three dissenters in the retardation case,
will not vote to extend that decision to juveniles.
With these facts known to most people in the courtroom, the focus
of attention was on Justice Kennedy and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor,
both of whom rejected the challenge to juvenile executions in 1989
and at least one of whom must repudiate that precedent if Mr. Simmons
is to prevail.
Justice O'Connor, usually an active participant in the court's arguments,
made only one comment, to James R. Layton, Missouri's state solicitor.
She noted that the number of states that have rejected execution of
those younger than 18 was "about the same" as the number that had
rejected execution of the retarded in the years leading up to the court's
ruling in that case. Of the 38 states with a death penalty, 19 have
a minimum age of 18. In 2002, 18 states barred execution of the
retarded. "Are we at least required to look at that?" Justice O'Connor
asked.
Mr. Layton replied that the retardation case, Atkins v. Virginia, took
account of an "inexorable trend" among the states, and "we don't have
that here." In the retardation case, there had been what the court called
a "dramatic shift in the state legislative landscape," with only two states
having barred execution of the retarded as recently as 1989.
In fact, Justice Stevens, in his majority opinion in the retardation case,
went out of his way in a footnote to contrast that shift with the much
slower rate of change on the youth question. The footnote may have
been necessary to hold the vote of Justice O'Connor or Justice Kennedy.
On Wednesday, Justice Kennedy appeared deeply conflicted throughout
the argument. He said he was concerned that drawing the line at
18 might induce teenage gangs to designate their 16- or 17-year-old
members as "hit men." A brief filed by Alabama that contained grisly
descriptions of murders committed by teenagers made for "chilling
reading," Justice Kennedy said, adding that he wished all those who
had signed briefs for Mr. Simmons "had read it before they signed on."
This led Justice Stevens to say that the death penalty did not seem to
have deterred those crimes, all of which took place in states that permit
the execution of juvenile offenders.
The case, Roper v. Simmons, No. 03-633, has attracted wide interest
overseas, with briefs for Mr. Simmons signed by the European Union,
the 45-member Council of Europe, and other organizations. The
United States and Somalia are the only nations that have not formally
repudiated executing juveniles. A brief filed by former United States
diplomats asserted that the situation was an irritant in international
relations.
Should the court give that brief any credence, Justice Stevens asked
Mr. Layton. No, Missouri's lawyer replied, the question remained one
for legislatures and not courts.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Militants ready for onslaught on Fallujah
By Aqeel Hussein in Fallujah and Philip Sherwell
(Filed: 17/10/2004)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/17/wirq17.xml&s
Sheet=/portal/2004/10/17/ixportal.html
Preparations for a last-ditch defence of Fallujah have been stepped
up by Iraqi militants after the breakdown of negotiations with Baghdad
aimed at averting an American-led onslaught on the city.
Hundreds of fighters marshalled on the city's main street yesterday
armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and
assault rifles. Fighters are also stationed on the rooftops to repulse
American-led Iraqi forces.
Abdullah Janabi, one of the leaders of the rebel Shura or Islamic council
that controls the city, said that negotiations had collapsed completely
over demands that foreign militants be expelled from the city before Iraqi
troops enter.
He warned that a fiery welcome was being prepared for any "invaders".
"Those who invade the city of mosques will be entering their last days,"
he said. "We will all give our blood to defend this place from the infidel."
The American military has established a cordon around the city, ensuring
that access is restricted to those on foot. The rebel checkpoints that had
been established on approach roads have been withdrawn, apparently
to lure the American military into the city.
At dawn yesterday, the Americans launched further air strikes targeting
strongholds of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Islamic terrorist held
responsible for the beheading of western hostages, including the
Briton Kenneth Bigley.
A senior Pentagon official said that there was no plan to enter Fallujah
and take back the city during the holy month of Ramadan, which began
on Friday. Instead the military is determined to isolate Zarqawi and
severely limit his operations.
An attack will be postponed until December, but imposing a cordon
around the city will tie down 2,000 crack Marine and Army troops.
Meanwhile, a UN audit of spending by the American administration
in Iraq, leaked overnight in Washington, revealed that half the £3.2
billion spent in the first half of this year could not be accounted for,
including one payment of £800 million into a Kurdish bank account.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of
Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium
without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Britain Considers U.S. Request for More Iraq Help
By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters)
Mon Oct 18, 2004 07:15 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6527746&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is considering a U.S. request to move
troops into more potentially dangerous areas of Iraq, a politically
charged move which has re-ignited anger over Prime Minister
Tony Blair's support for the war.
Officials said Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon will confirm the request
in a "holding statement" to parliament Monday, but will stress he
has made no decision yet and that when he does, it will be made
purely on operational grounds.
"We will await firm proposals before ministers and the prime
minister make a decision," Blair's spokesman said. "This is a proposal
that has come from the operational level, not the political level."
British troops have until now operated only in the relatively quiet
Basra area of southern Iraq, where some 8,000 UK troops are stationed.
Since the Iraq war began, 68 British troops have died, compared with
well over 1,000 American troops.
Analysts say up to 650 British troops may be moved north in response
to the U.S. request to cover for U.S. units battling insurgents in the
rebel-held city of Falluja and elsewhere.
The most likely move would be to redeploy troops from the army's
Black Watch regiment from Basra to U.S. controlled areas south of
Baghdad. Commentators suggest the volatile towns of Iskandariya,
Latifiya and Hilla as possible destinations.
Blair's spokesman said he was not aware of any plans for UK soldiers
to patrol flashpoint areas in Baghdad or Falluja.
U.S. POLITICS AT PLAY?
He also rejected opposition politicians' accusations that Blair was
preparing to put the lives of UK troops at greater risk for the sake
of President Bush. Iraq is the key issue in upcoming U.S. presidential
elections in November.
A central theme of Democratic challenger John Kerry's attack on Bush
is that his go-it-alone approach in invading Iraq has left United States
soldiers shouldering the vast majority of the post-war military burden.
"If this is about any elections it is about preparing for the Iraqi
elections (planned for January), not the U.S. elections," the spokesman
told reporters.
But Charles Kennedy, leader of Britain's third party the Liberal
Democrats and a fierce opponent of the war, said it was difficult
to see why Washington thought the redeployment of a British unit
of around 650 troops -- just 0.5 percent of the total coalition
troops in Iraq -- was so vital at this time.
He said Britain should be planning its withdrawal from Iraq, not
becoming more deeply involved.
"This, far from being an exit strategy, runs the risk of being an
ensnarement strategy that drags Britain further into the mire,"
he told BBC radio.
Any prospect of a sharp rise in British casualties would be acutely
uncomfortable for Blair, whose unpopular decision to join President
Bush in the March 2003 invasion has hit his ratings and divided
his party.
Thousands of anti-war protesters marched though London on
Sunday to demand UK troops withdraw from Iraq altogether.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) Iraq to Widen Arms Amnesty, Bring Falluja to Heel
By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Oct 18, 2004 08:27 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6528800&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's interim government will declare a
nationwide arms amnesty next week, but insists the city of Falluja
must turn in foreign militants or face assault, National Security
Adviser Kassim Daoud said Monday.
Daoud would not be drawn on the timing of a Falluja offensive if the
city did not hand over militants led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
America's top enemy in Iraq. "We have a timetable and we will stick to
it," he told Reuters.
U.S. forces released overnight Falluja's chief negotiator, whom they
detained Friday, after day-long battles and air strikes on the
outskirts of the rebel-held Sunni Muslim stronghold west of
Baghdad.
The interim government has vowed to crack down on insurgents
and pacify Iraq before elections due in January.
"Next week, we will announce a nationwide arms collection drive,"
said Daoud, but gave few details of the arms amnesty.
In a country awash in weaponry, Iraqis are permitted to keep
personal guns, such as pistols and assault rifles, at home. Previous
gun amnesties since last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq have
involved heavier weapons.
Daoud said a cash-for-weapons scheme already under way in
Baghdad's Sadr City district, a stronghold for Shi'ite militants, had
been extended to Thursday.
He said many people still wanted to disarm in Sadr City. "It would not
be fair to search houses now when these people have not had enough
time to turn over their weapons."
Loyalists of fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had been fighting U.S. troops
in Sadr City before the arms handover was agreed.
Falluja, a hotbed of Sunni insurgency, is an even tougher challenge
for the interim government and its U.S. backers.
"I think the residents of Falluja don't want this sort of peace. They
want real peace, not a peace that stabs in the back and strikes and
destroys homes and kills women," Falluja representative Khaled
al-Jumaili said after his release.
U.S. marines detained the bearded cleric Friday while he was taking
his family out of the city for safety.
QUEST FOR ZARQAWI
Residents said Falluja was relatively quiet after Sunday's fierce battles,
in which hospital officials said four civilians were killed and 12 wounded.
A child was among the dead.
Falluja residents, enraged by U.S. air strikes that they say kill
civilians, deny knowledge of Zarqawi's network.
Asked what evidence the government has that Zarqawi's group
is operating in Falluja, Daoud said: "There are many of his followers,
Jihadists (holy warriors). The proof is there."
Jumaili said the hunt for Zarqawi was a pretext to attack Falluja,
comparing it to U.S. assertions that Saddam Hussein had weapons
of mass destruction before last year's invasion.
Zarqawi, who has a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head, has
declared loyalty to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the
first time, according to a statement posted on the Internet.
"We announce that the Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Holy
War) Group, its prince and soldiers, have pledged allegiance to
the sheikh of the mujahideen Osama bin Laden," said the
statement purportedly from Zarqawi's group.
Washington says Zarqawi is al Qaeda's link to Iraq but the
statement was the first by the group to announce its allegiance
to bin Laden's network, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001
hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. cities.
Britain is considering a U.S. request to move troops now
based in southern Iraq into more potentially dangerous areas to
cover for U.S. units battling rebels in Falluja and elsewhere.
Officials say Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon will confirm the
request to parliament later Monday, but will stress he has made
no decision yet. Any such deployment would reignite anger in
Britain over Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for the war.
Insurgents struck at Iraq's fledgling security forces again
with a car bomb blast near a Baghdad cafe used by Iraqi police.
The U.S. military said eight people were killed, including a
policeman, and 28 wounded, in the Sunday night attack.
Earlier, a car bomb that blew up in traffic killed five
people and wounded 15 in the northern city of Mosul. The
beheaded body of an Iraqi translator employed by U.S. troops
was found near Baiji, north of Baghdad, police said.
An Australian television journalist was held hostage for
24 hours at the weekend before being released unharmed.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base
By NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/politics/17gitmo.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 - Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were
regularly subjected to harsh and coercive treatment,
several people who worked in the prison said in recent interviews,
despite longstanding assertions by military officials that such
treatment had not occurred except in some isolated cases.
The people, military guards, intelligence agents and others,
described in interviews with The New York Times a range of
procedures that included treatment they said was highly abusive
occurring over a long period of time, as well as rewards for
prisoners who cooperated with interrogators.
One regular procedure that was described by people who worked
at Camp Delta, the main prison facility at the naval base in Cuba,
was making uncooperative prisoners strip to their underwear,
having them sit in a chair while shackled hand and foot to a bolt
in the floor, and forcing them to endure strobe lights and
screamingly loud rock and rap music played through two
close loudspeakers, while the air-conditioning was turned up
to maximum levels, said one military official who witnessed
the procedure. The official said that was intended to make
the detainees uncomfortable, as they were accustomed to high
temperatures both in their native countries and their cells.
Such sessions could last up to 14 hours with breaks, said the
official, who described the treatment after being contacted by
The Times.
"It fried them,'' the official said, who said that anger over the
treatment the prisoners endured was the reason for speaking
with a reporter. Another person familiar with the procedure
who was contacted by The Times said: "They were very wobbly.
They came back to their cells and were just completely out of it.''
The new information comes from a number of people, some of
whom witnessed or participated in the techniques and others
who were in a position to know the details of the operation
and corroborate their accounts.
Those who spoke of the interrogation practices at the naval base
did so under the condition that their identities not be revealed.
While some said it was because they remained on active duty,
they all said that being publicly identified would endanger their
futures. Although some former prisoners have said they saw
and experienced mistreatment at Guantánamo, this is the first
time that people who worked there have provided detailed
accounts of some interrogation procedures.
One intelligence official said most of the intense interrogation
was focused on a group of detainees known as the "Dirty 30''
and believed to be the best potential sources of information.
In August, a report commissioned by Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld found that tough techniques approved by
the government were rarely used, but the sources described
a broader pattern that went beyond even the aggressive
techniques that were permissible.
The issue of what were permissible interrogation techniques has
produced a vigorous debate within the government that burst into
the open with reports of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad
and is now the subject of several investigations.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan, the
administration has wrestled with the issue of what techniques
are permissible, with many arguing that the campaign against
terrorism should entitle them to greater leeway. Alberto R. Gonzales,
the White House counsel said, for example, in one memorandum
that the Geneva Conventions were "quaint" and not suitable for
the war against terrorism.
David Sheffer, a senior State Department human rights official in
the Clinton administration who teaches law at George Washington
University, said the procedure of shackling prisoners to the floor
in a state of undress while playing loud music - the Guantánamo
sources said it included the bands Limp Bizkit and Rage Against
the Machine, and the rapper Eminem - and lights clearly constituted
torture. "I don't think there's any question that treatment of that
character satisfies the severe pain and suffering requirement, be
it physical or mental, that is provided for in the Convention Against
Torture,'' Mr. Sheffer said.
Pentagon officials would not comment on the details of the
allegations. Lt. Cmdr. Alvin Plexico issued a Defense Department
statement in response to questions, saying that the military was
providing a "safe, humane and professional detention operation
at Guantánamo that is providing valuable information in the war
on terrorism.''
The statement said: "Guantánamo guards provide an environment
that is stable, secure, safe and humane. And it is that environment
that sets the conditions for interrogators to work successfully and
to gain valuable information from detainees because they have built
a relationship of trust, not fear.''
The sources portrayed a system of punishment and reward, with
prisoners who were favored for their cooperation with interrogators
given the privilege of spending time in a large room nicknamed
"the love shack'' by the guards. In that room, they were free to relax
and had access to magazines, books, a television and a video player
and some R-rated movies, along with the use of a water pipe to
smoke aromatic tobaccos. They were also occasionally given
milkshakes and hamburgers from the McDonald's on the base.
The Pentagon said the information gathered from the detainees
"has undoubtedly saved the lives of our soldiers in the field,'' adding:
"And that information also saves the lives of innocent civilians at
home and abroad. At Guantánamo we are holding and interrogating
people that are a clear danger to the U.S. and our allies and they are
providing valuable information in the war on terrorism.''
Although many critics of the detentions at Guantánamo have said that
the majority of the roughly 590 inmates are low-level fighters who
have little intelligence to impart, Pentagon and intelligence officials
have insisted that the facility houses many dangerous veteran terrorists
and officials of Al Qaeda.
The intelligence official said that many of those imprisoned at
Guantánamo had valuable information but that it was not always
clear what their standing in Al Qaeda was. The official said the first
four detainees now facing war crimes charges before a military
tribunal at the base were specifically chosen because they had not
been harshly treated and therefore would be less likely to make
any embarrassing allegations.
The people who worked at the prison also described as common
another procedure in which an inmate was awakened, subjected to
an interrogation in a facility known as the Gold Building, then
returned to a different cell. As soon as the guards determined
the inmate had fallen into a deep sleep, he was awakened again
for interrogation after which he would be returned to yet
a different cell. This could happen five or six times during
a night, they said.
Much of the harsh treatment described by the sources was
said to have occurred as recently as the early months of this
year. After the scandal about mistreatment of prisoners at the
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq became public in April, all harsh
techniques were abruptly suspended, they said.
The new accounts of mistreatment at Guantánamo provide
fresh evidence about how practices there may have contributed
to the abuses at Abu Ghraib. One independent military panel said
in a report that the approach used at Guantánamo had "migrated
to Abu Ghraib.
The vigorous debate within the administration about what
techniques were permissible in interrogations was set off
when the Justice Department provided a series of memorandums
to the White House and Defense Department providing narrow
definitions of torture. In February 2002, Mr. Bush ordered that
the prisoners at Guantánamo be treated "humanely and, to the
extent appropriate with military necessity, in a manner consistent
with'' the Geneva Conventions.
In March 2002, a team of administration lawyers accepted the
Justice Department's view, concluding in a memorandum that
President Bush was not bound by either the Convention Against
Torture or a federal antitorture statute because he had the
authority to protect the nation from terrorism. When some of
the memorandums were disclosed, the administration tried to
distance itself from the rationale for the harsher treatment.
At the request of military intelligence officials who complained
of tenacious resistance by some subjects, Mr. Rumsfeld approved
a list of 16 techniques for use at Guantánamo in addition to the
17 methods in the Army Field Manual in December 2002. But he
suspended those approvals in January 2003 after some military
lawyers complained they were excessive and possibly unlawful.
In April 2003, after a review, Mr. Rumsfeld issued a final
policy approving of 24 techniques, some of which needed his
permission to be used.
But the approved techniques did not explicitly cover some that
were used, according to the new accounts. The only time that
using loud music and lights seems to appear in the documents,
for example, is as a proposal that seems never to have been
adopted. The April 16 memorandum allows interrogators to place
a detainee "in a setting that may be less comfortable'' but should
not "constitute a substantial change in environmental quality.''
Officials said the guards' patience was often stretched, especially
when inmates threw human waste at the military police officers,
a frequent occurrence. The guards, for their part, had their own
tricks, including replacing the prayer oil in little bottles given to
the inmates with a caustic pine-smelling floor cleaner.
An August 2004 report by a panel headed by James R. Schlesinger,
the former defense secretary, said the harsher approved techniques
on Mr. Rumsfeld's list were used on only two occasions. In addition,
the report said, there were about eight abuses by guards at
Guantánamo that occurred and were investigated.
In guided tours of Guantánamo provided to the news media and
members of Congress, the military authorities contended that the
system of rewards and punishments affected only issues like
whether the inmates could be deprived of books, blankets and
toilet articles. The interrogation sessions themselves, the officials
consistently said, did not employ any harsh treatment but were
devised only to build a trusting relationship between the
interrogator and the detainee.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) 'If this isn't genocide, then what on earth is?'
Lord Alton reports on the killings, rape, burnings and
looting that continue unabated in Darfur in an impassioned
plea for action to the Prime Minister
18 October 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=573217
'If this isn't genocide, then what on earth is?'
Leading article: Relief for Darfur has been delayed far too long
While the international community procrastinated last week about
whether events in Darfur constitute genocide, I visited the Ardamata
refugee camp in Geneina, where 30,000 people are sheltering. Tribal
leaders there testified to a campaign of killing, rape, burning and
looting by the Janjaweed militias which have killed an estimated
70,000 people and displaced 1.4 million others.
Three months ago, the UN described the situation in Darfur as "the
world's worst humanitarian crisis". On my two-day visit, I found that
nothing much has changed. The government of Sudan has reneged
on its promise to disarm the Janjaweed. Their campaign has the sole
objective of eradicating the black tribes and installing the Arabs in
their place. If this isn't genocide, then it's difficult to imagine what
on earth is.
I have sent a full report to Tony Blair and will ask a question about
Darfur in the House of Lords today. My report is a catalogue of
systematic violence driven by ethnic hatred and aided by the Sudanese
regime. We heard first-hand accounts of the rape of girls as young
as 10 and women as old as 80. Men wept as they recounted the
humiliations and killings. The report is on the website of the human
rights group the Jubilee Campaign, which arranged the visit
(www.jubileecampaign.co.uk).
We joined a group of 17 women sitting in the shade of a tree,
drinking coffee. Most were widows, and most had also lost fathers,
brothers and sons. They need firewood for cooking and grass for
their animals, and are thus forced to go beyond the camp. They
had all, without exception, been the victims of attack and rape by
the Janjaweed. Although they are clearly traumatised by the daily
risks they run, they speak philosophically about it: "If our men go
out, they die. If we go, we are raped. That's the choice."
Hawry, 35, told us that when her village was attacked, the men
"harassed and beat" the women and girls before they rode off.
These are euphemisms for rape; in their society, it is an
unmentionable subject, bringing shame and humiliation on the
victim and her family.
We were told that the "Arabs" carried razor blades and sharp
knives to cut open the atrophied vaginas of old women before
they raped them. When the Janjaweed had gone, Hawry said, the
women abandoned the village. "My family once had 88 head of
cattle, but I put one baby around my neck and another child on
my back, and I started walking." Her other three children had to
walk for the next eight days.
An immeasurable problem will be the impact of so many babies
born due to rape. While the women eventually opened up about
the attacks by the militias, they would not even discuss what the
future holds for the children. "They want to dilute our blood,"
one woman said. "They hate black people."
A traumatised, helpless mood of resignation simmers in the
camps. Sometimes it boils over, as, for instance, at Otash camp,
near Nyala, where a policeman was lynched. A woman had
recognised him as one of those who massacred her family
I understand why Tony Blair wanted face-to-face discussions
with President Omar al-Bashir when he visited Khartoum this
month. But before we shake too many hands in Sudan we should
remember the blood on them.
Britain refuses to follow America's lead in saying that what
is happening in Darfur is genocide. The Government's line
is that it would not help it in its efforts to put pressure on
the Sudanese Government.
Yet Britain is one of 135 signatories to the 1949 Geneva
Convention Against Genocide. This is not merely declamatory,
it places a duty on the signatories to "prevent and protect" and
subsequently to prosecute and to bring to justice those who
commit crimes against humanity.
My visit to Africa also included Rwanda where, 10 years ago,
800,000 people died in 100 days as the international community
looked on. I left Darfur fearing that we are sleepwalking into
another Rwanda.
There are no UN troops in Darfur - just a handful of African Union
soldiers to protect the monitors. Poignantly, the first country to
send troops was Rwanda.
The country's President, Paul Kagame, told me that they decided
to do this because they can see the parallels with what happened
to them.
The terrified tribal leaders that we met in Darfur believe that the
mere presence of monitors and international non-governmental
organisations will prevent incursions by the Janjaweed. Rwanda
illustrates the dangers of such illusions.
Over one million people have been herded into camps run by
the Government. Some of the officers who patrol the camps
are Janjaweed militiamen in police uniforms.
The elders said that security remains their greatest concern.
They called for the disarmament of the Janjaweed; the restoration
of looted livestock; the return or rebuilding of property;
a resolution of the land issue and freedom to move about.
Above all, they told us, the genocide must end. One, Sheik De
Allah, said poignantly: "We are a simple people. We know our
farms and cattle and that's all we want. The Government created
Janjaweed and has created this situation. We are desperate and
pray that the international community will intervene."
Lord Alton of Liverpool is an independent crossbench peer and
a founder of the Jubilee Campaign.
(c) 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) Why is war-torn Iraq giving $190,000 to Toys R Us?
Comment
Naomi Klein Iraqis are still being forced to pay for
crimes committed by Saddam
The Guardian
Saturday October 16, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1328664,00.html
Next week, something will happen that will unmask the upside-
down morality of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. On
October 21, Iraq will pay $200m in war reparations to some
of the richest countries and corporations in the world.
If that seems backwards, it's because it is. Iraqis have never
been awarded reparations for any of the crimes they suffered
under Saddam, or the brutal sanctions regime that claimed the
lives of at least half a million people, or the US-led invasion,
which the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, recently called "illegal".
Instead, Iraqis are still being forced to pay reparations for crimes
committed by their former dictator.
Quite apart from its crushing $125bn sovereign debt, Iraq has
paid $18.8bn in reparations stemming from Saddam Hussein's
1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. This is not in itself
surprising: as a condition of the ceasefire that ended the 1991
Gulf war, Saddam agreed to pay damages stemming from the
invasion. More than 50 countries have made claims, with most
of the money awarded to Kuwait. What is surprising is that even
after Saddam was overthrown, the payments from Iraq have
continued.
Since Saddam was toppled in April, Iraq has paid out $1.8bn
in reparations to the United Nations Compensation Commission
(UNCC), the Geneva-based quasi tribunal that assesses claims and
disburses awards. Of those payments, $37m have gone to Britain
and $32.8m have gone to the United States. That's right: in the
past 18 months, Iraq's occupiers have collected $69.8m in reparation
payments from the desperate people they have been occupying.
But it gets worse: the vast majority of those payments, 78%, have
gone to multinational corporations, according to statistics on the
UNCC website.
Away from media scrutiny, this has been going on for years. Of course
there are many legitimate claims for losses that have come before the
UNCC: payments have gone to Kuwaitis who have lost loved ones,
limbs, and property to Saddam's forces. But much larger awards
have gone to corporations: of the total amount the UNCC has awarded
in Gulf war reparations, $21.5bn has gone to the oil industry alone.
Jean-Claude Aimé, the UN diplomat who headed the UNCC until
December 2000, publicly questioned the practice. "This is the first
time as far as I know that the UN is engaged in retrieving lost
corporate assets and profits," he told the Wall Street Journal in
1997, and then mused: "I often wonder at the correctness of that."
But the UNCC's corporate handouts only accelerated. Here is
a small sample of who has been getting "reparation" awards
from Iraq: Halliburton ($18m), Bechtel ($7m), Mobil ($2.3m),
Shell ($1.6m), Nestlé ($2.6m), Pepsi ($3.8m), Philip Morris ($1.3m),
Sheraton ($11m), Kentucky Fried Chicken ($321,000) and
Toys R Us ($189,449). In the vast majority of cases, these
corporations did not claim that Saddam's forces damaged their
property in Kuwait - only that they "lost profits" or, in the case
of American Express, experienced a "decline in business" because
of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait. One of the biggest
winners has been Texaco, which was awarded $505m in 1999.
According to a UNCC spokesperson, only 12% of that reparation
award has been paid, which means hundreds of millions more will
have to come out of the coffers of post-Saddam Iraq.
The fact that Iraqis have been paying reparations to their occupiers
is all the more shocking in the context of how little these countries
have actually spent on aid in Iraq. Despite the $18.4bn of US tax
dollars allocated for Iraq's reconstruction, the Washington Post
estimates that only $29m has been spent on water, sanitation,
health, roads, bridges, and public safety combined. And in July
(the latest figure available), the Department of Defence estimated
that only $4m had been spent compensating Iraqis who had been
injured, or who lost family members or property as a direct result
of the occupation - a fraction of what the US has collected from
Iraq in reparations since its occupation began.
For years there have been complaints about the UNCC being used
as a slush fund for multinationals and rich oil emirates - a backdoor
way for corporations to collect the money they were prevented
from making as a result of the sanctions against Iraq. During the
Saddam years, these concerns received little attention, for obvious
reasons.
But now Saddam is gone and the slush fund survives. And every
dollar sent to Geneva is a dollar not spent on humanitarian aid
and reconstruction Iraq. Furthermore, if post-Saddam Iraq had
not been forced to pay these reparations, it could have avoided
the $437m emergency loan that the International Monetary Fund
approved on September 29.
With all the talk of forgiving Iraq's debts, the country is actually
being pushed deeper into the hole, forced to borrow money from
the IMF, and to accept all of the conditions and restrictions that
come along with those loans. The UNCC, meanwhile, continues
to assess claims and make new awards: $377m worth of new
claims were awarded last month alone.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to put an end to these grotesque
corporate subsidies. According to United Nations security council
resolution 687, which created the reparations programme, payments
from Iraq must take into account "the requirements of the people
of Iraq, Iraq's payment capacity, and the needs of the Iraqi economy".
If a single one of these three issues were genuinely taken into
account, the security council would vote to put an end to these
payouts tomorrow.
That is the demand of Jubilee Iraq, a debt relief organisation based
in London. Reparations are owed to the victims of Saddam Hussein,
the group argues - both in Iraq and in Kuwait. But the people of Iraq,
who were themselves Saddam's primary victims, should not be paying
them. Instead, reparations should be the responsibility of the
governments that loaned billions to Saddam, knowing the money
was being spent on weapons so he could wage war on his neighbours
and his own people. "If justice, and not power, prevailed in international
affairs, then Saddam's creditors would be paying reparations to Kuwait
as well as far greater reparations to the Iraqi people," says Justin
Alexander, coordinator of Jubilee Iraq.
Right now precisely the opposite is happening: instead of flowing
into Iraq, reparations are flowing out. It's time for the tide to turn.
·Naomi Klein is the author of No Logo, and Fences and Windows
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
16) Indian Country Today
Denver police arrest 245 for blocking Columbus Day Parade
by: Brenda Norrell
DENVER - Calling it a ''Convoy of Conquest,'' American Indian Movement
members and their allies, including Western Shoshone Carrie Dann,
blocked the Columbus Day Parade in a protest of the Colorado holiday
that represents genocide and the theft of homelands for indigenous
people in the Americas.
''America continues to fight the 'Indian wars' and one expression of
that is Columbus Day,'' AIM organizer Glenn Morris told Indian Country
Today.
Protesters focused on exposing the root of genocide in America as they
were arrested for blocking the path of the Sons of Italy's Columbus Day
Parade of bikers, limos and semi-trucks. Denver police arrested 245
people, including 44 juveniles.
Morris said Indian children as young as seven and eight chose to be
arrested because of the injustice they face in U.S. schools.
''Every year they confront the silence of their ancestors' voices in
their history classes.''
Further, Morris said when the 245 cases go to court, American
Indians and their allies will not be the ones on trial.
''We intend to put Columbus on trial, the city of Denver on trial and
the state of Colorado and the United States on trial for celebrating
genocide.''
The protesters arrested included the event organizers, Morris, Osage
professor Tink Tinker, activist Nita Gonzales, professor Ward Churchill
and activist TroyLynn Yellowwood. Charges included interference,
failure to comply, loitering and blocking a public street.
The protesters, led by Dann and Lakota from the ''Stop Lewis and
Clark'' movement in South Dakota, first gathered at the state capitol
before blocking the parade route Oct. 9. Facing 600 Denver police,
many armed with riot gear and pepper spray, hundreds refused to
move and were arrested without incident and booked. They were
released from jail in the afternoon at about 3 p.m.
Morris pointed out that Colorado is the perfect place to halt Columbus
Day because Colorado was the first to proclaim it as a state holiday
in 1907. Far from being rhetoric, Morris said the bedrock of Columbus
Day is the Doctrine of Discovery of 1492, which is the basis of all
federal Indian law.
Morris, professor and chair of the political science department at
the University of Denver, said Indian lands have been reduced from
2 billion to 50 million acres, based on this doctrine. Columbus
advanced and expanded the arrogant European Doctrine of Discovery,
claiming that superior, civilized, Christian Europeans had the right
to seize and appropriate indigenous peoples territories and resources.
This legacy of Columbus continues today and allows the U.S.
government to ''lose'' between $40 and $100 billion that the U.S.
was to administer for the benefit of individual American Indians.
The government has admitted that it deliberately destroyed evidence
in the case, and it appears that the U.S. has no intention of finding
or accounting for the money that it has stolen, he said.
This doctrine has been embedded into racist Federal Indian Law,
and is apparent today in the case of the Western Shoshone in Nevada
and the Lakota in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
''We're not talking about a hypothetical theory to Native people.''
Morris said the result of the Doctrine of Discovery was the loss
of land and lives for Indian people. Today, the rhetoric of ''Indian
wars'' is used in Iraq by the United States military as it seeks to
take control of territory. ''All hostile territory in Iraq is still called
'Indian country.' People who fraternize with Iraqi are said to be
'going Native.'''
Columbus Day protesters followed the philosophy of Martin
Luther King Jr., who expressed the hope that direct action would
lead to negotiations. In Denver, the Transform Columbus Day
Alliance struggles to bring a halt to the Colorado holiday. Other
states, including South Dakota, have replaced Columbus Day
with Native American Day.
Western Shoshone Carrie Dann, struggling with other Western
Shoshone to protect their homelands in Nevada, and the Red
Earth Women's Alliance helped organize and lead the marches,
one in a local park on Oct. 8 and the culminating protest in
downtown Denver on Oct. 9.
''Our arrests are designed to expose a corrupt educational, legal
and political system that refuses to describe the destruction of
millions of indigenous people at the hands of Columbus for
what it is: Genocide,'' Colorado AIM said in a statement after
the arrests.
The action was to ''expose such moral and legal bankruptcy,
and we actively refuse to cooperate with legalized murder and
theft.''
Morris pointed out the facts: Christopher Columbus was a slave
trader. Columbus was involved in trading African slaves prior
to his voyage to the Americas in 1492. Columbus was personally
responsible for overseeing a colonial administration that directly
led to the death of millions of indigenous people.
Father Bartolome de Las Casas, an eyewitness and a contemporary
of Columbus, estimated that 15 million indigenous people died
in the Caribbean.
Prior to the march, American Indians urged a letter-writing
campaign to local newspapers, including the Rocky Mountain
News and Denver Post, accusing both papers of failing to provide
balanced coverage of the issues. Italian-Americans wrote letters
pointing out that not all Italians in this country support Columbus
and many stand with Indian protesters.
In preparation of a protest, Mohandas K. Gandhi was quoted:
''Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has
become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters with such
a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness.''
In 2003, Colorado AIM and allies were led by the late American
Indian elder Wallace Black Elk and Richard Costaldo, a paralyzed
Italian-American survivor of the Columbine massacre. They
turned their backs on the parade and walked away. However,
this year, they said was a year for direct action.
''In that spirit, we commend the organizers of the Festival Italiano,
which was held in Lakewood on Sept. 25 - 26,'' Colorado AIM
said, pointing out that it is the type of festival that fosters unity
and understanding.
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