16 U.S. TROOPS KILLED SINCE INVASION OF FALLUJA!
HANDS OFF FALLUJA!
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ NOW!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT TONIGHT! TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH,
5:00 p.m. POWELL AND MARKET, SF
We can't be silent about the massacre
taking place now in Iraq. U.S. ground
troops have begun a massive assault
through the streets of the poorest
sections of Iraq. One of their first
targets was a hospital!
While the U.S. claims that civilians
have left Falluja facts prove
that at least half of the 300,000 inhabitants
of Falluja have been unable to leave
because there is no food, water or supplies
available to them outside of the city.
This is Vietnam all over again and we say NO!
This demonstration was initiated
by ANSWER. There have been calls for
actions against this new offensive
from both UFPJ and USLAW. Bay Area
United Against War is in full support
of a united demonstration tomorrow.
The demonstration initiated by
Not In Our Name, on Nov. 3rd showed that
we are all on the same page when it comes to the war.
We call on all groups and individuals
to endorse and join this action. What
is needed most now is a truly united
movement-worldwide-calling
for the immediate withdrawal of all
US and US allied troops from Iraq
and Afghanistan and everywhere!
Peace and solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Night after elections, thousands fill SF streets for
Not in Our Name march: Out of Iraq now!
Today! Tuesday, Nov. 9
Emergency protest against the U.S. attackon Fallujah.
5:00 PM at Powell and Market, SF (Int'l ANSWER).
2) PROTEST THE ATTACK ON FALLUJA!
TUESDAY, NOV. 9, 5 PM
Powell and Market Streets, San Francisco
3) PROTEST THE ATTACK ON FALLUJA!
TUESDAY, NOV. 9, 5 PM
Powell and Market Streets, San Francisco
Sponsored by: International ANSWER
Supported by Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW),
Global Exchange, Not in Our Name Bay Area,
United for Peace and Justice Bay Area, and others.
Bring signs and enlarged images of Iraqi civilian casualties.
4) New York Times calls for more troops in Iraq
By Joseph Kay
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
9 November 2004
https://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/nyti-n09.shtml
5) US strikes raze Falluja hospital
A hospital has been razed to the ground in one of the
heaviest US air raids in the Iraqi city of Falluja.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3988433.stm
6) U.S. forces push through the center of Fallujah, tighten cordon
around city to block fleeing insurgents
By Jim Krane,
Associated Press, 11/9/2004 10:19
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/314/world/U_S_forces_push_through_the_ce:.sh
tml
7) U.S. Judge Halts Trial of Guantanamo Prisoner
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Mon Nov 8, 2004 05:39 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6749845&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
8) A Cancer Drug's Long Journey From Cuba
What It Took to Bring a Promising Lung Cancer Drug to U.S.
ABC News
[From: Jane Franklin, JBFranklins, 11/8/04 11:28 AM]
When the president of a small California biotech firm heard
of a promising new treatment for lung cancer, he was intrigued.
9) Taking Aim 2-hour special today begins at 4:00 p.m. - sorry for
the late notice -
From: "Taking Aim"
Tue, 09 Nov 2004 08:43:58 -0800
10) A Day That Shook the World Now Rattles Russia's Nerves
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
November 8, 2004
MOSCOW JOURNAL
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/europe/08moscow.html?oref=lo
gin
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Night after elections, thousands fill SF streets for
Not in Our Name march: Out of Iraq now!
Today! Tuesday, Nov. 9
Emergency protest against the U.S. attackon Fallujah.
5:00 PM at Powell and Market, SF (Int'l ANSWER).
Wednesday, Nov. 10
Special introductory meeting and strategizing session.
6:30 PM at the Not in Our Name office, 3945 Opal St, Oakland. (map)
Saturday, Nov. 13
We the planet music festival. Details below.
San Francisco (November 3, 2004) -- Over 3,000 braved dark rain
clouds to demand an end to the occupation of Iraq-"now!" Organized
by Not in Our Name with the support of dozens of regional peace and
justice groups, the protest garnered "Bay Area kicks the hangover" and
"Beginning of a new era in the anti-war movement" headlines.
Beginning in late September, Not in Our Name put out the call to
demonstrate that "No matter who is elected, we say no to war and
repression!" the night after the elections. Despite rain and hail,
despite forgoing our stage for a soapbox, despite microphones
shorting out and the overall inadequacy of our sound system, the
plaza packed shoulder to shoulder to cheer a broad range of speakers
who had a single theme: The entire "Bush Agenda" is unjust, their
claimed "mandate" for it is illegitimate-and we're going to fight it
at every turn!
Speakers included: Araceli Lara, St. Peter's Housing Committee;
Rayan ElAmine, Global Intifada; Mel Pilbin, Heads Up Collective;
Maura Kubrin, angry 15-year-old from Lowell High School;
Sunaina, Global Intifada; Larry Everest, author and Revolutionary
Worker newspaper writer; Samina Faheem, American Muslim Voice;
Riva Enteen, KPFA Radio Board Chair; Richard Becker, ANSWER SF;
Uda Walker, Middle East Children's Alliance; Bonnie Weinstein, Bay
Area United Against War; Toni Mendicino, Radical Women and
Freedom Socialist Party; and Andrea Prichett and Shelly Doty
sang the Not In Our Name Pledge of Resistance.
Meanwhile a thousand more people spilled out into Market Street.
Spontaneous group discussions erupted over the Bush reelection,
"What does it really mean?" and "Was every vote really counted?"
people asked each other. One thing everyone agreed on was that
it felt great to be casting a vote against the war in the streets.
Behind the fresh beats of a dozen Loco Bloco drummers on
a huge flat bed truck, Siafu, Heads Up Collective, and Global
Intifada headed up an amazing "Anti-Imperialist Contingent"
of over 300 strong to lead the raucous march down Market Street
to Valencia and down through the Mission District.
Spirited and bold, people chanted, "This is what resistance looks
like, Bush is what hypocrisy looks like," "US troops refuse to fight.
Fighting for empire just ain't right," and "Not our president, not
our war!" Chants in Spanish and Vietnamese bounced off
of neighborhood buildings-all demanding justice, peace, and
the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Asian groups, Korean, Vietnamese,
Chinese and other groups clustered carrying drums and banners.
Anarchist youth carried black, and black and red flags. Dozens of
others carried earth flags to make the point that we stand with the
people of the world, not our government's war on the world.
Along the march hundreds dropped to the pavement for mass
die-ins to symbolically represent the aftermath of U.S. air strikes-
now occurring daily in occupied Iraq. Bodies laid still and silent
while sirens cried. Each die-in ended with people jumping to their
feet shouting "Rise up with the people of the world!"
The march slowed at one point to allow members of the Women's
Community Center to join in, and later the march come to a halt
in front of the Mission police station for a short program to express
solidarity with displaced communities in the neighborhood.
"Our theme for tonight's march is the "Ghosts of the dead and the
disappeared". In the tradition of Dia de los Muertos, we mourn the
victims and honor the lives of those killed at the hands of
U.S. Imperialism. Imperialism is the global system that causes the
war abroad and the war at home in the U.S. We come together
tonight to help make visible the struggles of Third World peoples
around the globe as well as the policies that make those struggles
necessary," said Mel Pilbin of the Heads Up Collective and the
Anti-Imperialist Contingent.
As the march arrived at 24th and Mission, Maryjane for Not In Our
Name delivered a closing speech from the truck flat bed. After the
closing of the brief rally, youth set fire to an effigy of Bush in the
middle of the intersection while chanting "Bush, you liar, we'll set
your ass on fire!" That was not part of our program, but it did
represent the feelings of many who were still out in the streets.
Afterwards, about 200 hundred youth continued to march back up
Mission Street towards downtown. Police eventually detained and
cited 45 of them for "unlawful assembly" a couple of miles away.
"As an organizer of Wednesday's march and rally, I was heartened
by the diverse, lively, and defiant outpouring into the streets. There
was a lot of talk in the media about demoralization and depression
among progressives in the wake of the Bush victory at the polls.
However, we're not going to succumb to despair. We're going to
continue organizing, continue to be in the streets, and continue
to stand with the people of the world against the immoral, unjust
war in Iraq and the entire deadly trajectory of our government. We
have a mandate from the people of the world to do no less," said
Max Diorio of Not in Our Name.
Other organizers offered that this evening of resistance had much
of the same spirit as the October 6, 2002 convergence of 10,000
in Union Square, San Francisco. Also organized by Not in Our Name,
that was part of the first national protest against the coming Iraq
War. Today, with the re-selection of Bush junior, we again face
a new beginning for our struggle against this ongoing, brutal, and
unjust war and the gathering repression right here in land of the
decreasingly free.
Not in Our Name needs your support!
Please donate online today
donate.notinourname.net
Or send your tax-deductible contribution today to:
Not in Our Name, 3945 Opal Street, Oakland CA 94609
Additionally, by ordering Not in Our Name t-shirts, flags, posters,
stickers, buttons and more, you will also directly support our
local (and national) work:
notinourname.net/store
We the Planet 2004: A Festival of Music Consciousness and
Activism
Not in Our Name will be participating in this great event Saturday,
November 13. Join us for a day of powerful music, inspiration and
activism at the second annual We the Planet festival at Oakland's
Henry J. Kaiser Center.
Put away your picnic basket and get out your baggy pants, because
the indoor-winter version of this groundbreaking festival of music,
consciousness and activism will hip hop your heart away. Bands
include The Roots, The Coup, Third Eye Blind, Michelle Shocked,
plus a special appearance from Mickey Hart & Friends. The event
will be emceed by environmental activist & bestselling author Julia
Butterfly Hill and award-winning spoken-word artist & poet,
Aya De León.
Tickets are $21 in advance and $30 at the door--but the best deal
is only available to Not in Our Name volunteers. To be part of the
rotating crew to staff the Not in Our Name table, give us a call. For
more info about the show, check at www.wetheplanet.org
Not in Our Name
3945 Opal Street
Oakland CA 94609
phone: 510-601-8000
email: bayarea@notinourname.net
local: bayarea.notinourname.net
nat'l: www.notinourname.net
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) PROTEST THE ATTACK ON FALLUJA!
TUESDAY, NOV. 9, 5 PM
Powell and Market Streets, San Francisco
Sponsored by: International ANSWER
Supported by Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW), Global
Exchange, Not in Our Name Bay Area, United for Peace and
Justice Bay Area, and others.
Bring signs and enlarged images of Iraqi civilian casualties.
The assault on Falluja has started. U.S. warplanes are dropping
huge bombs on civilian neighborhoods, and ground troops are
beginning to enter the city. One hospital, Nazzal Emergency Hospital,
was destroyed in an air strike; another, Falluja General Hospital, has
been seized by U.S. forces, making it unlikely that injured civilians
will be able to go there for treatment. The estimated 50,000 civilians
who remain in Falluja lack running water, electricity, and food.
There will undoubtedly be many civilian injuries and deaths: during
the last siege of Falluja in April, at least 600 Iraqis were killed, most
of them civilians. In the current assault -- contrary to the perception
that the U.S. military only employs high-tech, surgical weapons, to
minimize civilian casualties -- AC-130 gunships are being used,
which fire only "dumb" munitions.
The death toll is expected to be high on the U.S. side as well: Marine
commanders have warned that deaths among U.S. forces could reach
levels not seen since the Vietnam War.
The U.S. assault on Falluja is a catastrophic action that will result in
horrific and unnecessary bloodshed, fuel anger and resentment against
the U.S., and swell the ranks of terrorist groups rather than eradicating
terrorism. We need to raise our voices in opposition to this attack,
insist that the U.S. return to peace negotiations, and call for our troops
to be brought home now.
Contact: International ANSWER, 415-821-6545.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) PROTEST THE ATTACK ON FALLUJA!
TUESDAY, NOV. 9, 5 PM
Powell and Market Streets, San Francisco
Sponsored by: International ANSWER
Supported by Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW),
Global Exchange, Not in Our Name Bay Area,
United for Peace and Justice Bay Area, and others.
Bring signs and enlarged images of Iraqi civilian casualties.
The assault on Falluja has started. U.S. warplanes are dropping huge
bombs on civilian neighborhoods, and ground troops are beginning
to enter the city. One hospital, Nazzal Emergency Hospital, was
destroyed in an air strike; another, Falluja General Hospital, has been
seized by U.S. forces, making it unlikely that injured civilians will be
able to go there for treatment. The estimated 50,000 civilians who
remain in Falluja lack running water, electricity, and food.
There will undoubtedly be many civilian injuries and deaths: during
the last siege of Falluja in April, at least 600 Iraqis were killed, most
of them civilians. In the current assault -- contrary to the perception
that the U.S. military only employs high-tech, surgical weapons,
to minimize civilian casualties -- AC-130 gunships are being used,
which fire only "dumb" munitions.
The death toll is expected to be high on the U.S. side as well: Marine
commanders have warned that deaths among U.S. forces could reach
levels not seen since the Vietnam War.
The U.S. assault on Falluja is a catastrophic action that will result
in horrific and unnecessary bloodshed, fuel anger and resentment
against the U.S., and swell the ranks of terrorist groups rather than
eradicating terrorism. We need to raise our voices in opposition to
this attack, insist that the U.S. return to peace negotiations, and call
for our troops to be brought home now.
Contact: International ANSWER, 415-821-6545.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) New York Times calls for more troops in Iraq
By Joseph Kay
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
9 November 2004
https://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/nyti-n09.shtml
The lead editorial in Monday's New York Times calls for an increase
in US troop levels in Iraq by 40,000 soldiers.
The editorial begins with mild criticisms of the "ambitious political
and military goals President Bush announced last week for Iraq,"
which the Times worries may be unrealizable.
The newspaper proceeds to declare: "[I]f Mr. Bush intends to keep
American troops in Iraq until his stated aims are achieved, he must
face up to the compelling need to increase their strength, and to
commit the resources needed to give present policies at least some
chance of success. That would require a minimum of two additional
combat divisions, or nearly 40,000 more American troops, beyond
the just over 140,000 currently planned for the Iraqi election period."
The editorial goes on to say, "If Mr. Bush feels he now has a mandate
from the voters to stay the course until he creates a stable, unified
Iraq, he owes it to the Iraqi people and Americans stationed there to
commit enough additional troops to make that look like a plausible
possibility."
The Times 'editorial coincides with the American military's launching
of a massive invasion of Fallujah, a crime of immense proportions
that will result in the deaths of thousands of Iraqis. It was written
a day after the declaration of martial law by the Iraqi stooge leader
Ayad Allawi, a measure intended to give the American military an
even freer hand to carry out arbitrary arrests and the violent
suppression of resistance.
The newspaper of American liberalism does not offer an ounce
of criticism of these actions. On the contrary, it cites the "battle
for Fallujah" as one of the challenges confronting the US military,
whose "success" necessitates the introduction of more soldiers.
This position is entirely consistent the Times 'past support for
the invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is also entirely consistent
with the newspaper's endorsement of Democrat John Kerry for
president. During his campaign, Kerry repeatedly criticized Bush
for not carrying out a full-scale invasion of Fallujah and called
for an increase in the size of the American military and a doubling
of Special Forces soldiers.
It is highly significant that one of the first post-election editorials
on the war from the New York Times -the most influential
newspaper of the liberal establishment-calls for an escalation
of American involvement. It underscores the fact that in the
elections the Democratic Party offered no alternative to Bush.
The Times is articulating the positions that Kerry would be
promoting had he won last week's election.
The editors suggest that the sending of more troops to Iraq
will serve a civilizing purpose. With more troops, "there might
be fewer scenes of stressed and frightened patrols kicking in
doors and conducting humiliating household searches. There
might be fewer air strikes on populated neighborhoods and
fewer prison abuses."
This is a bare-faced lie. More troops in Iraq will serve one and
only one purpose: to increase the efficiency and capacity of the
American military to suppress though mass killing and terror
what is a growing popular resistance to foreign occupation.
With more troops, there will be more household searches, more
air strikes and more abuse. The devastation presently being
inflicted on the people of Fallujah will be repeated elsewhere in
an effort to crush all resistance. There is no doubt that these
actions will likewise receive the support of the New York Times .
According to the newspaper, employing two more divisions in
Iraq will require the addition of six active-duty divisions to the
Army to allow for proper rotation. The Times declares, "There
are more than enough potential fighting-age volunteers to do
that without resorting to a draft."
Another lie. The logic of the Times 'position-and the policy of
the Bush administration-leads precisely to the reintroduction of
the draft. The launching of an illegal war against Iraq and the
brutal methods employed by the occupation have generated
enormous resistance. The only response that the American
government has is an escalation of repression. But the escalation
of repression requires more and more troops, and the military
is already straining against the limitations of a volunteer army.
When the time for a draft comes, the Times will lend its support.
The lies of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al
Qaeda-lies that the Times did much to promote-have been
thoroughly discredited. The newspaper and the American media
as a whole have resorted to simply repeating the propaganda that
the American government puts out about defeating terrorism
and ensuring "stability."
The Times has published nothing that seriously analyzes the
purpose of the American occupation or the nature of the opposition
that it confronts. It has done nothing to justify its call for sending
tens of thousands more American youth to kill and be killed.
The shameful position being staked out by the New York Times
demonstrates once again the complete complicity of the media
and the liberal establishment in the crimes that are being carried
out in Iraq.
Copyright 1998-2004
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) US strikes raze Falluja hospital
A hospital has been razed to the ground in one of the
heaviest US air raids in the Iraqi city of Falluja.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3988433.stm
Witnesses said only the facade remained of the small Nazzal Emergency
Hospital in the centre of the city. There are no reports on casualties.
A nearby medical supplies storeroom and dozens of houses were
damaged as US forces continued preparing the ground for an expected
major assault.
UN chief Kofi Annan has warned against an attack on the restive Sunni
city.
It is the third time since the end of the US-led war that US and Iraqi
forces have tried to gain control of Falluja.
They say militants loyal to top al-Qaeda suspect Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi are hiding there.
Zarqawi's supporters have been behind some of the worst attacks
on coalition and Iraqi forces as well as dozens of kidnappings. Some
of the hostages - foreigners and Iraqis - have been beheaded.
'Ruined'
US troops using 155mm howitzers pounded a number of pre-planned
targets in Falluja on Saturday.
Along with air strikes - one of the heaviest in recent days - this is
all part of what appears to be a steadily increasing pressure on the
insurgents, says the BBC's Paul Wood, who is with US marines outside
Falluja.
Overnight, a column of armoured vehicles and humvee jeeps carried
out attacks in the outskirts of Falluja designed to draw out the rebels
and provide fresh targets for the air power and artillery.
These are the kind of preliminary operations which would be carried
out before a full-scale assault on Falluja, our correspondent says.
The air strikes reduced the Nazzal hospital, run by a Saudi Arabian
Islamic charity, to rubble.
Hospital officials quoted by Reuters news agency say all the
contents were ruined.
FALLUJA FLASHPOINT
Apr 2003: US paratroopers shoot dead 13 demonstrators
Nov 2003-Jan 2004: attacks on three US helicopters kill 25
Feb 2004: 25 killed in attacks on Iraqi police
31 Mar 2004: four US contractors killed
Apr 2004: US seals off city
May 2004: Siege lifted
June 2004: Zarqawi loyalists targeted in US raids -
continuing to date
Oct 2004: Iraqi PM threatens military action if Zarqawi is
not handed over
More people were preparing to flee the city - more than half of
the city's estimated 300,000 people have already left.
US marine officers say the full-scale attack will go ahead only
once Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has given the order.
"The window really is closing for a peaceful settlement,"
Mr Allawi said on Friday after meeting EU leaders in Brussels.
In a letter to the leaders of the US, UK and Iraq, UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan warned that the use of force risked alienating
Iraqis when their support for elections was vital.
But Mr Allawi called the letter "confused".
He said if Mr Annan thought he could prevent insurgents in
Falluja from "inflicting damage and killing", he was welcome
to try.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/3988433.stm
Published: 2004/11/06 13:14:28 GMT
(c) BBC MMIV
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) U.S. forces push through the center of Falluja, tighten cordon
around city to block fleeing insurgents
By Jim Krane,
Associated Press, 11/9/2004 10:19
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/314/world/U_S_forces_push_through_the_ce:.sh
tml
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) U.S. Army and Marine units thrust through
the center of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Tuesday, fighting
bands of guerrillas in the streets and conducting house-to-house
searches on the second day of a major offensive to retake the city
from Islamic militants.
A total of 14 Americans have been killed in the past two days across
Iraq including three killed in Fallujah on Tuesday and 11 others who
died Monday, most of them as guerrillas launched a wave of attacks
in Baghdad and southwest of Fallujah, a senior Pentagon official said.
The 11 deaths were the highest one-day U.S. toll in more than six
months.
As fighting raged in Fallujah, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared
a nighttime curfew in Baghdad and its surroundings the first curfew
in the capital for a year a day after a string of insurgent attacks in
the city killed nine Iraqis and wounded more than 80.
Anger grew among Iraq's Sunni Muslim majority over the assault on
the mainly Sunni city of Fallujah. A powerful group of clerics called
for a boycott of January elections.
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched the invasion of Fallujah to restore
government control in the insurgents' strongest bastion ahead of
the elections. But the assault risks alienating Sunnis and if they
boycott, the vote's legitimacy could be deeply undermined.
In Fallujah, heavy street clashes were raging in northern
neighborhoods. By midday, U.S. armored units had made their
way to the highway running east-west through the city's center
and crossed over into the southern part of Fallujah, a major
milestone.
Still, the military reported lighter-than-expected resistance
in Jolan, a warren of alleyways in northwestern Fallujah where
guerillas were believed to be at their strongest.
That could be a sign that insurgents left the city before the
operation started or that the troops have not yet reached the
center location to which the resistance has fallen back, Pentagon
officials said in Washington.
An estimated 6,000 U.S. troops and 2,000 allied Iraqi soldiers
invaded the city from the north Monday night in a quick, powerful
start to an offensive aimed at re-establishing government control
ahead of the January elections. The guerrillas fought off a bloody
Marine offensive against the city in April.
Allawi called on Fallujah's fighters to lay down their weapons to
spare the city and allow government forces to take control, ''The
political solution is possible even if military operations are ongoing,''
his spokesman said.
In Fallujah's urban battles Tuesday, small bands of guerrillas
fewer than 20 were engaging U.S. troops, then falling back
in the face of overwhelming fire from American tanks, 20mm
cannons and heavy machine guns, said Time magazine reporter
Michael Ware, embedded with troops. Ware reported that there
appeared to be no civilians in the area he was in.
On one thoroughfare in the city, U.S. troops traded fire with gunmen
holed up in a row of houses about 100 yards away. An American
gunner on an armored vehicle let loose with his machine gun,
grinding the upper part of a small building to rubble.
Elsewhere, witnesses reported seeing at least two American tanks
engulfed in flames. A Kiowa helicopter flying over southeast Fallujah
took groundfire, injuring the pilot, but he managed to return to
the U.S. base.
The once constant thunder of artillery barrages was halted, since so
many troops are moving inside the city's narrow streets. U.S. and
Iraqi forces surrounded a mosque inside the city that was used as
arms depot and insurgent meeting point, the BBC reported.
Col. Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd
Brigade, said Tuesday that a security cordon around the city will be
tightened to ensure insurgents dressed in civilian clothing don't slip
out.
''My concern now is only one not to allow any enemy to escape. As
we tighten the noose around him, he will move to escape to fight
another day. I do not want these guys to get out of here. I want
them killed or captured as they flee,'' he said.
Guerrillas continued their campaign elsewhere. Hundreds of militants
swarmed the streets of Ramadi, another insurgent stronghold
70 miles west of Baghdad. Gunfire rang out in the city center,
and a destroyed car smeared with blood was seen.
The military said Tuesday afternoon that three troops were killed
and another 14 wounded in and around Fallujah during the past
12 hours.
Two Marines died Monday before the major assault when their
bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates River. Also Monday,
three Marines and six soldiers were killed, most by homemade
bombs, the Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity.
Some 10,000-15,000 U.S. troops have surrounded Fallujah, along
with allies Iraqi forces, according to the top U.S. commander in
Iraq, Gen. George Casey. Commanders estimate around 3,000
Sunni fighters are in Fallujah, perhaps around 20 percent of
them foreign Islamic militants.
The number of civilians in the city is unknown. A large portion
of the city's 200,000 to 300,000 residents are believed to have
fled before the offensive, but the Pentagon has acknowledged it
doesn't know how many
Overnight, air and artillery barrages lit up the skies over Fallujah
lit up with flashes.
''Every minute, hundreds of bombs and shells are exploding,''
Fadril al-Badrani, a resident who lives in the center of Fallujah,
said after nightfall Monday. ''The north of the city is in flames.
I can also see fire and smoke ... Fallujah has become like hell.''
Al-Badrani said hundreds of houses had been destroyed.
U.S. troops cut off electricity to the city. Residents said they
were without running water and were worried about food
shortages because most shops in the city have been closed
for the past two days.
A U.S. military spokesman estimated that 42 insurgents were
killed across the city in bombardment and skirmishes before the
main assault began Monday evening. Two Marines were killed
when their bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates near Fallujah.
On Monday, a doctor at a clinic in Fallujah, Mohammed Amer,
reported 12 people were killed. Seventeen others, including
a 5-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy, were wounded, he said.
The question of casualties is a major factor in the offensive.
Reports of hundreds of people killed during the Marine offensive
in April outraged Iraqis and forced the Marines to pull back
allowing guerrillas to only strengthen their hold on the city.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld insisted Monday,
''There aren't going to be large numbers of civilians killed and
certainly not by U.S. forces.''
Allawi's government has also taken a prominent role in defending
the assault for which the prime minister gave the green light.
Still, the powerful Sunni cleric's group the Association of Muslim
Scholars called for a boycott of the January elections.
The election is being held ''over the corpses of those killed in
Fallujah and the blood of the wounded,'' said Harith al-Dhari,
the group's director.
Industry Minister Hajim Al-Hassani of the mainly Sunni Iraqi
Islamic Party quit the government to protest the assault.
''The American attack on our people in Fallujah has led and will
lead to more killings and genocide without mercy from the
Americans,'' said party chief Mohsen Abdel-Hamid.
The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that it was ''extremely
concerned'' about tens of thousands of people fleeing the
Fallujah fighting many of them now living in tents.
''The majority of civilians appear to have left the city, although
it is difficult to establish numbers with any certainty,'' said
Jennifer Clark, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press
correspondents Robert Burns in Washington; Edward Harris
in Fallujah; and Tini Tran, Mariam Fam, Katarina Kratovac
and Maggie Michael in Baghdad.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) U.S. Judge Halts Trial of Guantanamo Prisoner
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Mon Nov 8, 2004 05:39 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6749845&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday dealt a
major setback to the Bush administration by halting as unlawful
the military tribunal trial of a Guantanamo prisoner accused of
being Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and driver.
The judge ruled the trial could not proceed until a
decision has been made on whether he is a prisoner of war under
the Geneva Conventions and until the rules are changed so he
can see the evidence against him and be present at all proceedings.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson rejected the
administration's request to dismiss the lawsuit by Salim Ahmed
Hamdan of Yemen. The ruling led to an immediate halt in the
proceedings by the tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.
The tribunals, formally called a military commission, at
the U.S. Navy base in Cuba were authorized by President Bush
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but have been criticized by
human rights groups and some military lawyers as being
fundamentally unfair to defendants.
The human rights group Amnesty International USA said,
"This ruling rightly demolishes the Bush administration's
argument that the Geneva Conventions did not universally apply
to prisoners detained in Afghanistan."
COMMISSIONS CALLED AN EMBARRASSMENT
Michael Ratner of the New York-based Center for
Constitutional Rights, which represents a number of Guantanamo
prisoners, said, "We are thrilled by this ruling. Military
commissions were a bad idea and an embarrassment."
The Justice Department criticized the ruling and vowed to
appeal immediately.
More than 500 people are being held at the Guantanamo
prison, detained during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and in
other operations in the U.S. war against terrorism.
Robertson ruled that until a competent tribunal determines
that Hamdan is not entitled to prisoner-of-war status, he may
be tried for the offenses only by court-martial under the U.S.
military justice system.
The U.S. government has taken the position the Guantanamo
detainees are "enemy combatants" and are not entitled to the
protections normally given to prisoners of war.
"No proper determination has been made that Hamdan is an
offender triable by military tribunal under the law of war,"
Robertson wrote.
Hamdan's trial would be unlawful until the tribunal's rule
permitting his exclusion from proceedings and the withholding
of evidence from him is amended to be consistent with the
military justice system, Robertson ruled.
"Hamdan's right to be present at every phase of his trial
and to see all the evidence admitted against him is of
immediate ... concern," Robertson said.
"For example, testimony may be received from a confidential
informant, and Hamdan will not be permitted to hear the
testimony, see the witness's face or learn his name," he said.
The presiding officer of the military commissions at
Guantanamo Bay, Col. Peter Brownback, suspended the hearings
indefinitely after the ruling, a spokesman for the commissions
said.
"Col. Brownback called an indefinite recess," said Army
Maj. Lee Reynolds in a telephone interview from the U.S. Naval
Base at Guantanamo. "We are going through the ruling now to
determine what it means."
Reynolds said lawyers were taking up motions for Hamdan
when Brownback got word of the ruling and called a halt to
proceedings. Hamdan was in the courtroom at the time.
"Right now the ruling just applies to him (Hamdan) but it
will probably have greater implications," Reynolds said.
Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said, "We
vigorously disagree with the court's decision."
He said the president properly determined that the Geneva
Conventions do not apply to al Qaeda members. "The judge has
put terrorism on the same legal footing as legitimate methods
of waging war," Corallo said in a statement. (Additional
reporting by Jim Loney in Miami)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) A Cancer Drug's Long Journey From Cuba
What It Took to Bring a Promising Lung Cancer Drug to U.S.
ABC News
[From: Jane Franklin, JBFranklins, 11/8/04 11:28 AM]
When the president of a small California biotech firm heard
of a promising new treatment for lung cancer, he was intrigued.
"It stimulates a very strong immune response in patients," said David Hale,
CEO of CancerVax Corp.
There was just one hitch -- the drug, referred to as SAI-EGF -- is made in
Cuba as part of Fidel Castro's $1 billion biotech program. Still, Hale was
determined to bring the drug to the United States.
"I had no idea what an overwhelming task this was going to be," he said.
In early testing, SAI-EGF prolonged the lives of those with advanced lung
cancer by as much as eight months. The drug triggers the body's own immune
system to fight the tumor and slow its growth. Scientists hope it may also
be effective in treating breast and other cancers.
Cuban scientists were willing to help Americans gain access to the drug.
"There is no reason why scientists here and there cannot cooperate," said
Dr. Augustin Lage, director of the Center of Molecular Immunology in
Havana, which developed the drug.
Exception to Trade Embargo
But in order for the drug to come to the United States, the State
Department had to recommend that an exception be made to the 44-year-old
U.S.-Cuban trade embargo. The Treasury Department later approved that
request. The deal came together just as the Bush administration was getting
tougher on Cuban trade.
"The Bush administration doesn't want to do anything to validate the
[Cuban] revolution, whether it be public relations terms or financial
terms, and that was the quandary with CancerVax," said John Kavulich,
president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
CancerVax hired lobbyists to build political support. Their pitch hit home
with many. Among the top-level decision-makers at the State Department, two
had recently lost relatives to lung cancer.
"A lot of the people that might normally be opposed to such a transaction
actually were supportive of our efforts to bring the product into the
U.S.," said Hale.
The U.S. government did not want the Cuban government to benefit from the
sale of the drug. So instead of paying $6 million in cash for the drug,
CancerVax was told to pay in food and medical supplies.
For Castro, the deal was the prefect opportunity to show the world that
Cuba had something the United States wanted.
After years of effort, CancerVax hopes to begin clinical trials next year.
If all goes well, and the drug is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, it may be on the market by 2009.
ABC News' Lisa Stark filed this report for World News Tonight.
Copyright (c) 2004 ABC News Internet Ventures
Courtesy of:
The Law Office of Jose Pertierra
1010 Vermont Avenue, NW #620
Washington, DC 20005
202 783 6666
JosePertierra@aol.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Taking Aim 2-hour special today begins at 4:00 p.m. - sorry for
the late notice -
From: "Taking Aim"
Tue, 09 Nov 2004 08:43:58 -0800
Tune in today, Tuesday, November 9, for a 2-hour special Taking
Aim broadcast - beginning at 4:00 p.m. (ET) and going until
6:00 p.m. during the WBAI fall fund drive.
(1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. on the West Coast at www.wbai.org)
Hear segments of our WBAI fund drive premium, "The Hidden
History of Zionism and the Road Map as a Dead End for the
Palestinian People ."and excerpts read from the classic work,
"The Hidden History of Zionism" by Ralph Schoenman This is
a riveting and provocative presentation that should move you
to tears as well as to action. Contribute $100 to WBAI and
receive a this extraordinary 3-hour 2-CD set and/or $125 for
a signed edition of the cloth-bound (hardcover) edition of the book.
(note we shall discuss the onslaught and devastation of
Fallujah, too)
We also have prepared a special pamphlet for your
$60 contribution to WBAI. It includes:
1. Who Bombed the U.S. World Trade Center? Ã 1993; Growing
Evidence Points to Role of FBI Operative
2. Permanent War: The Stakes for Working People
3. the complete transcript of 9/11: False Flag Operation
Available still for your $100 contribution the 2-CD set
9/11 and the Capitalist State
The Smoking Guns of 9/11
Demonstrate your support for Taking Aim during the WBAI fall
fund drive. Phone the pledge lines (212) 209-2950. If you are
out of the tri-state New York broadcast range for WBAI, remember
that you can listen to Taking Aim with a simultaneous radio
stream via the Internet at www.wbai.org and can pick up the
phone to dial (212) 209-2950. You must phone the pledge
line to receive "The Hidden History of Zionism" and the 9/11
pamphlet premiums .
Spread the word - send this message to various listserves,
tell your friends, family and colleagues to tune in. This will
be your only opportunity during the fall fund drive.
Thanks,
Mya and Ralph
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) A Day That Shook the World Now Rattles Russia's Nerves
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
November 8, 2004
MOSCOW JOURNAL
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/europe/08moscow.html?oref=lo
gin
MOSCOW, Nov. 7 - Russia celebrated a holiday on Sunday
that under the Julian calendar was in October, that commemorates
the beginnings of a state that no longer exists. It used to be called
the Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution, but is now the
Day of Accord and Reconciliation or, sometimes, the reverse.
Anyway, neither was much in evidence.
Tens of thousands of Communists and their supporters marched
in Moscow and other cities to honor the 87th anniversary of the
revolution that swept the Bolsheviks to power. They were energized
this year not only by revolutionary nostalgia and ideological zeal,
but also by concern over a proposal to legislate away the holiday
itself.
Placards reading "Hands Off Our Glory - Nov. 7!" joined the more
familiar ones like "Down with the Bourgeois Counterrevolutionaries!"
as marchers formed a river of red that coursed slowly from Lenin's
statue on October Square to Marx's on Theater Square.
"A new epoch began after the Great October Socialist Revolution,"
said Lilya P. Timoshkova, one of the marchers. "The memory of this
holiday is not something you can sweep away."
But a bill in Parliament, drafted by pro-Kremlin lawmakers, would
dispatch Nov. 7 the way of the Soviet Union itself, calling the day
"a source of tension in society." In its place would emerge the Day
of National Unity on Nov. 4, the anniversary of an event that hardly
races to mind, even for Russians: the day in 1612 that Kozma Minin
and Prince Dmitri Pojarsky led the uprising against the Polish
occupation of Moscow.
National holidays, of course, reflect any country's history and identity,
but few countries have a more conflicted sense of both than Russia
and, as a result, a more convoluted calendar.
Christmas, banned in Soviet times, is now officially celebrated Jan. 7,
because the Russian Orthodox Church, unlike the Soviet Union, did
not adopt the Gregorian calendar. (That has added benefits, since
"old" New Year's Eve is celebrated Jan. 13, in addition to the "new"
one on Dec. 31.)
Russia, as the Soviet Union before, still celebrates May Day, or the
Day of International Workers' Solidarity, but calls it the Day of Spring
and Labor.
There is still, for now, Constitution Day, though not as before on
Dec. 5, honoring Stalin's Constitution, but on Dec. 12, the
anniversary of the one adopted after President Boris N. Yeltsin
ordered the shelling of the Parliament in 1993.
Some Russian holidays manage to avoid politics. New Year's, which,
much like Christmas elsewhere, involves decorating trees and
exchanging gifts, is safely nonideological and very popular.
March 8 is International Women's Day, which has socialist roots but
is celebrated now not unlike Valentine's Day (which is also catching
on here), with flowers and chocolate.
Of course, Women's Day raised the question of what to do for the
men. In 2002, President Vladimir V. Putin elevated Feb. 23 (formerly
Day of the Soviet Army and Navy, but not a day off) to a holiday known
as Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland, or informally as Men's Day.
That is also the anniversary of the day in 1944 when Stalin ordered
the Chechens deported to Siberia - an event whose violent reverberations
are felt today.
May 9 is Victory Day, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945
and is, mostly, unambiguous. Chechnya's separatists chose it this year
to assassinate the republic's Russian-backed president, Akhmad Kadyrov.
June 12, since 1994, has been Independence Day. In the calendar's
most patent paradox, Russians on that day celebrate the 1990
declaration of independence from the country whose revolutionary
beginnings they celebrate Nov. 7.
The Communists, in keeping with recent tradition, turned their
annual marches on Sunday into anti-government protests, which
almost certainly is why the government would like to stop making
it an official occasion. Across the country, from Yakutia in Siberia
to Voronezh on the Volga, as many as 300,000 people marched,
according to the Interior Ministry.
In Moscow, Anna B. Smirnova, a teacher, marched wearing a red
headscarf. She called the proposal to abolish the holiday an ill-
conceived effort by a divisive government that has failed to
address Russia's nagging social and economic inequities.
Nov. 7 might represent an anachronistic ideology, she said, but
the ideals of social equality do not. "Until the main social demands
of the people are taken care of, there will be no accord and
reconciliation," she said.
That Nov. 7 remains a holiday at all reflects the delicate balance
between past and present that has persisted since the Soviet
Union collapsed.
Mr. Yeltsin may have been a democrat, but he was a weak
leader who could not risk inflaming his main opponents.
It was easier to keep the old holidays, while adding new ones
like Christmas or changing the names. From his hospital bed
after heart surgery in 1996, he issued a decree renaming Nov. 7.
Gennady A. Zyuganov - then, as now, the Communist leader -
called the new proposal insulting. He also ridiculed Nov. 4 as
historically inaccurate.
"All intellectuals know that on that day only Kitai Gorod was
seized, while the country was liberated later," he told the radio
station Ekho Moskvy on Friday, referring to the old part of Moscow
near the Kremlin. "A garrison was still resisting in the Kremlin. They
only opened the gate after they had eaten all the crows and dogs."
Mr. Putin has not addressed the proposal, but the official view
became clear on state news media. The state-owned Rossiya
network, like the official Russian Information Agency, led not with
the Communist marches, but rather with a smaller, government-
sponsored parade marking the 63rd anniversary of the mythologized
march of the Soviet Army through Red Square to meet Hitler's
advancing armies on Nov. 7, 1941. That date had never before
been given such prominence.
Vladimir A. Ryzhkov, a liberal in Parliament, said in an interview
that it was time to rethink a calendar rife with absurdities. He
favors abandoning Nov. 7, but opposes Nov. 4, since that date,
too, would commemorate a violent struggle, not unity. Dropping
Dec. 12 - Constitution Day - would be "one more signal that
we do not support constitutional law," he said.
He plans to propose instead Oct. 17, which next year will be
the 100th anniversary of Nicholas II's October Manifesto, granting
basic rights and empowering Parliament after a wave of unrest.
Another choice, he said, could be April 23, when Nicholas
published the Fundamental Laws in 1906, outlining those
rights. Those, he said, would "symbolize Russian democracy."
"Unfortunately," he added, "Russian history is very complicated.
Many dates divide society."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
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