coming up this Wednesday, September 22, 7:00 p.m.,
1380 Valencia Street, between 24th & 25th Streets in S.F.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) RALLY AGAINST RADIO FREQUENCY
IDENTIFICATION (RFID) TECHNOLOGY
AT THE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
Sunday, September 19, 2004 at 2:00 p.m.
2) FBI data sought in bid to free Indian activist
By PHIL FAIRBANKS and MARK SOMMER
News Staff Reporters
9/14/2004
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040914/1049110.asp
3) ANSWER Activist Meeting
Tuesday, Sept. 21, 7pm
2489 Mission St. Room 30 (at 21st St.)
Help us launch a new national campaign -
the People's Anti-War Referendum –
Vote No on War & Occupation!
4) US Soldiers Shoot First, No Questions Asked
by Gethin Chamberlain
BAGHDAD
Published on Friday, September 17, 2004
by The Scotsman (Scotland)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0917-25.htm
5) NEWS: Constitution be damned:
CIA acting director opposes release of 1947-1970
CIA budget totals
6) Dozens more die in Iraq violence
·45 die in Falluja raids
·Baghdad car bomb kills 13
·UK may send extra troops
The Guardian
5pm update
Friday September 17, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1306807,00.html
7) From: No One is Illegal Montreal
From the Family of the Late FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI:
A Statement of Solidarity for the Coalition Against the
Deportation of Palestinian Refugees in Montreal
on the eve of the September 18th
STATELESS and DEPORTED Demonstration.
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:19:08 -0700 (PDT)
8) This Is Bush's Vietnam
By BOB HERBERT
OP-ED COLUMNIST
ARLINGTON, Va.
September 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/17/opinion/17herbert.html
9) TERROR ON THE JOB
According to Human Rights Watch 200,000 employees in
the U.S. were fired in the last decade because of
their union activities.
Where is the "War on Corporate Terror"?
Tidbit from: Howard Keylor
10) Subject: [ufpj-disc] RE: March Count
From: "John Bostrom"
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 13:30:46 -0400
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) RALLY AGAINST RADIO FREQUENCY
IDENTIFICATION (RFID) TECHNOLOGY
AT THE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
Sunday, September 19, 2004 at 2:00 p.m.
Join the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Library Users Association, San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free
Union and other opponents of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
technology at the San Francisco Public Library for a rally and
informational picket line in front of the Main
Library at Larkin & Grove Streets in San Francisco.
The SF Public Library plans to
spend $300,000 in the next fiscal
year and $3 million over the next 6
years to replace its existing bar code system with
RFID chips and wireless readers.
RFID chips can be read anywhere without
the knowledge or consent of the
library user, even through a book bag,
enabling anyone with access to RFID
technology to identify and track the
movement of library materials and users.
The threats posed by RFID
technology to Library user privacy
are real, and the radiation emitted by
portable and stationary wireless
RFID readers has uncertain public health
implications and should be avoided
as a precautionary measure. If the
$300,000 the Library is requesting
for RFID is not approved by the Board of
Supervisors, the money is designated
to fund youth jobs at the Library
instead.
So come to the Main Library on Sunday,
September 19 at 2:00 p.m., bring a
friend and send a message to the Board
of Supervisors: No to RFID at the SF
Public Library! Yes to jobs for youth
at the Library!
See you on the 19th!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) FBI data sought in bid to free Indian activist
By PHIL FAIRBANKS and MARK SOMMER
News Staff Reporters
9/14/2004
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040914/1049110.asp
Leonard Peltier, 60, is serving two
sentences of life imprisonment in the
deaths of two FBI agents in 1975.
Leonard Peltier's nearly 30-year quest
for freedom brought his defense team
to a Buffalo courtroom Monday seeking
FBI documents it believes could lead
to a new trial for the nationally known
Indian activist convicted of murder.
Peltier, sentenced to two terms of life
imprisonment in the 1975 shooting
deaths of two FBI agents in South
Dakota, wants a local judge to order the
release of 15 pages of documents,
part of a nationwide effort aimed at
proving that he was railroaded by the FBI.
Long championed as a "political prisoner"
by groups such as Amnesty
International, Peltier is a member
of the American Indian Movement. In the
eyes of the federal government, he
is a brutal killer who should never go
free.
"The FBI is hellbent on blocking the
disclosure of this information and
keeping Leonard Peltier in jail for
the rest of his natural life," Michael
Kuzma, a Buffalo lawyer and a
member of Peltier's defense team,
said in court Monday.
At issue before U.S. District Judge
William M. Skretny, who reserved
decision Monday, are 15 pages of
documents the FBI has withheld since 1975
on grounds of national security and
protection of confidential sources.
Peltier was not in court Monday,
but his attorney argued that the FBI is
withholding documents in order to
cover up its misconduct, an allegation the
government denies.
"The FBI has acted in good faith in
the processing of all these requests,"
Preeya M. Noronha, a U.S. Justice
Department attorney, told Skretny.
"There's no evidence that anything
improper was done."
Skretny took issue with Noronha's
contention, reminding her that two federal
appeals courts have criticized the
FBI's conduct in the Peltier case. One
panel of judges said the government's
decision to withhold and intimidate
witnesses should be "condemned."
Peltier, who contends that he was
framed by the government, has spent the
last several years seeking FBI
documents through the Freedom of Information
Act. Earlier this year, the government
acknowledged that more than 142,000
pages of documents pertaining to his
case were never turned over to his
attorneys.
The catalyst for the Buffalo case is a
heavily excised 1975 Teletype message
from the Buffalo office of the FBI to
then-FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley.
Kuzma said the Teletype message
indicates that a New York informant was
trying to infiltrate Peltier's defense effort.
Kelley later testified that
the government used informants
against the American Indian Movement, or AIM.
Peltier's attorneys learned of the
Teletype message after a FOIA request and
a subsequent lawsuit against the
FBI's Buffalo office pried loose 797 pages
of documents - some partially blacked
out - containing telex messages,
articles, letters and other memorandums.
"It appears a Buffalo source was
trying to infiltrate the defense team in
1975," Kuzma said during an interview
before the trial. "If we can show that
had a destructive role or impact on
the defense or the attorney-client
relationship, it could blow the case open."
The FBI tells a far different story.
Nearly 30 years after FBI Special
Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A.
Williams were killed at the Pine
Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota,
the agency insists that Peltier is guilty.
"I stand behind the review of the
(U.S.) Supreme Court that he is a
convicted murderer," said Peter J.
Ahearn, special agent in charge of the
FBI's Buffalo office.
Ahearn said he has continued to
review material on the case through the
years and has found no reason to
believe that Peltier was innocent.
Among FBI agents, it is a case that
evokes great passion. Four years ago,
about 500 active and retired agents
held a march outside the White House to
dissuade President Bill Clinton from
granting clemency to Peltier. That view
was echoed by then-FBI Director
Louis J. Freeh in a public letter to the
president.
Despite the FBI's strong stance against
a new trial, Peltier's lead attorney
said the information they seek could
have a potentially explosive impact on
the case.
"It would be grounds for a new trial,
one which we'd relish because we know
they couldn't prove Leonard did it,"
said Barry Bachrach. "It could even be
grounds for an outright reversal."
Allan Jamieson, a Cayuga Indian who
lives in Buffalo and has tried to raise
public awareness about Peltier, agrees.
He sees the case as a symbol of the
injustices committed by the U.S.
government against Native Americans.
He also wonders why information
regarding Peltier can still be considered a
matter of national security nearly 30 years later.
"I don't understand how this information
can be perceived as a threat at
this point in time," Jamieson said.
Peltier, 60, is serving his two terms of
life in prison at Leavenworth
Federal Penitentiary in Kansas.
e-mail: pfairbanks@buffnews.com
and msommer@buffnews.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) ANSWER Activist Meeting
Tuesday, Sept. 21, 7pm
2489 Mission St. Room 30 (at 21st St.)
Help us launch a new national campaign -
the People's Anti-War Referendum –
Vote No on War & Occupation!
The U.S. elections give us no say on the critical issue of war and
occupation. Rather, the big business candidates fight over who
will spend more money on the “war on terrorism” and who will
send more troops to Iraq.
Join the peopleÂ’s anti-war ballot, a national independent grassroots
referendum to demonstrate and organize the breadth of opposition
to the U.S. wars and occupations and to bring the troops home now.
Unlike U.S. elections, our referendum doesnÂ’t discriminate by age,
immigration status, or prison history. We are all affected by the U.S.
policies of war and occupation, and we should have a say.
When you vote in the PeopleÂ’s Anti-War Referendum, your name
will not be sent to any branch of the government. Signatures will
be collected and the results presented to the media just before
the November election in a display of the strength of the
opposition to the war.
Join us this Tuesday at the ANSWER Activist Meeting to help
organize this important new campaign, set-up street polls
and tabling.
We will also have a political update on the Middle East, a
report on the Oct. 1 March Against Racism Discrimination
in the Castro and the Oct. 16 March for Immigrant Rights.
We will have break-out committees to work on these areas.
Get involved!
For more information, contact 415-821-6545 or
answer@actionsf.org.
To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) US Soldiers Shoot First, No Questions Asked
by Gethin Chamberlain
BAGHDAD
Published on Friday, September 17, 2004
by The Scotsman (Scotland)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0917-25.htm
BAGHDAD - His name was Ahmed Hameed and he was 36 years old.
He had taken the wrong turning up to the checkpoint on the July 14
Bridge which spans the Tigris on the south-eastern edge of what
used to be known in Baghdad as the Green Zone, but which has
now been renamed the International Zone.
Now he lies in a body-bag a few yards away from the US army gun
tower which opened fire on him as he tried to turn his moped around.
Soldiers from the US Airborne surround him, those at the back
peering over the shoulders of the ones in front to get a better
view as the bag is unzipped. In the tower, the heavy .240-calibre
machine-gun hangs limply on its mount, pointing at the ground.
The gunner is leaning on the parapet, looking out across the city.
Ahmed's head is turned away to one side, his mouth open, the
blood which streaks his face already dry. His right hand is by his
side, the left curled across his stomach. The fingers stop a few
inches from the inch-wide hole just above his groin. Someone
has tried to stem the bleeding from another hole in the top of
his chest, but there was too much blood. It has soaked his T-shirt,
which is pulled up to expose the wounds, and poured down his
body, mingling with his sweat, leaving pale rivulets across the skin.
Twenty yards away, his maroon Honda Spacy moped lies on its
right-hand side in front of a concrete barrier. There is a sign
painted on the barrier: it says "Do not enter or you will be shot",
in English and Arabic. There is a small bullet entry hole in the
top left-hand side of the seat, and a much larger exit hole on the
right-hand side of the rear fairing. The bike must have been
upright when the bullet struck, and almost sideways on to the
gun tower. Petrol has leaked from the tank and on to the tarmac.
Captain Mohammhad Mahde is taking in the details of the scene.
Mahde is an officer in the Iraqi police service, based inside the
International Zone. He bends low over Ahmed's body, pushing
down his black nylon boxer shorts with the blue stripe around
the waistband which poke out above his grey trousers, so that
he can get a better look at the lower wound.
"He was coming the wrong way," a US soldier is explaining to him,
gesturing towards the end of the bridge's exit ramp away around
the curve of the concrete wall on the right-hand side of the road
looking south.
"He didn't stop. They hit him and he got up, and they fired at him
again. He got up again and started running away, and because he
was running away they didn't shoot him. But then he just sort of
collapsed."
The body-bag is zipped closed. Mahde stands up and walks
towards the moped, and the soldier follows. "We yelled at him
to stop," he says. "He passed a few of the signs to stop, but he
just kept going."
Mahde walks past another concrete barrier, painted in English
and Arabic with three signs: "Exit only", "Do not enter", and "No
Stopping". There is no problem with the Arabic, he says. It is
quite clear. At the foot of the exit ramp, a small crowd watches
the soldiers and the policemen as they walk slowly towards them.
This is the reason the soldiers called Mahde's police station; they
wanted help to control the crowd. Mahde, though, wants to know
what happened. The soldiers eye him warily, but no-one tries to
stop him.
Mahde pulls out a notebook, writes down a few things, asks the
troops some more questions. He walks on to a thin patch of sand
that has been deposited on the tarmac. It is damp in a couple of
places, a slightly darker orange than the rest. There is a small
bloodstain on the checkpoint side of the line of sand which has
not been covered over. On the low concrete wall about three
feet away there are splashes where blood has sprayed up, and
a couple of flecks of flesh stick to the wall a foot or so closer to
the gun tower. "They killed him here," he says.
The soldiers say no. "The man got back here and collapsed," a
captain says. "We just covered up the blood."
Ahmed's shoes lie on the tarmac about four feet apart, between
where his body now lies and the spot where he died. The left
shoe is closer to the blood-stained sand, the right back towards
the gun tower. They are brown leather, quite new, a picture of a
stag and the name of the maker, the Dawara Company, embossed
on the inner sole. On the bridge side of the final concrete barrier
between the shoes and Mahde's body, there are four rough hollows
where bullets struck. An American soldier points them out; he refers
to them as splash marks.
The call came in to the police station a little after 10am from a US
captain in the Airborne. Dwight Murphy took it; he was sitting in
Mahde's office at the time, chatting to the captain. Murphy is the
deputy commander for support operations with the Civilian Police
Assistance Training Team, the organisation set up by coalition
forces to rebuild the Iraqi police service.
They got into Mahde's police Land Cruiser, with its blue and
white livery and blue and red flashing light, and drove to the
bridge. When they reached it, there was a US Bradley armoured
vehicle parked across the carriageway at the southern end, the
checkpoint end. Its main cannon was trained on the approaching
police car, as was the gun of the soldier in the turret.
With the index finger of his right hand, the soldier made a
horizontal circling gesture, then pointed back up the carriageway,
indicating that the car should turn around and leave. Murphy held
up his US identification card. The soldier repeated his gesture.
The driver began to swing the vehicle around, but Murphy had
taken out his mobile phone and was speaking to the captain
who had called the police station. The car stopped. The soldier
in the turret was speaking into his headset, his eyes still on the
police car. He gestured the policemen forward.
Murphy is crouched next to the sand, looking at the blood
splashed up the wall. "He was probably shot back here where
his body fell," he says.
"Maybe he was afraid," Mahde said. "Maybe he had explosives?
He lived in this city, he worked here, he knew this way. Why go
here?" The two men walk slowly back towards the moped. "We
haven't opened it up yet," one soldier tells them.
One of the soldiers picks up the machine and rests it on its stand.
The right-hand mirror has twisted round slightly, but there is no
other obvious damage, save for the bullet holes.
Another soldier has fetched a jemmy; he pokes it under the seat
and leans down on it to pop open the lock. It takes a quarter of a
minute, perhaps a little longer, before the lock gives. The soldier
places the seat on the ground. Inside, there is nothing but a thin
black plastic bag of the type used in some of the city's shops.
Inside the bag are two sheets of paper. The soldier hands them
to a captain, who looks at them briefly and hands them to Mahde.
They are Ahmed's identity papers. There is nothing else in the bag.
Mahde asks them to take the body to the morgue. The Americans
do not like the idea. Why can't the body be collected by the morgue,
they ask. Mahde says his men will take the body and the bike. He
looks around him. "This guy made a mistake, but he didn't put the
bike in that place or the shoes in that place," he says.
"Are you done here?" the US captain asks. "Can we open the
checkpoint again?" Mahde nods. They can, he says. He has no
authority over the US soldiers, but he will make a report.
He and Murphy start to walk back towards the police car. The
US soldiers follow, grumbling among themselves. They do not
understand what is happening. One can be heard complaining:
"All the other bodies, they just put in the truck and took them away."
(c) 2004 The Scotsman
###
Common Dreams NewsCenter
(c) Copyrighted 1997-2004
www.commondreams.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) NEWS: Constitution be damned:
CIA acting director opposes release of 1947-1970
CIA budget totals
[On page 12 of his recently
published book, *The Sorrows of Empire*
(Metropolitan Books, 2004), historian
Chalmers Johnson writes: "A revolution
would be required to bring the Pentagon
back under democratic control, or to
abolish the Central Intelligence Agency,
or even to contemplate enforcing
article 1, section 9, clause 7 of the
Constitution: 'No money shall be drawn
from the Treasury, but in Consequence
of Appropriations made by Law; and a
regular Statement and Account of the
Receipts and Expenditures of all public
Money shall be published from time to
time.'" -- Steven Aftergood, of the
Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy
News project, has been engaged in a
long-term project to have Article I,
Section 9, Clause 7 respected by the CIA.
Here's his latest report in an ongoing
battle. --Mark]
http://ufppc.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1369
CIA REJECTS DISCLOSURE OF HISTORICAL BUDGET DATA
By Steven Aftergood
Secrecy News
September 17, 2004
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html
Acting Director of Central
Intelligence John E. McLaughlin told a federal
court this week that releasing
the amounts of historical CIA budgets from 1947
through 1970 would compromise intelligence methods.
Mr. McLaughlin's statement was
presented in opposition to a Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit brought
by the Federation of American Scientists.
"I have carefully considered the
ramifications of releasing the total CIA
budgets for fiscal years 1947-70
and a few budget numbers from other agencies
for fiscal year 1947," he said in a sworn declaration.
"I have concluded that publicly
disclosing the intelligence budget information
that plaintiff seeks would tend to
reveal intelligence methods that, in the
interest of maintaining an effective
intelligence service, ought not be
publicly revealed," he wrote.
Acting DCI McLaughlin's insistence
on preserving the secrecy of even
half-century old budget figures
contrasts with the recommendation of the 9/11
Commission that current and future
intelligence agency budgets "should no
longer be kept secret."
DCI McLaughlin's September 14
declaration is posted here (1.25 MB PDF file):
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/1947/mclaughlin.pdf
In accordance with Attorney General
Ashcroft's FOIA policy, the CIA's position
on budget secrecy is being vigorously
defended by the Department of Justice
Office of Information and Privacy. See the
defendant's motion for summary
judgment here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/1947/cia091504.pdf
A reply from FAS is due on September 29.
"We must do something about the problem
of overclassification," said Secretary
of State Colin Powell at a hearing of
the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee on September 13.
"Today, the intelligence community routinely
classifies information at higher
levels and makes access more difficult than
was the case even at the height of the Cold War."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Dozens more die in Iraq violence
·45 die in Falluja raids
·Baghdad car bomb kills 13
·UK may send extra troops
The Guardian
5pm update
Friday September 17, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1306807,00.html
More than 50 people were killed today in separate incidents in Iraq,
ending one of the bloodiest weeks since George Bush declared an
end to the Iraq war just over 12 months ago.
US strikes on militant targets in the city of Falluja killed 45 people
and injured 27.
Hours later at least 13 people died and 50 were wounded when a
car bomber struck near a major police checkpoint in central
Baghdad, the Iraqi health ministry and US military officials said.
According to a statement by the US military, the strikes,
which began last night, targeted a compound in Fazat Shnetir,
about 12 miles south of the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, where
militants loyal to the Jordanian-born al-Qaida ally Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi were gathering to plot attacks on US-led forces in Iraq.
Militants who survived the strikes later sought refuge in near
by villages, but US forces quickly broke off an offensive to hunt
them down in an effort to avoid civilian casualties, the statement said.
"The number of foreign fighters killed during the strike is estimated
at approximately 60. The terrorists targeted in this strike were
believed to be associated with recent bombing attacks and other
terrorist activities throughout Iraq," the US military said.
But a health ministry spokesman, Saad al-Amili, said at least 17
children and two women were among the wounded. Hospital
officials in Falluja said women and children were also among
the dead, but exact figures were not immediately available.
Residents of Fazat Shnetir were seen digging graves today
and burying the dead in groups of four.
Doctors at Falluja general hospital struggled to cope with the
wave of casualties, many of whom were transported in private
cars as the ambulance service was overwhelmed.
Relatives pounded their chests in grief and denounced the US
while religious leaders switched on loudspeakers at the mosque
to call on residents to donate blood and chanted "God is great."
US forces have not patrolled inside Falluja since the end of a
three-week siege that left hundreds dead. Insurgents have
strengthened their grip since then, mounting regular attacks
against US positions and military convoys on the town's outskirts.
In Baghdad, the bomb exploded beside a line of police vehicles
set up to seal off routes to nearby Haifa Street, where US and
Iraqi forces had spent the morning raiding insurgent hideouts.
The midday attack occurred on a busy market day, and officials
said the number of casualties was expected to rise.
As the death toll mounts in Iraq, Britain said today it was
prepared to send more troops if needed to bolster security ahead
of elections in January.
"We will deploy those numbers of troops that are required given
the situation. If it is necessary to put a few extra troops in to
provide appropriate security for the elections we will do that,"
the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, told reporters at a meeting
of EU defence ministers in the Netherlands.
·The British engineer kidnapped by gunmen from his house in
Baghdad was Kenneth Bigley, the Foreign Office confirmed today.
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) From: No One is Illegal Montreal
From the Family of the Late FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI:
A Statement of Solidarity for the Coalition Against the
Deportation of Palestinian Refugees in Montreal
on the eve of the September 18th
STATELESS and DEPORTED Demonstration.
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:19:08 -0700 (PDT)
Below is a statement of solidarity from the family of the late Farouk
Abdel-Muhti a stateless Palestinian refugee, who died in July 2004. With
Farouk's passing the struggle for Palestinian liberation lost one of its
leading fighters in the US.
Farouk Adbel-Muhti was born in 1947 in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the
occupied West Bank of Jordan. Like many Palestinians, Farouk lived the
uprooted life of a stateless refugee, traveling from country to country
until finally settling in New York in the 1970s.
He came to the attention of US immigration officials in the mid-1970s
after overstaying his visa. An immigration judge ordered him deported,
however, there was no way to carry out the deportation, since the West
Bank was now controlled by Israel, which did not allow the return of
people who left the Palestinian territories before the Israeli occupation
of 1967.
Farouk continued to live openly in the New York area, engaging in a number
of public political activities, with a focus on the struggle for
Palestinian liberation and issues relating to immigration and Latin
America.
In March 2002, Farouk began working regularly at Pacifica Radio station
WBAI. He used his contacts to arrange interviews with Palestinians in the
Occupied Territories. One month later, three New York police officers and
an INS agent, came to his Queens apartment without a warrant. They claimed
they wanted to ask Farouk some questions about September 11th.
Farouk was detained on April 26, 2002 and jailed in various facilities
around the country for two years. He was never charged with a crime. He
was often held in solitary confinement, subjected to extensive
interrogation, and often denied food. His health was failing but he
remained handcuffed and shackled whenever he went to the health clinic.
Two years after his detention, a US federal judge ordered Farouk to be
deported, charged or released. He walked out of prison on April 12, 2004.
Farouk died in July 2004 of a hear attack, after giving a speech in
Philadelphia. In his last speech, Farouk called for unity among groups
fighting for Palestinian liberation and social justice. His death came
just three months after he was released from jail where he was detained
for two years without charge.
Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian Refugees of Canada
From the Family of the Late Farouk Abdel-Muhti:
This statement is to express solidarity with the Palestinian refugees of
Canada, on this very important occasion, the Montreal demonstration
against the deportation of Palestinians from Canada, on the eve of the
Sabra and Chatila massacres, as we approach the twenty-second anniversary
of the heinous crimes committed against the Palestinian people by the
Lebanese right-wing Christian militia, the Phalange, on the orders of
Ariel Sharon, who gave the orders to enter the camp when the Palestine
Liberation Organization had already left, to slaughter the innocent people
in the camps. In this brutal act of genocide, more than three thousand
unarmed Palestinian civilians, men, women, and children, including babies,
were brutally massacred, their bodies dumped mostly in mass graves, while
the world looked on in horror, but did nothing.
Twenty-two years later, we see the sons and daughters of this generation
still suffering, as war rages in Palestine, as Israel continues to
practice ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, imprisoning
them, demolishing their homes, and now building an apartheid wall that
cuts deep into Palestinian lands, separating families from their lands,
their livelihoods, and each other. Meanwhile, in Canada, Palestinian
refugees who escaped the horrors and degradation of life in the refugee
camps of Lebanon and throughout the world are now facing deportation from
Canada, having committed no crime, but being Palestinian. These stateless
Palestinians have truly inherited the experience of their parents, and are
feeling the intense pain of being stateless refugees. It is for this
reason that the world must realize the urgency of the Palestinians
achieving their independence, in a Palestinian state of their own, with
Jerusalem as its capital. The vulnerable position of the Palestinian
deportees in Canada, in Lebanon, in the United States and all over the
world obviates this fact and disproves any argument that the Palestinians
can be "absorbed" into the polities of any other country, including Arab
countries.
In the meantime, however, the countries where they reside, such as Canada,
have an obligation to accept the Palestinians, and to extend to them the
rights and dignities that are extended to all their other citizens and
residents, including granting them political asylum.
Palestinian refugees of Canada, we share your pain. Our dear brother,
Farouk Abdel-Muhti, who is now deceased, was also a stateless Palestinian.
As such, he lived for thirty some odd years in the United States, with no
serious problems until, after September 11th, he was picked up by
immigration authorities, incarcerated for nearly two years, 8 months of
which was spent in solitary confinement, tortured, beaten, withheld
medication, belittled and called a terrorist, simply for being a
Palestinian in the post-September 11th climate of paranoia and xenophobia
in the United States.
Our dear brother was ultimately released in April of this year, but the
irreparable damage was already done, to his life and to ours. Farouk died
exactly one hundred days after his release, weakened from the terrible
treatment, food, and conditions he endured in the immigration jails of the
United States, Allah yarhamouh! His only crime was being a stateless
Palestinian. We are left to live with the tragic reality of this and other
misfortunes which are largely a result of the unjust, inhuman and
misguided policies directed at Arab and Muslim immigrants, especially
Palestinians, since 9/11, by the Bush Administration in the United States,
and by other governments. We see similar policies being implemented in
Canada against immigrants, in what the Bush Administration is attempting
to portray as a "global war on terror". But what do these immigrants,
especially the Palestinians, have to do with this, being victims of the
state terror and genocide inflicted upon them by the Zionist State and its
war machine for the last 56 years?
We must not let what happened to our brother Farouk, who fought tirelessly
for the rights of workers and the oppressed all over the world, especially
for his people, the Palestinians, happen to Palestinians in Canada, who
have migrated there to seek a better life, and better opportunities, away
from war-torn lands and squalid refugee camps. We must demand that this
inhuman treatment of immigrants be stopped, once and for all.
Our struggles are the same, and we send this statement of solidarity to
express to you that we are behind you in your struggle, we feel your pain,
and we say to you, you must continue to fight for justice until your human
rights and your dignity is acknowledged, in Canada, in the United States,
and in Palestine, where ultimately you will prevail, with the
establishment of your own state, where you the Palestinians, not an
occupying power where World-War Two era fascists and murderers masquerade
as a government, will be free to determine your own destiny. We wish you
peace and success, and offer you solidarity on this very special occasion,
where you are taking your struggle to the streets and demanding your
rights, letting the world know how unjustly you are being treated. May the
struggle continue until you win! If Farouk were with us today, he would
encourage you to keep going, to network with all of us, for us all to work
together until we achieve social justice, human rights, equality, civil
and political rights! We will see the phoenix rising from the ashes, if we
remain steadfast in our fight to end oppression, racism, and imperialism,
and to demand justice and rights for all peoples, regardless of their
race, religion, or nationality. His spirit remains with us, and if we
continue, we will win; our dignity, our independence and our inalienable
right to be free!
Venceremos!
With Revolutionary Fervor and Congratulations!
With Love and Solidarity!
Long Live Palestine!
Sharin Chiorazzo (the fiancée of Farouk Abdel-Muhti)
and Tariq Abdel-Muhti (Farouk's Son)
For more information, please see www.freefarouk.org, or e-mail us at
freefarouk@yahoo.com or abufkheida@maktoob.com.
Phone: (201) 951-6919, (212) 674-9499.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) This Is Bush's Vietnam
By BOB HERBERT
OP-ED COLUMNIST
ARLINGTON, Va.
September 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/17/opinion/17herbert.html
The rows of simple white headstones in the broad expanses of brilliant
green lawns are scrupulously arranged, and they seem to go on and on,
endlessly, in every direction.
It was impossible not to be moved. A soft September wind was the only
sound. Beyond that was just the silence of history, and the collective
memory of the lives lost in its service.
Nearly 300,000 people are buried at Arlington National Cemetery,
which is just across the Potomac from Washington. On Tuesday
morning I visited the grave of Air Force Second Lt. Richard VandeGeer.
The headstone tells us, as simply as possible, that he went to Vietnam,
that he was born Jan. 11, 1948, and died May 15, 1975, and that he
was awarded the Purple Heart.
His mother, Diana VandeGeer, who is 75 now and lives in Florida,
tells us that he loved to play soldier as a child, that he was a helicopter
pilot in Vietnam and that she longs for him still. He would be 56 now,
but to his mother he is forever a tall and handsome 27.
Richard VandeGeer was not the last American serviceman to die in the
Vietnam War, but he was close enough. He was part of the last group
of Americans killed, and his name was the last of the more than 58,000
to be listed on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. As I
stood at his grave, I couldn't help but wonder how long it will take us
to get to the last American combat death in Iraq.
Lieutenant VandeGeer died heroically. He was the pilot of a CH-53A
transport helicopter that was part of an effort to rescue crew members
of the Mayaguez, an American merchant ship that was captured by the
Khmer Rouge off the coast of Cambodia on May 12, 1975. The
helicopter was shot down and half of the 26 men aboard, including
Lieutenant VandeGeer, perished.
(It was later learned that the crew of the Mayaguez had already
been released.)
The failed rescue operation, considered the last combat activity
of the Vietnam War, came four years after John Kerry's famous
question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for
a mistake?"
Although he died bravely, Lieutenant VandeGeer's death was as
senseless as those of the 58,000 who died before him in the fool's
errand known as Vietnam. His remains were not recovered for 20
years - not until a joint operation by American and Cambodian
authorities located the underwater helicopter wreckage in 1995.
Positive identification, using the most advanced DNA technology,
took another four years. Lieutenant VandeGeer was buried at
Arlington in a private ceremony in 2000.
The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation put me in touch
with the lieutenant's family. "I'm still angry that my son is gone,"
said Mrs. VandeGeer, who is divorced and lives alone in Cocoa
Beach. "I'm his mother. I think about him every day."
She said that while she will always be proud of her son, she
believes he "died for nothing."
Lieutenant VandeGeer's sister, Michelle, told me she can't think
about her brother without recalling that the last time she saw
him was on her wedding day, in May 1974. "He looked so
handsome and confident," she said. "He wanted to change
the world."
Wars are all about chaos and catastrophes, death and suffering,
and lifelong grief, which is why you should go to war only when
it's absolutely unavoidable. Wars tear families apart as surely as
they tear apart the flesh of those killed and wounded. Since we
learned nothing from Vietnam, we are doomed to repeat its agony,
this time in horrifying slow-motion in Iraq.
Three more marines were killed yesterday in Iraq. Kidnappings are
commonplace. The insurgency is growing and becoming more
sophisticated, which means more deadly. Ordinary Iraqis are
becoming ever more enraged at the U.S.
When the newscaster David Brinkley, appalled by the carnage in
Vietnam, asked Lyndon Johnson why he didn't just bring the troops
home, Johnson replied, "I'm not going to be the first American
president to lose a war."
George W. Bush is now trapped as tightly in Iraq as Johnson was
in Vietnam. The war is going badly. The president's own intelligence
estimates are pessimistic. There is no plan to actually win the war
in Iraq, and no willingness to concede defeat.
I wonder who the last man or woman will be to die for this
colossal mistake.
Paul Krugman is on vacation.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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9) TERROR ON THE JOB
According to Human Rights Watch 200,000 employees in
the U.S. were fired in the last decade because of
their union activities.
Where is the "War on Corporate Terror"?
Tidbit from: Howard Keylor
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Subject: [ufpj-disc] RE: March Count
From: "John Bostrom"
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 13:30:46 -0400
Thank you, Bob, and whoever else is responsible, for taking the time
to address this issue. This is the first time I've ever seen any major
march organization dare to publish and its methods for arriving at
its claimed of march numbers. The mere fact of doing that so is a
plus for our credibility. And that's the real question here, our
credibility. The often-repeated perception that "everyone always
overestimates their march numbers" doesn't really reflect well on
the validity or moral stature of what we're doing.
The questions now are, how accurate are the methods we used,
and can we improve on them to get more accurate numbers? The
calculations and measurements used are certainly way better than
simple wild guesstimates, but I would suggest that we can, and
should, do much better.
As for the basic calculation of numbers, there are three basic
factors: duration, length, and density. Two of these were covered
with actual verifiable measurements::
Duration: the elapsed time measured at 23rd Street. Front of
the march: 11:36 AM to just after 1:00 PM or 1.5 hours.
Front to end, 11:36 AM to 2:36 PM or 3 hours.
Length: the length of the march was measured as 43 blocks.
For density, however, we're relying solely on estimates:
Density (1): a reported police estimate of 5000 people in a
tightly packed block
Density (2): a report from two observers at 23rd Street that
"for the entire three hours the entire march was tightly packed."
Everything else is calculation based on those factors. Length
was doubled to 86 blocks based on the difference between
duration measurements, 3 hours being twice 1.5 hours Then,
applying duration, 86 x 5000 = 430,000. And the estimated
("very large") numbers of people who joined above 23rd Street
were then added to get 500,000. This would be 70,00 people
- a large estimate to say the least.
There should be no problem with the fact that a large percentage
of people left the march at 34th Street to go to Central Park.
Those people should definitely be counted as participating in
the march. But there are several dubious points about the basic
data and calculation.
Observers: Where exactly was or were the observation points
on 23rd Street? That's a long stretch of street. Were the
observers standing together at one point, or at different points?
And why only at 23rd? Why not post observers every three
blocks or so all along the route, have them take notes, count,
or film?
Length: How was "43 blocks" arrived at? All blocks are not the same.
Distances along east-west Streets like 23rd and 34th are significantly
greater (perhaps between two to three times as long) than those
along north-south Avenues like Fifth and Seventh.
Density (1): First, it's hard to believe we're relying on police
estimates for our basic calculations. How do we know they aren't
skewed? It's nice that they agree this time. but what about when they
don't? Independently verifiable, science-based methods are much better.
Further, which type of blocks are used in this 5000-person estimate?
North-south blocks along Avenues, or east-west blocks along Streets?
It's a major difference.
Density (2) The entire calculation rests on the validity of this point,
and unfortunately it's very seriously flawed. The density of "entire"
march simply can't be generalized from any one observation point.
The march was definitely packed like sardines from the point of
origin at 11:30 all the way up to 23rd Street. But as soon as it
turned the corner on 23rd, it started to thin out, and by the time
it turned up Seventh, it was far, far thinner. At Eighteenth Street,
where I stopped to rest and film from around 12:30 to 1:00,
it got extremely spaced out and straggly, with frequent ten-yard
holes all the way across the street, followed by less than dozen or so
marchers spaced several yards apart But a tightly packed block of
5000 people at one point simply does not mean that the rest of the
march is just as tightly packed.
We can do much better. Actual counts of marchers passing
several given observation points at key march locations would be
much more accurate and verifiable. A single video camera at a
given location could provide irrefutable, verifiable evidence. In
fact, I believe CSPAN recorded the entire march at 34th and 7th.
That tape could be analyzed.
JB
From: Bob Wing [ mailto:bobwing@sbcglobal.net ]
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 10:53 AM
To: John Bostrom; Shirley H. Young; dm.silver@verizon.net;ufpj-
disc@yahoogroups.com; amyh@texnology.com; andrea Buffa
Subject: March Count
Dear All,
I have been asked how we
arrived at the 400,000-500,000 count
of marchers on Aug. 29. I
might start by saying that
the NY Times, based on their
observation, our estimate, as well as
a late estimate of the police, accepted
the 500,000 number. Here's how
we came up with the number.
1. We had two people stationed at
23rd Street for the entire day. They
report that the beginning of the march
stepped off at 11:36 AM. They
further report that the last people
passed 23rd Street at 2:36 PM, exactly
3 hours after the first folks began,
and they report that for the entire
three hours the march was tightly packed.
2. The front of the march arrived at
Union Square just after 1 PM, meaning
it took them one and a half hours to
march the route. Of course, the head
of a march always takes longer than
any other section of the march because
it must constantly stop so as to avoid
big gaps behind it. Plus we stopped a
number of times specifically for photo
ops. In other words, on average it took
most of the march less than 1.5 hours
to march the whole route.
3. From points 1 and 2, we deduce that
the march was more than twice the
length of the march route. The march
route was approximately 43 blocks long.
That means the march was at least 86
blocks and probably 5 to 10 more. The
police estimate a packed block to be
5,000 people. From this alone, then, we
can say the march was 400-500,000 people.
4. We know from personal experience that
thousands of people joined the march
above 23rd Street, meaning they never
passed 23rd Street. We have no estimate
of this factor, but it was very large.
5. The last marchers arrived at Union
Square at 5:35 PM, almost 4-1/2 hours
after the leaders of the march arrived.
There was one disruption at Madison
Square Garden that prolonged the end.
But on the other side thousands of people
left the march along 34th Street to go to Central Park.
UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545
