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Join Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network at the anti-war march this Sunday, April 10th at 11am in Dolores Park, San Francisco! Make art for Bradley at our tent!
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San Francisco, Sunday, April 10th
Gather at Dolores Park at 11am (18th Street and Dolores Street)
Rally at 12pm • March at 1:30pm
Spread the word on Facebook!
Featuring Malalai Joya, "The bravest woman in Afghanistan"
RALLY AGAINST THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE AT HOME AND ABROAD! BACK TO THE STREETS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2011
ASSEMBLE AT DOLORES PARK AT 11:00 A.M.
NOON RALLY
MARCH AT 1:30 P.M.
THEY are the government, corporate, and financial powers that wage war, ravage the environment and the economy and trample on our democratic rights and liberties.
WE are the vast majority of humanity who want peace, a healty planet and a society that prioritizes human needs, democracy and civil liberties for all.
WE DEMAND Bring U.S. Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza! End support of dictators in North Africa!
WE DEMAND an end to FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and international solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders.
WE DEMAND the immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings and death squads.
WE DEMAND trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for ail, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad.
Sponsored by the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC)
www.unacpeace.org
unacnortherncalifornia@gmail.com
415-49-NO-WAR
Facebook.com/EndTheWars
Twitter.com/UNACPeace
TRADUCCION:
Marcha en contra de las guerras: en casa y en el exterior
Ellos son el gobierno y las corporaciones que financian las guerras, destruyen el medio ambiente, la economía y pisotean nuestras libertades y derechos democráticos.
Nosotros, somos la gran mayoría de la humanidad y queremos paz. Un planeta saludable y una sociedad que priorice en las necesidades humanas, la democracia y las libertades civiles para todos.
Nosotros, demandamos que las tropas militares, los mercenarios y los contratistas de guerra que enviaron a Irak, Afganistán, y Paquistán sean traídas de regreso a los Estados Unidos ¡Ahora! Que paren con las sanciones y las amenazas de guerra en contra de los pueblos de Irán, Corea del Norte y Yemen; y que los Estados Unidos deje de colaborar con Israel en la invasión y acoso a Palestina y Gaza. No al saqueo de los pueblos de América Latina, el Caribe y África; que paren la persecución racista que amenaza las comunidades musulmanas y que paren el terror policiaco en contra de las comunidades negras y latinas; derechos totales y legalización para los emigrantes.
Nosotros, demandamos que el FBI pare de inmediato la persecución a los luchadores por la justicia social y la solidaridad internacional; como también pongan un alto a todos los esfuerzos que reprimen y castigan a los contribuidores y fundadores de Wikileaks.
Nosotros, demandamos trillones de dólares para trabajos, educación y servicios sociales; que cesen todos los embargos de viviendas y desalojos; un programa de salud gratuito y de calidad para todos; un programa energético de conversión masiva que salve al planeta y buen el sistema de transporte público. Y reparaciones para las víctimas del terror de estados unidos aquí en casa y en el exterior.
Harvey Wasserman, leading anti-nuke organizer/strategist to speak in New York. Urges support for April 9 UNAC antiwar protest. No Nukes! No War!
Andrew Phillips, General Manager, KPFA FM Radio & anti-Nuke activist joins Andrew Lichterman, Nuclear Power Research Analyst, Western States Legal Foundation & Los Alamos Study Group to say No Nukes! No War! at SF April 10 UNAC Rally
STOP NUKE POWER & SHUT INDIAN POINT: JOIN US AT 12 Noon UNION SQUARE (14th and Broadway, Manhattan) & FOLEY SQUARE, 3:30 PM, SATURDAY, APRIL 9,
STOP NUKE POWER IN CALIFORNIA: JOIN THE KPFA RADIO-FAMILY ANTI-NUKE CONTINGENT: ASSEMBLE: DOLORES Street and 17TH, 11 AM: NOON RALLY, DOLORES PARK, 18th and Dolores.
The curse of atomic power has come home to roost again here in the United States and around the world.
As yet another radioactive cloud circles the globe, we must TAKE TANGIBLE ACTION to shut all reactors.
We have been winning against this industry for some forty years; NOW is the time to bury it forever.
The Obama Administration has proposed $36 billion in loan guarantees for the 2012 budget to build new nukes. We must CALL-WRITE-VISIT THE WHITE HOUSE AND OUR US SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES asking that these guarantees be cancelled.
We must not do it just once or twice---call, write or visit their offices EVERY DAY until those guarantees are removed. Mobilize in the streets to close down all nuclear power plants!
In New York, we have Fukushima on the Hudson, a cloned plant that could do to all the northeast what has now been done to Japan, Ukraine and central Pennsylvania.
In California, the aptly-named El Diablo Canyon Power Plant, 200 miles from Los Angeles on Avila Beach, San Luis Obispo, sits in close proximity to four earthquake faults.
CALL-WRITE-VISIT Governor Cuomo and Attorney-General Blumenthal in support of their attempt to shut Indian Point. Do the same for New York's Senators and US Representatives, as well as local officials. Do it EVERY DAY until all New York and California reactors are PERMANENTLY SHUT.
We can get all the energy we need from renewable green Solartopian sources. It will come cheaper, cleaner, safer and more reliably. It will save the planet and create the jobs and prosperity we need to survive and thrive.
Atomic energy is a failed experiment. Its lethal fallout yet again fills our air with deadly, radioactive poisons that are harming us and our children RIGHT NOW.
There is NO SAFE DOSE OF RADIATION. None will ever be found. If it's detectable, it's dangerous.
Indian Point and numerous other reactors in the US and around the world are on or near earthquake faults. Four reactors in California are in tsunami zones.
All other reactors must be shut down as soon as possible. For our own health, our childrens' and our childrens' children, it is time to end the atomic age. We have proven over the decades we can WIN over the industry. The time to PERMANENTLY SHUT IT DOWN is NOW.
NO NUKES/4 SOLARTOPIA..... See: HARVEY WASSERMAN / www.solartopia.org
Contact Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation: wslf@earthlink.net
Join the April 16 Mothers for Peace protest at Diablo Canyon!
JOIN US IN NYC AT UNION SQUARE & FOLEY SQUARE, APRIL 9, & SAY NO TO NUKES & NO TO WAR!!!
JOIN US IN SAN FRANCISCO AT DOLORES PARK, SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 18TH AND DOLORES. Assemble: 11:00 AM; Rally 12 Noon; March 1:45 pm: Second Rally at 3:15 Dolores Park, No Nukes! No War!
www.unacpeace.org.
unacnortherncalifornia@gmail.com
415-49-NO-WAR
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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ENDING THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
An Evening with MALALAI JOYA
When: Saturday April 9th, 2011
6-7 pm reception/light food
7-9 pm program
Where: Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist
corner of 15th and Julian (btw Mission & Valencia) San Francisco
with music by Kaylah Marin
$10-25 (no one turned away)
wheelchair accessible (wheelchair entrance on 15th Street)
Malalai Joya has been called the "bravest woman in Afghanistan." She was the youngest member elected to the Afghan Parliament but was suspended for denouncing the warlords and the US/NATO war and occupation. She continues to speak out despite death threats and assassination attempts.
Join us as she talks about the situation in Afghanistan and why it's essential that US/NATO troops leave immediately.
Her book, "A Woman Among Warlords," with a new afterward about the war under Obama, is now in paperback and will be available for purchase.
For more information: or if you want to endorse: sfjoya@gmail.com
Endorsed by (partial list): American Friends Service Comm • ANSWER/SF • Arab Resource Organizing Center • BAYAN • Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace • Bay Area Women in Black • Black Alliance for Just Immigration • Black Women Stirring the Waters • Buddhist Peace Fellowship • California Women's Agenda • Catalyst Project • Code Pink/Women for Peace • Courage to Resist • Eastside Arts Alliance • Ecumenical Peace Institute • Freedom Archives • Global Exchange • Grandmothers Against the War • Haiti Action Committee • International Action Center • International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network • International Socialist Organization • KPFA Women's Magazine •LAGAI • Middle East Children's Alliance • National Radio Project/ Making Contact • Priority Africa Network • Queers Undermining Israeli Terror • Radical Women • San Francisco Women In Black • Unitarian Universalists for Peace-SF • UNAC • War Resisters League/West • Women for Genuine Security • WILPF/ Berkeley /East Bay • WILPF/ Santa Cruz) • Veterans For Peace Chapter 69
•Unitarian Universalists for Peace-SFUNAC • War Resisters League/West • Women for Genuine Security • WILPF/ Berkeley /East Bay • WILPF/ Santa Cruz) • Veterans For Peace Chapter 69
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RALLY AGAINST THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE AT HOME AND ABROAD! BACK TO THE STREETS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!NO NUKES/NO WAR!
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2011
ASSEMBLE AT DOLORES PARK AT 11:00 A.M.
NOON RALLY
MARCH AT 1:30 P.M.
THEY are the government, corporate, and financial powers that wage war, ravage the environment and the economy and trample on our democratic rights and liberties.
WE are the vast majority of humanity who want peace, a healty planet and a society that prioritizes human needs, democracy and civil liberties for all.
WE DEMAND Bring U.S. Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza! End support of dictators in North Africa!
WE DEMAND an end to FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and international solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders.
WE DEMAND the immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings and death squads.
WE DEMAND trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for ail, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad.
Next organizing meeting Sunday, February 20, 1:00 P.M., Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets, San Francisco)
Sponsored by the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC)
www.unacpeace.org
unacnortherncalifornia@gmail.com
415-49-NO-WAR
Facebook.com/EndTheWars
Twitter.com/UNACPeace
TRADUCCION:
Marcha en contra de las guerras: en casa y en el exterior
Ellos son el gobierno y las corporaciones que financian las guerras, destruyen el medio ambiente, la economía y pisotean nuestras libertades y derechos democráticos.
Nosotros, somos la gran mayoría de la humanidad y queremos paz. Un planeta saludable y una sociedad que priorice en las necesidades humanas, la democracia y las libertades civiles para todos.
Nosotros, demandamos que las tropas militares, los mercenarios y los contratistas de guerra que enviaron a Irak, Afganistán, y Paquistán sean traídas de regreso a los Estados Unidos ¡Ahora! Que paren con las sanciones y las amenazas de guerra en contra de los pueblos de Irán, Corea del Norte y Yemen; y que los Estados Unidos deje de colaborar con Israel en la invasión y acoso a Palestina y Gaza. No al saqueo de los pueblos de América Latina, el Caribe y África; que paren la persecución racista que amenaza las comunidades musulmanas y que paren el terror policiaco en contra de las comunidades negras y latinas; derechos totales y legalización para los emigrantes.
Nosotros, demandamos que el FBI pare de inmediato la persecución a los luchadores por la justicia social y la solidaridad internacional; como también pongan un alto a todos los esfuerzos que reprimen y castigan a los contribuidores y fundadores de Wikileaks.
Nosotros, demandamos trillones de dólares para trabajos, educación y servicios sociales; que cesen todos los embargos de viviendas y desalojos; un programa de salud gratuito y de calidad para todos; un programa energético de conversión masiva que salve al planeta y buen el sistema de transporte público. Y reparaciones para las víctimas del terror de estados unidos aquí en casa y en el exterior.
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International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
New Documentary on Terrorism Against Cuba
and the Reasons for the Cuban 5
Saturday April 16, 7:00PM
La Brava Theater
2781 24th Street, San Francisco
Doors will open at 6PM
Tickets $15.00
"Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up!"
and music by The Cuban Cowboys
Q & A by Saul Landau
Reception will follow
In April 1961, the CIA sent a force of Cuban exiles to overthrow the Cuban government. This resulted in the Bay of Pigs Fiasco. Fifty years later, a new documentary shows that US-backed violence against Cuba continued for decades. The new film, with Danny Glover, anti-Cuba terrorists, and Fidel Castro himself (filmed recently) is combined with fascinating archival footage and a rare recorded interview from prison with one of the Cuban 5. These men are serving long sentences in US prisons for trying to stop terrorism against tourist sites in their country.
"Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up!"provides every professor and specialist with an invaluable teaching and learning tool about US-Cuba policy and the history of terrorism in that policy. It also explains the story of and context for the "Cuban 5," the Cuban agents who penetrated Miami exile groups to stop their plans for violence against the island, and ended up in US prisons." Julia Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"It's a real Who's Who of key figures in the more than half-century-long grudge match over Cuba." Tracey Eaton former Dallas Morning News' Bureau Chief, Havana
"Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up!" produced by Emmy-Award Winner Saul Landau, with live music from the Cuban Cowboys. Won loud applause at the Havana Film Festival.
For more information call 415-647-2822 - To purchase tickets online go to www.brava.org
Organized by the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 www.thecuban5.org
Special thanks to La Peña Cultural Center for their constant support
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
For updated information about the case visit: www.thecuban5.org
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NO MORE NUCLEAR VICTIMS
by Coffee House Teach Ins
PROTEST against Diablo and stand up for clean energy.
Join at a peaceful demonstration on
Saturday, April 16.
Meet at Avila Pier in Avila Beach, CA, at noon.
Bring signs and the messages that:
We can no longer ignore the warnings from Fukushima Daiichi,
Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island
Diablo Canyon is on shaky ground; the area is riddled with over a
dozen earthquake faults
Nuclear Energy is not worth the risk to our lives and our planet
Stop the license renewal process at Diablo
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace
http://mothersforpeace.org
(805)773-3881
P.O. Box 3608
San Luis Obispo, CA 93403
Date: Sat, Apr 16th, 2011
Time: 12:00 pm
More Info: http://mothersforpeace.org
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Please circulate widely
Wed. April 20, 4-6pm
Protest at Obama Fundraiser in San Francisco
Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California St.
(btwn Jones and Taylor), SF
President Obama will be in San Francisco for a $35,800 per plate fundraiser and other events. Join the ANSWER Coalition and other organizations to say:
End the Wars and Occupations
Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti & everywhere!
Fund Jobs, Healthcare, Schools and Housing, Not War!
Stop budget cuts & layoffs! Stop the war on working people!
The People & the Planet, Not Nuclear Profits
No more gov't subsidies for nuclear corporations!
Call 415-821-6545 or reply to this email to endorse or for more info.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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Please announce, forward, share, come
For the Beauty of the Earth
Good Friday, Earth Day & the Bomb
The Cross in the Midst of Creation
Rev. Sharon Delgado, preaching
Liturgical dance led by Carla DeSolaa
April 22, 6:45 a.m.
Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory
Vasco Road & Patterson Pass Road, Livermore
Livermore Lab was founded to develop the hydrogen bomb, and new weapons of mass destruction are still designed there. For more than 25 years, people of faith and others concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons have gathered on Good Friday outside the Livermore Laboratory.
This year Good Friday and Earth Day coincide. We will hear from Sharon Delgado, a longtime advocate for peace, justice and the environment, a United Methodist clergywoman, founder of interfaith Earth Justice Ministries, and author of Shaking the Gates of Hell: Faith-Led Resistance to Corporate Globalization.
We will be led in dance by Carla DeSola a nationally recognized teacher of liturgical dance, presently teaching at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley and through the Center for the Arts, Religion & Education.
After the service we will walk about one-half mile to the main gate, where there will be opportunity for nonviolent witness. Please bring banners, puppets and other visuals for the walk to the gate.
We invite your participation in this event, your financial support, and, if available, your organization's co-sponsorship
Information, downloadable flyer etc at http://www.epicalc.org/ email to epicalc@lmi.net
Surface mail to EPI PO Box 9334, Berkeley, CA 94702
Write or email us if you can help or want to participate in some way. Please spread the word.
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Do you want to work for peace and justice?
Do you want to see an end to the wars abroad?
Do you want to defend civil rights at home?
Come to the Next Meeting of UNAC, the United National Antiwar Committee, and Help Us Decide What to Do Next.
Saturday, April 23, 1pm
Centro Del Pueblo
474 Valencia Street (Between 15th St. & 16th St.)
San Francisco
Bring the Troops, Mercenaries, and War Dollars Home Now! Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan!
End all
U.S./U.N./NATO Hands Off North Africa and the Middle East! Stop the bombing of Libya! Hands off the internal affairs of other countries!
Stop Spending Trillions on Wars, Tax Breaks and Bailouts for the Wealthy! Money for Jobs, Housing, Universal Healthcare and Education!
No to Islamophobia and All Racism! Stop the Attacks at Home on People of Color!
MONEY FOR JOBS, HOUSING, HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION -- NOT FOR WAR AND OCCUPATION!
No Nukes!
Free Bradley Manning! Hands Off Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
unacpeace.org · facebook.com/endthewars · twitter.com/unacpeace
UNACNorthernCalifornia@gmail.com · (415) 49-NO-WAR
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Ninth Annual International Al-Awda Convention
April 29 & 30, 2011
The Embassy Suite Hotel, Anaheim South
11767 Harbor Boulevard
Garden Grove, Ca 92840
A significant event at a critical time in Arab history!
CONVENTION WEBSITE: http://www.al-awda.org/convention9/index.html
Ninth Annual International Al-Awda Convention - Onward, United and Stronger Until Return!
JUST IN: Hugh Lanning, Deputy General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, one of the 'big five' trade unions in Britain, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Chair UK will be addressing Al-Awda's Ninth Annual International Convention.
Strategy, tactics and planning discussions:
* The Palestine Papers and the Arab people's uprising; Impact on the Palestinian struggle and future organizing
* Boycotts & Divestment
* Refugee Support
* Return From Exile Project with Free Palestine Movement
* Cultural Resistance Through Various Forms of Art
* Palestinian Children's Rights Campaign
* Young activist program with hands on workshops
Speakers include:
* Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, Founding President of the Palestine Land Society
* Abbas Al-Nouri, Syrian Arab actor of "bab el-hara" fame, political activist
* Diana Buttu, Palestinian lawyer, former legal advisor to Palestinian negotiating team
* Hugh Lanning, Deputy General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Chair UK
* Ali Abunimah, Palestinian author and co-founder Electronic Intifada
* Lubna Masarwa, Palestinian activist, survivor of Mavi Marmara massacre
* Laila Al-Arian, Palestinian Author, writer and Al-Jazeera English producer
* Dr. Jamal Nassar, Specialist in Middle East politics, Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at CSUSB
* Rim Banna, Palestinian singer & activist
* Najat El-Khairy, Palestinian porcelain painting artist
* Remi Kanazi, Palestinian spoken word artist, activist
* Youth from Al Bayader Center Yarmouk Refugee Camp
Plus . . .
Cultural presentations, films, books and solidarity items, network with friends and fellow activists & lunch keynote presentations & evening banquet with live music! (Baby-sitting available for entire convention)
Al-Awda Convention on Facebook
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CELEBRATE THE HISTORIC RETURN OF JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE TO HAITI!
A REPORT BACK
Saturday, APRIL 30, 4-6PM
La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley (wheelchair accessible)
$5-$20 donation requested (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Pierre Labossiere and Robert Roth, co-founders of Haiti Action Committee, were eyewitness to the joyful return of President Aristide and his family to Haiti. Come hear their account of the President's arrival and the response of the Haitian people, as well as the background to this remarkable event.
The program will include updates on the latest developments in fraudulent elections imposed on Haiti, and what's ahead for the solidarity movement.
In the wake of sham elections and an ongoing 7-year military occupation, Haiti's grassroots movement for democracy is vital and alive and an essential part of movements around the world fighting for dignity and freedom. Let us continue to stand in solidarity!
Haiti Action Committee
www.haitisolidarity.net
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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Out in the Streets April 9 and 10. Bring our War $$ Home
By Cartoonist/Artist Khalil Bendib
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrSTd500LUQ
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RSA Animate - The Empathic Civilisation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
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Join the Pan-Canadian day of action to end war in Afghanistan - April 9, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-wOwu34kzs
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1968 - Martin Luther King's Prophetic Last speech - Remember
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1L8y-MX3pg&feature=player_embedded
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VIDEO: SWAT Team Evicts Grandmother
Take Back the Land- Rochester Eviction Defense March 28, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2axN1zsZno&feature=player_embedded
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B. D. S. [Boycott, Divest, Sanction against Israel]
(Jackson 5) Chicago Flashmob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tXe2HKqqs&feature=player_embedded
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Labor Beat: Wisconsin and After
http://blip.tv/file/4959469
A overview of the recent weeks in the battle for public sector workers in Wisconsin, and touching upon the national ramifications. Key issues are raised, through interviews and documentary footage: concessions have been pushed and agreed to by the Democrats and top union leaderships, setting workers up for the current Republican attacks. "On the national level, the Democrats have bought into the idea that workers should pay for the crisis," points out AFSCME 2858 Pres. Steve Edwards. But the money is there, if we taxed the rich and ended war spending. Includes scenes of the return of the 14 Democrats, the capitol rotunda occupation, mass marches, Iraq Veterans Against the War, more. Connects state budget crises with the wars and Wall Street, and looks at the tactics of the recall election and a general strike. Interviews and speeches from: Steve Edwards, Pres. of AFSCME 2858 and member of Socialist Alternative; Andy Heidt, Pres. of AFSCME Local 1871 and member of wisconsinwave.org; Jesse Sharkey, V.P. Chicago Teachers Union (for i.d. purposes only); Jan Rodolfo, National Outreach Coordinator, National Nurses United; Scott Kimbell, Iraq Veterans Against the War; Austin Thompson, labor organizer - Madison, WI. 25:30. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat". Labor Beat has regular cable slots in Chicago, Evanston, Rockford, Urbana, IL; St. Louis, MO; Princeton, NJ; and Rochester, NY. For more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org
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Dr. Michio Kaku says three raging meltdowns under way at Fukushima (22442 views)
Uploaded 3/31/2011
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=604AB3FA803FF3647DF6E34EC5E8C8A0
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Afghans for Peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ror0qPcasM&NR=1
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The Kill Team
How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses - and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon
Rolling Stone
March 27, 3011
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327
Afghans respond to "Kill Team"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guxWIorhdA
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END THE U.S./UN/NATO KILL TEAM NOW!
WARNING: THESE ARE HORRIFIC, DISGUSTING, VIOLENT CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE U.S. MILITARY MAKING THE UPCOMING APRIL 10 [APRIL 9 IN NEW YORK] MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE WARS A FIRST PRIORITY FOR WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE U.S. WE DEMAND OUT NOW! END THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE HERE AND EVERYWHERE! BRING ALL THE TROOPS, UN/NATO/US/ and CONTRACTORS HOME NOW!
The Kill Team Photos More war crime images the Pentagon doesn't want you to see
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/the-kill-team-photos-20110327
'Death Zone' How U.S. soldiers turned a night-time airstrike into a chilling 'music video'
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/death-zone-20110327
'Motorcycle Kill' Footage of an Army patrol gunning down two men in Afghanistan
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/motorcyle-kill-20110327
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BOB MARLEY - WAR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73zaNwyhXn0&playnext=1&list=PLA467527F8DD7DE1F
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Frederick Alexander Meade on The Prison Industrial Complex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vqzfEYo6Lo
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Chernobyl 25 years on -- The Big Cover-Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9URUQvGE9g&feature=player_embedded
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Dropkick Murphys - Worker's Song (with lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k&feature=email&tracker=False
Worker's Song Lyrics
Artist(Band):Dropkick Murphys
Yeh, this one's for the workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed
[Chorus:]
We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And we're always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
[Chorus x3]
All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can
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BP Oil Spill Scientist Bob Naman: Seafood Still Not Safe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3VdxvMnDls
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Exclusive: Flow Rate Scientist : How Much Oil Is Really Out There?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHl3kn63ZA&NR=1
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Iraq Veterans Against the War in Occupied Capitol, Madison, WI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7K0wn73uJU
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Stop LAPD Stealing of Immigrant's Cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lf4kENkxo
On Februrary 19, 2011 Members of the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC) organized and engaged in direct action to defend the people of Los Angeles, CA from the racist LAPD "Sobriety" Checkpoints that are a poorly disguised trap to legally steal the cars from working class people in general and undocumented people in particular. Please disseminate this link widely.
Venceremos,
SCIC
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WikiLeaks Mirrors
Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.
Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html
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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
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Oil Spill Commission Final Report: Catfish Responds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ZRdsccMsM
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The Most Heroic Word in All Languages is Revolution
By Eugene Debs
Eugene Debs, that greatest son of the Middle American west, wrote this in 1907 in celebration of that year's May Day events. It retains all of its vibrancy and vitality as events breathe new life into the global struggle for emancipation. "Revolution" remains the most heroic word in every language. -The Rustbelt Radical
Today the slaves of all the world are taking a fresh breath in the long and weary march; pausing a moment to clear their lungs and shout for joy; celebrating in festal fellowship their coming Freedom.
All hail the Labor Day of May!
The day of the proletarian protest;
The day of stern resolve;
The day of noble aspiration.
Raise high this day the blood-red Standard of the Revolution!
The banner of the Workingman;
The flag, the only flag, of Freedom.
Slavery, even the most abject-dumb and despairing as it may seem-has yet its inspiration. Crushed it may be, but extinguished never. Chain the slave as you will, O Masters, brutalize him as you may, yet in his soul, though dead, he yearns for freedom still.
The great discovery the modern slaves have made is that they themselves must achieve. This is the secret of their solidarity; the heart of their hope; the inspiration that nerves them all with sinews of steel.
They are still in bondage, but no longer cower;
No longer grovel in the dust,
But stand erect like men.
Conscious of their growing power the future holds up to them her outstretched hands.
As the slavery of the working class is international, so the movement for its emancipation.
The salutation of slave to slave this day is repeated in every human tongue as it goes ringing round the world.
The many millions are at last awakening. For countless ages they have suffered; drained to the dregs the bitter cup of misery and woe.
At last, at last the historic limitation has been reached, and soon a new sun will light the world.
Red is the life-tide of our common humanity and red our symbol of universal kinship.
Tyrants deny it; fear it; tremble with rage and terror when they behold it.
We reaffirm it and on this day pledge anew our fidelity-come life or death-to the blood-red Banner of the Revolution.
Socialist greetings this day to all our fellow-workers! To the god-like souls in Russia marching grimly, sublimely into the jaws of hell with the Song of the Revolution in their death-rattle; to the Orient, the Occident and all the Isles of the Sea!
VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.
It thrills and vibrates; cheers and inspires. Tyrants and time-servers fear it, but the oppressed hail it with joy.
The throne trembles when this throbbing word is lisped, but to the hovel it is food for the famishing and hope for the victims of despair.
Let us glorify today the revolutions of the past and hail the Greater Revolution yet to come before Emancipation shall make all the days of the year May Days of peace and plenty for the sons and daughters of toil.
It was with Revolution as his theme that Mark Twain's soul drank deep from the fount of inspiration. His immortality will rest at last upon this royal tribute to the French Revolution:
"The ever memorable and blessed revolution, which swept a thousand years of villainy away in one swift tidal wave of blood-one: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell. There were two Reigns of Terror, if we would but remember it and consider it: the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death on ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the horrors of the minor Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror, which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over, but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves."
-The Rustbelt Radical, February 25, 2011
http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/the-most-heroic-word-in-all-languages-is-revolution/
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New antiwar song that's bound to be a classic:
box
http://www.youtube.com/user/avimecca
by tommi avicolli mecca
(c) 2009
Credits are:
Tommi Avicolli Mecca, guitar/vocals
John Radogno, lead guitar
Diana Hartman, vocals, kazoo
Chris Weir, upright bass
Produced and recorded by Khalil Sullivan
I'm the recruiter and if truth be told/ I can lure the young and old
what I do you won't see/ til your kid's in JROTC
CHO ooh, put them in a box drape it with a flag and send them off to mom and dad
send them with a card from good ol' uncle sam, gee it's really just so sad
I'm the general and what I do/ is to teach them to be true
to god and country flag and oil/ by shedding their blood on foreign soil
CHO
I'm the corporate boss and well I know/ war is lots of dough dough dough
you won't find me over there/ they just ship the money right back here
CHO
last of all it's me the holy priest/ my part is not the least
I assure them it's god's will/ to go on out and kill kill kill
CHO
it's really just so sad
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Free Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eNzokgRIw&feature=player_embedded
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Domestic Espionage Alert - Houston PD to use surveillance drone in America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpstrc15Ogg
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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
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LOWKEY - TERRORIST? (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU
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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
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"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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WTF: WHERE'S THE FUNDING?
[PUBLIC NEED VS. CORPORATE GREED]
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE CAMPAIGN VISIT:
WWW,STUDENTLABOR.ORG
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
I'm excited to tell you that yesterday over 1,000 actions took place not only around the country but around the world in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his assassination 43 years ago. We were able to talk about his role in the Memphis sanitation workers' strike and unionization campaign and how he viewed unions as a path way to a true democracy. It was with this thought, honor, and respect that we fought to keep progressing the struggle for social and economic justice moving forward yesterday. SLAP, Jobs with Justice and United States Student Association took part in over 50 of the actions yesterday, ranging from rallies to teach-ins held on campuses.
In Philadelphia: Over 1,000 community members, faith, students, young people and workers came out to rally in solidarity with the labor movement and battles happening around the country.
In Ann Arbor: At the University of Michigan, hundreds of students covered the campus as they demanded the right to an affordable and accessible education and demanded that our communities be run by us, not corporations.
In Altanta: Hundreds of workers, students, young people, faith and community came out to a march and rally to stand against the attacks being launched on our communities that included MLK III as a speaker.
These actions did not go unheard, either. The New York Times uplifted USSA's role in an article re-capping the actions and explaining Martin Luther King, Jr.'s role in the day of action.
But the fight is just beginning - and we have more to say. Today SLAP is proud to be participating in a national teach-in lead by Francis Fox Piven and Cornel West called: "Fight Back USA!" that will discuss austerity, debt, and corporate greed and how we as young people can fight back. You can tune into the national broadcast that will be online from 2-3:30 EST and then there nearly 225 local teach-ins scheduled.
And after today more will be happening. The United States Student Association Board of Directors, composed of students from around the country, have declared April a month of action. We will be fighting every day to make higher education a priority, workers' rights mandatory and scale back the corporate greed that is trying to take over our country.
It is in this struggle that all members of our communities - elderly and young, working and unemployed - share the same interests. The fight happening right now is simply "public need verses corporate greed." It is time for us to set our priorities as neighborhoods, communities, cities, states and a country.
In Solidarity,
Chris Hicks
Student Labor Action Project Coordinator
SLAPfacebook | SLAPtwitter | SLAPonline
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FREE BRADLEY MANNING! HANDS OFF JULIAN ASSANGE!
In a recent New York Daily News Poll the question was asked:
Should Army pfc Bradley Manning face charges for allegedly stealing classified documents and providing them for WikiLeaks?
New York Daily News Poll Results:
Yes, he's a traitor for selling out his country! ...... 28%
No, he's a hero for standing up for what's right! ..... 62%
We need to see more evidence before passing judgment.. 10%
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/05/2011-03-05_wikileaks_private_loses_his_underwear.html?r=news
Sign the Petition:
We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad...
We stand with accused whistle-blower
US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning
Stand with Bradley!
A 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst, Pfc. Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians to the website Wikileaks. Among the dead were two working Reuters reporters. Two children were also severely wounded in the attack.
In addition to this "Collateral Murder" video, Pfc. Manning is suspected of leaking the "Afghan War Diaries" - tens of thousands of battlefield reports that explicitly describe civilian deaths and cover-ups, corrupt officials, collusion with warlords, and a failing US/NATO war effort.
"We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal," noted Barack Obama while on the campaign trail in 2008. While the President was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans, Pfc. Manning's alleged actions are just as noteworthy. If the military charges against him are accurate, they show that he had a reasonable belief that war crimes were being covered up, and that he took action based on a crisis of conscience.
After nearly a decade of war and occupation waged in our name, it is odd that it apparently fell on a young Army private to provide critical answers to the questions, "What have we purchased with well over a trillion tax dollars and the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?" However, history is replete with unlikely heroes.
If Bradley Manning is indeed the source of these materials, the nation owes him our gratitude. We ask Secretary of the Army, the Honorable John M. McHugh, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General George W. Casey, Jr., to release Pfc. Manning from pre-trial confinement and drop the charges against him.
http://standwithbrad.org/
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REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ALERT:
San Francisco Health Center/PLANNED PARENTHOOD - San Francisco, CA
1650 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
IS BEING PICKETED DAILY BY RIGHT TO LIFE DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING GIANT SIGNS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CLINIC INTIMIDATING PATIENTS!
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The Arab Revolutions:
Guiding Principles for Peace and Justice Organizations in the US
Please email endorsement to ekishawi@yahoo.com
We, the undersigned, support the guiding principles and demands listed in this statement. We call on groups who want to express solidarity with the Arab revolutions to join our growing movement by signing this statement or keeping with the demands put forward herewith.
Background
The long-awaited Arab revolution has come. Like a geologic event with the reverberations of an earthquake, the timing and circumstances were unpredictable. In one Arab country after another, people are taking to the street demanding the fall of monarchies established during European colonial times. They are also calling to bring down dictatorships supported and manifested by neo-colonial policies. Although some of these autocratic regimes rose to power with popular support, the subsequent division and subjugation of the Arab World led to a uniform repressive political order across the region. The Arab masses in different Arab countries are therefore raising a uniform demand: "The People Want to Topple the Regimes!"
For the past two decades, the Arab people witnessed the invasion and occupation of Iraq with millions killed under blockade and occupation, Palestinians massacred with the aim to crush the anti-Zionist resistance, and Lebanon repeatedly invaded with the purposeful targeting of civilians. These actions all served to crush resistance movements longing for freedom, development, and self-determination. Meanwhile, despotic dictatorships, some going back 50 years, entrenched themselves by building police states, or fighting wars on behalf of imperialist interests.
Most Arab regimes systematically destroyed the social fabric of civil society, stifled social development, repressed all forms of political dissent and democratic expression, mortgaged their countries' wealth to foreign interests and enriched themselves and their cronies at the expense of impoverishing their populations. After pushing the Arab people to the brink, populations erupted.
The spark began in Tunisia where a police officer slapped and spat on Mohammad Bou Azizi, flipping over his produce cart for not delivering a bribe on time. . Unable to have his complaint heard, he self-immolated in protest, igniting the conscience of the Tunisian people and that of 300 million Arabs. In less than a month, the dictator, Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, was forced into exile by a Tunisian revolution. On its way out, the regime sealed its legacy by shooting at unarmed protestors and burning detention centers filled with political prisoners. Ben Ali was supported by the US and Europe in the fight against Islamic forces and organized labor.
Hosni Mubarak's brutal dictatorship fell less than a month after Tunisia's. The revolution erupted at a time when one half of the Egyptian population was living on less than $2/day while Mubarak's family amassed billions of dollars. The largest population recorded in Egyptian history was living in graveyards and raising their children among the dead while transportation and residential infrastructure was crumbling. Natural gas was supplied to Israel at 15% of the market price while the Rafah border was closed with an underground steel wall to complete the suffocation of the Palestinians in Gaza. Those who were deemed a threat swiftly met the fate of Khalid Said. 350 martyrs fell and 2,000 people were injured.
After Egypt and Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan exploded in protest. Some governments quickly reshuffled faces and ranks without any tangible change. Some, like Bahrain and Yemen, sent out their security forces to massacre civilians. Oman and Yemen represent strategic assets for the US as they are situated on the straits of Hormuz and Aden, respectively. Bahrain is an oil country that hosts a US military base, situated in the Persian Gulf. A new round of US funded blood-letting of Arab civilians has begun!
Libyan dictator Qaddafi did not prove to be an exception. He historically took anti-imperialist positions for a united Arab World and worked for an African Union. He later transformed his regime to a subservient state and opened Libya to British Petroleum and Italian interests, working diligently on privatization and political repression. He amassed more wealth than that of Mubarak. In the face of the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi exceeded the brutality of Ben Ali and Mubarak blind-folding and executing opponents, surrounding cities with tanks, and bombing his own country. Death toll is expected to be in the thousands.
Qaddafi's history makes Libya an easy target for imperialist interests. The Obama administration followed the Iraq cookbook by freezing Libyan assets amounting to 30% of the annual GDP. The White House, with the help of European governments, rapidly implemented sanctions and called for no-fly zones. These positions were precipitated shortly after the US vetoed a resolution condemning the illegal Israeli colonization of the West Bank. Special operations personnel from the UK were captured by the revolutionary commanders in Ben Ghazi and sent back. The Libyan revolutionary leadership, the National Council clearly stated: "We are completely against foreign intervention. The rest of Libya will be liberated by the people ... and Gaddafi's security forces will be eliminated by the people of Libya."
Demands of the Solidarity Movement with Arab Revolutions
1. We demand a stop to US support, financing and trade with Arab dictatorships. We oppose US policy that has favored Israeli expansionism, war, US oil interest and strategic shipping routes at the expense of Arab people's freedom and dignified living.
2. We support the people of Tunisia and Egypt as well as soon-to-be liberated nations to rid themselves of lingering remnants of the deposed dictatorships.
3. We support the Arab people's right to sovereignty and self-determination. We demand that the US government stop its interference in the internal affairs of all Arab countries and end subsidies to wars and occupation.
4. We support the Arab people's demands for political, civil and economic rights. The Arab people's movement is calling for:
a. Deposing the unelected regimes and all of its institutional remnants
b. Constitutional reform guaranteeing freedom of organizing, speech and press
c. Free and fair elections
d. Independent judiciary
e. National self-determination.
5. We oppose all forms of US and European military intervention with or without the legitimacy of the UN. Standing in solidarity with the revolution against Qaddafi, or any other dictator, does not equate to supporting direct or indirect colonization of an Arab country, its oil or its people. We therefore call for:
a. Absolute rejection of military blockades, no-fly zones and interventions.
b. Lifting all economic sanctions placed against Libya and allowing for the formation of an independent judiciary to prosecute Qaddafi and deposed dictators for their crimes.
c. Immediately withdrawing the US and NATO troops from the Arab region.
6. We support Iraq's right to sovereignty and self determination and call on the US to immediately withdraw all occupation personnel from Iraq.
7. We recognize that the borders separating Arab nations were imposed on the Arab people by the colonial agreements of Sykes-Picot and the Berlin Conference on Africa. As such, we support the anti-Zionist nature of this revolution in its call for:
a. Ending the siege and starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza
b. Supporting the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own representation, independent of Israeli and US dictates
c. Supporting the right of the Lebanese people to defend their country from Israeli violations and their call to end vestiges of the colonial constitution constructed on the basis of sectarian representation
d. Supporting the right of the Jordanian people to rid themselves of their repressive monarchy
e. Ending all US aid to Israel.
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
Suggested text: "My name is __________, I am from _______(city), in
______(state). I am calling _____ to demand he call off the Grand Jury
and stop FBI repression against the anti-war and Palestine solidarity
movements. I oppose U.S. government political repression and support
the right to free speech and the right to assembly of the 23 activists
subpoenaed. We will not be criminalized. Tell him to stop this
McCarthy-type witch hunt against international solidarity activists!"
If your call doesn't go through, try again later.
Update: 800 anti-war and international solidarity activists
participated in four regional conferences, in Chicago, IL; Oakland,
CA; Chapel Hill, NC and New York City to stop U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald's Grand Jury repression.
Still, in the last few weeks, the FBI has continued to call and harass
anti-war organizers, repressing free speech and the right to organize.
However, all of their intimidation tactics are bringing a movement
closer together to stop war and demand peace.
We demand:
-- Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against International Solidarity
Activists!
-- Support Free Speech!
-- Support the Right to Organize!
-- Stop FBI Repression!
-- International Solidarity Is Not a Crime!
-- Stop the Criminalization of Arab and Muslim Communities!
Background: Fitzgerald ordered FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity
activists' homes and subpoenaed fourteen activists in Chicago,
Minneapolis, and Michigan on September 24, 2010. All 14 refused to
speak before the Grand Jury in October. Then, 9 more Palestine
solidarity activists, most Arab-Americans, were subpoenaed to appear
at the Grand Jury on January 25, 2011, launching renewed protests.
There are now 23 who assert their right to not participate in
Fitzgerald's witch-hunt.
The Grand Jury is a secret and closed inquisition, with no judge, and
no press. The U.S. Attorney controls the entire proceedings and hand
picks the jurors, and the solidarity activists are not allowed a
lawyer. Even the date when the Grand Jury ends is a secret.
So please make these calls to those in charge of the repression aimed
against anti-war leaders and the growing Palestine solidarity
movement.
Email us to let us know your results. Send to info@StopFBI.net
**Please sign and circulate our 2011 petition at http://www.stopfbi.net/petition
In Struggle,
Tom Burke,
for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE
An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......
At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:
HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.
Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.
Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
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Email received from Lynne Stewart:
12/19/10; 12:03pm
Dear Folks:
Some nuts and bolts and trivia,
1. New Address
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
2. Visiting is very liberal but first I have to get people on my visiting list Wait til I or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
3. One hour time difference
4. Commissary Money is always welcome It is how I pay for the phone and for email. Also need it for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing , ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons , 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated ? Of course, it's the BOP !)
5. Food is vastly improved. Just had Sunday Brunch real scrambled eggs, PORK sausage, Baked or home fried potatoes, Butter(sweet whipped M'God !!) Grapefruit juice Toast , orange. I will probably regain the weight I lost at MCC! Weighing against that is the fact that to eat we need to walk to another building (about at far as from my house to the F Train) Also included is 3 flights of stairs up and down. May try to get an elevator pass and try NOT to use it.
6. In a room with 4 bunks(small) about two tiers of rooms with same with "atrium" in middle with tv sets and tables and chairs. Estimate about 500 on Unit 2N and there are 4 units. Population Black, Mexicano and other spanish speaking (all of whom iron their underwear, Marta), White, Native Americans (few), no orientals or foreign speaking caucasians--lots are doing long bits, victims of drugs (meth etc) and boyfriends. We wear army style (khaki) pants with pockets tee shirts and dress shirts long sleeved and short sleeved. When one of the women heard that I hadn't ironed in 40 years, they offered to do the shirts for me. (This is typical of the help I get--escorted to meals and every other protection, explanations, supplies, etc. Mostly from white women.) One drawback is not having a bathroom in the room---have to go about 75 yards at all hours of the day and night --clean though.
7. Final Note--the sunsets and sunrises are gorgeous, the place is very open and outdoors there are pecan trees and birds galore (I need books for trees and birds (west) The full moon last night gladdened my heart as I realized it was shining on all of you I hold dear.
Love Struggle
Lynne
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
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Help end the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning!
Bradley Manning Support Network. December 22, 2010
The Marine Brig at Quantico, Virginia is using "injury prevention" as a vehicle to inflict extreme pre-trial punishment on accused Wikileaks whistleblower Army PFC Bradley Manning (photo right). These "maximum conditions" are not unheard-of during an inmate's first week at a military confinement facility, but when applied continuously for months and with no end in sight they amount to a form of torture. Bradley, who just turned 23-years-old last week, has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest in late May. We're now turning to Bradley's supporters worldwide to directly protest, and help bring a halt to, the extremely punitive conditions of Bradley's pre-trial detention.
We need your help in pressing the following demands:
End the inhumane, degrading conditions of pre-trial confinement and respect Bradley's human rights. Specifically, lift the "Prevention of Injury (POI) watch order". This would allow Bradley meaningful physical exercise, uninterrupted sleep during the night, and a release from isolation. We are not asking for "special treatment". In fact, we are demanding an immediate end to the special treatment.
Quantico Base Commander
Colonel Daniel Choike
3250 Catlin Ave, Quantico VA 22134
+1-703-784-2707 (phone)
Quantico Brig Commanding Officer
CWO4 James Averhart
3247 Elrod Ave, Quantico VA 22134
+1-703-784-4242 (fax)
Background
In the wake of an investigative report last week by Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com giving evidence that Bradley Manning was subject to "detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries", Bradley's attorney, David Coombs, published an article at his website on Saturday entitled "A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning". Mr. Coombs details the maximum custody conditions that Bradley is subject to at the Quantico Confinement Facility and highlights an additional set of restrictions imposed upon him under a Prevention of Injury (POI) watch order.
Usually enforced only through a detainee's first week at a confinement facility, or in cases of violent and/or suicidal inmates, the standing POI order has severely limited Manning's access to exercise, daylight and human contact for the past five months. The military's own psychologists assigned to Quantico have recommended that the POI order and the extra restrictions imposed on Bradley be lifted.
Despite not having been convicted of any crime or even yet formally indicted, the confinement regime Bradley lives under includes pronounced social isolation and a complete lack of opportunities for meaningful exercise. Additionally, Bradley's sleep is regularly interrupted. Coombs writes: "The guards are required to check on Manning every five minutes [...] At night, if the guards cannot see PFC Manning clearly, because he has a blanket over his head or is curled up towards the wall, they will wake him in order to ensure he is okay."
Denver Nicks writes in The Daily Beast that "[Bradley Manning's] attorney [...] says the extended isolation - now more than seven months of solitary confinement - is weighing on his client's psyche. [...] Both Coombs and Manning's psychologist, Coombs says, are sure Manning is mentally healthy, that there is no evidence he's a threat to himself, and shouldn't be held in such severe conditions under the artifice of his own protection."
In an article to be published at Firedoglake.com later today, David House, a friend of Bradley's who visits him regularly at Quantico, says that Bradley "has not been outside or into the brig yard for either recreation or exercise in four full weeks. He related that visits to the outdoors have been infrequent and sporadic for the past several months."
In an average military court martial situation, a defense attorney would be able to bring these issues of pre-trial punishment to the military judge assigned to the case (known as an Article 13 hearing). However, the military is unlikely to assign a judge to Bradley's case until the pre-trial Article 32 hearing is held (similar to an arraignment in civilian court), and that is not expected until February, March, or later-followed by the actual court martial trial months after that. In short, you are Bradley's best and most immediate hope.
What can you do?
Contact the Marine Corps officers above and respectfully, but firmly, ask that they lift the extreme pre-trial confinement conditions against Army PFC Bradley Manning.
Forward this urgent appeal for action widely.
Sign the "Stand with Brad" public petition and letter campaign at www.standwithbrad.org - Sign online, and we'll mail out two letters on your behalf to Army officials.
Donate to Bradley's defense fund at www.couragetoresist.org/bradley
References:
"The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention", by Glenn Greenwald for Salon.com, 15 December 2010
"A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning", by attorney David E. Coombs, 18 December 2010
"Bradley Manning's Life Behind Bars", by Denver Nicks for the Daily Beast, 17 December 2010
Bradley Manning Support Network
Courage To Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
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KOREA: Emergency Response Actions Needed
The United National Antiwar Committee urges the antiwar movement to begin to plan now for Emergency 5pm Day-of or Day-after demonstrations, should fighting break out on the Korean Peninsula or its surrounding waters.
As in past war crisis and U.S. attacks we propose:
NYC -- Times Square, Washington, D.C. -- the White House
In Many Cities - Federal Buildings
Many tens of thousands of U.S., Japanese and South Korean troops are mobilized on land and on hundreds of warships and aircraft carriers. The danger of a general war in Asia is acute.
China and Russia have made it clear that the scheduled military maneuvers and live-fire war "exercises" from an island right off the coast of north Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) by South Korea are very dangerous. The DPRK has made it clear that they consider these live-fire war exercises to be an act of war and they will again respond if they are again fired on.
The U.S. deployment of thousands of troops, ships, and aircraft in the area while South Korea is firing thousands of rounds of live ammunition and missiles is an enormously dangerous provocation, not only to the DPRK but to China. The Yellow Sea also borders China. The island and the waters where the war maneuvers are taking place are north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone and only eight miles from the coast of the DPRK.
On Sunday, December 19 in a day-long emergency session, the U.S. blocked in the UN Security Council any actions to resolve the crisis.
UNAC action program passed in Albany at the United National Antiwar Conference, July 2010 of over 800 antiwar, social justice and community organizations included the following Resolution on Korea:
15. In solidarity with the antiwar movements of Japan and Korea, each calling for U.S. Troops to Get Out Now, and given the great increase in U.S. military preparations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, National Peace Conference participants will organize immediate protests following any attack by the U.S. on Korea. U.S. war preparations include stockpiling hundreds of bunker-busters and conducting major war games near the territorial waters of China and Korea. In keeping with our stand for the right of self-determination and our demand of Out Now, the National Peace Conference calls for Bringing All U.S. Troops Home Now!
UNAC urges the whole antiwar movement to begin to circulate messages alerts now in preparation. Together let's join together and demand: Bring all U.S. Troops Home Now! Stop the Wars and the Threats of War.
The United National Antiwar Committee, www.UNACpeace.org
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In earnest support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
http://readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition
rsn:Petition
We here undersigned express our support for the work and integrity of Julian Assange. We express concern that the charges against the WikiLeaks founder appear too convenient both in terms of timing and the novelty of their nature.
We call for this modern media innovator, and fighter for human rights extraordinaire, to be afforded the same rights to defend himself before Swedish justice that all others similarly charged might expect, and that his liberty not be compromised as a courtesy to those governments whose truths he has revealed have embarrassed.
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GAP Inc: End Your Relationship with Supplier that Allows Workers to be Burned Alive
http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/workers_burned_alive_making_clothes_for_the_gap
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Free the Children of Palestine!
Sign Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
Published by Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition on Dec 16, 2010
Category: Children's Rights
Region: GLOBAL
Target: President Obama
Web site: http://www.al-awda.org
Background (Preamble):
According to Israeli police, 1200 Palestinian children have been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in the occupied city of Jerusalem alone this year. The youngest of these children was seven-years old.
Children and teen-agers were often dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night, taken in handcuffs for questioning, threatened, humiliated and many were subjected to physical violence while under arrest as part of an ongoing campaign against the children of Palestine. Since the year 2000, more than 8000 have been arrested by Israel, and reports of mistreatment are commonplace.
Further, based on sworn affidavits collected in 2009 from 100 of these children, lawyers working in the occupied West Bank with Defense Children International, a Geneva-based non governmental organization, found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
Minors were often asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children by the state of Israel is a violation international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is supposedly a signatory.
Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
We, the undersigned call on US President Obama to direct Israel to
1. Stop all the night raids and arrests of Palestinian Children forthwith.
2. Immediately release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers.
3. End all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse against all Palestinian children.
4. Implement the full restoration of Palestinian children's rights in accordance with international law including, but not limited to, their right to return to their homes of origin, to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and expression.
The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws and international conventions to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.
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"Secret diplomacy is a necessary tool for a propertied minority, which is compelled to deceive the majority in order to subject it to its interests."..."Publishing State Secrets" By Leon Trotsky
Documents on Soviet Policy, Trotsky, iii, 2 p. 64
November 22, 1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/1917/November/22.htm
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING! STOP THE FBI RAIDS NOW!
MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
To understand how much a trillion dollars is, consider looking at it in terms of time:
A million seconds would be about eleven-and-one-half days; a billion seconds would be 31 years; and a trillion seconds would be 31,000 years!
From the novel "A Dark Tide," by Andrew Gross
Now think of it in terms of U.S. war dollars and bankster bailouts!
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For Immediate Release
Antiwar movement supports Wikileaks and calls for and independent, international investigation of the crimes that have been exposed. We call for the release of Bradley Manning and the end to the harassment of Julian Assange.
12/2/2010
For more information: Joe Lombardo, 518-281-1968,
UNACpeace@gmail.org, NationalPeaceConference.org
Antiwar movement supports Wikileaks and calls for and independent, international investigation of the crimes that have been exposed. We call for the release of Bradley Manning and the end to the harassment of Julian Assange.
The United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC) calls for the release of Bradley Manning who is awaiting trial accused of leaking the material to Wikileaks that has been released over the past several months. We also call for an end to the harassment of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks and we call for an independent, international investigation of the illegal activity exposed through the material released by Wikileaks.
Before sending the material to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning tried to get his superiors in the military to do something about what he understood to be clear violations of international law. His superiors told him to keep quiet so Manning did the right thing; he exposed the illegal activity to the world.
The Afghan material leaked earlier shows military higher-ups telling soldiers to kill enemy combatants who were trying to surrender. The Iraq Wikileaks video from 2007 shows the US military killing civilians and news reporters from a helicopter while laughing about it. The widespread corruption among U.S. allies has been exposed by the most recent leaks of diplomatic cables. Yet, instead of calling for change in these policies, we hear only a call to suppress further leaks.
At the national antiwar conference held in Albany in July, 2010, at which UNAC was founded, we heard from Ethan McCord, one of the soldiers on the ground during the helicopter attack on the civilians in Iraq exposed by Wikileaks (see: http://www.mediasanctuary.org/movie/1810 ). He talked about removing wounded children from a civilian vehicle that the US military had shot up. It affected him so powerfully that he and another soldier who witnessed the massacre wrote a letter of apology to the families of the civilians who were killed.
We ask why this material was classified in the first place. There were no state secrets in the material, only evidence of illegal and immoral activity by the US military, the US government and its allies. To try to cover this up by classifying the material is a violation of our right to know the truth about these wars. In this respect, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange should be held up as heroes, not hounded for exposing the truth.
UNAC calls for an end to the illegal and immoral policies exposed by Wikileaks and an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to threats against Iran and North Korea.
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Courage to Resist needs your support
By Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist.
It's been quite a ride the last four months since we took up the defense of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning. Since then, we helped form the Bradley Manning Support Network, established a defense fund, and have already paid over half of Bradley's total $100,000 in estimated legal expenses.
Now, I'm asking for your support of Courage to Resist so that we can continue to support not only Bradley, but the scores of other troops who are coming into conflict with military authorities due to reasons of conscience.
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Iraq War over? Afghanistan occupation winding down? Not from what we see. Please take a look at, "Soldier Jeff Hanks refuses deployment, seeks PTSD help" in our December newsletter. Jeff's situation is not isolated. Actually, his story is only unique in that he has chosen to share it with us in the hopes that it may result in some change. Jeff's case also illustrates the importance of Iraq Veterans Against the War's new "Operation Recovery" campaign which calls for an end to the deployment of traumatized troops.
Most of the folks who call us for help continue to be effected by Stoploss, a program that involuntarily extends enlistments (despite Army promises of its demise), or the Individual Ready Reserve which recalls thousands of former Soldiers and Marines quarterly from civilian life.
Another example of our efforts is Kyle Wesolowski. After returning from Iraq, Kyle submitted an application for a conscientious objector discharge based on his Buddhist faith. Kyle explains, "My experience of physical threats, religious persecution, and general abuse seems to speak of a system that appears to be broken.... It appears that I have no other recourse but to now refuse all duties that prepare myself for war or aid in any way shape or form to other soldiers in conditioning them to go to war." We believe he shouldn't have to walk this path alone.
Sincerely,
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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Add your name! We stand with Bradley Manning.
"We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad... We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning."
Dear All,
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist are launching a new campaign, and we wanted to give you a chance to be among the first to add your name to this international effort. If you sign the letter online, we'll print out and mail two letters to Army officials on your behalf. With your permission, we may also use your name on the online petition and in upcoming media ads.
Read the complete public letter and add your name at:
http://standwithbrad.org/
Courage to Resist (http://couragetoresist.org)
on behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network (http://bradleymanning.org)
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Dear Friend,
On Friday, September 24th, the FBI raided homes in Chicago and Minneapolis, and turned the Anti-War Committee office upside down. We were shocked. Our response was strong however and we jumped into action holding emergency protests. When the FBI seized activists' personal computers, cell phones, and papers claiming they were investigating "material support for terrorism", they had no idea there would be such an outpouring of support from the anti-war movement across this country! Over 61 cities protested, with crowds of 500 in Minneapolis and Chicago. Activists distributed 12,000 leaflets at the One Nation Rally in Washington D.C. Supporters made thousands of calls to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Solidarity statements from community organizations, unions, and other groups come in every day. By organizing against the attacks, the movement grows stronger.
At the same time, trusted lawyers stepped up to form a legal team and mount a defense. All fourteen activists signed letters refusing to testify. So Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox withdrew the subpoenas, but this is far from over. In fact, the repression is just starting. The FBI continues to question activists at their homes and work places. The U.S. government is trying to put people in jail for anti-war and international solidarity activism and there is no indication they are backing off. The U.S. Attorney has many options and a lot of power-he may re-issue subpoenas, attempt to force people to testify under threat of imprisonment, or make arrests.
To be successful in pushing back this attack, we need your donation. We need you to make substantial contributions like $1000, $500, and $200. We understand many of you are like us, and can only afford $50, $20, or $10, but we ask you to dig deep. The legal bills can easily run into the hundreds of thousands. We are all united to defend a movement for peace and justice that seeks friendship with people in other countries. These fourteen anti-war activists have done nothing wrong, yet their freedom is at stake.
It is essential that we defend our sisters and brothers who are facing FBI repression and the Grand Jury process. With each of your contributions, the movement grows stronger.
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
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Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) Powerful Aftershock Complicates Japan's Nuclear Efforts
By HIROKO TABUCHI and ANDREW POLLACK
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/world/asia/08japan.html?ref=world
2) Critics Call Terrorism Hearing in Manhattan Anti-Muslim
By PAUL VITELLO
April 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/nyregion/07muslim.html?ref=us
3) NAACP Report Says Shift in Funding Toward Prisons 'Failing Us'
SUMMARY
A new report from the NAACP shows states are devoting increasingly larger portions of their budgets to prisons, while education gets smaller and smaller portions. Judy Woodruff discusses the report with NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
PBS Newshour
Transcript and Video
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june11/incarceration_04-07.html
4) Seven Undocumented Students Arrested for Wanting an Education
By: GLORIA TATUM
4-6-2011
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/interspire/news/2011/04/06/seven-undocumented-students-arrested-for-wanting-an-education.html
5) Violence Reported in Syrian Protests
By LIAM STACK and J. DAVID GOODMAN
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/middleeast/09syria.html?hp
6) Egypt Protests Go On, Seeking New Beginning
"'People are anxious that this post-revolutionary moment will end without them gaining their rights,' said Ehab al-Kharat, a psychiatrist organizing a new party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party. 'It is the first time in Egyptian history that people are taking part in running their own institutions and organizations,' he said. 'Democracy is not just about electoral ballots and politics at the national level - it is about how you run your organization, how you run your small neighborhood, it is about having a say in every aspect of your life.'"
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/world/middleeast/08egypt.html?hp
7) NATO Offers No Apology for Airstrike on Rebel Tanks
By C. J. CHIVERS and KAREEM FAHIM
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/africa/09libya.html?hp
8) Millions Without Power After Japan Aftershock
"Broken pieces of fuel rods have been found outside of Reactor No. 2, and are now being covered with bulldozers, he said. The pieces may be from rods in the spent-fuel pools that were flung out by hydrogen explosions."
By HIROKO TABUCHI and ANDREW POLLACK
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/asia/09japan.html?hp
9) Operation Scorching Summer: Israel attacks Gaza (again)
Australians for Palestine
April 8, 2011 -
http://williambowles.info/2011/04/08/operation-scorching-summer-israel-attacks-gaza-again/
10) Pennsylvania Calls for More Water Tests
By IAN URBINA
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/science/earth/08water.html?ref=us
11) Another Source of Execution Drug Stops Sales
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/us/08brfs-Drug.html?ref=us
12) U.S. Out of Iraq and Afghanistan! Stop the War on Libya!
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Sat, April 9 in NYC & Sun, April 10 in SF
March Against the Wars!
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/
info@AnswerCoalition.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
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13) Hero of Egypt's Revolution, Military Now Faces Critics
By MONA EL-NAGGAR and MICHAEL SLACKMAN
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/middleeast/09egypt.html?_r=1&hpw
14) PENTAGON POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST PEACEFUL PROTESTERS CALLING FOR END TO WAR AND HALT TO DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIORNMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 8, 2011
Contact: Joy First 608 239-4327 joyfirst5@gmail.com
For more information, contact the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
www.irqpledge.org
joyfirst5@gmail.com
15) Back to the Streets
By Maureen Aumand
"As citizens link arms in public solidarity this weekend in New York and San Francisco, they will be proclaiming once again with Dr. King that: 'Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.'"
April 8th, 2011 1:12 PM
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/back-to-the-streets
16) Two Protesters Are Killed in Cairo's Tahrir Square
By LIAM STACK
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/middleeast/10egypt.html?hp
17) Syrian Forces Open Fire on Demonstrators in Two Cities
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/middleeast/10syria.html?ref=world
18) Tens of Thousands Protest in Yemen
By LAURA KASINOF and J. DAVID GOODMAN
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/middleeast/09yemen.html?ref=world
19) Lack of Data Heightens Japan's Nuclear Crisis
By HIROKO TABUCHI and KEITH BRADSHER
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/asia/09nuclear.html?ref=world
20) Israeli Strikes on Gaza Continue
"Of the 17 Palestinians killed since Thursday, 9 were civilians, Palestinian medical authorities said. Those authorities said dozens were also wounded."
By FARES AKRAM and ETHAN BRONNER
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/middleeast/10gaza.html?ref=world
21) Jury Clears Cuban Exile of Charges That He Lied to U.S.
"Cuba and Venezuela would like to try him for the 1997 hotel bombings or the airliner bombing, but a United States immigration judge has ruled that he cannot be sent to either country, for fear he could be tortured."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/09posada.html?ref=us
22) The Drought Is Over (at Least for C.E.O.'s)
"On this year's list, the highest-paid C.E.O. was Philippe P. Dauman of Viacom, who made $84.5 million in just nine months. (Viacom changed its fiscal year-end to September from December.)...Many consumer products companies also offered rich pay packages, including one for John F. Lundgren, chief executive of Stanley Black & Decker, whose pay rose 253 percent, to $32.57 million, after a huge stock award. His counterpart at Emerson Electric, David N. Farr, saw his pay rise 233 percent, to $22.9 million, also because he was granted millions in stock."
By DANIEL COSTELLO
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/business/10comp.html?src=busln
23) Jobless Rate Is Not the New Normal
By CHRISTINA D. ROMER
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/business/10view.html?src=busln
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1) Powerful Aftershock Complicates Japan's Nuclear Efforts
By HIROKO TABUCHI and ANDREW POLLACK
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/world/asia/08japan.html?ref=world
TOKYO - The strongest aftershock to hit since the day of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan rocked a wide section of the country's northeast Thursday night, prompting a tsunami alert, raising fears of further damage to the already crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and knocking out external power at three other nuclear facilities.
The public broadcaster, NHK, said there were local reports of injuries, fires and blackouts. The aftershock had a magnitude of 7.1, according to the United States Geological Survey; last month's quake, which devastated much of the northeastern coast, was measured at 9.0.
The tsunami alert, which warned of waves up to three feet and possibly higher in some areas, was lifted after about an hour and a half and Japan's Meteorological Agency said no tsunami had been detected.
But it warned that slight changes in sea level were still possible and it was unclear whether there was any damage along the coast. Many coastal communities were ravaged last month, and some are vulnerable because sea walls were breached and land levels have sunk.
Workers at the Fukushima plant were told to take cover until the tsunami warning was lifted, but Japanese officials said at a news conference that water was being automatically pumped into three damaged reactors in the crucial effort to keep their nuclear fuel cool. The plant's cooling systems were knocked out by last month's quake and tsunami, and there was no immediate word of whether there was new damage to the plant, according to its operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company.
Nitrogen also continued to be piped into the No. 1 reactor, the company said, in an effort to prevent a possible explosion. Tokyo Electric said it was unsure of the status of the damaged No. 4 reactor because it has not been able to station workers there.
Monitoring posts around the plant were not showing any rise in radiation levels, the company said.
Experts have said that a big aftershock poses an additional risk to the Fukushima plant because its containment structures are filled with water that was used in the cooling efforts and is now highly radioactive. The strain from holding that water could make the structures more vulnerable to rupture in the event of an earthquake, according to an assessment made by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late March.
Two other nuclear facilities - a fuel reprocessing plant at Rokkasho and a nuclear power plant at Higashidori, both in northern Aomori Prefecture - were running on emergency diesel generators after their external power supplies were knocked out by the aftershock.
A third site, the Onagawa nuclear power station in Miyagi Prefecture, lost two of its three external power systems. All three facilities have been shut down since the March 11 quake, but power is needed to keep the nuclear fuel cool.
The aftershock hit at 11:32 p.m. local time and was centered 41 miles east of Sendai, 72 miles from Fukushima and 205 miles from Tokyo, officials said. It was about 30 miles below the ocean floor, considerably deeper than March 11's magnitude 9.0 quake, which hit about 20 miles below the sea floor.
Thursday's aftershock was the strongest since the day of the March 11 quake, according to the United States Geological Survey. There have been hundreds of aftershocks since the initial quake.
Also on Thursday, the police searched for people missing in an evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Nearly 240 police officers from Tokyo and about 100 from Fukushima Prefecture fanned out wearing protective suits in a search for bodies in the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant, according to Mikio Murakoshi, a spokesman for the Fukushima Prefecture police.
Japanese and American soldiers last weekend conducted a huge search for the missing but avoided the evacuation zone because of the radiation risk. But Mr. Murakoshi said radiation levels had dropped, making a search in the area possible.
The police say about 12,600 people have died as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. More than 14,700 are listed as missing, including about 4,200 in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant.
The magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami flattened communities, has kept an estimated 160,000 still housed in temporary shelters and knocked out power at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, where workers have since battled to stabilize the reactors.
Raising new concerns about the plant, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that some of the core of the No. 2 reactor had probably leaked from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of the containment structure. The assessment implied that the damage at the No. 2 unit was worse than previously believed.
The agency emphasized its interpretation was speculative and based on high radiation readings that Tokyo Electric had found in the lower part of unit No. 2's primary containment structure, called the drywell. The statement said that the commission "does not believe that the reactor vessel has given way, and we do believe practically all of the core remains in the vessel."
Linda L. Gunter, a spokeswoman for Tokyo Electric, dismissed the analysis, saying Thursday morning, "We believe the containment for the reactor is still functioning at Unit 2; however, the damage to the suppression pool may be the source of the radiation."
But a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of Japan said that he was familiar with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's statement and agreed that it was possible the core had leaked into the larger containment vessel.
The statement was issued after Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, told a House hearing on Wednesday morning that the commission had told him that the core had melted through the vessel.
He based that on a question his staff had asked the agency. But the agency responded to him by e-mail on Tuesday without directly addressing possible melting, saying only that it speculated that "part of the Unit 2 core may be out of the reactor pressure vessel and may be in the lower space of the drywell." After the hearing, in response to numerous questions, the agency said that "there are possible leakage paths from the reactor vessel into the drywell."
It did not say whether the fuel was molten or solid. If molten fuel has left the reactor's pressure vessel and reached the drywell in substantial quantities, it raises the possibility that the fuel could escape the larger containment structure, leading to a large-scale radioactive release.
Some engineers have theorized that if a core melted down and concentrated at the bottom of the vessel it could melt through the vessel and then burn through the concrete of the foundation. One element of such an event would probably be a resumption of the nuclear chain reaction, in a molten mass in which no control would be possible because there would be no control rods to slide smoothly between neatly arrayed bundles of fuel.
Other experts say that a resumption of the chain reaction would be difficult or impossible with the type of fuel in use at Fukushima Daiichi.
But extremely radioactive material continues to ooze out of the reactor pressure vessel at Reactor 2, and the leak is likely to widen with time, a senior nuclear executive said.
"It's a little like pulling a thread out of your tie," he said. "Any breach gets bigger."
Flashes of extremely intense radioactivity have become a serious problem, he said. Tokyo Electric's difficulties in providing accurate information on radiation are not a result of software problems, as some Japanese officials have suggested, but stem from radiation damaging measurement instruments because it exceeds the maximum dose that they are designed to measure, he said.
"It's killing the measuring equipment," he said. "They're blaming it on software - it's their meters getting cooked."
Broken pieces of fuel rods have been found outside of Reactor 2, and are now being covered with bulldozers, he said. The broken pieces may be from spent fuel rods in the spent-fuel pools, as opposed to the reactors themselves. Hydrogen explosions have flung them out of the reactor building.
"They're running bulldozers around to bury the stuff so it doesn't cook people going by," he said.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
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2) Critics Call Terrorism Hearing in Manhattan Anti-Muslim
By PAUL VITELLO
April 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/nyregion/07muslim.html?ref=us
A state senator has scheduled a daylong hearing for Friday on terrorism preparedness in New York City, featuring an array of experts in law enforcement, emergency response and counterterrorism.
But his plan to take testimony in Manhattan about the threat from radical Islam is drawing sharp criticism from Muslim and interfaith groups that call the hearing anti-Muslim and incendiary - a local version of the contentious session held last month in Washington by Representative Peter T. King of Long Island.
In fact, the witness list includes Mr. King, a Republican who has promised more Congressional hearings on what he calls the radicalization of American Muslims.
The state senator, Gregory R. Ball, a Putnam County Republican who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs, said he did not intend his inquiry to focus unfairly on threats from any one group.
"But there are people who seek to hurt and destroy us," Mr. Ball said. "We have to move beyond political correctness."
Among the witnesses whose scheduled testimony has raised objections is Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-born American who is president of a group called Former Muslims United. Mr. Ball said Ms. Darwish would testify about Shariah law and "being taught to hate Israelis and Americans" in Islamic schools she attended in Egypt.
Adem Carroll, a spokesman for the New York State Interfaith Network for Immigration Reform, one of the organizations protesting the hearing, said that by including witnesses like Ms. Darwish and Frank Gaffney, a former Defense Department official who has often criticized Islam, Mr. Ball was exploiting deep public concern about terrorism to incite fear of Muslims as a group.
"None of us are condemning the hearings' stated purpose," Mr. Carroll said. "The issue of terrorism is of concern to all Americans. But hate speech and defamation can and do perpetuate a cycle of violence." He cited the killing of United Nations workers in Afghanistan recently after a Florida pastor burned a copy of the Koran.
Not all the witnesses scheduled to testify at Mr. Ball's hearing have been a cause of objections. They include Richard Daddario, the New York Police Department's top counterterrorism official; Thomas LaBelle, executive director of the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs; and a raft of experts on emergency communications, nuclear safety and international security.
Mr. Ball, 33, an Air Force Academy graduate and two-term state assemblyman elected to the Senate in 2010 on a platform of cracking down on illegal immigration, said criticism of witnesses like Ms. Darwish and Mr. Gaffney was "just an attempt by some to drum up national publicity."
Eight Democrats in the State Senate have signed a letter of protest to Mr. Ball from State Senator Kevin S. Parker, a Democrat whose Brooklyn district includes one of the city's largest populations of Pakistani immigrants, most of them Muslim.
"By including Islamic law as a topic of the hearing," Mr. Parker wrote, "you conflate the religious observances and practices of a faith into a security matter. Some opportunists and political leaders have sought to create hostility against Muslims by raising the specter of the Shariah 'bogeyman' as a threat to America."
He urged Mr. Ball not to follow that example, and suggested that he also call witnesses who are not biased against Islam.
Mr. Ball said he announced his intentions in the Senate chamber weeks ago, and invited members to propose witnesses. None did, he said. Mr. Parker said in an interview that "that is not my understanding of the facts."
The hearing is to be held at the State Senate office building in Lower Manhattan.
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3) NAACP Report Says Shift in Funding Toward Prisons 'Failing Us'
SUMMARY
A new report from the NAACP shows states are devoting increasingly larger portions of their budgets to prisons, while education gets smaller and smaller portions. Judy Woodruff discusses the report with NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
PBS Newshour
Transcript and Video
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june11/incarceration_04-07.html
JUDY WOODRUFF: According to a report out today from the NAACP, states are spending increasingly large sums of money on prisons, at the expense of public education.
Its research shows states spend more than $50 billion annually on government-run correction programs. In the last 20 years, state spending on prisons has grown at six times the rate of spending on higher education. And one in 31 Americans is under some form of corrections control.
The effort to address the problem, identified in the report titled "Misplaced Priorities," has attracted a measure of bipartisan support.
And joining us now is Benjamin Jealous -- he's president of the NAACP -- and Grover Norquist. He's the head of Americans for Tax Reform.
Gentlemen, it's good to see both of you this evening.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Ben Jealous, let me start with you. What do you think is the most important finding from this study, this report?
BENJAMIN JEALOUS, NAACP: Our country has 5 percent of the world's people, 25 percent of the world's people in prison.
And we have too many people in prison. And what's clear is that the policies that have put them there are failing us. Now, we know that there are policies that can make us safer that cost less, that are more effective. And the time has come for us to actually choose those policies, stop wasting money, stop wasting lives and stop needlessly breaking up families.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And how do you know that there's a connection to education, that spending, which is one thing the report recommends...
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: Sure.
JUDY WOODRUFF: ... that spending less -- that it's smart to spend less on incarceration and more on education? How do you prove that?
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: ... take it in two pieces.
So, on the one hand, we know that, for instance, drug rehab, dollar for dollar, is seven times more effective for dealing with nonviolent drug addicts, which are the bulk of people in prison, than jail or prison. On the other hand, we also know that, if you look, for instance, at the state of California, when California was known to really have the best public universities in the entire world, like in the '70s and '80s, they were spending 3 percent of their state budget on prisons and 11 percent on their colleges and universities.
Today, they're not known to have the best in the world anymore. They spend 10-plus percent on prisons and 7 percent on colleges and universities. Let me say, Pennsylvania had a big budget battle a couple of years ago. They took several hundred million straight out of the ed budget and put it into a hole in the prison budget.
And we know that when kids don't the high-quality teachers and the resources that they need, they simply don't perform as well.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, you see a correlation here.
Grover Norquist, fair to say you and Ben Jealous don't see eye to eye on every policy question out there. What was it about this that caused you to want to be involved?
GROVER NORQUIST, Americans For Tax Reform: Well, over the last four or five years, I have been involved with a working group in D.C. of conservatives, center-right activists, who are concerned that conservatives have not participated in trying to rethink both prisons and federal and state corrections, judicial systems.
And over that time, this has become a larger and larger part of state budgets. It's become very expensive. A lot of people just sort of said, whatever the prosecutors ask for, give it to them in the budget.
And when you look at it, you're seeing a lot of people are sent to prison who perhaps ought not to be in prison, in terms of some cost-benefit analysis. And, again, we're conservatives. I think there are a bunch of people who deserve to be in prison forever. I think there are some people that deserve to be in prison for a long time.
I don't get weepy about the whole idea. But we are keeping some people in prison who might be better off in drug rehabilitation or under other kinds of house arrest or other kinds of control, other than very expensive prisons.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about the connection to education that Ben Jealous and the NAACP are making, that money spent on prisons, some of that money ought to be redirected to the public education?
GROVER NORQUIST: Yes. Well, that's the NAACP's study and analysis.
When taxpayer activists look at it, we say, let's not waste money on prisons and the judicial system, if it's not getting us safer streets and safer cities. What we're finding in Texas, which has implemented a number of these reforms, there are drop in costs and getting less crime.
I'm in favor of allowing taxpayers to keep the money that's presently being misspent. But that's a separate discussion. Once you save money that's being misspent, whether the government spends it someplace else or taxpayers get to keep their own money, we can have that conversation another time.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you go about -- so, you identify that all this money is being spent, but how do you go about persuading politicians, policy -- public policy-makers to make a change?
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: Right now, there's a whole lot of hope at the state level.
There's huge budget pressures. And people are willing to kind of ask tough questions. And so we have gotten people in states across the South, for instance, to sit down together and say, OK, what works? Dollar for dollar, what makes us safer?
And so now, for instance, you see, in the state of Texas, there's 18 smart-on-crime bills moving. You have Tea Party activists and NAACP activists pushing the same bills.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And yet, Grover Norquist, I mean, traditionally, anybody who has looked at politics, being tough on crime is generally seen as a good move politically. Is this pushing in another direction here?
GROVER NORQUIST: Well, what I think conservatives bring to the table is that we have not focused on issues of prisons and criminal justice. We have focused on those things the government shouldn't be doing and said stop doing these things, and not spending enough time focused on those things the government should do, but spending wisely, having cost-benefit analysis, making wise decisions in how you spend. Conservatives who have a tradition of being tough on crime, speaking to the fact that tough on crime doesn't mean that everybody spends as many years in prison as possible.
Not everybody should go to prison. There are other ways to punish people, fines and restitution and house arrest and other things other than prison. And I think that makes it easier to make progress, because, clearly, Texas is not soft on crime, yet Texas is leading the reforms to spend less. They just decided not to build four prisons, which they would have had to do, because they were incarcerating fewer people now.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you know where to draw the line, Ben Jealous? How do you know this is the right amount to spend keeping people locked up, these are the people who should stay behind bars, and these are people we can treat differently?
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: You start with the hard facts.
On one hand, more than half people in prison right now are low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. It didn't always used to be that way, but that is what it is now. And we know, dollar for dollar, drug rehab is seven times more effective for that population. So, boom, you're going to deal with a whole bunch of folks.
At the same time, you can look back in the 1960s, when the FBI said that -- that cops in this country solved 90 percent of the homicides. And last year, they said that cops solved about 60 percent.
Now, the cops are just as good now as they were then, but they're focused on something else. And so what we're saying is -- and this gets down to it -- look, we want violent people behind bars. Our neighborhoods are plagued. But that means that a cop has got to be able to focus on solving the homicides and not spending so much time frisking young black kids, seeing if they have a joint, when that kid really, you know, if he has a problem, he should be going to rehab.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And is there evidence out there, to both of you -- I mean, Grover on this, too -- that spending more on education is going to prevent young people from ending up in prison?
GROVER NORQUIST: You can talk to him about that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Right. Right.
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: Yes.
We know right now, for instance, that, if you just dealt with access to high-quality teachers, right -- and getting high-quality teachers in school means paying them more usually -- that over half of the -- quote, unquote -- "achievement gap" would disappear overnight.
That achievement gap is largely a resource gap. You look at the schools in these areas that have high incarceration rates, they tend to have high teacher turnover, they tend to have a very low level of high-quality teachers. They tend to not have computers. They have a hard time with A.P. books. They don't have music. Sometimes, they don't have even recess.
And so we say, look, it's just sort of obvious that, if you put more money here, just to get these kids up to what the kids in the suburbs have, they would do much better. School would be a more engaging place. They would learn more. But you can also see that that's where the money has been taken from.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, it's a big subject, much to look at here. And we thank you both for being with us.
Grover Norquist, Benjamin Jealous, thank you.
GROVER NORQUIST: Thank you.
BENJAMIN JEALOUS: Thank you very much.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Thanks.
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4) Seven Undocumented Students Arrested for Wanting an Education
By: GLORIA TATUM
4-6-2011
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/interspire/news/2011/04/06/seven-undocumented-students-arrested-for-wanting-an-education.html
(APN) ATLANTA -- Seven undocumented students from around the nation were arrested today while staging a sit-down protest on Courtland Street at Georgia State University for over an hour. Risking prison and deportation these brave students practiced the age old tradition of civil disobedience to protest the shameful laws which ban them from attending college.
Georgina Perez, Viridiana Martinez, Jose Rico, Dayanna Rebolledo, Andrea Rosales, David Ramirez and Maria Marroquin were arrested and taken to the Atlanta City Jail on Tuesday, April 04, 2011.
In October 2010, the Georgia Board of Regents joined Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and other states in banning undocumented youths from attending college.
In Georgia, starting this Fall, undocumented students cannot attend Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia, or Georgia College & State University. These are some of the same southern universities which Blacks were not allow to attend over fifty years ago.
The arrested students are affiliated with DreamActivist.org, a national movement to pass the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act. The DREAM Act would allow a legal pathway for some undocumented youth to become citizens. DREAM was first introduced in 2001, but has yet to make it through US Congress.
The DREAM Act has four basic requirements (1) you entered the country before the age of sixteen, (2) you graduate high school or obtain a GED, (3) you have good moral character, and (4) you have at least five years of continuous presence in the US.
The seven undocumented and unafraid activists each told their personal stories of being brought to the United States as children by their parents and living in the shadows as undocumented children. They talked of their fears of family and friends being deported. They talked of their hopes that the law would change and allow them to become citizens. They are tired of waiting for a legal path to citizenship which never comes and living in fear. They are now standing up, speaking out, and fighting back.
Georgina Perez, 21, has been in the US since she was three years old and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. "I am doing this for my friends who are in the same situation and also for my mother who did everything she could to give me a better life and to have an education. We are being denied an education and criminalized for wanting an education," Perez said.
Maria Marroquin was brought to the US from Peru at age thirteen. "We are being shut out of universities, criminalized, and deported in states around the country. The time is always right to fight for our civil right," Marroquin, an undocumented student from Pennsylvania, said. "It took me five years to get a two year degree at a community college. As an international, I paid triple the amount that my peers paid. It was all out of my own pocket. I want to continue my education and become an attorney to defend my community."
David Ramirez has been in the US since he was one year old and lives in Chicago, Illinois. "If you are undocumented, don't be afraid to defend your dignity. If you are an ally, don't be afraid to be an advocate. We need to come out of the shadows and show the State of Georgia we are not afraid," Ramirez said.
Andrea Rosales came to the US at age five and lives in Chicago, Illinois. "We need to take a stand in Georgia. We need to let the Board of Regents know that by banning undocumented students they will deny a future for a whole generation of students that make up this state," Rosales said.
Dayanna Rebolledo was brought to the US from Mexico at the age of nine and lives in Detroit, Michigan. "Being undocumented does not define who I am as a human being. The reason why I am coming out of the shadows as an undocumented is because I want to empower my brother and sister who lost hope when the DREAM Act failed. We all deserve equal education," Rebolledo said.
Jose Rico was brought to the US at 13 and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. His family moved to north Mexico because of the jobs created by NAFTA. In 2000, the jobs moved to even cheaper labor markets, so his family moved to the US with a visa. Because of the complexities of the visa system, he is undocumented. Jose has a 3.8 GPA and wants to go to college and become an engineer. He works very hard to afford the out-of-state tuition at a community college.
Viridiana Martinez was six years old when she came to the US and now lives in North Carolina. "Last year in Raleigh, North Carolina, myself and two other undocumented women went on a thirteen day hunger strike demanding Senator Kay Hagan to co-sponsor the DREAM Act. She didn't, she killed the DREAM Act. That inaction by the federal government is now leading individual states to ban undocumented students from a college education. We are not criminals, we are students. We want to go to college and become doctors, nurses, and teachers," Martinez said.
Rev. Tim McDonald, pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church and a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement told the students, "There is a connection between the civil rights struggle and the immigration struggle in America. You are not in this struggle alone. Civil rights veterans, African-American community leaders, pastors, elected officials are in soldiery with you and we will go all the way with you."
Noting that Dr. Martin Luther King once said "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come," McDonald said, "Today the idea of, I am undocumented and unafraid - your time has come. They are trying to make you fear -- but those who are setting public policy are the ones who are going to fear from now on. They are going to be afraid of our ability to organize. They are going to be afraid because they don't know what we are going to do next."
"Fear is the enemy and you have overcome fear. When you overcome fear you can beat back any enemy. I refuse to give my money to anyone who wants to take my rights away from me. Can you say boycott," State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) asked. The crowd yelled back, "Boycott!"
The students delivered a letter to GSU President Mark Becker asking him to not comply with the ban on undocumented students at GSU. President Becker responded by shutting the admissions office door in their face.
They returned to the crowd and led the march around GSU campus chanting, "Education not Deportation," "Don't Believe the Lies - Organize," "Education not Segregation," "Refuse the Ban," and "Shame on Georgia."
The march ended with the seven students sitting in the street where they were arrested by City of Atlanta police. They are being held on a two thousand dollar bond each. 2,406 dollars has been raised as of this afternoon.
(END / 2011)
(APN) ATLANTA -- Seven undocumented students from around the nation were arrested yesterday, Tuesday, April 05, 2011, while staging a sit-down protest on Courtland Street at Georgia State University for over an hour. Risking prison and deportation these brave students practiced the age old tradition of civil disobedience to protest the shameful laws which ban them from attending college.
Georgina Perez, Viridiana Martinez, Jose Rico, Dayanna Rebolledo, Andrea Rosales, David Ramirez and Maria Marroquin were arrested and taken to the Atlanta City Jail.
In October 2010, the Georgia Board of Regents joined Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and other states in banning undocumented youths from attending college.
In Georgia, starting this Fall, undocumented students cannot attend Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia, or Georgia College & State University. These are some of the same southern universities which Blacks were not allow to attend over fifty years ago.
The arrested students are affiliated with DreamActivist.org, a national movement to pass the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act.
The DREAM Act would allow a legal pathway for some undocumented youth to become citizens. DREAM was first introduced in 2001, but has yet to make it through US Congress. The DREAM Act has four basic requirements (1) you entered the country before the age of sixteen, (2) you graduate high school or obtain a GED, (3) you have good moral character, and (4) you have at least five years of continuous presence in the US.
The seven undocumented and unafraid activists each told their personal stories of being brought to the United States as children by their parents and living in the shadows as undocumented children. They talked of their fears of family and friends being deported. They talked of their hopes that the law would change and allow them to become citizens. They are tired of waiting for a legal path to citizenship which never comes and living in fear. They are now standing up, speaking out, and fighting back.
Georgina Perez, 21, has been in the US since she was three years old and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. "I am doing this for my friends who are in the same situation and also for my mother who did everything she could to give me a better life and to have an education. We are being denied an education and criminalized for wanting an education," Perez said.
Maria Marroquin was brought to the US from Peru at age thirteen. "We are being shut out of universities, criminalized, and deported in states around the country. The time is always right to fight for our civil right," Marroquin, an undocumented student from Pennsylvania, said.
"It took me five years to get a two year degree at a community college. As an international, I paid triple the amount that my peers paid. It was all out of my own pocket. I want to continue my education and become an attorney to defend my community."
David Ramirez has been in the US since he was one year old and lives in Chicago, Illinois. "If you are undocumented, don't be afraid to defend your dignity. If you are an ally, don't be afraid to be an advocate. We need to come out of the shadows and show the State of Georgia we are not afraid," Ramirez said.
Andrea Rosales came to the US at age five and lives in Chicago, Illinois. "We need to take a stand in Georgia. We need to let the Board of Regents know that by banning undocumented students they will deny a future for a whole generation of students that make up this state," Rosales said.
Dayanna Rebolledo was brought to the US from Mexico at the age of nine and lives in Detroit, Michigan. "Being undocumented does not define who I am as a human being. The reason why I am coming out of the shadows as an undocumented is because I want to empower my brother and sister who lost hope when the DREAM Act failed. We all deserve equal education," Rebolledo said.
Jose Rico was brought to the US at 13 and lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. His family moved to north Mexico because of the jobs created by NAFTA. In 2000, the jobs moved to even cheaper labor markets, so his family moved to the US with a visa. Because of the complexities of the visa system, he is undocumented. Jose has a 3.8 GPA and wants to go to college and become an engineer. He works very hard to afford the out-of-state tuition at a community college.
Viridiana Martinez was six years old when she came to the US and now lives in North Carolina. "Last year in Raleigh, North Carolina, myself and two other undocumented women went on a thirteen day hunger strike demanding Senator Kay Hagan to co-sponsor the DREAM Act. She didn't, she killed the DREAM Act. That inaction by the federal government is now leading individual states to ban undocumented students from a college education. We are not criminals, we are students. We want to go to college and become doctors, nurses, and teachers," Martinez said.
Rev. Tim McDonald, pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church and a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement told the students, "There is a connection between the civil rights struggle and the immigration struggle in America. You are not in this struggle alone. Civil rights veterans, African-American community leaders, pastors, elected officials are in soldiery with you and we will go all the way with you."
Noting that Dr. Martin Luther King once said "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come," McDonald said, "Today the idea of, I am undocumented and unafraid - your time has come. They are trying to make you fear -- but those who are setting public policy are the ones who are going to fear from now on. They are going to be afraid of our ability to organize. They are going to be afraid because they don't know what we are going to do next."
"Fear is the enemy and you have overcome fear. When you overcome fear you can beat back any enemy. I refuse to give my money to anyone who wants to take my rights away from me. Can you say boycott," State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) asked. The crowd yelled back, "Boycott!"
The students delivered a letter to GSU President Mark Becker asking him to not comply with the ban on undocumented students at GSU. President Becker responded by shutting the admissions office door in their face.
They returned to the crowd and led the march around GSU campus chanting, "Education not Deportation," "Don't Believe the Lies - Organize," "Education not Segregation," "Refuse the Ban," and "Shame on Georgia."
The march ended with the seven students sitting in the street where they were arrested by City of Atlanta police. They are being held on a two thousand dollar bond each. 2,406 dollars has been raised as of this afternoon.
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5) Violence Reported in Syrian Protests
By LIAM STACK and J. DAVID GOODMAN
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/middleeast/09syria.html?hp
CAIRO - Security forces countered a rising tide of unrest in Syria on Friday with tear gas, batons and live ammunition as more than 10,000 protesters took to the streets of several cities in a third week of protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, according to witnesses and activists reached by telephone.
In the southern city of Dara'a, chants of "Peaceful, peaceful!" rose through clouds of tear gas as security forces on a central bridge tried to keep two groups of thousands of protesters from joining together, a resident said, speaking in return for anonymity to avoid reprisals.
Security forces then opened fire on the protesters, killing "more than 10," according to the resident, who spoke by telephone. "There are martyrs in the street," he said frantically before his line went dead. Syrian state television confirmed several deaths but said "rouge elements" within the protest had fired on security forces, Bloomberg News reported.
In the Damascus suburb of Douma, thousands filled a main square, ringing a central mosque. "The crowds in Douma are huge," said Wissam Tarif, executive director of Insan, a Syrian human rights group, who was in the town early Friday morning. The latest demonstrations came a week after at least 15 protesters died in clashes with security forces in Douma; security forces appeared to hold back on Friday. Protest organizers had called for demonstrations against Mr. Assad's administration in several provinces in what they dubbed a "Friday of Steadfastness."
Across the Arab world, Friday has become the central day of protests against autocratic rule as worshipers pour from mosques after noon prayers on the Muslim holy day in a revolutionary upsurge that has toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia and brought turmoil to other countries including Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and Libya.
In Yemen, more than 100,000 people converged on the capital, Sana, for rival demonstrations on Friday as the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, appeared to dig in, rejecting a mediation offer from the regional Gulf Cooperation Council after previously announcing his support for talks with his political opposition.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands gathered in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, waving flags and demanding the prosecution of the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, and his family in a sign of Egyptians' growing frustration with the slow pace of change under the new military rulers.
In Syria, there were also new protests reported in the eastern Kurdish areas on Friday, a day after Mr. Assad sought to quell unrest by offering Syrian nationality to the estimated 200,000 Kurds formerly classified by the government as stateless persons.
Kurdish leaders and human rights activists rejected the move as political posturing and said it was unlikely to discourage Kurdish protesters from taking to the streets.
On Friday, thousands gathered in Qamashli, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish northeast of the country, said Hakeem Bashar, a Kurdish leader.
"We want all of the demands that other Syrians in other parts of the country are making," Dr. Bashar said. "These are national demands, but we are demanding them too because this is our country. We are Kurds, but we are also Syrians."
Security forces have maintained a heavy presence in the capital, Damascus, where activists feared that as many as 200 protesters may have been detained in a crackdown at Al Rifai mosque, a center of protests last week.
Six buses carrying uniformed and plainclothes officers arrived at the mosque in the Damascus neighborhood of Kafr Souseh during Friday Prayer, said Mr. Tarif, the human rights activist, pulling open its doors and beating worshipers as they exited. Security forces scuffled with protesters and hauled others into the waiting buses as they chanted "Freedom! Freedom!"
The new gatherings came after smaller groups demonstrated on Thursday in the towns of Daraya, Qaboun and Irbin, as well as in Douma, in memory of those killed last week. Last Friday, demonstrations in Douma erupted into violence when security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing at least 15 people, according to human rights groups. Most of the dead were shot by snipers.
Liam Stack reported from Cairo, and J. David Goodman from New York. An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Damascus, Syria.
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6) Egypt Protests Go On, Seeking New Beginning
"'People are anxious that this post-revolutionary moment will end without them gaining their rights,' said Ehab al-Kharat, a psychiatrist organizing a new party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party. 'It is the first time in Egyptian history that people are taking part in running their own institutions and organizations,' he said. 'Democracy is not just about electoral ballots and politics at the national level - it is about how you run your organization, how you run your small neighborhood, it is about having a say in every aspect of your life.'"
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/world/middleeast/08egypt.html?hp
CAIRO - Banners fluttering from the rooftop of Cairo University's faculty of mass communications denounce the dean as a Mubarak-era lackey. Fistfights between the dean's student opponents and supporters erupt like summer squalls, with the din often emptying classrooms as students pour into the main lobby either to join the fray or watch.
"What is happening in this faculty is a reflection of what is happening in the society after the revolution," said Sherif Nafie, 30, a teacher's assistant in the journalism department. "There is anger, a feeling of dissatisfaction in work, with the salaries, in life."
The protests against the dean are just one reflection of the demand throughout Egypt for a new order, nearly two months after Hosni Mubarak was toppled. In government ministries, factories and especially universities, daily protests have focused on those viewed as Mr. Mubarak's surrogates. Demonstrators complain that the dreaded secret police vetted every candidate for an important job under Mr. Mubarak, and that now the country deserves a clean slate.
"The people need change, real change," Mr. Nafie said.
The protest phenomenon has spread across the country-Mubarak supporters might call it the latest plague in the land of Egypt - with people voicing previously stifled demands. Many fear that if they do not capitalize on this moment, the revolution may prove fruitless. Indeed, many worry that it already is.
"People are anxious that this post-revolutionary moment will end without them gaining their rights," said Ehab al-Kharat, a psychiatrist organizing a new party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.
"It is the first time in Egyptian history that people are taking part in running their own institutions and organizations," he said. "Democracy is not just about electoral ballots and politics at the national level - it is about how you run your organization, how you run your small neighborhood, it is about having a say in every aspect of your life."
The problem, as both he and Mr. Nafie noted, is that Egyptians lack experience in the give and take of democracy, so the push for change is marked by accentuated hostility and mistrust.
No institution seems immune. The army deployed armored vehicles outside the offices of the sheik of Al Azhar, the highest religious authority in Egypt, because of the ferocity of protests by workers demanding higher salaries and better working conditions. Sheik Ahmed al-Tayyib defused the tension by meeting with a workers' delegation and agreeing to study the demands.
Employees at Misr Insurance gather regularly at a downtown Cairo crossroads to demand the firing of the head of the state-owned insurance conglomerate because he still seeks to carry out the privatization plan drafted under Mr. Mubarak. Sometimes the protests dwindle under a combination of appeasement and threats. Mohamed al-Sayed, a labor organizer among the 9,000 workers at the state-run Nagaa Hamady Aluminum Factory in upper Egypt, said workers claiming that managers appointed under Mr. Mubarak were corrupt stopped their sit-in after a small raise and promises to investigate - as well as threats to prosecute them by military courts.
At Cairo University, some faculty members and students are demanding the firing of both the president, Hossam Kamel, and Samy Abdel Aziz, the dean of the mass media faculty.
Mr. Abdel Aziz was a high-profile member of the ruling National Democratic Party and criticized the uprising. Excerpts from his columns for the Roz el-Yousef daily are now strung up in front of the department.
They include paeans to Egyptian democracy after the November parliamentary election, widely considered among the most rigged in Egyptian history, describing the vote as marked by "transparency, equality and impartiality."
He compared Mr. Mubarak's "inspirational leadership" to that of Gandhi, Churchill, de Gaulle and Kennedy. He said it was thanks to Mr. Mubarak that Egyptians had the right to protest at all, ignoring brutal police repression. And he called the police abuse documented on the Facebook page that helped galvanize opposition "inconceivable." But by Jan. 28, after the protests mushroomed, he was backtracking, suggesting that Egypt could learn from its youth.
Those columns form the basis for the movement to oust him. "We reject the idea that someone who tries to manipulate public opinion should guide this institution," said Hamid Fathy, a 22-year-old senior.
The confrontation started Feb. 23, when classes resumed. In a volatile meeting, faculty and students presented the dean with a list of demands.
Mr. Abdel Aziz agreed to work with them, but student protests erupted March 6. The most violence occurred March 23, when the dean said he could not leave a meeting room because students and faculty members demanding his dismissal were lying on the floors, in the elevator and in the stairwells.
After a nearly nine-hour standoff, the military police arrived, escorted Mr. Abdel Aziz out and then cleared the building. Students claimed the officers used excessive force, hurling them downstairs and using electronic cattle prods, much of which they blame on Mr. Abdel Aziz. He has not returned to the building since.
Mr. Abdel Aziz, 57, defends his record as dean, saying he never proselytized for the party at the school.
He said he upgraded curriculums, added computers, and pushed the student newspaper to publish regularly. He found corporate sponsors to refurbish a building that he said had had no maintenance for 16 years.
"I was not against the revolution, and there is no shame in saying I was a member of the N.D.P.," said Mr. Abdel Aziz, who founded an advertising agency and looks the part, dressed in jeans, a fine tweed jacket and suede loafers. "A member of a party should defend what he believes."
The dean said he had submitted his resignation twice, but it was rejected and ultimately he supports the decision of not letting the roughly 3,500 students dictate policy.
"Everybody feels that the revolution came to break down everything, but the law is still there," he said. "We cannot obey the opinion of the students, to allow them to interfere in something that they have nothing to do with."
The protests attracted national attention. Writing in the daily Al Ahram, itself once a staunch government mouthpiece now under new management, one columnist wrote that the university administration was running scared.
"The board of Cairo University considered the demand to change him as a call to bring down all state structures, in fact to bring down the state itself," wrote Abdullah Abdelsalam, saying Mr. Abdel Aziz was a unique case, given his unapologetic support for the former ruling party.
But the administration is wrong, he said, to make the case "a litmus test that if they are lenient, then all the deans and the president of the university will lose their positions in the same way."
Indeed, the university has dug in, with 11 of the professors opposing the dean referred to a disciplinary committee on charges of inciting the students.
"The forces of the counter-revolution were trying to keep you off campus," said one of the professors to a group of visitors who sneaked in to interview them after waiting a week for official permission.
There have been moments of high drama - one supporter of the dean threatened to fling himself off the roof if Mr. Abdel Aziz was not made dean for life, but relented after an hour.
Students tired of the bedlam said they just wanted Mr. Abdel Aziz to go, simply so that they could move on.
Like many Egyptians with grievances, the protesters want either the interim prime minister or the ruling military council to solve the problem, but there is no telling when that might happen.
"As a student I thought I should pick a side and support something, so I found myself taking the side of the protesters, even though they committed violations too," said Khadija Ghanem, a 19-year old student. "I want a dean who protects me, I want a dean who speaks the truth."
Mona El-Naggar and Amr Emam contributed reporting.
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7) NATO Offers No Apology for Airstrike on Rebel Tanks
By C. J. CHIVERS and KAREEM FAHIM
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/africa/09libya.html?hp
ZUEITINA, Libya - NATO said on Friday that it would not apologize for the killing of at least four people in what Libyan rebels said was "likely" a mistaken attack on them by allied warplanes in the east of the country - the second case of friendly-fire deaths in a week.
The commander of the rebel army fighting to oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi said on Thursday that the target of what he called "a fierce attack" from the air was a column of tanks deployed to the front lines by the insurgents for the first time.
"It is likely it is NATO by mistake," the commander, Gen. Abdul Fattah Younes, said, adding that the rebels had notified NATO well in advance that the tanks were headed to the battlefield.
But, at a news conference in Naples, where the alliance has its operational headquarters, Rear Adm. Russell Harding, the British deputy commander of the NATO operation, said the alliance had not been informed that the rebels were using tanks at the time the attack took place. The military movements in the area where the attack took place were "very fluid" at the time, he said, according to news reports, with vehicles going backward and forward.
"I am not apologizing," he said. "The situation on the ground was extremely fluid and remains extremely fluid, and until yesterday we did not have information" that the rebels planned to deploy tanks.
"Our role is to protect civilians," he added, "and tanks have been used to directly target civilians" in other parts of Libya, notably the contested, western port of Misurata where loyalist forces have used tanks against Colonel Qaddafi's opponents.
Admiral Harding said that, in the past 48 hours, NATO warplanes had flown 318 sorties and struck 23 targets in several parts of Libya. That brought the total since the alliance assumed overall command of the operation from the United States last week to more than 1,500 sorties, striking anti-aircraft missile defenses, tanks, munitions dumps and loyalist forces seeking to advance into Misurata, he said.
On Thursday, General Younes said he was still waiting for an apology from NATO. "It is not possible to make a mistake with 20 tanks advancing on a large patch of desert land," he said. "We hope that such a mistake will not be repeated."
He did not say how many tanks were destroyed, but a tank driver in the convoy said eight were damaged or destroyed.
Later in the day, artillery or rocket fire near the strategic city of Ajdabiya sent hundreds of cars fleeing the city in a panic north toward the relative safety of Benghazi. Doctors in Ajdabiya and Benghazi said the dead included a doctor who was in an ambulance near the scene of the air attack.
The episode served to underscore the lack of coordination between the Western alliance and the Libyan rebels during a war in which both sides drive similar vehicles as the front lines shift rapidly.
The strike, against 17 rebel tanks making their debut on the battlefield, was a particularly untimely setback for a campaign that had lost momentum in the past week and has withered before the pro-Qaddafi forces' overwhelming advantage in equipment and heavy weapons. On Thursday, General Younes said that trainers from Qatar were teaching rebel fighters how to use antitank weapons.
The rebels have been hinting for several days that they would soon unveil a surprise at the front. Survivors of the attack said their convoy included equipment confiscated from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's military that in recent weeks had been refurbished and made road-worthy. They said it was being brought forward for a fresh attack against the oil town of Brega, which fell to the loyalists this week.
The convoy included T-55 and T-72 tanks, according to General Younes, who said that the rebels gave NATO frequent updates throughout the day on Thursday about the position of the convoy, which included buses and armored vehicles.
Shortly before the attack, about 30 miles southwest of Ajdabiya, the convoy stopped on the side of the road, said Alsounese Fazan, who was driving a jeep with the convoy. Mr. Fazan, who was being treated for minor injuries at Al Jalaa hospital in Benghazi, said the rebels heard the sound of what they thought were NATO aircraft in the morning.
"We shouted 'God is great!' and after that we heard nothing," he said. "And then they bombed us." He said that he saw four separate explosions, one of which was about 100 yards away.
Another wounded fighter, Amin Jaman, 32, said that all of the vehicles in the convoy were flying the bright, tricolor Libyan rebel flag. He said that he was standing on top of a stationary tank and never heard the sound of an airplane when the first ordnance exploded nearby.
This would be the second time in less than a week that NATO warplanes struck a rebel target. On Saturday, Western warplanes killed 13 rebels in the same region of eastern Libya, where the rebels have been fighting a seesaw battle for weeks with the better equipped and trained forces of Colonel Qaddafi.
That first mistake was brushed off by the rebels, but this one set off outrage among the troops, with some fighters shouting "Down With NATO" along the road from Brega to Ajdabiya, The Associated Press reported.
NATO has also been criticized by rebel leaders for what they say is its failure to keep up the pace of attacks on the loyalist forces that was established in the first two weeks of the conflict. NATO officials have rejected the criticism, saying that the alliance was flying more missions every day.
Ambulances near the scene rushed many of the wounded to the hospital in Ajdabiya, and then returned to the area of the front lines to retrieve more people. A doctor, Salah al-Awami, who drove in one of the ambulances, stopped to ask rebels where to find other wounded people, according to a colleague who was traveling with him, Dr. Ahmed Abdulrahman Zwei. At that moment, he said, an explosion in the desert nearby blew out the windows of the ambulance, and fatally wounded Dr. Awami.
"The shrapnel came from the desert and passed right through the vehicle," Dr. Zwei said.
It was not immediately clear whether that blast was caused by an airstrike or an unrelated attack. At times during the past week, fire from the Qaddafi forces has reached the area where the ambulance was struck.
Two witnesses said they suspected that the ambulance might have been hit by reckless rebel fire. A contingent of rebels, known as the Darnah Brigade, has for several days been firing 57-millimeter air-to-ground rockets from the back of pickup trucks.
The rockets, carried in pods removed from confiscated government attack helicopters, fly wildly, and the brigade often fired them uselessly into the desert. Witnesses said the brigade was firing its rockets again in the vicinity of the convoy, at no apparent targets, and might have struck the ambulance with errant fire. General Younes said that after the airstrikes, Colonel Qaddafi's forces attacked the rebels from three directions, forcing a retreat toward Ajdabiya.
Rebel fighters said that later in the afternoon, a half-dozen rockets or other munitions exploded at the western edge of the city. The explosions caused a mass panic, as civilians and rebels, including some with heavy weapons, briefly packed the highway north to Benghazi.
General Younes said that by Thursday night, the rebels had regained some of the ground they had lost, retaking "large sections" of the road toward Brega.
In Tripoli, a government spokesman said NATO airstrikes hit at least three military academies in the vicinity of the capital. The spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, said NATO had stepped up its attacks around the country, apparently in response to the rebel leaders' criticism.
"It seems they felt sorry for these guys crying on TV and they had a wave of attacks," Mr. Ibrahim said, adding that he thought NATO attacked during the day "to maximize the terror."
C .J. Chivers reported from Zueitina, and Kareem Fahim from Benghazi, Libya. David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Tripoli, Libya, and Alan Cowell from Paris.
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8) Millions Without Power After Japan Aftershock
"Broken pieces of fuel rods have been found outside of Reactor No. 2, and are now being covered with bulldozers, he said. The pieces may be from rods in the spent-fuel pools that were flung out by hydrogen explosions."
By HIROKO TABUCHI and ANDREW POLLACK
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/asia/09japan.html?hp
TOKYO - More than 900,000 households remained without electricity on Friday after the strongest aftershock to hit since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan rocked a wide section of the country's northeast.
The aftershock on Thursday night prompted a tsunami alert, raised fears of new strains on the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and knocked out external power at three other nuclear facilities.
The public broadcaster, NHK, said two people had died in Miyagi and Yamagata, including a 63-year-old woman whose ventilator stopped working in the blackout. Many more were injured. Of about 3.6 million households initially affected, 950,000 were still without power Friday afternoon, The Associated Press reported, quoting the utility that serves the region.
No tsunami was detected, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The aftershock had a magnitude of 7.1, according to the United States Geological Survey; last month's quake, which devastated much of the northeastern coast, was measured at 9.0.
But the agency warned of more aftershocks going forward. Many coastal communities were ravaged last month, and some have become even more vulnerable to tsunami waves because sea walls were breached and land levels sank.
Early Friday, injuries were reported in Sendai City and across the region, and blackouts continued in some areas, according to NHK. Five coal-powered power plants also shut down, adding to concerns over energy shortages.
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant were told to take cover until the tsunami warning was lifted, but Japanese officials said at a news conference that water was still able to be pumped into three damaged reactors and a spent-fuel pool at a fourth in the crucial effort to keep their nuclear fuel cool. The plant's cooling systems were knocked out by last month's quake and tsunami.
Nitrogen also continued to be piped into the No. 1 reactor, the company said, in an effort to prevent a possible explosion.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the power station, said Friday that it had found no new damage to the plant, and workers had resumed work to identify the source of leaks, found last week, of radioactive water into pipes and tunnels under the complex. Monitoring posts at the plant were not showing any immediate increase in radiation levels, the company said.
A big aftershock is thought to pose an additional risk to the Fukushima plant because its containment structures, now filled with water that is highly radioactive, may be more vulnerable to rupture, according to an assessment by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late March.
The temblor has also underscored the sensitivity of other power plants in the region to seismic shocks.
Two other nuclear facilities - a fuel reprocessing plant at Rokkasho and a power plant at Higashidori, both in northern Aomori Prefecture - ran temporarily on emergency diesel generators after their external power was knocked out. Grid power was restored at both plants on Friday morning, according to Japan's nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
The single reactor at Higashidori is shut down for maintenance, and all nuclear fuel had been transferred to the facility's spent fuel pool, which are being cooled by back-up diesel power, according to the operator, Tohoku Electric.
A third site, the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station in Miyagi Prefecture, lost two of its three external power systems, and cooling stopped temporarily at a spent fuel pool there, Tohoku Electric said. All three plants have been shut down since the March 11 quake, but power is needed to cool the nuclear fuel.
The aftershock hit at 11:32 p.m. local time and was centered 41 miles east of Sendai, 72 miles from Fukushima and 205 miles from Tokyo, officials said. It was about 30 miles below the ocean floor, about 10 miles deeper than the March 11 quake. Hundreds of aftershocks have followed the initial quake, but Thursday's was the strongest, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The police say about 12,600 people have died as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. More than 14,700 are listed as missing.
Early Thursday, before the quake struck, nearly 240 police officers from Tokyo and about 100 from Fukushima Prefecture fanned out wearing protective suits in a search of bodies in the 12-mile evacuation zone around the Daiichi plant, according to Mikio Murakoshi, a police spokesman. Japanese and American soldiers conducted a huge search for the missing last weekend, but avoided the evacuation zone because of the radiation risk. But Mr. Murakoshi said radiation levels had dropped.
Still, concerns about the plant remain high. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission speculated Wednesday that some of the core of the No. 2 reactor had flowed from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of the containment structure. The theory implies more damage at the unit than previously believed.
While a spokeswoman for Tokyo Electric dismissed the analysis, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of Japan agreed that it was possible that the core had leaked into the larger containment vessel.
The possibility raised new questions. The Nuclear Regulator Commission said that its speculation about the flow of core material out of the reactor vessel would explain high radiation readings in an area underneath, called the drywell.
But some of the radiation readings at Reactors Nos. 1 and 3 over the last week were nearly as high as or higher than the 3,300 rems per hour that the commission said it was trying to explain, so it would appear that the speculation would apply to them as well. At No. 2, extremely radioactive material continues to ooze out of the reactor pressure vessel, and the leak is likely to widen with time, a western nuclear executive asserted.
"It's a little like pulling a thread out of your tie," said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect business connections in Japan. "Any breach gets bigger."
Flashes of extremely intense radioactivity have become a serious problem, he said. Tokyo Electric's difficulties in providing accurate information on radiation are not a result of software problems, as some Japanese officials have suggested, but stem from damage to measurement instruments caused by radiation, the executive said.
Broken pieces of fuel rods have been found outside of Reactor No. 2, and are now being covered with bulldozers, he said. The pieces may be from rods in the spent-fuel pools that were flung out by hydrogen explosions.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong, and Matthew L. Wald from Washington.
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9) Operation Scorching Summer: Israel attacks Gaza (again)
Australians for Palestine
April 8, 2011 -
http://williambowles.info/2011/04/08/operation-scorching-summer-israel-attacks-gaza-again/
OPERATION SCORCHING SUMMER
Israeli apache helicopters open fire at Palestinian houses in the heavily populated neighbourhood of Shuja'eya east of Gaza. There are also reports of Israeli military boats firing at houses. Palestinian sources say that an ambulance was hit in one of the strikes. Five people have been killed, one a man of 50 by an Israel tank shell and the latest victim is Saleh Tarabin (38). Some 30-40 people have been wounded. Israeli warplanes are opening fire on Khan Younis city, south of Gaza, but so far no casualties have been reported. Heavy shelling in Rafah and tunnels being targeted. Bombs falling on the border between Gaza and Egypt. F-16s over Gaza City now. Israeli airstrikes have targeted two high voltage electricity converters in Khan Younis and Gaza City causing power outages. All hospitals in Gaza have now declared a state of emergency. UN staff have been evacuated from Gaza.
This is the number for the IDF Gaza War Crimes office +97286741400 or from abroad +97286741400. Flood their lines, get your Embassy to call and let them know what you think.
Sonja Karkar
Australians for Palestine
http://www.australiansforpalestine.com
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10) Pennsylvania Calls for More Water Tests
By IAN URBINA
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/science/earth/08water.html?ref=us
Pennsylvania environmental regulators said Wednesday that they were calling for waste treatment plants and drinking water facilities to increase testing for radioactive pollutants and other contaminants, to see whether they are ending up in rivers because of the growth of natural gas drilling in the state.
The move follows a March 7 letter that the federal Environmental Protection Agency sent to the state, instructing it to perform testing for radioactivity within 30 days and to review the permits of state treatment plants handling the wastewater.
"Over the past three years, we have taken the actions necessary to protect the environment and public health without stifling the growth of the natural gas industry," said Michael Krancer, acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
He added that his office had sent letters requiring new testing to 14 public water authorities. It also contacted 25 wastewater plants, requesting that those with older permits "voluntarily" begin testing for radium, uranium and other pollutants.
The letters from federal and state regulators follow reports in The New York Times about gas industry wastewater with high levels of radioactivity being discharged into rivers and streams by sewage treatment plants that were not designed to remove radioactive materials.
The state's letter also comes almost a month after a lengthy conference call among E.P.A. officials and state regulators, during which they discussed how to improve regulation of natural gas industry wastewater in Pennsylvania.
During the call, federal regulators raised concerns about sludge, often called biosolids, from waste treatment plants receiving drilling wastewater.
When wastewater is sent through these plants, some of the heavier contaminants settle out during the treatment process. Radioactive elements like radium may also settle and concentrate in the sludge, which is sometimes sold by treatment plants for use as fertilizer.
E.P.A. officials said they were concerned that the state had not forbidden treatment plants to distribute the sludge for such purposes. Asked by E.P.A. officials about this issue, Pennsylvania regulators said they planned to address it in a new guideline.
"It's not really a requirement, but it's in guidance," said Ron Furlan, an official from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, according to a transcript of the March 15 conference call.
Mr. Furlan added that the reason for the new guidance on biosolids is that "we don't have a good handle on the radiological concerns right now, and in any case we don't want people land-applying biosolids that may be contaminated to any significant level by Radium 226-228 or other emitters."
During the conference call, E.P.A. officials said they had been informed that the Johnstown Plant in western Pennsylvania was still receiving biosolids and distributing them to be spread on fields.
"I don't know for a fact," Mr. Furlan said, "but I'm sure that there are some P.O.T.W.'s that are accepting brine natural gas wastewater and are still land applying, but we are still trying to stop that basically." P.O.T.W.'s refers to publicly owned treatment works, or sewage treatment plants.
A message seeking comment from officials who oversee the Johnstown plant was not responded to. On its Web site, the plant says that it "produces 20,000 tons of lime-stabilized biosolids per year."
Documents reviewed by The Times in February indicate that the Johnstown plant has accepted wastewater with levels of alpha radioactivity roughly 2,157 times higher than the drinking water standard.
In an interview last December, an official from the Johnstown, Pa., plant said his plant usually accepted 50,00 to 100,000 gallons of drilling wastewater per day.
In Pennsylvania, waste treatment plant operators have to test sludge for a range of contaminants before they can distribute it to be used for fertilizer. The list of contaminants does not include radium, according to a 1999 report by Pennsylvania State University. State officials did not respond to questions about whether these standards had been updated.
During the conference call, E.P.A. officials pushed state regulators to consider re-evaluating all of the permits at wastewater treatment plants that are accepting drilling waste and adding stricter standards for testing of radionuclides and other contaminants.
"It's basically out of the question," Mr. Furlan said, rejecting the idea and explaining that "it's too resource intensive" and that industry would push back too strongly.
Mr. Furlan also said that the real threat of radionuclides from drilling wastewater being sent through sewage treatment plants was that it would settle in the sediment at the bottom of rivers.
The letters sent this week by Pennsylvania regulators made no mention of any plans to test river sediment or to restrict applications on land of sludge from these waste treatment plants that are accepting drilling waste.
"There is no sediment testing as far as I know," Mr. Furlan said when asked by E.P.A officials. "But if you were really looking for radionuclides, that's the first place I would look."
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11) Another Source of Execution Drug Stops Sales
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/us/08brfs-Drug.html?ref=us
A pharmaceutical company in India says it will no longer sell a key lethal injection drug to American prison officials, removing another source of the drug amid a severe shortage. Kayem Pharmaceutical posted a statement on its Web site on Thursday, citing its Hindu beliefs in the decision to stop selling the drug, sodium thiopental.
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12) U.S. Out of Iraq and Afghanistan! Stop the War on Libya!
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Sat, April 9 in NYC & Sun, April 10 in SF
March Against the Wars!
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/
info@AnswerCoalition.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
Boston: 857-334-5084 | New York City: 212-694-8720 | Chicago: 773-463-0311
San Francisco: 415-821-6545| Los Angeles: 213-251-1025 | Albuquerque: 505-268-2488
Sunday, April 10 in San Francisco
Rally Against the Wars at Home and Abroad
Dolores Park, San Francisco
11am: Assemble, 12noon: Rally, 1:30pm: March
Sat, April 9 in New York City
Rally at Union Square at 12 Noon
ANSWER contingent gathering at
Union Square West (Broadway) between 16th St. and 17th St.
Click here to download flyer for the ANSWER contingent
Call for the ANSWER Coalition Contingent:
On March 19th of this year, the eighth anniversary of the criminal invasion of Iraq, the U.S. government initiated the bombing of another oil-rich nation: Libya. The U.S. government always states that each Pentagon invasion or bombing attack is for humanitarian rather than imperial objectives, but this one, like those in the past, is all about profit and political control.
With the war in Afghanistan continuing to rage on, now nearing a decade in duration, and 50,000 troops continuing to occupy Iraq, the anti-war movement must be in the streets and in full force.
Three weeks ago, marches around the country brought thousands into the streets. Let's keep that energy going! Join us this Saturday, April 9, for a mass rally and march that begins at Union Square. The march has been called under the slogans, "Money for Jobs and Education, Not War--Bring the Troops Home Now!" and is raising the vital connections between the wars abroad and the attacks on working people and oppressed communities here in the United States.
As the government claims to be flat broke, attacking labor unions and vital social services, they find limitless funds for their endless military adventures and Wall Street friends. The movements from Tunisia to Egypt, Bahrain to Yemen, have sent a clear message: the people have the power once they are mobilized and in the streets. That is the same spirit that was reflected in the heroic Capitol building occupation in Madison, Wisconsin.
Come out this Saturday and help revitalize the anti-war movement that is needed as much as ever before.
The march has been called by the United National Antiwar Committee and has been endorsed by a wide variety of organizations across the progressive movement.
To contact ANSWER, call 212-694-8720 or email us at nyc@answercoalition.org.
Sponsored by: United National Antiwar Committee, endorsed by many organizations including the ANSWER Coalition.
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13) Hero of Egypt's Revolution, Military Now Faces Critics
By MONA EL-NAGGAR and MICHAEL SLACKMAN
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/middleeast/09egypt.html?_r=1&hpw
CAIRO - A blogger was jailed recently for "insulting the military." Human rights advocates say that thousands of people have been arrested and tried before military courts in the last two months. Protesters have been tortured and female activists subjected to so-called virginity tests.
Fed up and angry with Egypt's military rulers, tens of thousands of demonstrators turned out on Friday in Tahrir Square here for one of the largest demonstrations since the former president, Hosni Mubarak, stepped down on Feb. 11. The protest was being called the Friday of Warning.
Since the military assumed direct control after Mr. Mubarak was forced from power, it has seen its standing as defender of the revolution called into question by actions that reflect the authoritarian tactics of the past rather than a blueprint for a democratic future, many here said.
Even the new protest was met with violence. Around 3 a.m. on Saturday, soldiers swept into Tahrir Square, beating hundreds of protesters with clubs and firing heavy volleys of gunfire to break up the demonstration, The Associated Press reported. The Health Ministry said that one person had been killed, according to the news agency.
The troops dragged an unknown number of protesters away, throwing them into police trucks, witnesses told The A.P.
"We don't want a confrontation with the army but they have to understand that the people will not go quiet," Nevine Bakir, 42, said earlier as she entered the square. "This is a revolution."
The military's critics say that it is either unwilling or incapable of ushering in an era of true democratic reform, an end to corruption and the abolition of abusive police practices.
"The army and the people are not one hand," the jailed blogger, Michael Nabil, who is now facing a secret trial and a three-year prison sentence, wrote in a posting. "The revolution has so far managed to get rid of the dictator, but the dictatorship still exists."
But for all the shock, even despair, expressed by many Egyptians over the military's actions, those who have served in and studied the military said they had not been surprised, given the military's leadership and the responsibilities it has been asked to accept, which far exceed its traditional duties and capabilities.
A military spokesman said that many of the charges were based on rumor and that the military would investigate the accusations of abuse against women. He added that the military was dedicated to moving Egypt step by step toward democracy and that it was responding to the interest of the people.
However, about the best even the military's supporters can say for its halting moves toward democracy, its efforts to protect the network of Mubarak-era officials and allies and its tolerance of the continuing practice of torturing prisoners, is that the generals are uncomfortable with their new role and slowly learning how to navigate the shoals of civilian life.
"They are well versed and knowledgeable individuals, but they were not prepared for what they are doing right now," said Nabil Fouad, a retired general and professor of strategic studies. "The army was suddenly handed this mission, and it was complicated even more by the absence of the police."
Demonstrators who gathered in Tahrir Square on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations in recent weeks, seemed to share the view of Mr. Nabil, the blogger - quite a change from the early days when the military was embraced by the crowds.
"My opinion is that the military council is a supporter of the old regime," said Sayyid Hozayen, 51, a businessman who attended the rally. "They were a part of it, so they are defending it in every way they can."
The focus of the attention is a small council of military leaders unaccustomed to public accountability, let alone having their decisions questioned. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is collectively serving in the role of the president - with final power over every decision - has provided little insight into its deliberations or decision-making process.
"I think they are incapable of understanding the extent to which the revolution wants to change things in the country," said Mustapha Kamel el-Sayyid, a political science professor at The American University in Cairo. "To them, removing the president was enough."
Its members, schooled in the old system of privilege, were not only appointed by Mr. Mubarak, but they worked alongside him for many years.
"You are talking about people who spent a lot of time working with the president, serving with him for a long time, developing a human relationship over the years," said Dr. Khalid Sorur, a retired general who served for 30 years and was chief of staff of the medical corps. "They are not politicians, and now they have a lot of political tasks and they don't know how to do this job."
At the head of the council, the supreme leader, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, is a longtime close ally of Mr. Mubarak. Field Marshal Tantawi, 75, has a long history of shunning the news media while wielding considerable influence behind the scenes in areas that reach far beyond the nation's defense.
For the first time on Friday, Field Marshal Tantawi personally and publicly became the focus of the crowd's ire as speakers called him a dictator and demanded that he resign.
"Dictator, dictator, Tantawi is next," chanted a speaker on the stage before the crowd.
It is Field Marshal Tantawi, perhaps more than any other single person, who is now driving events in Egypt, and he has a long-established record of support for Mr. Mubarak's priorities, chiefly an emphasis on Mr. Mubarak's watchword of "stability," according to government documents and people who say they have worked with him.
Before he visited the United States in 2008, the American Embassy in Cairo sent a cable to Washington describing him as "aged and change-resistant," while also "charming and courtly."
The cable, obtained by WikiLeaks and since made public, said that Field Marshal Tantawi was "mired in a post-Camp David military paradigm that serves his cohorts' narrow interests for the past three decades."
That same memo, by Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone Jr., an expert in Egypt, concluded that Field Marshal Tantawi and "Mubarak are focused on regime stability and maintaining the status quo through the end of their time. They simply do not have the energy, inclination or world view to do anything differently."
At a time when Field Marshal Tantawi has refused public explanations or interviews, the cables provide some insight into the American Embassy's perception of his priorities.
"In the cabinet, where he still wields significant influence, Tantawi has opposed both economic and political reforms that he perceives as eroding central government power," Mr. Ricciardone wrote in 2008. "He is supremely concerned with national unity, and has opposed policy initiatives he views as encouraging political or religious cleavages within Egyptian society."
At the square on Friday, that sentiment seemed widely shared by speakers and demonstrators alike.
"Oh field marshal," chanted the speaker on stage, "Why are you quiet? Are you with them, or what?"
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14) PENTAGON POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST PEACEFUL PROTESTERS CALLING FOR END TO WAR AND HALT TO DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIORNMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 8, 2011
Contact: Joy First 608 239-4327 joyfirst5@gmail.com
For more information, contact the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
www.irqpledge.org
joyfirst5@gmail.com
PENTAGON, WASHINGTON, DC - On April 8, 2011 at approximately noon, 25 civilian activists organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance arrived at the Pentagon to deliver a letter asking for a meeting with Secretary of War Robert Gates in order to discuss bringing an end to U.S. wars and the destruction of the environment resulting from military policies.
Within less than three minutes, with the activists peacefully requesting that the Secretary's office receive their letter, Pentagon police officers swarmed the scene, violently moving the activists from the area. They were violently pushed and shoved, the activists said. Several activists reported that the police almost knocked them over. A number of individuals had their arms forcefully and painfully wrenched behind their backs. Eve Tetaz, 80, was pushed to the ground. As the officers pushed the citizens towards the police vans, they did not ever announce to any individuals that they were being arrested.
The protesters were taken to the Navy Annex for processing where they were given a warning for failure to obey a lawful order. Once the Pentagon Police had the names of all the activists, they searched their system and found that eight of the 25 had been arrested at the Pentagon in the past. Those eight individuals were then given a citation for "disorderly conduct".
The eight activists, David Barrows, Joy First, Alice Gerard, Malachy Kilbride, Max Obuszewski, Ned Smith, Eve Tetaz, and Paki Weiland will take their case to the courts on June 3, 2011. This action by the Pentagon Police was a blatant violation of their First Amendment rights. The activists were there within their legal rights, fulfilling their Nuremberg obligations, standing in a public access area. There was no disorderly conduct on the part of the activists. Rather, the police acted in a violent and unlawful manner towards the activists.
The citizen activists were attempting to bring to the attention of the Pentagon information on how the U.S. military uses more petroleum than any other single entity in the world, and it is responsible for releasing immeasurable amounts of lethal toxic chemicals into the air, soil and water in the course of maintaining military bases in the U.S. and around the world.
The Pentagon engages in rampant death and destruction in such countries as Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen and other parts of the world. Besides the toxic chemicals, the military uses depleted uranium ammunition, with disastrous, long-term harmful health effects on all who inhale it and their offspring in the form of genetic defects. Most recently this illegal weapon is suspected to have been used in Libya. Thus, the activists were seeking a meeting with the Secretary of Defense to discuss both the excessive warmongering and the ecocide being committed against Mother Earth by the Pentagon.
This action was endorsed by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Climate SOS, Code Pink, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jonah House, National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC), Nukewatch, Peace Action, SOA Watch, Soulforce, United National Anti-war Committee, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War Is A Crime.org, War Resisters League, Washington Peace Center, Witness Against Torture, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
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15) Back to the Streets
By Maureen Aumand
"As citizens link arms in public solidarity this weekend in New York and San Francisco, they will be proclaiming once again with Dr. King that: 'Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.'"
April 8th, 2011 1:12 PM
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/back-to-the-streets
The beloved community is rallying.
On April 9th in NYC and 10th in San Francisco, human rights, civil rights, and workers rights leaders and advocates - religious and secular - Jewish, Muslim, Christian, humanist - are linking arms in solidarity and common commitment with antiwar activists to take to the streets in the face of what Dr. King once called an "unfolding conundrum".
A true tempest is rising from the triple threat which Dr. King outlined so eloquently decades past of materialism, racism and militarism.
To be sure there is a tsunami fast approaching which is threatening by its erosion of foundational principles and their hard won incarnation over two centuries of struggle and evolution to tear the very moorings out from under all that has made the "American experiment" such a bearer of hope and promise for the human planetary community as a whole.
Materialism - because greed and possession rule. What is good for business is god and what is good for business is the bottom line- period and this religion has been franchised : in education, in health care, in fiscal policy and budgets, in statehouses, in boardrooms, in elections, in Congressional chambers, in the White House, in foreign policy. Though rhetoric may say otherwise (and even that is shifting and shifting blatantly, frighteningly) honest men all know this to be so.
Materialism because the worship of capital at the expense of all else fosters systemic myopia, self-interest, isolation, fragmentation, class division; materialism because its maintenance requires spiritual blindness, mindless group think, loss of idealism, cynicism, a retreat to hedonism or vapid disinterest.
Materialism because when profit over all prevails, integrity erodes, lip service becomes the norm, the social contract and the common good are eschewed; the political landscape becomes an arid wasteland of partisan and purchased puppetry, a posturing mime show, a self-serving echo chamber of lies.
Materialism because "me and mine" requires authoritarianism, control, a worship of the status quo , engenders endemic fear and runs from caring concern and creative community and a sense of the ever possible.
And racism. Racism because of such myopic vision. Racism because of such fear. Racism because the energy to hold onto possession and control saps the energy to reach out and understand.
Racism because conscience must be silenced with false justification when it rallies against the objectification of the other for the sake of gain and self-preservation, when it rallies against the fallacy of an exceptionalism which attempts to justify murder and pillage for the sake of gain and false security.
Racism because it rests on fear and lies and cannot accept the implications, the required self and national sacrifice, of the uncompromising and imperative inclusiveness of "all men....endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights."
Racism because ignorance leads to dead ends, security walls, prisons and ghettos of brick, of rhetoric, of laws, of mind, of heart. Racism because our only security lies in a human brotherhood which is polar to the war of all against all which currently rages.
And most integrally connected, militarism. Militarism because of its blinding, obscene, humanly untenable camouflaged immorality and mayhem. Militarism because of its illusion of necessity and good.
Militarism because of its ubiquitous presence, its embedding into the very fiber of our national identity, its becoming the air we breathe.
Militarism because of its black hole energy which robs us, stealing from the national treasury and soul so much that is generative and life giving and transforming the all possible into death, destruction, waste, nihilism. Because armed to the teeth it is always trigger happy, engendering over and over the greatest failures of human will and imagination.
The ugly, soul destroying human curse of violence and militarism promulgated by the lie that it makes us safe so that it can make a few rich; premised on the need to ever and always fabricate an enemy; teaching generation after generation that might makes right, that war will always be with us, that in its weakness is our strength, that there are no alternatives.
Those who are participating in the April 9th and 10th events are concerned that the tsunami that threatens rises from a profound fissure in the grounding of our nation's soul, a seismic hubris. The recent natural tsunami on the other hand, if it counsels anything counsels humility.
The rallying cries which will ring bicoastally this weekend echo those which ring in Tahrir and Madison and all the public squares where the people cry out and spring from a humble listening to the admonishment of Dr. King who prophesied:
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death...There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood."
As citizens link arms in public solidarity this weekend in New York and San Francisco, they will be proclaiming once again with Dr. King that:
"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now."
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16) Two Protesters Are Killed in Cairo's Tahrir Square
By LIAM STACK
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/middleeast/10egypt.html?hp
CAIRO - Egypt's security forces killed two and injured dozens in a deadly predawn attempt to disperse peaceful protesters spending the night in the capital's iconic Tahrir Square, witnesses said. The crackdown in the square was the most brutal since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak on February 11.
The military, which runs the country, on Saturday denied that anyone had been killed and described the protesters in the square as "thugs." They also said the forces in the square were police officers.
Doctors at the Qasr el-Aini Hospital said the two people who died had been shot; they said they also treated 35 people for injuries sustained in the clash. Human rights lawyers said 42 protesters were detained and later interrogated on charges of violating the national curfew.
Witnesses said gunfire rang through the streets of downtown Cairo for over 20 minutes early Saturday morning as several thousand riot police, uniformed soldiers and military police officers stormed the square.
"It was raining bullets," said Houssam, 26, who wandered around the square midday on Saturday looking for friends he had lost track of in the pre-dawn melee. "It was an enormous amount of shooting. I didn't know what was going on."
Security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the military used live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters, who said they were chased down narrow side streets as they tried to flee. Protesters regained control of the square by sunrise, forcing security forces back under a barrage of stones and setting fire to three of their vehicles.
By midday Saturday the square was sealed behind makeshift barricades of barbed wire and metal girders and littered with stones from the early morning clashes. Thousands gathered to chant antimilitary slogans; some gawked at a pool of blood on the sidewalk where they said a man had died and others presented spent bullet casings as evidence of the attack.
The military has been widely seen as the guardian of Egypt's democratic revolution since it took power, but it has come under increasing criticism for the slow pace of its prosecution of former government officials.
It has been further tarnished by a scandal over torture and the longstanding personal ties between the top commander, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and the former president.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to Tahrir Square on Friday to demand the trial of former Mubarak government officials and the "purging" of corrupt officials from the transitional government, including Field Marshal Tantawi.
The protest was joined by as many as two dozen uniformed defectors from the armed forces, called "free soldiers" by some protesters, who tried to protect them from the raid and feared they would face severe penalties for their public criticism of commanding officers.
"We had the free soldiers with us but the army took them," said Houssam, who added that he and his friends helped some escape capture by "putting them into civilian clothes."
On Saturday, a smaller crowd of several thousand hoisted a man who called himself an army officer, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, to lead chants of "Down, down with Field Marshal Tantawi" and "The people want the execution of the Field Marshal."
Saturday's killings set off outrage among protesters and posed a major challenge to the military's relationship with the revolutionary forces that brought them to power.
"The military leaders are corrupt, ignorant criminals!" shouted one protester, Essam, who would not give his last name for fear of reprisals. "The next protest we must leave Tahrir and go to the Ministry of Defense."
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17) Syrian Forces Open Fire on Demonstrators in Two Cities
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/middleeast/10syria.html?ref=world
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Syrian security forces fired on protesters in the cities of Latakia and Dara on Saturday, a day after the bloodiest and largest antigovernment protests since the uprising began.
In the port city of Latakia, security forces fired live ammunition to break up a sit-in early Saturday.
Residents reported hearing hours of heavy gunfire overnight as security forces dispersed hundreds of protesters.
"The shooting went on for almost two hours," said one resident, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "It was frightening."
There was no immediate word on casualties.
Latakia is significant because it lies in a province that has strong historical ties to President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Latakia is now home to a diverse mix of religious groups, with mostly Sunni Muslims in the urban core and Alawites in the countryside. At least 12 people were killed in clashes in the city two weeks ago, raising fears that the violence could take on a sectarian tone in the coming days or weeks.
Later Saturday, security forces fired on protesters during a funeral in Dara, a volatile southern city where at least 25 people were killed on Friday, a Syrian human rights advocate said.
The advocate, Ammar Qurabi, who leads Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, said the group's information was coming from residents and witnesses in Dara. He said several people were wounded Saturday as burials were taking place.
The death toll related to the widespread protests on Friday rose on Saturday as rights advocates confirmed that at least 37 people had been killed nationwide. Most of the dead, and hundreds of wounded people, were reported to be in Dara, where burials on Saturday turned into further protests.
More than 170 people have been killed since the protests began in earnest last month, human rights groups say.
Activists seeking to break Mr. Assad's iron-fisted rule called Saturday for daily protests, which would be a serious escalation in a movement that so far has gathered only on Fridays.
That call was met with a sharp warning by Syrian authorities, who said they would crush the protests, raising the risks of further bloodshed.
Syria's Interior Ministry said in a statement that it would not tolerate "the intentional mixing between peaceful protests and sabotage and sowing sectarian strife."
State-run television said Friday that 19 police officers and members of the security forces had been killed when gunmen opened fire on them. It was the first significant claim of casualties by the Syrian government, which has contended that the unrest is driven by armed gangs, and it could signal plans for a stronger crackdown.
The accounts could not be independently verified. Syrian authorities have banned most journalists from entering the country and tightly control those inside.
The calls for reform have shaken Mr. Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.
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18) Tens of Thousands Protest in Yemen
By LAURA KASINOF and J. DAVID GOODMAN
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/middleeast/09yemen.html?ref=world
SANA, Yemen - More than 100,000 people converged on Yemen's capital for a second Friday of dueling demonstrations over the fate of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who faces a rising tide of international sentiment in favor of his departure.
In the city of Taiz, three protesters were killed and 33 wounded by gunfire, a doctor at a local field hospital said. Witnesses said that security forces and plainclothes snipers fired on protesters as they were marching to the governor's office.
In the capital, chants in favor of Mr. Saleh echoed through the streets along with those calling for his ouster. The cadence of each was the same, though the words reflected the deep political impasse that has gripped the country since protests began in mid-February.
"The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh," yelled some.
"The people want to the regime to fall," yelled others nearby.
Adding to the heightened tension in the capital, a fleet of additional tanks has been deployed in the city, protecting the presidential palace in the past week.
The government said in a statement on Friday that Mr. Saleh welcomed an offer from the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation regional coalition, to discuss a plan to transfer political power.
Meanwhile, speaking to throngs of flag-waving supporters, Mr. Saleh lashed out at one of the council's members, Qatar, after the prime minister of Qatar described in an interview on Al Jazeera the elements of a departure plan. "We cannot be dictated orders by Qatar or Al Jazeera; It is rejected," he told a large gathering of supporters, many holding photos of the president.
"This is unacceptable intervention in Yemeni affairs," he added, calling on Gulf states and the West to "respect the feelings of the Yemeni people."
The proposal by the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose member states are Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, represented a change in position for the group, which now joined Western nations in calling for a political transition.
The United States, which had long backed Mr. Saleh, has quietly shifted positions and decided that he is unlikely to institute reforms and must be eased out of power, American and Yemeni officials said.
The council's representatives to Yemen had presented Mr. Saleh and Yemeni opposition parties with the proposal for the transfer of power earlier in the week, inviting both sides to Riyadh, the capital of neighboring Saudi Arabia, to discuss the plan. Mr. Saleh had initially reacted positively to the offer, before appearing to dismiss it on Friday.
As has now become common on Fridays, demonstrations swelled in the capital and in other cities across the country as many Yemenis join the protests during and after Friday Prayer.
The youth-led street protesters also rejected the proposal, refusing any offer that grants Mr. Saleh and his family immunity, an element of the plan.
"No one can speak in the name of the people," said Adel al-Surabi, one of the youth protest leaders. "We cannot speak in the names of the martyrs' families and the people who have suffered for 33 years. We still have the right to prosecute him and to ask for compensation for his crimes."
"The most important thing isn't this revolution," Mr. Surabi said. "It's what's going to happen after the revolution."
Laura Kasinof reported from Sana, and J. David Goodman from New York.
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19) Lack of Data Heightens Japan's Nuclear Crisis
By HIROKO TABUCHI and KEITH BRADSHER
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/asia/09nuclear.html?ref=world
TOKYO - Nearly one month after Japan's devastating nuclear accident, atomic energy experts, regulators and politicians around the world are still puzzling over a basic question: How much danger is still posed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?
That depends to a considerable extent on how hot the uranium fuel rods at the power plant remain, and whether fuel has escaped its containment, or might still do so. Yet remarkably little is known for sure about what is really happening inside the reactors because some areas remain far too radioactive for workers to approach, and some instruments have malfunctioned.
The paucity of data and the conflicting estimates of what the available information really means have prompted a series of confusing analyses and a rift between officials in Japan and those overseas - and even between one member of Congress and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The commission speculated this week that the nuclear fuel in the core of one of the stricken reactors had probably leaked from its thick steel pressure vessel, its most important protective barrier. If that proved to be accurate, it would raise the prospect of continuing fuel leaks and high levels of radioactive releases that would vastly complicate containment and the cleanup.
But Japanese officials said there was no evidence of a compromised pressure vessel, and they wondered why they were reading about it in the newspapers.
"If they have a concern, they should inform us," said Kentaro Morita of Japan's nuclear regulatory body, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, after its American counterpart sounded the alarm over a possible nuclear fuel leak at the plant's Reactor No. 2, clearly contradicting Japanese accounts. "They didn't say such concerns to us directly," Mr. Morita said.
A senior Foreign Ministry official, meanwhile, accused the foreign media of exaggerating the threat posed by the power plant and the radiation spreading from it. Radiation fears are hurting sales of Japanese products abroad.
Who is proved right in the scientific debate has great repercussions for how and when the nuclear crisis might be brought under control, and the potential implications if assumptions prove wrong.
From the start there have been differences, with the American authorities expressing a more pessimistic view than the Japanese.
The United States has advised Americans to stay at least 50 miles away from the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Japanese officials evacuated residents within a 12-mile radius, and have since said they are considering expanding the evacuation zone.
An assessment in late March by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that hydrogen explosions at the plant might have blown particles of nuclear fuel from the reactors' spent-fuel pools up to a mile away. The Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, says that while the pools remain exposed at the most-damaged reactors, the fuel remains safely inside.
American officials are also concerned that mounting stresses on the reactors' containment structures as they fill up with radioactive water used in emergency cooling make them vulnerable to rupture in an aftershock from the March 11 earthquake. Japanese officials have played down that concern, and on Friday they said a sizable aftershock that struck overnight had caused no further damage at the plant.
The rift also highlights the difficulty of a debate in which both sides are forced to extrapolate possible situations with little access to crucial readings from inside the reactors.
Much of the automated measurement equipment in the reactors has been damaged, either by explosions in the early days of the crisis or by intense radiation since then. Damage to the reactors, as well as high radiation, has prevented technicians from making detailed assessments.
The Pentagon has provided airborne surveillance drones that can help monitor ground-level radiation at the plant. It is possible that American officials are basing their analysis on data they have collected independently, though Obama administration officials say they have shared their information with the Japanese.
Even so, it is not easy to explain why such different theories are being offered on fundamental questions like whether radioactive fuel from the steel reactor pressure vessel at Unit No. 2 is leaking into the bottom of the containment structure.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited high levels of radiation at one spot inside the containment structure at Reactor No. 2 as evidence for its analysis. In addition, extremely high levels of radiation were detected in the water from a recently stanched leak that ran from the reactor building into a drainage ditch and into the ocean.
The Japanese flatly deny that possibility. "At this moment we do not have any data that shows there has been leakage to the containment vessels," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general at the Japanese regulatory agency. He also said that the Japanese and American regulators, who talk every day, were no longer so far apart on this question.
Japanese officials believe that water pumped into the reactor to cool it - as opposed to the nuclear fuel itself - might have somehow leaked out. In addition, there is evidence that an explosion may have breached the primary containment structure, which may have allowed highly radioactive water into other parts of the plant and into the ocean.
Domestic political priorities appear to be driving at least some of the reactions in both countries. In the aftermath of the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, nuclear regulators in the United States have often planned for and talked about the worst possibilities to avoid accusations that they are lax about safety.
The pressure on American officials to give well-rounded explanations about the potential threat remains high. In fact, some members of Congress who are critics of the nuclear power industry are skeptical that the regulatory commission has been as forthcoming as it should be about the risks posed by Japan's nuclear crisis or the potential impact on American nuclear power plants that use similar technology.
This week, Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, an outspoken critic, engaged in a running debate with members of the commission's staff over the conditions at Reactor No. 2 in Japan. Mr. Markey said the regulators had told his staff that fuel was leaking from the reactor, but then the commission issued a more ambiguous public statement.
"I find it rather curious that some within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are attempting to deny the findings their own technical staff conveyed to my office as soon as it became clear that this information showed a meltdown that is more severe than some people apparently wish to acknowledge," Mr. Markey said in a statement.
On the Japanese side, officials have an obvious desire to avoid causing panic in public statements.
"We have a very conservative culture in the nuclear industry" in the United States, said Murray E. Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University and a specialist in nuclear containment structures. "There's nothing to gain by the N.R.C. saying things are good. At the same time, there's nothing to gain by Tokyo Electric not downplaying stuff."
The Americans also appear to rely more heavily on complex computer programs like Melcor that use available data to extrapolate conditions in reactors after accidents. But the regulatory commission appears to have partly relied on data provided by Tokyo Electric, something that engineers skeptical of the power company say compromises the validity of the findings.
"When the input numbers are no good, the output numbers are no good," said Satoshi Sato, a former engineer at General Electric, which designed the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. He argues that the conditions in the reactors are probably worse than the Japanese have reported.
The Japanese also seem to prefer presenting raw data without explaining what they think it means, said Takashi Inoue, a professor of public relations at Waseda University. Every day, Tokyo Electric, the nuclear agency, the chief cabinet secretary and others hold news conferences at which they present a blizzard of facts and numbers but rarely make broader declarations about the conditions at Fukushima Daiichi.
Industry experts are split.
Yoichi Kikuchi, a Japanese nuclear engineer who helped design the containment vessel at one of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, agreed with the Americans that a fuel leak was possible. He said that the pressure vessel at Reactor No. 2 was especially vulnerable because of openings at the bottom where control rods are inserted. If the fuel were melting, the metal welding around those openings would easily give way, allowing the fuel to travel into the drywell, he said. The fuel could then react with the water in the suppression chamber, setting off a vapor explosion and a huge release of radiation into the air, he said.
Shuichi Iwata, a nuclear fuel expert at Tokyo University, said that he thought a leak of fuel was probably occurring, but that the consequences might not be great. "The worst case is not happening, I think," he said.
But Toshihiro Yamamoto, an associate professor in nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said the nuclear agency's explanation was more likely. He said that it was water, not fuel, escaping from the same openings, or perhaps from a damaged circulation pump higher in the vessel.
Masashi Goto, a former Toshiba nuclear power plant designer, said that Japanese officials appeared to have decided that they gained nothing but panic from predicting outcomes. "They will never speak about the worst-case scenario," he said. "They will never predict."
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Tokyo, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong. Ken Belson and Andrew Pollack contributed reporting from Tokyo, and Matthew L. Wald from Washington.
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20) Israeli Strikes on Gaza Continue
"Of the 17 Palestinians killed since Thursday, 9 were civilians, Palestinian medical authorities said. Those authorities said dozens were also wounded."
By FARES AKRAM and ETHAN BRONNER
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/middleeast/10gaza.html?ref=world
GAZA - Israeli aircraft and artillery continued to strike Gaza on Saturday, killing three more militants, including a senior commander, bringing the total dead since Thursday to 17, Palestinian officials said. From Gaza, 20 more rockets and mortar shells hit southern Israel but caused no injuries or damage.
Israel said its attacks were in retaliation for a Hamas missile strike on an Israeli school bus on Thursday that critically wounded a 16-year-old boy. Hamas said it fired at the bus to retaliate for Israel's killing of three militants last Saturday.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said one of the three militants killed in the new attack on Saturday was Tayser Abu Snima, a senior commander who had played a major role in firing rockets into Israel. She added that since Friday, Israel's newly installed Iron Dome anti-rocket system had intercepted seven projectiles, including medium-range Grad missiles aimed at the city of Ashkelon.
On Saturday, witnesses in the Gazan city of Rafah said three militants were hit by a missile fired from a drone. Two were killed, and the third was in critical condition. The armed wing of Hamas said in a statement that the two dead were senior commanders, including Mr. Abu Snima.
Later in the morning, a similar drone strike hit northeastern Gaza, killing a Hamas militant on a motorcycle, medics said.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that militant groups were still restraining themselves and that their rocket attacks were still "restricted and controlled."
He blamed Israel for not respecting a unilateral cease-fire that Gaza groups declared on March 23, adding that Israel would be responsible if the violence increased.
Of the 17 Palestinians killed since Thursday, 9 were civilians, Palestinian medical authorities said. Those authorities said dozens were also wounded.
Tensions with Gaza have been rising for weeks, and the Israeli raids have been the deadliest since Israel's three-week invasion more than two years ago.
Fares Akram reported from Gaza, and Ethan Bronner from Tel Aviv.
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21) Jury Clears Cuban Exile of Charges That He Lied to U.S.
"Cuba and Venezuela would like to try him for the 1997 hotel bombings or the airliner bombing, but a United States immigration judge has ruled that he cannot be sent to either country, for fear he could be tortured."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 8, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/09posada.html?ref=us
EL PASO (AP) - A Cuban former C.I.A. operative who was accused of lying during an immigration hearing was acquitted of all charges Friday, with jurors taking just three hours to reach a verdict after 13 weeks of often-delayed testimony.
The abrupt decision ends four years of attempts by the United States to convict Luis Posada Carriles, now 83, and means he no longer faces the prospect of spending the final years of his life in prison, at least in the United States.
For decades, Mr. Posada, an anti-Castro militant, worked to destabilize communist governments throughout Latin America and was often supported by Washington.
After hearing that he had been acquitted on all 11 counts of perjury, obstruction and immigration fraud, Mr. Posada grinned widely and hugged his three lawyers simultaneously. Two of the lawyers broke out in tears.
Across the aisle, three federal prosecutors, who painstakingly built their case by calling 23 witnesses over 11 weeks, sat dejectedly.
"Any time a jury has a case, there's no telling what they might do. But we respect the jury's decision," said the assistant United States attorney Timothy Reardon.
Mr. Posada, who has slurred his words since being shot in the face and losing part of his tongue during a 1990 assassination attempt in Guatemala, joked softly with his defense team, then left the courthouse a free man.
Mr. Posada sneaked into the United States in 2005 and sought political asylum, and later citizenship, for which he went through immigration hearings in El Paso. Prosecutors accused him of lying while under oath during those proceedings about how he made it into the country and by denying he masterminded hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997 that killed an Italian tourist and wounded 12 other people.
Mr. Posada said in a 1998 interview with The New York Times that he planned the attacks, but later recanted that. During the trial, jurors heard more than two hours of recordings from those interviews, but apparently were not swayed by them.
The defense maintained that Mr. Posada should have been allowed to retire a hero in Miami, where he had been living since his 2007 release from an immigration detention center, for his service to the country during the cold war.
He participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, served as a lieutenant in the United States Army and was an operative for the Central Intelligence Agency until 1976. He then moved to Venezuela and served as head of that country's intelligence service.
Also in 1976, he was arrested after the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Mr. Posada was acquitted by a military tribunal, but escaped from prison while facing a civilian trial.
He helped the United States funnel support to Nicaraguan contra rebels in the 1980s and in 2000, was arrested in Panama amid a plot to kill President Fidel Castro of Cuba there. He was pardoned by Panama's president in 2004 and turned up in the United States the following March.
Cuba and Venezuela would like to try him for the 1997 hotel bombings or the airliner bombing, but a United States immigration judge has ruled that he cannot be sent to either country, for fear he could be tortured.
Jose Pertierra, a lawyer representing Venezuela against Mr. Posada, sat through every day of the trial and was crestfallen after the verdict.
"The evidence was strong. We heard the voice of Luis Posada saying he was the mastermind of the bombings," Mr. Pertierra said. He said Venezuela would renew its efforts for extradition.
Pepe Hernandez, who heads the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami and trained with Mr. Posada ahead of the Bay of Pigs invasion, applauded the verdict.
"The U.S. government had a very scant case. Obviously, it didn't have any evidence beyond that of Ann Louise Bardach," Mr. Hernandez said, referring to the contract writer who interviewed Mr. Posada for The Times.
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22) The Drought Is Over (at Least for C.E.O.'s)
"On this year's list, the highest-paid C.E.O. was Philippe P. Dauman of Viacom, who made $84.5 million in just nine months. (Viacom changed its fiscal year-end to September from December.)...Many consumer products companies also offered rich pay packages, including one for John F. Lundgren, chief executive of Stanley Black & Decker, whose pay rose 253 percent, to $32.57 million, after a huge stock award. His counterpart at Emerson Electric, David N. Farr, saw his pay rise 233 percent, to $22.9 million, also because he was granted millions in stock."
By DANIEL COSTELLO
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/business/10comp.html?src=busln
HAPPY days are back - in the corner office, at least.
After shrinking during the 2008-9 recession, paychecks for top American executives are growing again - in many cases, significantly so.
Rarely has the view from the corner office seemed so at odds with the view from the street corner. At a time when millions of Americans are trying to hang on to homes and millions more are trying to hang on to jobs, the chief executives of major corporations like 3M, General Electric and Cisco Systems are making as much today as they were before the recession hit. Indeed, some are making even more.
The disparity is especially stark as companies are swimming in cash. In the fourth quarter, profits at American businesses were up an astounding 29.2 percent, the fastest growth in more than 60 years. Collectively, American corporations logged profits at an annual rate of $1.678 trillion.
So far, this recovery has not trickled down. After two relatively lean years, C.E.O.'s in finance, technology, energy and beyond are pulling down multimillion-dollar paychecks. What many of these executives aren't doing, however, is hiring. Unemployment, although down from its peak, stood at 8.8 percent in March. And few economists predict the jobless rate will drop substantially anytime soon.
For the average C.E.O., however, the good times have returned. The median pay for top executives at 200 major companies was $9.6 million last year. That was a 12 percent increase over 2009, according to a study conducted for The New York Times by Equilar, a compensation consulting firm based in Redwood City, Calif.
Many if not most of the corporations run by these executives are doing better than they were in the downturn. Many businesses were hit so hard by the recession that even small improvements in sales and profits look good by comparison. But C.E.O. pay is also on the rise again at companies like Capital One and Goldman Sachs, which survived the economic storm with the help of all those taxpayer-financed bailouts.
Against such a backdrop, it's noteworthy that recent moves to empower shareholders seem to have done little to tamp down corporate enthusiasm for paying top dollar to top executives. This is generally the season when companies hold annual meetings for their shareholders.
Under new rules included in the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, nearly all public companies must now give shareholders a say on executive pay. Analysts and corporate governance experts are wondering how these votes will play out, even though companies are under no obligation to heed their shareholders' advice.
"What's funny about pay is that when the market is going up, it covers a lot of sins," said David F. Larcker, director of the corporate governance research program at the Stanford Business School. It is when the market "is going sideways or down that funny things happen," he said: "Considering some of the current pay packages, shareholders want to see strong results."
On this year's list, the highest-paid C.E.O. was Philippe P. Dauman of Viacom, who made $84.5 million in just nine months. (Viacom changed its fiscal year-end to September from December.)
Viacom has said that the compensation was inflated by one-time stock awards linked to a long-term contract signed last year.
Also at the top was Ray R. Irani, the C.E.O. of Occidental Petroleum, who took home $76.1 million last year, up 142 percent from the previous one. Last year, the board awarded Mr. Irani a $33 million cash bonus plus $40.3 million in stock awards, more than double what he received in 2009.
Mr. Irani is retiring this year, and Occidental has said that it has set higher hurdles that will significantly reduce executive pay packages.
Lawrence J. Ellison of Oracle, the software giant, followed close behind, with a $70.1 million payout, though that is down 17 percent from 2009. Still, Mr. Ellison's fortunes are just fine: he had more than $26.3 billion in stock and other holdings in Oracle in 2010.
UNLIKE some previous years, 2010 registered broad gains in executive pay, benefiting C.E.O.'s from nearly all parts of the economy.
Many consumer products companies also offered rich pay packages, including one for John F. Lundgren, chief executive of Stanley Black & Decker, whose pay rose 253 percent, to $32.57 million, after a huge stock award. His counterpart at Emerson Electric, David N. Farr, saw his pay rise 233 percent, to $22.9 million, also because he was granted millions in stock.
Most executive compensation plans consist of stock options that ballooned as markets recovered after the financial crisis. Although executives typically have to wait several years before cashing in new options, the booming stock market still meant that those options were a bonanza for many chiefs, said Bruce H. Goldfarb, a compensation consultant based in New York.
The chief executive of Ford Motor, Alan R. Mulally, made $26.5 million in total pay, up 48 percent over the previous year as a result of big stock option awards. Ford was the only one of Detroit's Big Three automakers that did not receive a government bailout, and its stock value rose 68 percent last year.
New government regulations put in place after the financial crisis have emboldened some activist shareholders to try again to rein in compensation they deem excessive and undeserved. Although companies will not be bound by such votes, they will have to disclose the results in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as how they considered the voting in setting subsequent executive pay.
Still, it remains to be seen whether these changes have any teeth. For "say on pay" votes, there is no standard for what percentage of shareholder votes constitutes an endorsement or a rebuttal of policies. Even the prospect of the public votes, though, appears to have altered the relationship between investors and corporate executives on many discussions in recent months.
"I've been in two client meetings a week for the past four months to help determine this year's compensation plans," said Ira T. Kay, a managing partner at Pay Governance, a compensation consulting firm in New York. "While companies are making many tactical decisions about what to pay executives, it's all being done in the context of trying to make sure they get a favorable vote on say on pay."
There are some early signs that shareholders are pushing back and demanding to be heard on what they deem as excessive pay packages.
Just weeks into this proxy season, a majority of voting shareholders at four companies have handed rebukes to management over pay plans: Hewlett-Packard, Beazer Homes USA, the Jacobs Engineering Group and Shuffle Master, a maker of casino equipment.
By comparison, in the entire proxy season last year, just three companies - KeyCorp, Occidental Petroleum and the former Motorola (now split into two companies) - received majority negative votes on corporate pay packages.
Shareholder frustration was probably most evident in recent weeks in the unusually bitter public spat at Hewlett-Packard. H.P.'s board has already been heavily criticized for its handling of the ouster last year of its former chief, Mark V. Hurd, after an H.P. investigation uncovered business conduct violations related to a personal relationship with a contractor.
Two of the most powerful shareholder advisory groups issued highly critical public reports recommending that investors this year vote against H.P.'s executive pay plans and current board members, saying that the company highly overpaid its executives.
In a report in early March, one advisory firm, Glass, Lewis & Company, gave H.P. a grade of D on a scale of A to F. It said H.P. paid its executives more than the median of 33 other similar-size companies and faulted the board for the $35 million severance payout to Mr. Hurd, now a president of Oracle.
In a second report, the proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services criticized H.P. for what it called its generous executive compensation that "rewards executives even if the company performs poorly."
H.P. rejected the criticism in a letter to shareholders in March, saying the recommendations were flawed. But at a packed annual meeting in an Arlington, Va., hotel late last month, a majority of shareholders voted against approving the robust executive pay packages.
The company said the compensation plans were under review.
"While we are disappointed with the outcome of the advisory shareholder vote, H.P. intends to carefully consider our shareholders' perspectives regarding executive compensation matters and will take those views under advisement when making future decisions relating to executive compensation," the company said in a statement.
True power for shareholders may come when executives who perform badly or whose companies are accused of fraud are required to forfeit their multimillion-dollar payouts.
Regulators forced just such a concession with the chief executive of Beazer Homes, Ian J. McCarthy. Though he was not charged personally, in a settlement with the S.E.C. last month, Mr. McCarthy agreed to return $6.5 million in compensation that he had received while the company was accused of filing inaccurate financial statements in 2006. Beazer restated its results for that year and resolved the S.E.C.'s claims in 2008 without paying penalties or admitting any wrongdoing.
Such clawbacks have rarely been used, but were a main feature of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which was passed after extensive frauds at Enron and WorldCom. In late March, investors in Beazer Homes also filed a lawsuit against directors of the company, accusing the board of improperly increasing pay for executives in 2010 despite the company's $34 million net loss that year. The losses were blamed on poor sales of existing homes and little demand for new ones. Beazer said it would not comment on pending litigation.
CAROL BOWIE, director of research at Institutional Shareholder Services, said that while executive compensation would probably keep rising and outstrip wage increases in the economy, pay packages could be entering a new era of investor scrutiny.
With "say on pay" voting, investors are "in a moment when the rubber meets the road," Ms. Bowie said. "They have a tool - maybe it's a blunt one - but it can help them express their frustration and ensure the buck stops with them."
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23) Jobless Rate Is Not the New Normal
By CHRISTINA D. ROMER
April 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/business/10view.html?src=busln
IT takes a while to match people with jobs, so even in normal times the unemployment rate is never zero. Before the recent recession, in the view of many economists, the lowest sustainable rate of unemployment in the United States - a level known as the normal or natural rate of unemployment - was around 5 percent.
The turmoil of the last few years, however, has shaken up the economy. Is it possible that it has affected the natural rate of unemployment - increasing it to 8 or even 9 percent? Such a climb would imply that the prospects for a rebound in output and employment have been greatly reduced - and that high unemployment would be our new normal.
This is implicitly the view of some Federal Reserve policy makers, who say that there is nothing more the central bank can do to lower unemployment. And it's the view of those who say "structural" factors are the main cause of our current high unemployment, which stood at 8.8 percent in March.
Fortunately, there is a more compelling explanation. Strong evidence suggests that the natural rate of unemployment actually hasn't risen very much. Instead, the elevated unemployment rate appears to reflect mainly cyclical factors, particularly a lingering shortfall in consumer spending and business investment.
Consider the effects of changes in industrial composition. The housing bust and financial crisis led to a decline in construction and finance employment that is likely to be long-lasting. Does that imply a substantial rise in normal unemployment? Almost surely not. Compared with the pre-crisis days, about 1.3 million more construction and finance workers are out of work. Even if they all remained permanently unemployed - which is obviously unrealistic - this change would add less than a percentage point to the normal unemployment rate.
More fundamentally, the economy can usually cope with changes in industrial composition. During normal times, industries decline and grow, and displaced workers move to new sectors. For example, manufacturing jobs declined steadily as a share of total employment in the 1990s, yet the normal unemployment rate remained very low.
The real problem today is that jobs are scarce in just about all sectors. An important study, published in 2010 and recently updated, showed that workers who have lost jobs in construction and finance have been leaving the ranks of the unemployed at almost the same rate as those laid off in less troubled industries. The problem isn't about particular sectors; it's about a general lack of hiring.
What about declining geographic mobility? Today, about 11 million families are underwater on their mortgages, which means they owe more than their homes are currently worth. This could make it harder for them to sell their homes and move to jobs in other regions.
But the argument that such "house lock" is a source of high unemployment runs into two empirical walls. First, jobs are not plentiful anywhere. In the most recent data, the unemployment rate in every state was above its level before the recession. So our unemployment problem wouldn't go away if only people could move more easily.
Second, if house lock were an important factor, we would expect to see greater declines in labor mobility in states with more underwater mortgages, and among homeowners compared with renters. A study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Economic Perspectives finds no support for either of these hypotheses.
Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, made waves last August when he pointed to a recent climb in posted job vacancies as evidence that current unemployment is mainly structural. Normally, there wouldn't be this many vacancies until unemployment were closer to normal. Therefore, he argued, a severe mismatch between unemployed workers and the skill requirements or location of available jobs had raised the normal unemployment rate by as much as three percentage points.
But this analysis misses the fact that early in recoveries, vacancies typically rise relative to unemployment. Also, as discussed by Peter A. Diamond in his recent Nobel prize lecture, businesses that are relatively more plentiful today - for example, larger companies and those outside of construction - tend to post their vacancies more consistently. Thus, the changing composition of companies helps explain the unusual rise in vacancies.
When experts weigh the evidence, they come down strongly on the side that normal unemployment has not risen greatly. Once a year, the Survey of Professional Forecasters asks respondents for their estimate of the natural unemployment rate. In the third quarter of 2010, the median estimate was 5.78 percent, almost exactly one percentage point higher than in the third quarter of 2007, just before the recession started. (The highest estimate was 6.8 percent.) And the Congressional Budget Office uses 5.2 percent as its estimate of the natural rate.
All of this suggests that most of our high unemployment is still the consequence of low demand. Consumers remain hesitant to spend because unemployment and debt are high. Companies are unwilling or unable to invest because customers are few and credit is still tight.
This diagnosis suggests that the appropriate remedy is to stimulate demand. In February, I suggested a number of steps the Federal Reserve could take. Some additional fiscal measures would also be useful. More public investment (as the president has advocated), additional aid to state and local governments, and a cut in payroll taxes for employers would all help. Given the severity of the long-run budget problem, short-run fiscal stimulus should only be undertaken as part of a comprehensive package of gradual spending cuts and tax increases. That would give the economy the jolt it needs, while providing reassurance that the United States will remain solvent over the long haul.
REGARDLESS of the cause of extended high unemployment, it is a disaster for families, the economy and government budgets. Thus, if I am wrong, and more unemployment is structural than the current evidence suggests, this is no excuse for washing our hands of the problem. Only the nature of the needed policy response would change. Instead of focusing on increasing demand, we would need policies to help workers and jobs find one another, measures to move workers to where the jobs are (or vice versa), training programs and better education.
And even though today's unemployment appears mainly cyclical, it could turn structural. The longer that unemployment remains high for cyclical reasons, the more likely that job prospects for unemployed workers will be permanently damaged. In a number of European countries in the 1980s, for example, prolonged recession appears to have caused normal unemployment to rise sharply. Getting cyclical unemployment down quickly is the surest way to prevent that from happening in the United States.
Christina D. Romer is an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the chairwoman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.
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