(Powerful Flash Film)
http://theunitedamerican.blogs.com/Movies/2000A/2000.html
.........................................................................................................
Belfast IRSP Press Statement
26th October 2005
PSNI/RUC RAIDS TODAY
The IRSP condemn without reservation the totally unwarranted searches
of Teach na Failte and Republican Socialist offices and homes of our
workers in Belfast and Strabane.
These searches are little more than a politically motivated fishing
exercise and an attempt by the PSNI/RUC to blacken the good name of
Teach na Failte, a well respected former prisoners association whose
work is mostly welfare based, plus a conflict transformation and
resolution project for ex-prisoners and their families.
IRSP spokesperson Paul Little said;
"The nature of these searches by the PSNI was aggressive with doors
being smashed down and a disabled TnF project officer Eddie
McGarrigle from Strabane who is confined to a wheelchair was thrown
out of it by the PSNI and left lying on the floor.
There is absolutely no justification for these raids or their violent
nature. The PSNI have demonstrated once again that they are not a new
beginning to policing but rather a new politically motivated
paramilitarist force, that excels in all the bad traits of the RUC.
New uniform, same old story
STATEMENT ENDS
.........................................................................................................
REQUEST FROM JON PREVITALI:
.........................................................................................................
Short Online Survey: Visualizing the Ideal Solar Power System
Why in this time when our use of fossil fuels is causing severe
environmental degradation and war are more people not interested
in solar power even if they could afford it? What do factors such
as maintenance, ease of use and aesthetic appeal of solar power
systems also play in decision-making?
"Visualizing the Ideal Solar Power System" is an online survey done
as part of a masters project through the University of Colorado's
Building Systems Program. The survey is completely anonymous.
It usually takes about 10 minutes and you can skip any question.
http://www.glsbd.com/survey.html
........................................................................................................
Subject: [CampusAntiwarNetwork] URGENT!! KENT STATE NEEDS HELP!!
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:57:34 +0000
From: nicole robinson
Reply-To: CampusAntiwarNetwork@yahoogroups.com
To: CampusAntiwarNetwork@yahoogroups.com
I know this is the second time I am sending out a request for help. But if
you have not yet called and/or e-mailed KENT STATE administration PLEASE DO
SO! Today Dave Airhart (Iraq Veteran and student at KSU) was told he will
be facing probation, suspension or expulsion!
We need to tell KENT STATE administration that we will not allow them to
punish an Iraq Veteran for speaking out for peace! Below are the
numbers/e-mails. Let's show them that we are a strong antiwar movement all
around the U.S. and we will not tolerate such actions! We have done a press
conference but need your support as well. Attached to this e-mail is an
article that I wrote about the situation. If you are not familiar with what
happened please read it and/or e-mail me. NLR75@hotmail.com. Also if you
have more suggestion on what we can be doing e-mail me. Thank-you everyone
for your solidarity.
Carol Cartwright- University President: 330.672.2210
carol.cartwright@kent.edu
Greg Jarvie- Dean of Undergraduate Students: 330.672.9494
gjarvie@kent.edu
William Ross- Executive Director of the Undergraduate Student Senate:
330.672.3207
wross@kent.edu
........................................................................................................
LYNNE STEWART ALERT:
Judge Koeltl upheld the verdict against Lynne Stewart yesterday
From: Bob Lederer Subject: [dan] Lynne Stewart conviction
upheld From Pat Levasseur of the Lynne Stewart Defense Commitee. For
updates, check http://www.lynnestewart.org . From:
Judge Koeltl upheld the verdict against Lynne Stewart yesterday. (The
judge also upheld the verdicts against the two other defendants,
Ahmed Abdel Sattar and Mohamed Yousry) In a 54 page ruling that
recounted key evidence, U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl rejected
all of Lynne Stewart's arguments that the Feb. 10 verdict should be
tossed out. In a separate ruling Judge Koeltl also rejected defense
request for a new trial based on allegations that one juror lied
about his past and that another juror had been unduly pressured to
reach her verdict.
These decisions clear the way for the sentencing now scheduled for
December 22nd. According to Joshua Dratel, one of the attorneys
representing Lynne Stewart, said the material support statute "by its
very nature, threatens to interfere with constitutional rights. . .
and that "these issues we will again reassert on appeal. We believe
in them," he said.
We are saddened by the Judge's decision but not surprised. It is
rare when the trial judge overturns a jury verdict. The tone of the
decision is worrisome in terms of how it bodes for sentencing so we
are bracing for the worst while continuing our efforts to demonstrate
that Lynne's case is unique in the annals of the criminal justice
system and that the Judge has discretion to sentence Lynne with
compassion and consideration. Consideration to Lynne's life time
commitment to good works in the community on behalf of the poor and
under represented. While Lynne has been politically active all of
her adult life, she is not a terrorist and should not be sentenced as
such. This is key because the terrorist enhancements in sentencing
expose Lynne to life in prison.
Please help us continue our work on Lynne's behalf. Help us to "not
let her go silently into that dark night" ... which is a lengthy
prison sentence. Lynne's sentencing is currently scheduled for
December 22nd. A date when most people will be preparing for the
holidays and when the news of Lynne's sentence would likely be buried
and forgotten by many. We won't let that happen! Help us to
continue our outreach and organizing - to keep Lynne Stewart's name
and case in the public eye. Keep Lynne Stewart Free!
The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee needs your financial support.
Please help by donating whatever you can. Make checks payable to The
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, 350 Broadway, Suite 700, New York,
NY 10013. Tax deductible contributions can be made payable to The
National Lawyers Guild Foundation and mailed to the same address.
Just make sure to put Lynne Stewart on the memo line. You can also
donate on - line using PayPal by visiting our website at
SAVE THE DATE
December 8th, 7 p.m.a Speak Out and Forum on Lynne Stewart's case
will be held at The Community Church of New York. Details and
participants to be announced.
We have a new DVD "The Struggle Continues" (an informative and
poignant look at Lynne's case with interviews with Lynne, her family,
colleagues and former clients - available for a $10 donation and new
T-Shirts for $15.00 as well as the NLG booklet: The Case of Lynne
Stewart, a Justice Dept. Attack on the Bill of Rights. Please write
to us at :
items, you can obtain them at the website using PayPal
or call 212-625-9696.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) From: Fernando Suarez del Solar
Sent: Oct 26, 2005 1:34 AM
A letter from Fernando Suarez del Solar on the 2000th US Death Toll in Iraq:
October 24, 2005
2) Op-Ed Columnist
Dick at the Heart of Darkness
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
October 26, 2005
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/opinion/26dowd.html?hp
3) The Road Ahead in Iraq
October 26, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/opinion/26wed1.html?hp
4) Florida
Millions in Florida Are Still Without Basics
By ABBY GOODNOUGH and JOSEPH B. TREASTER
October 26, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national/nationalspecial/26wilma.html?pagewanted=print
5) Cindy Sheehan Plans to Padlock Herself to White House Fence
6) News
Conference Denounces Military
Meeting Focuses Criticisms on Campus Recruitment, Iraq War
BY Ada Tso
Contribution Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005
http://www.daiylcal.org/article.asp?=20103
7) The Great Reward
by Brooks Berndt
Guest Commentator
October 27, 2005
http://www.blackcommentator.com/156/156_berndt_great_reward.html
8) Op-Ed Columnist
Driving Blind as the Deaths Pile Up
By BOB HERBERT
October 27, 2005
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/opinion/27herbert.html?hp
9) Exxon Mobil Profit Soars on Oil Prices
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:24 a.m. ET
October 27, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-energy-exxon-earns.html
10) WE NEED A MOVEMENT OF MILLIONS
Published Oct 13, 2005 2:12 AM
The following transcript is taken from an audio commentary.
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Long live John Africa.
On a move!
11) KENT STATE letter of protest!
From: Bonnie Weinstein
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 11:24:56 -0700
To: Carol Cartwright
William Ross
Cc: COLLEGE NOT COMBAT GROUP
Subject: Support to Dave Airhart, Iraq Veteran and hero to the
overwhelming majority of Americans who are opposed to the war
12) Should the U.S. Withdraw? Let the Iraqi People Decide
by Abigail A. Fuller and Neil Wollman
Sat, 29 Oct 2005 11:21:31 -0500
"Wollman, Neil J."
13) Op-Ed Columnist
Who's on First?
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
October 29, 2005
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/opinion/29dowd.html?hp
14) Editorial
The Case Against Scooter Libby
October 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/opinion/29sat1.html?hp
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) From: Fernando Suarez del Solar
Sent: Oct 26, 2005 1:34 AM
A letter from Fernando Suarez del Solar
on the 2000th US Death Toll in Iraq:
October 24, 2005
Today, October 25, 2005, the toll of U.S. fatalities in Iraq
reached the significant number of 2000. On March 27, 2003,
just seven days after the illegal occupation of Iraq began,
the fifth U.S. casualty (and the second Latino) fell--my son
Jess Alberto Suarez del Solar Navarro. Now, two years and
seven months later,we have reached 2000. 2000 young
people, each with a dream, each with enormous potential,
each manipulated and deceived for immoral reasons by
the group of powerful men who dragged us into a criminal war.
2000 families destroyed, 4000 parents devastated, with their
most precious treasure--their children--torn from them.
And whocares? Who cares about these young people who
are dying? Only the families care, it seems, since Bush's
criminal government continues with its rhetoric about how
Iraq is better off and how we will not leave until the mission
is completed. What mission? The personal agenda of
a ruling clique because clearly there is no humanitarian
mission in Iraq. When I learned that we had reached the
awful figure of 2000, I wept. I wept because the pain of
knowing that another young American had died reminded
me of my own tragedy and my own pain. I thought about
his parents, his mother who must feel the ache in her soul
knowing that her son died in an unecessary war, and his
father who, like me, was proud of his son and of his nation.
And unexpectedly his nation betrayed him and his son was gone.
I do not know if Bush in his self absorption and his feigned
Christianity understands the tremendous suffering he is
causing--the families' anguish, the harm to our nation
that he has placed in even greater danger. But I am sure
about one thing. Bush will receive his punishment,
a punishment that will make him cry tears of blood
as my family and 1999 other families are shedding
as they remember their lost children.
How much more blood will it take to end this criminal war?
How many more Iraqi children have to die? How many more
brave young Americans will have to make the ultimate
sacrifice? How many more parents will have to weep for
their sons and daughters? Who can answer me? Who?
We must demand that the lies and the dying stop today.
End the occupation of Iraq and
Bring our troops home now.
Fernando Suarez del Solar
Father of Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar
www.guerreroazteca.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
2) Op-Ed Columnist
Dick at the Heart of Darkness
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
October 26, 2005
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/opinion/26dowd.html?hp
After W. was elected, he sometimes gave visitors a tour of the love
alcove off the Oval Office where Bill trysted with Monica - the notorious
spot where his predecessor had dishonored the White House.
At least it was only a little pantry - and a little panting.
If W. wants to show people now where the White House has been
dishonored in far more astounding and deadly ways, he'll have
to haul them around every nook and cranny of his vice president's
office, then go across the river for a walk of shame through
the Rummy empire at the Pentagon.
The shocking thing about the trellis of revelations showing
Dick Cheney, the self-styled Mr. Strong America, as the central
figure in dark conspiracies to juice up a case for war and
demonize those who tried to tell the public the truth is how
unshocking it all is.
It's exactly what we thought was going on, but we never
thought we'd actually hear the lurid details: Cheney and
Rummy, the two old compadres from the Nixon and Ford
days, in a cabal running the country and the world into the
ground, driven by their poisonous obsession with Iraq,
while Junior is out of the loop, playing in the gym or on
his mountain bike.
Mr. Cheney has been so well protected by his Praetorian
guard all these years that it's been hard for the public to
see his dastardly deeds and petty schemes. But now, because
of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation and candid talk from
Brent Scowcroft and Lawrence Wilkerson, he's been flushed
out as the heart of darkness: all sulfurous strands lead back
to the man W. aptly nicknamed Vice.
According to a Times story yesterday, Scooter Libby first
learned about Joseph Wilson's C.I.A. wife from his boss,
Mr. Cheney, not from reporters, as he'd originally suggested.
And Mr. Cheney learned it from George Tenet, according
to Mr. Libby's notes.
The Bush hawks presented themselves as protectors
and exporters of American values. But they were so feverish
about projecting the alternate reality they had constructed
to link Saddam and Al Qaeda - and fulfilling their ide fixe
about invading Iraq - they perverted American values.
Whether or not it turns out to be illegal, outing a C.I.A.
agent - undercover or not - simply to undermine her husband's
story is Rove-ishly sleazy. This no-leak administration
was perfectly willing to leak to hurt anyone who got in its way.
Vice also pressed for a loophole so the C.I.A. could do
torture-light on prisoners in U.S. custody, but John McCain
rebuffed His Tortureness. Senator McCain has sponsored
a measure to bar the cruel treatment of prisoners because
he knows that this is not who we are. (Remember the days
when the only torture was listening to politicians reciting
their best TV lines at dinner parties?)
Colonel Wilkerson, the former chief of staff for Colin Powell,
broke the code and denounced Vice's vortex, calling his
own involvement in Mr. Powell's U.N. speech, infected with
bogus Cheney and Scooter malarkey, "the lowest point" in his life.
He followed that with a blast of blunt talk in a speech and
an op-ed piece in The Los Angeles Times, saying that foreign
policy had been hijacked by "a secretive, little-known cabal"
that hated dissent. He said the cabal was headed by Mr. Cheney,
"a vice president who speaks only to Rush Limbaugh and assembled
military forces," and Donald Rumsfeld, "a secretary of defense
presiding over the death by a thousand cuts of our overstretched
armed forces."
"I believe that the decisions of this cabal were sometimes made
with the full and witting support of the president and sometimes
with something less," Colonel Wilkerson wrote. "More often than
not, then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was simply
steamrolled by this cabal."
Brent Scowcroft, Bush Senior's close friend, let out a shriek
this week to Jeffrey Goldberg in The New Yorker, revealing
his estrangement from W. and his old protege Condi. He
disdained Paul Wolfowitz as a naieve utopian and said he didn't
"know" his old friend Dick Cheney anymore. Vice's alliance with
the neocons, who were determined to finish in Iraq what
Mr. Scowcroft and Poppy had declared finished, led him to
lead the nation into a morass. Troop deaths are now
around 2,000, a gruesome milestone.
"The reason I part with the neocons is that I don't think
in any reasonable time frame the objective of democratizing
the Middle East can be successful," Mr. Scowcroft said.
"If you can do it, fine, but I don't think you can, and in the
process of trying to do it you can make the Middle East a lot worse."
W. should take the Medal of Freedom away from
Mr. Tenet and give medals to Colonel Wilkerson and Mr. Scowcroft.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
3) The Road Ahead in Iraq
October 26, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/opinion/26wed1.html?hp
The results of the referendum in Iraq, finally made official yesterday,
were at least modestly encouraging, with 79 percent of Iraqis voting
in favor of the new constitution. There was a strong turnout among
the Sunni Arab minority, which largely boycotted January's parliamentary
elections and found itself damagingly underrepresented in the writing
of this constitution. This time, Sunnis voted in large numbers,
and overwhelmingly voted no. All three provinces with Sunni
majorities voted against the constitution. But in one of these,
the opposition fell short of a two-thirds majority, allowing the
constitution to pass.
Sunni political leaders deserve credit for leading their community
back into electoral politics. This may have no immediate effect
on violence, but a strengthened Sunni voice in politics would be
the most effective way to ward off full-scale civil war.
There was a time when Washington looked to the writing and
approval of this constitution as a crucial milestone on the road
to building a peaceful, democratic and unified Iraq that could
survive without American troops. No one believes that anymore.
The constitution is a deeply flawed and divisive document that
does not provide a workable template for national unity. The
hope lies in the willingness of Iraq's main communities to place
their faith in an electoral process and in the commitment by
the dominant Shiite and Kurdish parties to open the constitution
to significant amendments after the next round of elections,
in December.
The narrow margin of approval and the high Sunni turnout
should be a spur for Shiite and Kurdish political leaders to
fulfill that promise after those December elections. They can
negotiate amendments that would strengthen protections for
the Sunni minority and guarantee the financial and political
integrity of the central government in the likely event that
Kurdish and Shiite regions seek broader autonomy. They
could also remove constitutional provisions that subordinate
women's rights to clerical decrees.
All such changes would then have to be ratified in a new
referendum conducted under the same rules as the last vote.
If two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces voted no,
the changes would be blocked. Those rules are meant to
encourage enough compromises to make the final result
acceptable to all three of Iraq's main religious and ethnic
groups - the only workable basis for national unity and
constitutional development.
Despite their lack of experience in bargaining and compromise,
it ought to be clear to Kurds and Shiites alike that regional
autonomy at the cost of an intractable civil war and the
hostility of neighboring Sunni-ruled countries would not
be in their best interests. It would certainly not be in the
best interests of the United States, which would probably
be stuck with the job of pacifying the Sunni provinces and
defending the Kurdish and Shiite statelets.
Some 2,000 American soldiers have already lost their
lives fighting an insurgency whose tactics grow steadily
more lethal and whose support shows no signs of flagging.
Iraqi political leaders cannot expect the United States
to underwrite continued division and intransigence with
American blood. If Washington delivers that message clearly,
leaders of the highly vulnerable Kurdish population will
doubtless take it to heart. Leaders of some of the more
intransigent Shiite factions need to take it just as seriously.
The Sunnis should renounce violence and remain in
the electoral process.
The voters of Iraq have demonstrated twice that they have
the courage to go to the polls in defiance of terrorism and
insurgent violence. Now their leaders will have to persuade
them to do more than just show up to vote for their particular
communal faction. That would be the kind of step that builds
a nation - one that could make all the killing and loss that has
gone before mean more than just the rearrangement of pieces
on a political chessboard.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
4) Florida
Millions in Florida Are Still Without Basics
By ABBY GOODNOUGH and JOSEPH B. TREASTER
October 26, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national/nationalspecial/26wilma.html?pagewanted=print
MIAMI, Oct. 25 - South Florida was a coast-to-coast mess on
Tuesday as millions of people remained without power, huge
lines formed for basic supplies and drivers wove through
packed, debris-strewn streets with no traffic signals.
Despite Gov. Jeb Bush's assurances that recovery from
Hurricane Wilma would proceed smoothly after lessons
learned from seven previous storms, the government response
looked frayed. In Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, people
lined up for ice and water only to learn that government
deliveries of both were late.
Many busy intersections had no police officers to guide
impatient drivers. Schools and most businesses remained
closed as dazed multitudes wandered in search of food, gasoline
and cellphone reception. The one bit of luck was blissfully cool
air, brought in by the storm, that made the lack of
air-conditioning endurable.
A day after Hurricane Wilma struck, leaving at least six dead,
power had been restored to several hundred thousand households
and businesses by Tuesday evening. But 3.1 million still had
no electricity, including about 93 percent of customers in
Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. Eleven other counties also
reported power failures, many of them widespread. Officials at
Florida Power and Light said some customers might have
to wait four weeks.
More than half of the shelters that opened for the storm had
already closed on Tuesday, but about 50 still held more
than 7,000 evacuees, state officials said.
There were scattered reports of looting, and dawn-to-dusk
curfews remained in place throughout the region. Water
pressure was low in many places, and residents were advised
to boil what came out of their faucets, a hopeless proposition
for the legions whose stoves and microwaves were dead.
President Bush, criticized for a slow response to Hurricane
Katrina, planned to come to Florida on Thursday to inspect
hurricane damage, the White House announced.
Especially frustrating for many people were the waits for ice
and water at distribution points that opened hours later than
promised, if at all. Mike DeLorenzo, chief of Florida's Emergency
Response Team, said that traffic and debris prevented trucks
from arriving on time.
At the Orange Bowl in downtown Miami, cars wrapped around
the stadium and families waited hours to get their share.
"My mom is at home, she's bedridden and she needs her
fluids," said Milagros Arocena, whose car barely advanced
during the hour she had waited. "This line is incredible,
but I don't know where else to go."
Deena Reppen, a spokeswoman for Governor Bush, said long
lines and supply shortages were to be expected in the first
24 hours after a hurricane. "The state is working around the
clock with local and federal partners to push more food,
water and ice into the area," she said.
In Miami-Dade County, where only 6 of 11 ice and water
stations opened around the promised time of 2 p.m.,
Mayor Carlos Alvarez promised that the rest would open
by day's end and said that all things considered,
the delay was not bad.
"Let me just say that it's been a logistical challenge,"
he said. "We are trying to make good on a very bad
situation. Can we improve? Obviously."
Mr. Alvarez said that only 10 percent of the county's
2,600 traffic lights were working and that about 40
accidents, including 12 that were serious, had occurred
as a result. He said that the county courts would be closed
for the rest of the week but that the port would reopen
to cruise ships and trucks on Wednesday.
Miami International Airport reopened for limited flights
on Tuesday afternoon despite extensive damage to terminal
roofs and jet bridges. Fort Lauderdale International Airport
remained closed except to private aircraft.
Across the state in Naples, just north of where the hurricane
made landfall early Monday, ice and water distribution
appeared to be going more smoothly. At one station,
members of several National Guard units were operating
with assembly line precision. By 9 a.m., hundreds of cars,
from Mercedes Benzes to jalopies, had lined up on a road
leading into the parking lot of Barron Collier High School.
A National Guardsman in camouflage fatigues waved cars
forward, and as each rolled up to a squad of soldiers, one
sang out, "Pop the trunk." Other soldiers stepped forward
with cartons of bottled water and plastic bags of ice, putting
them in the car, tapping the trunk shut and motioning
the driver on. Each delivery was over in seconds.
"We've done this so much over the last two or three years
that we're getting pretty good at it," said Sgt. First Class
Tim Harper of the 265th Air Defense Artillery of Sarasota.
The storm clogged the streets of Naples, one of the wealthiest
cities in the country, with fallen shrubs and trees. But even
as the wind was dying down Monday afternoon, yellow
frontloaders were pushing and shoving and lifting away
debris, and by Tuesday afternoon the main streets and
most residential byways were clear.
Floodwater that had risen knee-high in some parts of Naples
also was all but gone by Tuesday afternoon, as it was in Miami's
downtown banking district. But the sleek high-rise buildings
that line Miami's Brickell Avenue, home to some of Florida's
largest banks, law firms and expensive hotels, looked shabby
with many windows blown out, the glass shattered in the street below.
"It looks worse than it is," said Cesar Alvarez, chief executive
and president of the law firm Greenberg Traurig, which lost
windows in about a third of its lawyers' offices.
Schools throughout South Florida will stay closed for the
rest of the week, officials said, and the Broward County
Courthouse, a high-rise building that lost dozens of
plate-glass windows in the storm, will not reopen for
at least two weeks. Ceilings collapsed in judges' chambers,
and the jury room, state attorney's office and public
defender's office were also damaged, said
Chief Judge Dale Ross.
One of the state's biggest businesses is growing ornamental
plants and flowers and trees, but dozens of nurseries
in the southwest Florida were battered by the storm.
At the H. M. Buckley & Sons wholesale nursery in Naples,
about half of the 40 workers turned up Tuesday to find
the plastic and mesh covering ripped off many greenhouses.
A few had been knocked down, and some sheds had been
reduced to heaps of shredded lumber.
Tom Buckley, the general manager of the nursery and the
fifth generation of his family in the business, said it could
cost several hundred thousand dollars to restore things.
Most of the property, he said, is so fragile it cannot be
insured. The strain showed in his face.
"I knew what I was going to find when I checked this out
on Monday," Mr. Buckley said. "I didn't necessarily expect
the demolition of some of the houses. But five minutes
later it was time to pick up the pieces and move forward.
You just do what you've got to do."
Though police spokesmen warned of steep fines and multiple
points on driver licenses for anyone who cruised through
intersections, courtesy often failed in a region where drivers
are less than civil even on normal days. Things were slightly
more orderly at the few grocery stores that opened, where
people wheeled carts through darkened aisles.
At a gas station in Plantation, near Fort Lauderdale,
a dozen police officers kept order among hundreds of
people carrying gas cans and a milelong line of vehicles.
Dimitrios Halivel, the station's owner, who was limiting
every customer to $20 worth of gas, said he was regretting
his decision to open.
"There's too much pressure," Mr. Halivel said.
In the Florida Keys, many longtime residents who defied
evacuation orders called Hurricane Wilma the most fearsome
storm in memory. Areas normally high and dry during
storms were under nearly four feet of water. The currents
pushed saltwater through some of Key West's oldest and
most expensive residential neighborhoods, and during
high tide 70 percent of the island was underwater.
Many homes in the Lower Keys appeared uninhabitable,
and thousands of vehicles were either destroyed or had
their electrical systems crippled.
Yet power was restored on Tuesday to the old historic
district and other parts of Key West and the Lower Keys,
with an estimated 9,000 homes back on line by evening.
Governor Bush visited Key West and went to the high school,
a Red Cross staging area and shelter for those who lost their
homes. He tried to appease fears that tourists would stay
away from Florida because of the sizable damage.
"People are going to remember their memories here
and want to come back," Mr. Bush said.
Abby Goodnough reported from Miami for this article,
and Joseph B. Treaster from Naples. Neil Reisner
contributed reporting from Fort Lauderdale, Terry
Aguayo from Miami, Tim O'Hara from Key West and
Joe Follick from Tallahassee.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
5) Cindy Sheehan Plans to Padlock Herself to White House Fence
Washington, Oct 25 (Prensa Latina) US activist Cindy Sheehan
announced Tuesday that, in a continuation of her antiwar crusade, she
intends to tie herself to the White House fence to insist the
government withdraw its troops from Iraq.
In an interview with ABC News, the Gold Star mother (her son Casey
was killed in Iraq in April 2004) said "The police will probably
arrest me, but when they release me, I will do it again."
Every US soldier who dies in Iraq is more than a number, it is an
unnecessary tragedy. I had been working hard to end this insanity,
but after my son died, another 1,400 soldiers lost their lives, she
said.
Her son, Casey, 24, was killed in an ambush in Sadr a few weeks after
he arrived in Iraq.
Several antiwar groups plan to organize a candlelight procession in
front of the White House when the number of US troops killed in Iraq
reaches 2,000, which could happen this week.
Since the US government led a coalition in attacking Saddam Hussein
in March 2003, 1,999 US soldiers have died and more than 14,300 have
been wounded.
Cindy Sheehan made a promise to the people of the United States that
she would continue her fight against the war until all the US troops
come home.
I will be a heartbroken mother until I die because of the lies that
destroyed my son, Sheehan said. I will continue the struggle until
the troops come home. Our people are going to Iraq to die and we
should stop this at all costs, she insisted.
With Sheehan, the Gold Star Families for Peace have urged the people
of the US to mobilize against the Iraq war.
The activist returned to her home in Oakland, California at the
beginning of October, where she received a hero's welcome. Sheehan
has become the international antiwar paradigm after a month-long
vigil at the President's Texas ranch and an extensive trip around the
nation.
hr/ccs/jvj
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
6) News
Conference Denounces Military
Meeting Focuses Criticisms on Campus Recruitment, Iraq War
BY Ada Tso
Contribution Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005
http://www.daiylcal.org/article.asp?=20103
More than 600 students, teachers and activists from across
the nation poured into UC Berkeley this weekend to speak out
against military recruiters on campus and denounce the Iraq
occupation.
The two-day counter-military recruitment conference was
held in the Valley Life Sciences Building, where attendees
participated in workshops and heard conscientious objectors
share their experiences.
The event was co-sponsored by Military Out of Our Schools
and the Campus Antiwar Network, along with dozens of
organizations including the UC Berkeley Stop the War Coalition
and American Friends Service Committee.
"Innocent people in Iraq are dying, people are needlessly
being sent to war. We will put an end to military recruitment
and stop the wheels of the military," said Ph.D. candidate
Snehal Shingavi, a member of the UC Berkeley Stop the War
Coalition and an event organizer.
A packed auditorium pulsated with energy when the
first featured speaker, Military Out of Our Schools
coordinator Kevin Ramirez, came out on stage.
"We must continue to do counter-recruitment work
because it is rapidly growing as a powerful movement.
The Army, the National Guard, the Navy Reserve all
missed their recruiting goals by thousands," Ramirez
said to loud cheers.
The conference focused on an ongoing debate
that has gained momentum over the past year. In March,
the ASUC passed a resolution prohibiting the use of
the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union by military
recruiters on the grounds that they discriminated
against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
and queer community.
In November 2004, the Solomon Amendment,
which dictates that universities give military recruiters
equal access or face losing millions of dollars in federal
funding, was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals
in Philadelphia. With the U.S. Supreme Court waiting
to hear the case later this year, debate has continued
at campuses across the nation.
At the conference, those arguing against campus
military recruitment called the occupation a rich man's
war fought by the poor.
"Military recruitment is done so that poor people
are doing the dirty work for those who are rich,"
Shingavi said.
A standing ovation greeted the next speaker,
former Navy petty officer Pablo Paredes, who was
convicted and sentenced for missing movement,
for refusing to board an Iraq-bound ship.
"My name was Pablo Paredes, I was from the Bronx;
this was making the military recruiters tinkle," Paredes
said to illustrate the tendency of recruiters to target
poor minorities.
While most attendees supported the anti-war cause,
some students on campus stressed the importance
of allowing military recruiters to come.
"The military has been the single most innovative
organization in the world and having military recruiters
on campus will make sure that our military remains one
of the biggest contributors to the intellectual community,"
said senior Amaury Gallais, a member of the Berkeley
College Republicans, which squared off with the
UC Berkeley Stop the War Coalition last spring over
the same issue.
Still, the sentiment at the event was clearly one of
anti-war, which came through in art performances as well.
Ariel Lucky, a performance artist, encapsulated the
view with a rap: "When I fill up my tank with Chevron gasoline
made from Iraqi crude oil on my way to work in the morning,
will I be forgiven by my great-grandchildren? Will history absolve me?"
Contact Ada Tso at atso@dailycal.org.
(c) 2003 The Daily Californian
Berkeley, CA
dailycal@dailycal.org
Printable URL: http://www.dailycal.org/particle.asp?id=20103
Original URL: http://www.daiylcal.org/article.asp?=20103
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
7) The Great Reward
by Brooks Berndt
Guest Commentator
October 27, 2005
http://www.blackcommentator.com/156/156_berndt_great_reward.html
Once upon a time, there lived
a mighty slave master on the mightiest plantation in the world.
When asked the secret of his might, he responded with one word: God.
The slave master was a religious man, a pious one in fact.
Every morning he rode his horse out to the fields and had his
slaves gather around him as he read from the good book and
preached a word. The master was quite fond of the good book,
at least certain parts. He especially liked the verse that tells
slaves to be obedient to their masters.
About this passage, the slave master preached many a sermon.
Although he had difficulty stringing words together to make
a complete sentence, he preached with great conviction.
"Obedience," he proclaimed, "is the true mark of a noble
slave and...umm an obedient slave. The noble slave bears
his burden with pride, loyalty, and er happy thoughts.
The noble slave is even willing to sacrifice his own life for
the greater good of the plantation and plantations
everywhere. Without plantations, there would be
great uh evil, but with plantations there is great
nobility and great reward er in heaven, that is."
Listening closely to this sermon was a wise, old slave
named John. Ole John was the master of tricks and
thereby the master of masters. After the sermon, he
approached his master and said, "Gee, massa, what do I
need to do to earn my great reward?"
"Pick more cotton," said the master.
That night Ole John stayed in the field picking after
quitting time. Later, when the slave master went to bed,
the other slaves came out and said, "We want our great
reward too. We'll help you pick." In an hour,
all the slaves worked together to complete a task
that would have ordinarily taken Ole John all night.
The next morning the master rode out to the field and
began praising the Lord when he saw how much
cotton was picked. "Glory to God, John! Did
you pick all that cotton?"
"I sure did," said Ole John.
The master then preached a whole sermon on how
slaves like Ole John would surely get their great
reward, in heaven, that is. When he finished preaching,
the master approached Ole John and asked him how
he did it. "I prayed," said Ole John.
"Well, John, how about you paint my house white
tonight?" said the master.
"Will do," said Ole John, and that night after the
master fell asleep, he painted the house white
with all of the other slaves.
The next day the master saw his great big white
house freshly painted and began praising the Lord.
"Glory to God! One day, John, you'll get your great
reward, in heaven, that is." Then, he asked John,
"What does God do when you pray?"
Ole John replied, "God gives me the strength
of a hundred slaves."
"My Lord," said the master, "I wish I had the
might of a hundred slave masters."
For that night, the master asked John to build a house
for his wife and kids that would be so nice none
of them would ever want to leave it. The next
day the master saw the new house and began
praising the Lord, "Glory to God! One day, John,
you'll get your great reward, in heaven, that is."
Then the master said to John, "Tell me how you
pray so I can get the might of a hundred masters."
Ole John answered, "I go to the great tree in the middle
of the woods, and there God tells me what I need to
do in order to increase my strength a hundred fold."
That night the slave master went to the big tree in the
middle of the woods, got down on his knees, and
prayed, "O Lord, give me my great reward here
on earth. Give me the might of a hundred masters."
"Noble slave," said a voice from above, "This is your master
speaking. Obey me, and I will give you the might of
a hundred masters."
"O yes Lord, tell me what to do, and I'll do it," prayed
the master.
"Noble slave, say the Lords Prayer ten times in a row
without a mistake. Then I will grant you your wish,"
said the voice from above.
Immediately, the master began to pray, "Our father
who art heaven, oh darn it Our father"
The next day the master was still praying, "they
kingdom be done, oh damn that kingdom"
And again the next day, he was praying, "thy will
be gone, oh damn your will"
Finally, on day three he prayed, "for thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever."
The master began jumping for joy and praising the Lord,
"Glory to God! Only nine more to go!"
Some days later the master was jumping for joy again and
praising the Lord, "Glory to God! Now I'll have the might
of a hundred masters. O Lord, you've given me my great
reward!"
In that same moment, Ole John and the rest of the slaves
were also jumping for joy and praising the Lord.
They too had just received their great reward in the North, that is.
This story was inspired by the African American folktales
collected by Zora Neale Hurston in "Mules and Men."
Brooks Berndt is a student at the Graduate Theological
Union in Berkeley, California, and can be reached at j
usticia_ahora@hotmail.com.
Thank you very much for your readership.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
8) Op-Ed Columnist
Driving Blind as the Deaths Pile Up
By BOB HERBERT
October 27, 2005
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/opinion/27herbert.html?hp
Much of the nation is mourning the more than 2,000 American
G.I.'s lost to the war in Iraq. But some of the mindless Washington
weasels who sent those brave and healthy warriors to their
unnecessary doom have other things on their minds. They're
scrambling about the capital, huddling frantically with lawyers,
hoping that their habits of deception, which are a way of life
with them, don't finally land them in a federal penitentiary.
See them sweat. The most powerful of the powerful, the men
who gave the president his talking points and his marching
orders, are suddenly sending out distress signals: Don't let
them send me to prison on a technicality.
This is not, however, about technicalities. You can spin it any
way you want, but Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of
Karl Rove, Scooter Libby et al. is ultimately about the
monumentally conceived and relentlessly disseminated
deceit that gave us the war that never should have happened.
Oh, it was heady stuff for a while - nerds and nafs swapping
fantasies of world domination and giddily manipulating the
levers of American power. They were oh so arrogant and glib:
Weapons of mass destruction. Yellowcake from Niger.
The smoking gun morphing into a mushroom cloud.
Now look at what they've wrought. James Dao of The Times
began his long article on the 2,000 American dead with
a story that was as typical as it was tragic:
"Sgt. Anthony G. Jones, fresh off the plane from Iraq
and an impish grin on his face, sauntered unannounced
into his wife's hospital room in Georgia just hours after
she had given birth to their second son."
The article described how Sergeant Jones, over a blissful
two-week period last May, "cooed over their baby and
showered attention on his wife."
"Three weeks later, on June 14," wrote Mr. Dao, "Sergeant
Jones was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on his
third tour in a war that is not yet three years old. He was 25."
Three times Sergeant Jones was sent to Iraq, which tells
you all you need to know about the fairness and shared
sacrifices of this war. If you roll the dice enough times,
they're guaranteed to come up snake eyes.
Sergeant Jones told his wife, Kelly, that he had "a bad feeling"
about heading back to Iraq for a third combat tour. After his
death, his wife found a message that he had left for her
among his letters and journal entries.
"Grieve little and move on," he wrote. "I shall be looking
over you. And you will hear me from time to time on the
gentle breeze that sounds at night, and in the rustle of leaves."
In addition to the more than 2,000 dead, an additional
15,000 Americans have been wounded. Some of these men
and women have sacrificed one, two and even three limbs.
Some have been permanently blinded and others permanently
paralyzed - some both. Some have been horribly burned.
For the Iraqis, the toll is beyond hideous. Perhaps 30,000 dead,
of which an estimated 10 percent have been children.
The number of Iraqi wounded is anybody's guess.
This is what happens in war, which is why wars should
only be fought when there is utterly and absolutely no alternative.
So what's ahead, now that the giddiness in Washington has
been replaced by anxiety and the public is turning against the war?
Even Richard Nixon's cronies are crawling out of the woodwork
to urge the Bush gang to stop the madness. In an article for
Foreign Affairs magazine, former Defense Secretary Melvin
Laird, now 83, says the administration needs to come up
with a clearly defined exit strategy, and fast.
Said Mr. Laird: "Getting out of a war is still dicier
than getting into one, as George W. Bush can attest."
But President Bush, who never gave the country a legitimate
reason for going to war, and has never offered a coherent
strategy for winning the war, seems in no hurry to figure
out a way to exit the war.
Soon after the Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that the
American death toll in Iraq had reached 2,000, the president
gave a speech in which he said: "This war will require more
sacrifice, more time and more resolve. No one should
underestimate the difficulties ahead, nor should they
overlook the advantages we bring to this fight."
Thousands upon thousands are suffering and dying in
Iraq while, in Washington, incompetence continues
its macabre marathon dance with incoherence.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
9) Exxon Mobil Profit Soars on Oil Prices
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:24 a.m. ET
October 27, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-energy-exxon-earns.html
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest
publicly traded oil company, on Thursday reported quarterly
profit surged 75 percent, pushed up by record crude oil and
natural gas prices.
Net income rose to $9.9 billion, or $1.58 a share, in the
third quarter from $5.68 billion, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding a gain of $1.62 billion from restructuring its
stake in a Dutch gas transportation business, earnings were
$1.32 per share. On that basis, analysts' average forecast was
$1.39, according to Reuters Estimates.
The company's oil and gas production fell 4.7 percent from
a year earlier, hurt by outages caused by Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita.
The hurricanes ripped through the Gulf of Mexico in the
third quarter, disrupting energy operations in the region and
sending oil prices and refining margins sharply higher.
Exxon Mobil's capital expenditures jumped to $4.41 billion
in the quarter from $3.63 billion a year earlier.
Shares of Exxon Mobil, the largest of the so-called
''super-major'' oil companies, rose more than 10 percent in the
quarter, underperforming the broader Standard & Poor's
integrated oil and gas index, which rose more than 13 percent.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
10) WE NEED A MOVEMENT OF MILLIONS
Published Oct 13, 2005 2:12 AM
The following transcript is taken from an audio commentary.
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Long live John Africa.
On a move!
I want to thank Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Millions More Movement
for the kind invitation to join y'all here. As we gather, in person or
electronically, we do so in a time of peril.
We do so in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the state showed us
all that they don't give a damn about Black life. But every day of our
lives we see smaller but no less lethal Hurricane Katrinas. Every year
in public schools, millions of Black, Latin, and poor kids are
miseducated, thereby destroying, as surely as any hurricane, their life
hopes and chances.
In our communities, our taxes pay for our own oppression, as racist and
brutal cops make our lives hell daily. We are consumers of a media that
is as dangerous as any hurricane, for it poisons our minds and the minds
of millions of others by wholesale lies designed to demean and denigrate
us.
Look at the tale of horrors that came out of Katrina: the horror stories
of mass rapes and mass murders, told by Black politicians and Black cops
to deflect attention from the armed, roving gangs of New Orleans cops,
who stole everything that they could get their hands on. By putting out
these lies, they turned hearts and minds from their betrayal of their
own constituency, Black and poor New Orleanians, who needed transport,
food, clean water, toilet facilities, and medical care and safety.
What's the point? That they represent, not the interests of those who
voted for them, but the wealthy and well-to-do. If you doubt me, ask
yourself what percentage of the tens of thousands of people in the
Superdome or the convention center˜those people the government left to
starve, in the dark, thirsty, deathly afraid˜were registered Democrat?
If we're honest, we'll agree over 90 percent. What did it matter? It
didn't. Their loyalty was rewarded with betrayal. Did it matter that
there was a Democratic governor? Kathleen Blanco's first order was to
send National Guard into the streets, where she authorized them to shoot
to kill to protect property. Did any of you, in a week, see such
governmental passion displayed to protect human life? Did you see any
interest in protecting Black life?
I didn't think so.
What we saw then was what we've always seen˜the government as adversary,
not ally. In prisons all across America, in police stations, and in
courthouses, we experience daily hurricanes of hatred and indifference.
These institutions, just like other government branches, are threats to
our welfare, not tools of our will. They are tools of white supremacy,
even and sometimes especially when their leaders have Black faces.
We have Black politicians with virtually no political power which means,
once again, we pay for our own oppression. Our taxes pay for them, but
they don't serve our people's interests. They serve the state of white
supremacy. They serve the will of capital.
We need a movement of millions to build true social power. To free our
minds and our bodies from the mud that we languish in.
We need a movement of millions to transform our current social reality
of repression and destitution. We need a movement of millions to bring
back light to the eyes of our people. To engage in a struggle for
freedom, for justice, and for liberation.
We need a movement of millions of the poor, of workers, of women, of
youth, of students, of prisoners, of all those dedicated to change to
build independent organizations that can't be bought or sold and will do
the work necessary to be free.
We need a movement of millions to bring freedom to the brothers and
sisters of the Move 9, to bring freedom to Sundiata Acoli, to bring
freedom to Mutulu Shakur, to Russell Maroon Shoats, and hundreds of
other Black prisoners of war and political prisoners.
We need a movement of millions to resist the state oppression that has
brought us Patriot Acts, but not patriotic actions, wars for empire and
countless attacks on the poor. We need a movement of millions to make
common cause with oppressed people the world over. In Cuba, yes in Iraq,
in Venezuela, in the Congo, in Haiti, in the Philippines.
We need a movement of millions that is anti-imperialist, that is
anti-racist, and that unites us, not divides us. We need a movement of
millions, and let us begin right here. Thank you, on a move! Long live
John Africa. Free the Move 9.
From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
11) KENT STATE letter of protest!
From: Bonnie Weinstein
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 11:24:56 -0700
To: Carol Cartwright
William Ross
Cc: COLLEGE NOT COMBAT GROUP
Subject: Support to Dave Airhart, Iraq Veteran and hero to the
overwhelming majority of Americans who are opposed to the war
TO: Carol Cartwright, William Ross, Greg Jarvie, Kent State University
Dear all,
I am prompted to write this protest letter on behalf of Dave Airhart,
a student and Iraq War veteran that climbed the Army's rock wall
at your infamous university and draped a sign that read, "Kent
State 4 Peace" over the wall for all to see. Since when is peaceful
protest not allowed in this country?
But there is an even more important reason for demanding that
Dave be given all his rights back and that all punishment against
him be rescinded immediately. The rock wall is a horrible
advertising scam designed to fool students about the reality
of war, the reality of military "life," if you are lucky enough
to live through it whole and with all your faculties.
War isn't climbing rock walls and joking with friends and David
knows this. War isn't "expanding your horizons" or "learning
useful skills". War is about killing the enemy. That means that
war is based on who the government deems the enemy at any
given moment in time. And who makes these decisions?
Do we vote on war? No, those who rule decide upon war.
So, our elected officials make the decision about war. Both
Republicans and Democrats alike voted on the war; the budget;
the expansion of military spending; the increase in the military's
advertising budget for recruitment and the entrenchment
of the military in our school system at every level; Patriot Act;
increased internal surveillance of civilians; more jails; more
police, etc. At the same time all social nets and services;
schools; hospitals; the entire social and service infrastructure
is in shambles. But the oil barons corporate kingpins are
swimming in money. Their children don't join the military!
They join the jet set.
And then, we find out beyond any reasonable doubt, that all
the reasons for the war in the first place were nothing but
a bunch of lies—-to militarily occupy the oil-rich region for
American business interests, having nothing to do with
anything but making that financial arrangement by
force—-using our tax money to carry out one of the biggest
crimes of our century.
And you expect people to be silent about educators allowing
the military—-this sick monster—-to come onto our schools
and campuses and set up a rock wall and pretend that war
is fun; to lie, pressure, humiliate, shame and coerce young
people to sacrifice their lives for lies; to consume and mangle
more of our kids to make the pockets of the wealthy elite
bulge even more? To condemn those that do survive to
suffer the images of war that dart in and out of consciousness
continually for the rest of their lives? Just whose side are you on?
The buck stops here!
Get the military out of Kent State University. If you can't
do it now you can at least demand it now! You can encourage
students like Dave. He should be speaking to all the students
at Kent State. He has valuable and real experience. The
military is no place for the inquisitive mind which all educators
are supposed to be nurturing. You need to get your bearings back.
You need to stand on the side of these brave students. You
need to support them not punish them. You need to convince
young people that joining the military is not a good choice
when an entire government has lied about all the reasons
for going to war in the first place. This war will be a shame
and disgrace for centuries to come, if the human race makes
it. Our young people need to study how to end wars and
create a humane world.
As educators your job is to stand on their side against the
military recruiters; to encourage students to think twice and
three times about joining the military. Your job is to see
that they are not fooled by the fun of climbing a rock wall.
It's not as much fun when you are carrying your buddy's
bloody torso on your back under gunfire. Your job is to
encourage them to read about the war; to seek out veterans
to speak to; to do thorough research on how the government
lied and used the mass media to perpetrate the lies. This
is the reality of our world today as much as we detest it.
School is no place for the military—-no place to recruit
our children to die for the enrichment of the wealthy elite
who rules this country.
It is up you to stand on their side. Go out and protest with
the students against the military. Let the military know they
are not welcome at Kent State even if you can't ban them
now! And drop all the charges and reinstate Dave Airhart
immediately. Get the military out of Kent State!
Sincerely,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
www.bauaw.org
415-824-8730
P.O. Box 318021
San Francisco, CA 94131-8021
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
12) Should the U.S. Withdraw? Let the Iraqi People Decide
by Abigail A. Fuller and Neil Wollman
Sat, 29 Oct 2005 11:21:31 -0500
"Wollman, Neil J."
Give us three minutes and we can find an op-ed piece in a U.S.
newspaper calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, or
arguing that they should stay. The arguments are varied and numerous: If the
U.S. leaves, anarchy will ensue. Occupation forces are a target for
foreign terrorists. Bush should set a timetable for withdrawal. Setting a
timetable would embolden those using violence in Iraq. And so on. What
is missing from this picture? Any discussion of what the Iraqi people
themselves want. The opinions of those most affected by this war count
the most. And so a nationwide referendum should be conducted in Iraq on
the question of whether U.S. troops should stay or go, in which every
Iraqi can vote directly on this question.
What the U.S. public wants is much discussed in the
media-nearly every week poll results are announced indicating how many people
believe the United States should withdraw all or some troops from Iraq (63
percent, according to the latest USA Today/CNN Gallup Poll) and how
many believe the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq
(59 percent, from the same poll). As U.S. citizens we certainly have an
interest in whether the troops stay. Our tax money funds the U.S.
military presence, and our young men and women are being killed and injured
there. So our opinions matter.
But what about the Iraqis? There are inherent difficulties in
polling in an unstable, war-torn environment. Furthermore, most polls of
Iraqi public opinion ask such ambiguous questions as, "Do you think the
country is headed in the right direction?"-to which a "yes" answer
could mean any number of things, from a belief that the insurgents are
defeating the occupation forces and that's a good thing, to a belief that a
democratic government will be established soon in part due to the U.S.
presence. Neither is it sufficient to simply allow the Iraqi government
to determine whether or not U.S. troops stay: 37 percent of Iraqis, a
significant minority, feel that the Iraqi National Assembly does not
serve the interests of all Iraqis (International Republican Institute
poll, July 2005).
Some polls have asked Iraqis specifically about the presence of
U.S. troops, and guess what: they want us to leave. A February poll by
the U.S. military, cited by the Brookings Institution, found that 71
percent of Iraqis "oppose the presence of Coalition Forces in Iraq." This
poll was taken only in urban areas, but others have found much the same
sentiment. According to a January 2005 poll by Abu Dhabi TV/Zogby
International, 82 percent of Sunni Arabs and 69 percent of Shiite Arabs
favor the withdrawal of U.S. troops either immediately or after an elected
government is in place.
But an opinion poll does not carry the weight of a referendum,
in which all Iraqis could clearly and definitively vote on whether or
not U.S. troops should remain in their country. This can be done:
Kurdish activists organized a referendum on independence during the January
national elections in Iraq, which found that over 90 percent of Kurd
voters want independence for the region. On October 15 Iraqis will vote,
in another referendum, on whether to accept a new constitution.
It appears that we as a nation are so self-absorbed that both
the hawks and the doves among us have forgotten to ask what those most
affected by the war-the Iraqi people themselves--want. Let us remedy
this situation by supporting a referendum and then abiding by the results.
Let the Iraqi people decide.
Abigail A. Fuller is associate professor of sociology and social work
at Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana. Neil Wollman is
professor of psychology and senior fellow of the Peace Studies Institute at
Manchester College, North Manchester, IN 46962;
aafuller@manchester.edu, njwollman@manchester.edu
260-982-5009/5346.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
13) Op-Ed Columnist
Who's on First?
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
October 29, 2005
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/opinion/29dowd.html?hp
It was bracing to see the son of a New York doorman open the door
on the mendacious Washington lair of the Lord of the Underground.
But this Irish priest of the law, Patrick Fitzgerald, neither Democrat
nor Republican, was very strict, very precise. He wasn't totally
gratifying in clearing up the murkiness of the case, yet strangely
comforting in his quaint black-and-white notions of truth and
honor (except when his wacky baseball metaphor seemed
to veer toward a "Who's on first?" tangle).
"This indictment's not about the propriety of the war," he told
reporters yesterday in his big Eliot Ness moment at the Justice
Department. The indictment was simply about whether the son
of an investment banker perjured himself before a grand jury
and the F.B.I.
Scooter does seem like a big fat liar in the indictment. And
not a clever one, since his deception hinged on, of all people,
the popular monsignor of the trusted Sunday Church of Russert.
Does Scooter hope to persuade a jury to believe him
instead of Little Russ?
Good luck.
There is something grotesque about Scooter's hiding behind
the press with his little conspiracy, given that he's part of
an administration that despises the press and tried to make
its work almost impossible.
Mr. Fitzgerald claims that Mr. Libby hurt national security
by revealing the classified name of a C.I.A. officer. "Valerie
Wilson's friends, neighbors, college classmates had no
idea she had another life," he said.
He was not buying the arguments on the right that
Mrs. Wilson was not really undercover or was under
"light" cover, or that blowing her cover did not hurt the C.I.A.
"I can say that for the people who work at the C.I.A.
and work at other places, they have to expect that when
they do their jobs that classified information will be
protected," he said, adding: "They run a risk when they
work for the C.I.A. that something bad could happen to
them, but they have to make sure that they don't run the
risk that something bad is going to happen to them from
something done by their own fellow government employees."
To protect a war spun from fantasy, the Bush team played
dirty. Unfortunately for them, this time they Swift-boated
an American whose job gave her legal protection from the
business-as-usual smear campaign.
The back story of this indictment is about the ongoing Tong
wars of the C.I.A., the White House, the State Department and
the Pentagon: the fight over who lied us into war. The C.I.A.,
after all, is the agency that asked for a special prosecutor
to be appointed to investigate how one of its own was outed
by the White House.
The question Mr. Fitzgerald repeatedly declined to answer
yesterday - Dick Cheney's poker face has finally met its
match - was whether this stops at Scooter.
No one expects him to "flip," unless he finally gets the sort
of fancy white-collar criminal lawyer that The Washington
Post said he is searching for - like the ones who succeeded
in getting Karl Rove off the hook, at least for now - and
the lawyer tells Scooter to nail his boss to save himself.
But what we really want to know, now that we have the
bare bones of who said what to whom in the indictment,
is what they were all thinking there in that bunker and
how that hothouse bred the idea that the way out of their
Iraq problems was to slime their critics instead of addressing
the criticism. What we really want to know, if Scooter testifies
in the trial, and especially if he doesn't, is what Vice did to
create the spidery atmosphere that led Scooter, who seemed
like an interesting and decent guy, to let his zeal get
the better of him.
Mr. Cheney, eager to be rid of the meddlesome Joe Wilson,
got Valerie Wilson's name from the C.I.A. and passed it
on to Scooter. He forced the C.I.A. to compromise one
of its own, a sacrifice on the altar of faith-based intelligence.
Vice spent so much time lurking over at the C.I.A., trying
to intimidate the analysts at Langley into twisting the
intelligence about weapons, that he should have had
one of his undisclosed locations there.
This administration's grand schemes always end up
as the opposite. Officials say they're promoting national
security when they're hurting it; they say they're squelching
terrorists when they're breeding them; they say they're
bringing stability to Iraq when the country's imploding.
(The U.S. announced five more military deaths yesterday.)
And the most dangerous opposite of all: W. was listening
to a surrogate father he shouldn't have been listening
to, and not listening to his real father, who deserved to be listened to.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
14) Editorial
The Case Against Scooter Libby
October 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/opinion/29sat1.html?hp
The five-count indictment handed up yesterday against Lewis Libby,
the vice president's chief of staff, may seem anticlimactic to those
who were hoping to finally learn who gave the columnist Robert
Novak the name of Valerie Wilson, a covert C.I.A. officer whose
cover was blown by his column on July 14, 2003. Although the
grand jury investigating the case was attempting to determine
whether Mr. Novak's source violated the federal law against
revealing the name of a covert operative, the special counsel
was mum on that as well.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a federal prosecutor, left open the possibility
that we may never know all the answers. But the essence of the
indictment is that Mr. Libby lied when he told F.B.I. investigators
and the grand jury that he had learned about Mrs. Wilson from
Tim Russert of NBC News around July 10, 2003, and had passed
the information on to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and
then to Judith Miller of The Times, and that until then he had
not had any idea who she was or where she worked.
Supporters of Mr. Libby, known as Scooter, have attempted to
describe the Wilson case as, at worse, a matter of casual gossip
by Washington insiders about the wife of a man in the news.
But the indictment does not describe a situation in which
people accidentally outed someone they did not know was
a covert officer. It describes a distinct and disturbing pattern
of behavior among very high-ranking officials, including
Mr. Libby and Vice President Dick Cheney, who knew that
they were dealing with a covert officer and used their access
to classified information in a public relations campaign over
the rapidly disintegrating justifications for war with Iraq.
The diplomat, Joseph Wilson, went to Niger in 2002 at the
request of the Central Intelligence Agency to investigate
allegations that Iraq tried to buy uranium to make a nuclear
bomb. Mr. Wilson reported back that the uranium story was
unfounded, and he later went public with that contention.
But Mr. Cheney's team kept on pushing the claim, which
was included in President Bush's State of the Union speech
in 2003.
Then Mr. Novak reported that Mr. Wilson's wife worked at
the C.I.A. and had suggested Mr. Wilson for the mission.
In the eyes of Mr. Novak and other conservative hawks, that
made the trip suspect because they saw the C.I.A. as an
adversary. The office where Mrs. Wilson worked was not
toeing the line on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass
destruction.
Yesterday's indictment, which followed a two-year
investigation, contained only one reference to Mr. Novak,
who has refused to say whether he testified or cooperated
in any other way with Mr. Fitzgerald's grand jury. A single
cryptic paragraph in the 22-page indictment refers to an
unnamed senior White House official (called Official A)
who told Mr. Libby a few days before Mr. Novak's column
appeared that he had spoken to the columnist and discussed
with him Mr. Wilson, his wife, her job and her involvement
in Mr. Wilson's trip. Karl Rove has admitted talking to
Mr. Novak on the telephone about the issue, and he is
still under investigation by Mr. Fitzgerald.
The charges Mr. Fitzgerald filed - one count of obstruction
of justice, two of making false statements and two of perjury
- are very serious. They carry a combined possible sentence
of 30 years in jail, and Mr. Libby was forced to resign
yesterday. The Republicans' attempts to belittle the charges
are quite a switch, considering that many of these same
politicians gleefully helped to impeach President Bill Clinton
on similar charges in a much less serious context.
The indictment says Mr. Libby learned about Mrs. Wilson
first from a senior State Department official, then from
a C.I.A. officer, and then from Mr. Cheney himself, who
learned her identify from George Tenet, the director of
central intelligence at the time. At one point, according
to the indictment, Mr. Libby accosted Mr. Cheney's C.I.A.
briefer to complain that C.I.A. officials were making critical
comments to the press about Mr. Cheney's office, and
mentioned Mr. Wilson's trip to Niger and his wife.
This deeply improper harassment occurred a month
before Mr. Novak's column appeared.
When called to account for his actions, Mr. Libby pointed
his finger at a group of reporters, according to the indictment,
shifting attention from himself. That prompted Mr. Fitzgerald
to subpoena those journalists, and began a yearlong fight
over the protection of confidential sources.
Journalists from some news organizations testified after
trying to fight the subpoenas; others testified on the basis
of a document White House officials were compelled to
sign that said they waived any promises of confidentiality
from reporters. Ms. Miller says she believed the waiver was
coerced, and she went to jail until Mr. Libby assured her
directly that he was freeing her from her promise.
While she was imprisoned for 85 days, this newspaper and
this page gave Ms. Miller unwavering support. Recently,
Times executives have expressed regrets about some of
the ways her case was handled. Reflecting on these events,
we have no reservations about the obligation of this paper
to stand behind our reporter while she was in jail. We also
think Ms. Miller was right on the central point, that the
original blanket White House waiver was coerced.
As for Mr. Libby's case, the charges suggest that White House
officials did, in fact, use Mrs. Wilson's classified C.I.A. job as
a weapon against a critic of administration policy - to smear
his reputation or to warn off other dissenters. A jury will
determine whether Mr. Libby broke the law as a result of
that campaign. But it seems clear that he and other officials
violated the public trust.
And as absorbing as this criminal investigation has been,
the big point Americans need to keep in mind is this:
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
LINKS:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Wal-Mart's Health Care Struggle Is Corporate America's, Too
By REED ABELSON
Published: October 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/business/businessspecial2/29health.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Damage
New Orleans Loses Its Shade
By BRUCE WEBER
Published: October 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/national/nationalspecial/29trees.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Being a Patient
For a Retainer, Lavish Care by 'Boutique Doctors'
By ABIGAIL ZUGER
Published: October 30, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/health/30patient.html?hp&ex=1130644800&en=4dda454678e09295&ei=5094&partner=homepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Vice President
In Indictment's Wake, a Focus on Cheney's Powerful Role
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: October 30, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/30/politics/30cheney.html?hp&ex=1130644800&en=d599c390429480e0&ei=5094&partner=homepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Road Trip for Relief! Reclaim the Gulf!
http://www.commongroundrelief.org/2005/10/road_trip_for_relief_reclaim_t_1.html#more
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Boot Yahoo
by Dan Raphael
One of the standard arguments for the superiority of 'free
enterprise' is that in the wake of economic freedom -- defined
as the freedom of capital to enrich itself -- political and other
freedoms follow in its wake. There are a few problems with this
argument: first, it is often framed in the broad sweep of history,
looking ahead at decades or even centuries. Most people don't
have centuries or even decades to waste, when it comes to being
imprisoned, assaulted, tortured, and executed. Second, freedom
exists in many places where the marketplace is heavily regulated;
in fact, most European countries place greater restraints on the
rights of corporations than is the case in the United States.
Third, capitalists are more than eager to do the work of tyrants
when it will assure them profit in return. A current example
of this third problem is currently gaining new notoriety.
The leading multinational internet corporation Yahoo! is under
growing fire for its admitted service to the government
of mainland China in helping identify political dissidents there....
http://dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Raphael1027.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Death of an Iraqi Prisoner
by John McChesney
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4977986
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Coverage of Americans Wounded in Iraq War Leaves US Media Hurting
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1027-01.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Killing a Voice for Peace
The Race to Execute Tookie Williams
By PHIL GASPER
October 28, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/gasper10282005.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Big Rise in Profit Puts Oil Giants on Defensive
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1028-01.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
A test of faith behind bars
Alleged plot stirs suspicion of Islam
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13774911p-14616977c.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Umer Hayat
Judge approves bail in Lodi case
By Denny Walsh -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, October 27, 2005
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13774913p-14616971c.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
MediaChannel Appeal: Join Us In A "Show The War, Tell The
Truth" Campaign
Submitted by editor on October 25, 2005 - 12:43pm.
By Danny Schechter
Source: MediaChannel.org
http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/1555
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Ex-Head of F.D.A. or Wife Sold Stock in Regulated Area
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: October 27, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/politics/27fda.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Name of Rove's Aide Appears in Two Washington Inquiries
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: October 27, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/politics/27aide.html?hp&ex=1130472000&en=f19a6540a38a681e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
U.N. to Detail Kickbacks Paid for Iraq's Oil
By WARREN HOGE
Published: October 27, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/international/middleeast/27food.html?hp&ex=1130472000&en=9f381289a1ab65ac&ei=5094&partner=homepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
2,000 Dead: As Iraq Tours Stretch On, a Grim Mark
By JAMES DAO
Published: October 26, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/international/middleeast/26deaths.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=1adbdf5a12fe847b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Bill Would Allow Second Attempts at Federal Death Sentence
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: October 26, 2005
If all 12 members of a jury in a capital case in federal court cannot
agree on whether to impose the death penalty, a convicted defendant
is automatically sentenced to life in prison.
But that may be about to change. A little-noticed provision in the
House bill that reauthorized the antiterrorism law known as the
USA Patriot Act would allow federal prosecutors further attempts
at a death sentence if a capital jury deadlocks on the punishment.
So long as at least one juror voted for death, prosecutors could
empanel a new sentencing jury and argue again that execution
was warranted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national/26sentence.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Cost of Gold | Treasure of Yanacocha
Tangled Strands in Fight Over Peru Gold Mine
By JANE PERLEZ and LOWELL BERGMAN
October 25, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/americas/25GOLD.html?hp
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Totally Bootleg: Cops and Jails in New Orleans
by Don A. Monday, Oct. 17, 2005 at 10:04 PM
don@crimethinc.net
Until today, the New Orleans jail and courthouse were situated in
a Greyhound bus station, the DA office was in a gift shop in the
station lobby, and the cells were cages set up outside where the
buses were once parked. According to police documents, over
1000 people were booked there following hurricane Katrina.
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/6001.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
MAMA AFRICA MAKES HER FAREWELL
Singing and weeping with
Miriam Makeba
Two marvelous concerts in Havana
BY MIREYA CASTA�EDA �Granma International staff writer
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/octubre/lun10/42makeba2-i.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
