U.S. OUT OF IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW! VOTE YES ON 'N'!

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U.S. OUT OF IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW! VOTE YES ON 'N'!
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******************PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY*************************

NEXT MEETINGS OF "BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW COMMITTEE"
FOR PROPOSITION 'N'

EVERY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 14,21 & 28, 7:00 p.m.

GLOBAL EXCHANGE OFFICE
2017 MISSION STREET, SUITE 303
(NEAR 16TH & MISSION STREETS)

HELP MAKE 'YES ON N' WIN BY A LANDSLIDE!

Come to the meeting and help organize community outreach.

War deaths are mounting up on both sides with no end of
American involvement in sight. U.S. corporations are profiting
while job opportunities are shrinking, housing, education and
healthcare costs are skyrocketing and all of our social services
are being cut back.

At the same time we have witnessed huge labor give-backs to
employers who cry poverty while accepting multi-million dollar
bonuses each year. And the U.S. corporations granted contracts
in Afghanistan and Iraq have been raking in billions of dollars of
profits while performing inferior workmanship and laden with
fraudulent practices--doing nothing to improve the lives of the
people of Iraq. Instead, their private police forces kill innocent
Iraqi people who get in their way.
.
As a result of war profit windfalls, 78% of the "Fortune 500" are
billionaires now, not multi-millionaires!

The bottom line is that we, the American working people,
are financing this war, the people of Iraq and Afghanistan
are dying, while the corporations are profiting.

This is a message we, the voting citizens of San Francisco,
will be telling the world on November 2!

PROPOSITION 'N' ON THE NOVEMBER 2
SAN FRANCISCO BALLOT DECLARES:

"It is the policy of the people of the City and County of
San Francisco that: The Federal government should take
immediate steps to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and
bring our troops safely home now."


PICK UP MATERIALS TO PASS OUT AND POST UP!

Posters, buttons, brochures and other materials will be
available for pick-up at the Global Exchange office beginning
Thursday, October 7, at 7:00 p.m. and during regular Global
Exchange hours until Nov. 2.

Call: 415-255-7296, extension 253 to check for hours.

FUNDS URGENTLY NEEDED!

We all know that all this material costs money. Already
thousands of brochures and posters have
been printed and distributed. Buttons will soon be available.

And we need more material to adequately cover the city with
the YES on 'N' message!

Please send a contribution to help with these costs!
Make your check payable to:

"Bring Our Troops Home Now"

and mail to:

David Looman, Treasurer
325 Highland Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94110


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U.S. OUT OF IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW! VOTE YES ON 'N'!
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1) Mourning Iraqis Blame U.S. Troops for Massacre of Children
By Sameer N. Yacoub
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Published on Saturday, October 2, 2004 by the Associated Press
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1002-01.htm

2) 'I saw dogs eating the body of a woman'
Samarra, Iraq
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=vn20041004024359
961C360203&set_id=6

3) Israeli Air Strikes Kill 68 in Six Days
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)
.c The Associated Press

4) How US fuelled myth of Zarqawi the mastermind
By Adrian Blomfield outside Fallujah
(Filed: 04/10/2004)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml

5) Onslaught on Samarra escalates in 'dress rehearsal' for
major US assault on rebels
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Independent
03 October 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=568358

6) Dear Mike, Iraq sucks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1319718,00.html
Civilian contractors are fleecing taxpayers; US troops don't have
proper equipment; and supposedly liberated Iraqis hate them.
After the release of Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore received a
flood of letters and emails from disillusioned and angry American
soldiers serving in Iraq. Here, in an exclusive extract from his
new book, we print a selection
Michael Moore
Tuesday October 5, 2004

7) Two Empty Bottles with Different Labels
John Kerry on Criminal Justice Issues
By PAUL WRIGHT
October 2 / 3, 2004
http://counterpunch.com/wright10022004.html

8) Robertson: If Bush 'touches' Jerusalem, we'll form 3rd party
By Daphna Berman , Haaretz correspondent, and agencies
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 09:33 05/10/2004
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/484861.html

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1) Mourning Iraqis Blame U.S. Troops for Massacre of Children
By Sameer N. Yacoub
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Published on Saturday, October 2, 2004 by the Associated Press
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1002-01.htm


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Families of the 35 children who died in a string of
bombings in Baghdad blamed American troops for the tragedy,
accusing them of attracting insurgents to a ceremony where the
attacks occurred.

By Friday, tents had sprung up in the el-Amel neighborhood in
Baghdad to accommodate mourners who gathered to share their
grief from the Thursday attack. In the carnage, several explosions
ripped into a crowd gathered to celebrate the inauguration of a new,
much needed sewage plant.

Residents said that before the start of the celebration, U.S. soldiers
called upon the children through loudspeakers to join the crowd,
promising them sweets. There were an unusually large number
around because the long school holidays were nearing an end.

"I blame the Americans for this tragedy. They wanted to make
human shields out of our children. They should have kept the
children away from danger," said Abdel-Hadi al-Badri, a cleric
a the al-Mubashroun al-Ashra mosque, breaking down in tears
during Friday prayers.

Al-Badri's son lost his right leg in the explosion after he ignored
his father's warnings to stay away from the U.S. troops.

"The Americans are the first terrorists and the people who carried
out the attack are the second terrorists," he added. It was the
largest number of children killed in any single insurgent attack
since the conflict erupted 17 months ago.

Al-Badri's is a common lament here. Confronted by daily bombings,
kidnappings, deadly crossfires and soaring violent crime, many
Iraqis blame most of their ills on the Americans. Many say that
they and their children would not be dying today had the U.S. not
invaded their country 17 months ago.

About 100 yards from the site of two of the three explosions,
a large red and yellow tent was filled with mourners for two sisters,
Raghad Dharar, 12, and Meisoun Dharar,10, who were killed as they
returned from a nearby market.

"The day before yesterday, I bought them new school dresses and
I was planning to buy them shoes. I did not know that they were
not going ever to attend again," the father said.

Dharar Ahmed, a policeman, said that there was no reason to
stage a large celebration for a small sewage plant that was
already partially operating.

"The Americans were attracting the children by offering sweets.
They should not have done this," he said amid the sounds of
wailing women.

Troops are frequently approached by Iraqi children asking for
candy, pens and other handouts, and the soldiers often oblige,
either because they hope to win some hearts and minds or
simply because the youngsters are appealing or clearly
impoverished.

In another tent, Najam Hussein was weeping over his child
Ali Najam who was killed in the explosion minutes after he
joined the celebration.

Hussein, who sells chandeliers, said nobody in the neighborhood
had expecting the tragedy that scythed down so many
innocent children.

"Blaming any party will not bring back my dead son. It seems
that 25 million people will die before the democracy is achieved
in this country," he said.

(c) Copyright 2004 Associated Press

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2) 'I saw dogs eating the body of a woman'
Samarra, Iraq
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=vn20041004024359
961C360203&set_id=6

Samarra, Iraq - Waving white flags, Iraqis have fled Samarra on
river boats as US forces claimed victory over insurgents in an
offensive aimed at taking control of rebel-held cities.

Iraq's US-backed interim government is hoping American and
Iraqi forces will crush a bloody insurgency and take back all of
the country before the scheduled January elections.

But Sunday's operation in Samarra, north of Baghdad, brought
condemnation from residents about the cost in lives and suffering,
and guerrillas in the fiercest rebel-held city of Fallujah are expected
to put up a tougher fight.

The US strategy of "precision strikes" also came in for criticism
from Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar, who described the air assaults
as collective punishment.


He said he had seen dogs picking at corpses in the street
In 36 hours of fighting in the city, the US military said it killed
125 guerrillas and captured 88. About 3 000 US troops and
2 000 Iraqi soldiers had stormed Samarra on Friday.

Aid organisations said they were concerned about a lack of
water and electricity and the fate of hundreds of families
forced to flee.

One man, who said he escaped the city yesterday, reported
that civilians had been killed. He said he had seen dogs
picking at corpses in the street.
"I swear I saw dogs eating the body of a woman," he said.

Residents said bodies were left in the streets, untended
due to the fear of snipers.

Families tried to bury their dead on Sunday but the road
to the cemetery was blocked off by US troops, witnesses said.

Families tried to bury their dead but the road to the cemetery
was blocked off by US troops

Meanwhile, near Baghdad, a hospital said it had received the
bodies of a man and a woman, both believed to be Westerners,
found by police on Saturday.

The man had been beheaded and the woman shot in the head.
They carried no identification documents. - Reuters

This article was originally published on page 4 of The Star
on October 04, 2004

Published on the Web by IOL on 2004-10-04 02:43:00
(c) Independent Online 2004. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this
article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by
reliance on the information it contains.

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3) Israeli Air Strikes Kill 68 in Six Days
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)
.c The Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel said it fired a missile at a group
of armed Palestinians early Tuesday, killing one and wounding three,
on the sixth day of an offensive that's killed 68.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Monday condemned
what he called international indifference to Palestinian suffering in
face Israel's push into the Gaza Strip, action aimed at halting rocket
attacks on Israel.

At least 68 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, making
it the deadliest Israeli incursion into Gaza in more than four years
of fighting.

Nine Palestinians died Monday in northern Gaza, including four
militants and a 14-year-old girl who residents said was shot as
she baked bread with her mother in their garden.

Israeli military sources said armed Palestinians were the target
in Tuesday's air strike but would not comment on reports that
a pilot-less drone fired the missile.

In southern Gaza, miles away from the offensive, Palestinian
residents said a 4-year-old boy was killed by tank fire next to
his house near the town of Khan Younis. The Israeli military said
there were no shootings in the area.

Late Monday, the army said it killed a Palestinian gunman who
tried to infiltrate the Israeli settlement of Netzer Hazani near
Khan Younis. Also, Palestinians said an Al Aqsa militant was
killed in the Jebaliya camp.

In other developments, a spat between Israel and the United
Nations escalated after a top U.N. official in the region
acknowledged that some of his Palestinian employees
were probably members of militant groups.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, undercover Israeli troops
ambushed a car on Monday, killing two members of an elite
Palestinian security force and wounding a third, Palestinian
security officials said. Army radio said an Israeli was also killed;
the army declined to confirm the report.

Israel moved into northern Gaza last week after a Palestinian
rocket attack killed two children in the Israeli town of Sderot.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said the operation will continue
until the rocket attacks stop.

Despite the Israeli campaign, Palestinian militants managed
to fire off two more rockets at Sderot on Monday, slightly
wounding one man with shrapnel.

Israeli forces have carved out a five-mile buffer zone in northern
Gaza in an attempt to move its towns out of rocket range.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in a radio address
Monday that the people of Gaza will never surrender.
But he hinted that the militants should halt the rocket fire.
``I call on the factions to put the Palestinian high interest above
everything ... not to give the occupation any excuse
against us,'' he said.

The operation has exacted a heavy price on the Palestinians,
leaving a wide swath of destruction in the Jebaliya refugee camp
and leaving dozens homeless.

Qureia, speaking before a meeting of the Palestinian Cabinet
in Ramallah, criticized the ``massive destruction'' and called for
heavy international pressure on Israel.

``This ugly Israeli crime is taking place in full view of the world,
and so far, we have not heard a strong word from the world
community that can bring an end to this aggression,'' he said.

The United States, European Union and a number of European
countries have urged restraint by Israel and raised concerns
about civilian casualties.

France condemned the Israeli operation on Monday, while Egypt's
foreign minister urged Israel to stop its ``policy of assassination
and destruction,'' the semiofficial Middle East News Agency reported.

The U.N. Security Council also called an emergency meeting
at the request of Arab nations to consider a resolution demanding
an immediate halt to the offensive.

But much of the international reaction has been directed at the
Palestinians as well, urging an end to rocket attacks and
recognizing Israel's right to defend itself.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli urged
``all sides to take every measure to avoid civilian casualties''
while endorsing ``Israel's right to defend itself.''

Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian Cabinet secretary, described
the Western condemnations as ``weak and not consistent with
the large scale of the aggression.''

``It's the world's responsibility to intervene strongly with every
possible means, including economic sanctions,'' he said.

Raanan Gissin, a senior Israeli official, attributed the tepid
international response so far to recognition of Israel's security needs.
``The world has come to know Palestinian terror organizations for
what they are,'' he said.

Analysts also cited world ``fatigue'' with the festering Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, as well as the international focus on Iraq.

``All efforts are concentrated on Iraq,'' said Germano Dottori,
a political analyst at the Center for Strategic Studies in Rome.

Mark Heller, an analyst at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies
at Tel Aviv University, said international outrage may be tempered
by Israel's plans to pull out of Gaza next year. ``I think there's
recognition ... given last week's rocket attack, responsibility for
the chain of events doesn't really lie with Israel,'' he said.

The rocket attacks threaten to undermine support for Sharon's
withdrawal plan. Israeli officials say the offensive is aimed at
clearing the way for the pullout to proceed on schedule next year.

In a separate development Monday, Israeli officials renewed
accusations that the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian
refugees was harboring terrorists.

Israel has demanded the United Nations investigate the actions
of its top official in Gaza, Peter Hansen, after the Israeli army
released video taken by an unmanned aircraft flying over the
Gaza Strip that Israel said showed militants loading a rocket
into a U.N. vehicle.

Hansen sent a letter to Israel on Monday accusing Israel
of fabricating the story. But Israeli officials seized on an
interview Hansen gave the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
in which Hansen acknowledged that some of his U.N. Relief
and Works Agency's approximately 24,000 Palestinian
employees were probably members of militant groups
such as Hamas.

``I'm sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA
payroll,'' Hansen said in the CBC interview that aired Sunday.
``I don't see that as a crime.''

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the government viewed
Hansen's comments with the utmost gravity.

UNRWA spokesman Paul McCann said the agency does not
vet the political beliefs of its staff but does insist they abide
by a strict code of conduct and maintain neutrality.

10/04/04 22:51 EDT

ADC Action Alert: US Senate to Consider Israel's Wall
October 4, 2004

ADC has learned that S.Res 408, condemning the decision
of the International Court of Justice on Israel's construction
of the wall in Palestinian territory, may come up before the
Senate this week for a vote.

You may remember that a similar resolution passed the House
on July 15th by a vote of 361 - 45, 13 Present. The Senate
resolution has not been reviewed by the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and earlier efforts, in late July, to rush the bill to the
floor for consideration were blocked by a one Senator placing
a hold on the bill back.

Currently the Senate is debating amendments to the Senate
bill implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations.
However, both chambers are in a rush to fast track legislation,
including a ruling on Israel's wall before the target adjournment
of October 8th.

You can access ADC's action alert on the the Wall at:
http://capwiz.com/adc/issues/alert/?alertid=6318186&type=CO
For background and other information, see
ADC's press release "ADC Welcomes ICJ Ruling on the Wall" at:
http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=2264
ADC has sent a petition of 162 organizations opposing this
resolution to Senate offices. You can find this petition at:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/petition.php?pid=5

Peace, No War
War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate
Not in our Name! And another world is possible!
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**"Report From Baghdad" CD-ROM**

Pacifica Radio KPFK Los Angeles Reporter Lee Siu Hin's July
2003 trip to U.S. occupied Iraq. An interactive CD-ROM with
articles, photos, audio and video interviews includes: people
of Iraq, U.S. military, human rights workers, religious leaders
and more!

Please Visit the Website:
http://www.actionla.org/Iraq/IraqReport/intro.html
Each CD costs: $15.00 plus $3.50 S/H (work both PC and Mac)
The CD sells will be benefit the Baghdad Independent
Media Center, ActionLA, and PeaceNoWar.net
*Additional donations are welcome, and it will be tax deductible.
For more information, tel: (213)413-1778 e-mail: info@ActionLA.org
URL: www.ActionLA.org
Send check/money orders to:
ActionLA/SEE
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---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

4) How US fuelled myth of Zarqawi the mastermind
By Adrian Blomfield outside Fallujah
(Filed: 04/10/2004)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader believed to be
responsible for the abduction of Kenneth Bigley, is 'more myth
than man', according to American military intelligence agents in Iraq.

Several sources said the importance of Zarqawi, blamed for many
of the most spectacular acts of violence in Iraq, has been
exaggerated by flawed intelligence and the Bush administration's
desire to find "a villain" for the post-invasion mayhem.

US military intelligence agents in Iraq have revealed a series of
botched and often tawdry dealings with unreliable sources who,
in the words of one source, "told us what we wanted to hear".

"We were basically paying up to $10,000 a time to opportunists,
criminals and chancers who passed off fiction and supposition
about Zarqawi as cast-iron fact, making him out as the linchpin
of just about every attack in Iraq," the agent said.

"Back home this stuff was gratefully received and formed the basis
of policy decisions. We needed a villain, someone identifiable for
the public to latch on to, and we got one."

The sprawling US intelligence community is in a state of open
political warfare amid conflicting pressures from election-year
politics, military combat and intelligence analysis. The Bush
administration has seized on Zarqawi as the principal leader
of the insurgency, mastermind of the country's worst suicide
bombings and the man behind the abduction of foreign hostages.
He is held up as the most tangible link to Osama bin Laden and
proof of the claim that the former Iraqi regime had links to
al-Qa'eda.

However, fresh intelligence emerging from around Fallujah,
the rebel-held city that is at the heart of the insurgency, suggests
that, despite a high degree of fragmentation, the insurgency
is led and dominated not by Arab foreigners but by members
of Iraq's Sunni minority.

Human intelligence about Zaqawi is minimal

Pentagon estimates have put the number of foreign fighters
in the region of 5,000. However, one agent said: "The overwhelming
sense from the information we are now getting is that the number
of foreign fighters does not exceed several hundred and is perhaps
as low as 200. From the information we have gathered we have to
conclude that Zarqawi is more myth than man. He isn't in the calibre
of what many politicians want to believe he is.

"At some stage, and perhaps even now, he was almost certainly
behind some of the kidnappings. But if there is a main leader
of the insurgency he would be an Iraqi. The insurgency, though,
is not nearly so centralised to talk of a structured leadership."

Military intelligence officials complain that their reports
to Washington, are largely being ignored. They accuse the Pentagon
of over-reliance on electronic surveillance and aerial and satellite
reconnaissance carried out for the CIA.

In recent weeks American military command in Iraq has claimed
a series of precision air strikes on targets in Fallujah identified by
the CIA as housing known associates of Zarqawi.

It has denied that there were any civilian casualties, despite
television footage showing dead and wounded women and
children being pulled from the rubble of flattened homes.

Some US military spies maintain that this is evidence of
continued dependency on technology over old-fashioned
human intelligence.

Both President George W Bush and Tony Blair have, to varying
degrees, conceded that intelligence on Saddam Hussein's
weapons of mass destruction programme was misleading.
But both continue to maintain that the continued violence
since Saddam was ousted is because Iraq is now the front
line in the war on terrorism.

Yet it now seems that the intelligence on which such claims
are based is haphazard, scanty and contradictory.

No concrete proof of the link between Zarqawi and bin Laden
was offered until US officials this year trumpeted the discovery
of a computer disk, allegedly intercepted by Kurdish peshmerga
guerrillas. Among its files was an apparent draft of a letter from
Zarqawi to bin Laden.

"We will be your readied soldiers, working under your banner,
complying with your orders and indeed swearing fealty to you
publicly and in the news media," the letter read.

That seemed proof enough for the US government. "Zarqawi
is the best evidence of the connection to al-Qa'eda affiliates
and al-Qa'eda," Mr Bush said in June.

But senior diplomats in Baghdad claim that the letter was almost
certainly a hoax. They say the two men may have met in Afghanistan
but it appeared they never got on and there has been a rift for
several years.

One diplomat claimed that there was evidence to suggest that
Zarqawi's aides may have passed on information to the Americans
that led to the arrest of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of the main
planners of the September 11 attacks.

The diplomats describe Zarqawi as deeply ambitious. His actions
are aimed as much at boosting his position in the Islamic terrorist
fraternity as striking at America. He achieved that in April when
a grisly and apparently authentic video showing the beheading
of the contractor Nick Berg. The footage was released under the
title "Sheikh Abu Musab Zarqawi executes an American with his
own hands and promises Bush more".

A diplomat commented: "That catapaulted Zarqawi to exactly
where he wanted to be - giving Osama a run for his money as
US public enemy number one. But, the video apart, intelligence
on the Jordanian is thin.

Intelligence reports are contradictory even on whether he is
missing a leg.

Initial claims of a Long John Silver character with an artificial
leg were disputed by more recent alleged sightings of the
38-year-old apparently fully limbed and looking rather sprightly.

A campaign to reclaim rebel-held areas before next year's
Iraqi elections claimed its first success yesterday.

The US army said 3,000 of its troops backed by 2,000 Iraqis
dislodged around 1,000 insurgents from Samarra, 60 miles
north of Baghdad, in the "Sunni triangle". It said 15 of about
150 killed were civilians.

Iraqi religious leaders said other towns would not fall so easily.

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of
Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any
medium without licence.

Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

5) Onslaught on Samarra escalates in 'dress rehearsal' for
major US assault on rebels
By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Independent
03 October 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=568358

Bigley 'will survive', says negotiator

Onslaught on Samarra escalates in 'dress rehearsal' for major
US assault on rebels

Malcolm Rifkind: American troops must stay in Iraq. But they
must change their helmets

James Walston: I respond. You negotiate. He gives in to terrorism

US-led forces continued their offensive on the rebel stronghold
of Samarra yesterday, with the death toll rising to 125 Elsewhere,
12 people were killed in clashes in Sadr City, and seven died in US
"precision strikes" in Fallujah. At al-Amel in Baghdad, funerals
began of the 35 children slaughtered by suicide bombers while
queuing for sweets from American troops.

The attack on Samarra, by more than 5,000 US and Iraqi interim
government troops, is the first on a "no-go" rebel enclave. It is
seen as a dress rehearsal to wrest back other such areas, including
Sadr City on the outskirts of Baghdad, and, especially, Fallujah,
where the Jordanian-born militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
is based.

But those who have witnessed US aircraft firing missiles into
packed tenements in Sadr City, and have seen the resulting
carnage, treat claims of "precision strikes" on Zarqawi-linked
targets in Fallujah with deep scepticism. Yesterday the US military
claimed the casualties in Samarra were all insurgents, but doctors
in the city reported women, children and the elderly among the dead.

"Dead bodies and injured people are lying everywhere in the city.
The Americans fired at us when we tried to evacuate them," said an
ambulance driver. "Later on they told us that we can evacuate only
injured women and children, but we cannot pick up injured men."

Standing over a young boy with his stomach wrapped in bandages
and his arm in a cast, Sami Hashem, a neighbour, said at the hospital
in nearby Tikrit: "His pregnant mother was killed in front of him."
On another bed lay a young girl who had lost her left foot. Some
residents complained that they could not take their wounded to the
hospital, as US troops were arresting any Iraqi male over the age of 15.

Thousands of people have fled from the city, 60 miles north of
Baghdad, where US-led forces cut off power and water, and American
snipers on rooftops were said to be firing at anything that moved.
According to doctors at Samarra general hospital, of the first 47 bodies
brought in, 11 were women, five children, and seven elderly men.

Even by the violent and anarchic standards of Iraq now, the past
three days have taken a heavy toll on a population living in a state
of siege. With 10 new hostages having been taken by the insurgents
during the past few days, foreign workers are leaving Iraq in droves,
as are many of the international media. Even parts of Baghdad
adjoining the centre are now deemed to be too dangerous, belying
recent claims by George Bush and Tony Blair that Iraq is getting
better every day.

A storm has been caused in the US by the revelation that a speech
to Congress by Iraq's interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi - who said
he was leading his country out of "dark ages of violence, aggression,
corruption and greed" - was written for him by the Bush re-election
campaign team. But the news has caused little surprise here: most
Iraqis have long decided that everything he does or says is dictated
by the Americans. What must be much more worrying for the US and
Britain is the overwhelming belief among ordinary Iraqis that their
misery is also made in America.

The three car bombs in Baghdad on Thursday which killed 46 people
and injured 208, the vast majority of them children, were the work
of insurgents. Within 24 hours Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group
was claiming responsibility for the "heroic operations". Yet at
yesterday's funerals the bereaved families put the blame on the
Americans who had arrived, uninvited, at the opening of a new
sewage station and then attracted the little boys and girls around
them by handing out sweets.

Around 14,800 Iraqi civilians are estimated to have been killed so
far, and more than 40,000 injured. Also growing are the numbers
of insurgents. According to the Pentagon's own estimates, their
numbers have quadrupled this year to 20,000. General Andrew
Graham, British former deputy commander of the coalition forces,
said the figure is more likely to be as high as 50,000.

Even when there is a respite from the violence, civilians face
a daily struggle to obtain the basics of life. Mr Allawi's reference
to delivering Iraq from corruption causes particular derision.
Under Saddam Hussein Iraq had a reputation as the "republic
of bribes". Now, say the Iraqis, the situation is much worse.
Getting anything out from car number plates to passports
requires baksheesh.

Ahmed Mohammed Abbas, who runs an electrical business,
said: "When we are not paying off officials, we are scared to
go out of doors, because of the bombs, kidnappings and murders.
We are living in a society without any law or morality. This is
the gift to Iraq of Bush and Blair."

Iraq's ever-rising toll

* The death toll of children in Thursday's bombing in Baghdad
was, at 35, the largest in any insurgent attack since the start
of the Iraq conflict. To date there have been 129 mass-casualty
bombings, leaving 1,382 dead and 3,469 injured. More than
100 insurgents were killed in the US-led attack on Samarra
on Friday.

* The total number of civilians killed in Iraq since March 2003
is not officially computed. IraqBodyCount. org puts it at 15,033,
the estimate of the respected US Brookings Institution is in a
range of 10,000-27,000, while some Arab organisations
calculate that deaths of Iraqi non-combatants exceed 37,000.

* The 77 US troops who were killed in September amounts to
one of the worst monthly death tolls so far, and marks the first
time that the numbers of US killed have risen for four months
in a row. In all, 1,056 US military have been killed in Iraq since
March 2003. Britain's toll is 64, with 67 military from other
nations in the coalition being killed. So far this year, an estimated
750 Iraq police have been killed.


(c) 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

6) Dear Mike, Iraq sucks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1319718,00.html
Civilian contractors are fleecing taxpayers; US troops don't have
proper equipment; and supposedly liberated Iraqis hate them.
After the release of Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore received
a flood of letters and emails from disillusioned and angry
American soldiers serving in Iraq. Here, in an exclusive extract
from his new book, we print a selection
Michael Moore
Tuesday October 5, 2004

The Guardian
From: RH
To: mike@michaelmoore.com
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2003 4:57 PM
Subject: Iraqi freedom veteran supports you
Dear Mr Moore,
I went to Iraq with thoughts of killing people who I thought
were horrible. I was like, "Fuck Iraq, fuck these people,
I hope we kill thousands." I believed my president. He was
taking care of business and wasn't going to let al Qaeda
push us around. I was with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry,
3rd Infantry division out of Fort Stewart, Georgia. My unit
was one of the first to Baghdad. I was so scared. Didn't
know what to think. Seeing dead bodies for the first time.
People blown in half. Little kids with no legs. It was overwhelming,
the sights, sounds, fear. I was over there from Jan'03 to Aug'03.
I hated every minute. It was a daily battle to keep my spirits up.
I hate the army and my job. I am supposed to get out next February
but will now be unable to because the asshole in the White House
decided that now would be a great time to put a stop-loss in effect
for the army. So I get to do a second tour in Iraq and be away
from those I love again because some guy has the audacity to
put others' lives on the line for his personal war. I thought we
were the good guys.

From: Michael W
Sent: Tuesday July 13 2004 12.28pm
Subject: Dude, Iraq sucks

My name is Michael W and I am a 30-year-old National Guard
infantryman serving in southeast Baghdad. I have been in Iraq
since March of 04 and will continue to serve here until March of 05.

In the few short months my unit has been in Iraq, we have already
lost one man and have had many injured (including me) in combat
operations. And for what? At the very least, the government could
have made sure that each of our vehicles had the proper armament
to protect us soldiers.

In the early morning hours of May 10, one month to the day from
my 30th birthday, I and 12 other men were attacked in a well-
executed roadside ambush in south-east Baghdad. We were attacked
with small-arms fire, a rocket-propelled grenade, and two well-
placed roadside bombs. These roadside bombs nearly destroyed
one of our Hummers and riddled my friends with shrapnel, almost
killing them. They would not have had a scratch if they had the "Up
Armour" kits on them. So where was [George] W [Bush] on that one?

It's just so ridiculous, which leads me to my next point. A Blackwater
contractor makes $15,000 [£8,400] a month for doing the same job
as my pals and me. I make about $4,000 [£2,240] a month over here.
What's up with that?

Beyond that, the government is calling up more and more troops
from the reserves. For what? Man, there is a huge fucking scam going
on here! There are civilian contractors crawling all over this country.
Blackwater, Kellogg Brown & Root, Halliburton, on and on. These
contractors are doing everything you can think of from security to
catering lunch!

We are spending money out the ass for this shit, and very few of
the projects are going to the Iraqi people. Someone's back is getting
scratched here, and it ain't the Iraqis'!

My life is left to chance at this point. I just hope I come home
alive.

From: Specialist Willy
Sent: Tuesday March 9 2004 1.23pm
Subject: Thank you

Mike, I'd like to thank you for all of the support you're showing for
the soldiers here in Iraq. I am in Baghdad right now, and it's such
a relief to know that people still care about the lemmings who are
forced to fight in this conflict.

It's hard listening to my platoon sergeant saying, "If you decide
you want to kill a civilian that looks threatening, shoot him.
I'd rather fill out paperwork than get one of my soldiers killed by
some raghead." We are taught that if someone even looks threatening
we should do something before they do something to us. I wasn't
brought up in fear like that, and it's going to take some getting
used to.

It's also very hard talking to people here about this war. They don't
like to hear that the reason they are being torn away from their
families is bullshit, or that their "president" doesn't care about
them. A few people here have become quite upset with me, and
at one point I was going to be discharged for constantly inciting
arguments and disrespect to my commander-in-chief (Dubya). It's
very hard to be silenced about this when I see the same 150 people
every day just going through the motions, not sure why they are
doing it.

[ Willy sent an update in early August ]

People's perceptions of this war have done a complete 180 since
we got here. We had someone die in a mortar attack the first week,
and ever since then, things have changed completely. Soldiers are
calling their families urging them to support John Kerry. If this is
happening elsewhere, it looks as if the overseas military vote that
Bush is used to won't be there this time around.

From: Kyle Waldman
Sent: Friday February 27 2004 2.35am
Subject: None

As we can all obviously see, Iraq was not and is not an imminent
threat to the United States or the rest of the world. My time in Iraq
has taught me a little about the Iraqi people and the state of this war-
torn, poverty-stricken country.

The illiteracy rate in this country is phenomenal. There were some
farmers who didn't even know there was an Operation Iraqi Freedom.
This was when I realised that this war was initiated by the few who
would profit from it and not for its people. We, as the coalition forces,
did not liberate these people; we drove them even deeper into poverty.
I don't foresee any economic relief coming soon to these people by the
way Bush has already diverted its oil revenues to make sure there will
be enough oil for our SUVs.

We are here trying to keep peace when all we have been trained for
is to destroy. How are 200,000 soldiers supposed to take control of
this country? Why didn't we have an effective plan to rebuild Iraq's
infrastructure? Why aren't the American people more aware of these
atrocities?

My fiancee and I have seriously looked into moving to Canada as
political refugees.

From: Anonymous
Sent: Thursday April 15 2004 12.41am
Subject: From KBR truck driver now in Iraq

Mike, I am a truck driver right now in Iraq. Let me give you this
one small fact because I am right here at the heart of it: since
I started this job several months ago, 100% (that's right, not 99%)
of the workers I am aware of are inflating the hours they claim on
their time sheets. There is so much more I could tell you. But the
fact is that MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of dollars are being raped from
both the American taxpayers and the Iraqi people because of the
unbelievable amount of greed and abuse over here. And yes, my
conscience does bother me because I am participating in this rip-off.

From: Andrew Balthazor
Sent: Friday August 27 2004 1.53pm
Subject: Iraqi war vet - makes me sound so old

Mr Moore, I am an ex-military intelligence officer who served
10 months in Baghdad; I was the senior intelligence officer for
the area of Baghdad that included the UN HQ and Sadr City.

Since Bush exposed my person and my friends, peers, and
subordinates to unnecessary danger in a war apparently designed
to generate income for a select few in the upper echelon of America,
I have become wholeheartedly anti-Bush, to the chagrin of much of
my pro-Republican family.

As a "foot soldier" in the "war on terror" I can personally testify that
Bush's administration has failed to effectively fight terrorists or the
root causes of terror. The White House and the DoD failed to plan for
reconstruction of Iraq. Contracts weren't tendered until Feb-Mar of
2003, and the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance
(the original CPA) didn't even come into existence until January 2003.
This failure to plan for the "peace" is a direct cause for the insecurity
of Iraq today.

Immediately after the "war" portion of the fighting (which really ended
around April 9 2003), we should have been prepared to send in
a massive reconstruction effort. Right away we needed engineers
to diagnose problems, we needed contractors repairing problems,
we needed immediate food, water, shelter, and fuel for the Iraqi
people, and we needed more security for all of this to work - which
we did not have because we did not have enough troops on the
ground, and CPA decided to disband the Iraqi army. The former
Iraqi police were engaged far too late; a plan should have existed
to bring them into the fold right away.

I've left the military. If there is anything I can do to help get Bush
out of office, let me know.

From: Anthony Pietsch
Sent: Thursday August 5 2004 6.13pm
Subject: Soldier for sale

Dear Mr Moore, my name is Tony Pietsch, and I am a National
Guardsman who has been stationed in Kuwait and Iraq for the
past 15 months. Along with so many other guard and reserve
units, my unit was put on convoy escorts. We were on gun trucks
running from the bottom of Iraq to about two hours above Baghdad.

The Iraqi resistance was insanity. I spent many nights lying awake
after mortar rounds had just struck areas nearby, some coming
close enough to throw rocks against my tent. I've seen roadside
bombs go off all over, Iraqis trying to ram the side of our vehicle.
Small children giving us the finger and throwing rocks at the
soldiers in the turrets. We were once lost in Baghdad and received
nothing but dirty looks and angry gestures for hours.

I have personally been afraid for my life more days than I can count.
We lost our first man only a few weeks before our tour was over,
but it seems that all is for nothing because all we see is hostility
and anger over our being there. They are angry over the abuse
scandal and the collateral damages that are always occurring.

I don't know how the rest of my life will turn out, but I truly regret
being a 16-year-old kid looking for some extra pocket money and
a way to college.

From: Sean Huze
Sent: Sunday March 28 2004 7.56pm
Subject: "Dude, Where's My Country?"

I am an LCPL in the US Marine Corps and veteran of Operation
Iraqi Freedom. Mr Moore, please keep pounding away at Bush.
I'm not some pussy when it comes to war. However, the
position we were put in - fighting an enemy that used women,
children, and other civilians as shields; forcing us to choose
between firing at "area targets" (nice way of saying firing into
crowds) or being killed by the bastards using the crowds for cover -
is indescribably horrible.

I saw more than a few dead children littering the streets in
Nasiriyah, along with countless other civilians. And through
all this, I held on to the belief that it had to be for some
greater good.

Months have passed since I've been back home and the
unfortunate conclusion I've come to is that Bush is a lying,
manipulative motherfucker who cares nothing for the lives
of those of us who serve in uniform. Hell, other than playing
dress-up on aircraft carriers, what would he know about
serving this nation in uniform?

His silence and refusal to speak under oath to the 9/11
Commission further mocks our country. The Patriot Act
violates every principle we fight and die for. And all of this
has been during his first term. Can you imagine his policies
when he doesn't have to worry about re-election? We can't
allow that to happen, and there are so many like me in the
military who feel this way. We were lied to and used. And
there aren't words to describe the sense of betrayal I feel
as a result.

From: Joseph Cherwinski
Sent: Saturday July 3 2004 8.33pm
Subject: "Fahrenheit 9/11"

I am a soldier in the United States army. I was in Iraq with
the Fourth Infantry Division.

I was guarding some Iraqi workers one day. Their task was
to fill sandbags for our base. The temperature was at least
120. I had to sit there with full gear on and monitor them.
I was sitting and drinking water, and I could barely tolerate
the heat, so I directed the workers to go to the shade and sit
and drink water. I let them rest for about 20 minutes. Then
a staff sergeant told me that they didn't need a break, and
that they were to fill sandbags until the cows come home.
He told the Iraqis to go back to work.

After 30 minutes, I let them have a break again, thus disobeying
orders. If these were soldiers working, in this heat, those soldiers
would be bound to a 10-minute work, 50-minute rest cycle,
to prevent heat casualties. Again the staff sergeant came and
sent the Iraqis back to work and told me I could sit in the shade.
I told him no, I had to be out there with them so that when
I started to need water, then they would definitely need water.
He told me that wasn't necessary, and that they live here, and
that they are used to it.

After he left, I put the Iraqis back into the shade. I could tell
that some were very dehydrated; most of them were thin enough
to be on an international food aid commercial. I would not treat
my fellow soldiers in this manner, so I did not treat the Iraqi
workers this way either.

This went on for eight months while I was in Iraq, and going
through it told me that we were not there for their freedom,
we were not there for WMD. We had no idea what we were
fighting for anymore.

Will They Ever Trust Us Again? Letters from the Warzone to
Michael Moore by Michael Moore, to be published by Allen
Lane on October 7 at £12.99. Copyright (c) Michael Moore
2004. To order a copy for £12.34 with free UK p&p, call the
Guardian Book Service on 0870 836 0875, or go to the Guardian
bookshop .
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

7) Two Empty Bottles with Different Labels
John Kerry on Criminal Justice Issues
By PAUL WRIGHT
October 2 / 3, 2004
http://counterpunch.com/wright10022004.html

"Americans on the frontlines - our first responders, military forces,
sheriffs, policemen, firefighters, and civil defense volunteers - must have
the very
best equipment, training and support possible. Our safety and
freedom are the envy of the world and John Kerry and John Edwards
will ensure this does not change. A Kerry-Edwards administration
will recruit more law enforcement and emergency professionals,
combat Meth labs and drug abuse, and build a stronger judicial
and prison system in rural areas."

John Kerry for President Website, www.Johnkerry.com

The issue of felon disenfranchisement, where millions of Americans
convicted of crimes that may or may not have resulted in imprisonment
cannot vote in government elections, is one of growing importance.
Around the country various lawsuits are challenging such laws under
various theories, so far with mixed results. Some political pressure,
especially by the black community is raising awareness about how
this results in dilution of the black vote and undermines any notion
of equality and democracy. In a system that claims to be a democracy
the right to vote should be a fundamental right. But the flip side
the same coin is that people who wish to vote should have
candidates who either represent their interests or their views on
given issues. That a majority of the electorate that can vote
chooses not to may reflect recognition of Jim Hightower's
comment that "If the gods wanted us to vote, they would s
end us candidates."

One reason for close national and statewide races for federal
offices is the lack of any discernible differences among the
candidates. For people who are concerned about criminal
justice issues the lack of any substantial policy
differences among national candidates is most easily seen by
the fact that today no national political figure is publicly
opposed to the death penalty. For prisoners or families who have
loved ones in prison, people who do not support a police state,
the death penalty and the evisceration of human and civil rights
the electoral choices between John Kerry and George Bush amount
to choosing to be beat to death with a stick or a two by four.

In 1992 I wrote an article
in Prison Legal News about Bill Clinton interrupting his
presidential campaign to fly back to Arkansas to preside over
the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a mentally ill black prisoner
who had blown most of his brains out in a botched suicide attempt
after killing a police man. While George Bush I was certainly
a supporter of the death penalty, he had not had the opportunity
to oversee one to prove his support of it to the electorate.
Clinton could and did. I predicted that based on his campaign
promises and track record as governor of Arkansas, Clinton would
be a disaster for prisoners and he was. However, I didn't think
he would be as bad as he turned out to be.

President George Bush II's
record on criminal justice issues needs little elaboration. As
governor of Texas he oversaw over 150 executions, his predecessor
Ann Richards began the massive expansion of the Texas prison
system, which Bush completed, and much more. As president Bush
has presided over the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, the
rape and torture chambers of Abu Gharaib, signed the PATRIOT
Act into law and otherwise done what American presidents historically
do. But presidents do not act alone, they need legislative approval
for these things and John Kerry has been in the U.S. senate for
almost 20 years. Plenty of time to amass a track record on criminal
justice issues. Moreover, it is not as if Kerry has questioned
or condemned Bush on these human rights issues.

The Bush campaign has attempted
to label Kerry as being "soft on crime", just as Bush's
last opponent for Texas governor, Texas attorney general Dan
Morales (who has since been imprisoned himself on fraud charges),
claimed Bush was "soft on crime." However, a review
of Kerry's actual voting record and personal history reveals
a consistent track record of supporting the death penalty, mass
imprisonment, harsher sentences, limited civil rights and more
importantly, the commitment and ability to both pull the trigger
and prosecute the cases himself.

In researching this article
I called a prisoner rights lawyer in Boston to ask about Kerry's
record on prisoner rights issues. He sighed and said "I
don't know the specifics, but I'm sure it's abysmal."

In 1986 Kerry voted for H.R.
5484 which enacted the federal mandatory minimums for drug crimes,
this included the infamous 100-1 crack cocaine disparity where
defendants with five grams of crack received a mandatory minimum
of five years in federal prison while possession of five hundred
grams of powdered cocaine resulted in the same five year mandatory
minimum sentence. It would have been surprising if Kerry had
voted against this draconian law since it had been introduced
in the House of Representatives by then Speaker of the House
Tip O'Neil, Kerry's fellow Democrat from Boston.

Some people in the anti death
penalty movement appear to believe that Kerry is opposed to the
death penalty. If he is, it does not prevent him for voting for
its expansion every opportunity he gets. The same 1986 law mentioned
above reinstated the federal death penalty for so called "drug
kingpins." In 1994 Kerry voted for the massive 1994 crime
bill that Clinton had called for. As I wrote at the time [PLN,
Dec. 1994], this bill expanded the federal death penalty to dozens
of new offenses, including the killing of federal poultry inspectors,
created new crimes, funded 100,000 police, enacted the federal
"three strikes" law, gave the states billions of dollars
to build new prisons, limited the power of federal courts to
rule on prisoner crowding suits, eliminated Pell grants for prisoners
to receive an education and significantly changed the rules of
evidence against criminal defendants and resulted in a massive
expansion of police power. Kerry's running mate, John Edwards,
has also been a strong supporter of the death penalty.

In 1996 Kerry voted in favor corpus law as well
as expanding the deportation of aliens who had been convicted
of a crime. The Prison Litigation Reform Act was passed that
same year but it was enacted as a rider to the budget and thus
no separate voting record is available.

Kerry voted in favor of the
PATRIOT Act in 2001 which was a Department of Justice wish list
that had been around for a number of years, essentially a continuation
of the 1994 crime bill and AEDPA.

As noted above, on his website
Kerry is calling for more rural prisons, which America needs
as much as it needs a typhoid epidemic. When Kerry says that
America's freedom is the envy of the world I don't recall hearing
people in other countries wish that they had over two million
prisoners. While Kerry may be proud of the fact that with 5 %
of the world's population, the US has 25% of the world's prisoners,
few countries seem envious enough to lock up that portion of
their citizenry.

Kerry served as a prosecutor
for several years in Massachusetts before running for elected
office. Recently his four months of service in Viet Nam as a
commander of a Swift patrol boat has come under attack over whether
or not he exaggerated his combat experience, and that he was
wounded four times in incidents that never required hospitalization
or medical treatment. The more significant aspects of his undisputed
actions in Viet Nam have been glossed over. Namely that many
of the Special Forces and CIA commandos Kerry's boat transported
along Vietnamese rivers were carrying out assorted war crimes,
including the torture and murder of captured civilians and POWs,
some of which occurred on Kerry's boat or in his presence. Then
Kerry boasts of killing a wounded National Liberation Front guerrilla
who was retreating. These exploits were laid out in detail in
the December, 2003, issue of the Atlantic Monthly in an
article by Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty , a sympathetic
hagiography excerpted from the book of the same title. Rather
than running for president a case can be made that Kerry should
be indicted for war crimes.

Both Kerry and Bush II are
from wealthy families and have similar educations and even memberships
in the same Skull and Bones secret society at Yale. I guess that
is why it is called a ruling class. On any substantial policy
issue it is difficult to find any difference between the two
candidates. Asked by the New York Times how his policies
would differ from the current regime's, Kerry replied they would
differ in style but not substance. On criminal justice issues
neither candidate for the Democratic or Republican parties offers
voters any significant choice beyond being beaten to death with
the stick or the two by four. Both have reprehensible records
on this topic. However, unlike Bush II whose personal organizational
capabilities seem to max out at organizing a keg party, Kerry
has shown an ability and willingness to kill and prosecute people
himself.

If Kerry has any principles
or actually believes in anything beyond political expediency
his supporters have yet to point out what those may be. In his
two decades in the Senate he has consistently voted against the
interests of prisoners and criminal defendants and in support
of state power and repression. It is unreasonable to expect that
if elected president he would be any different. No one in Kerry's
campaign office would return my calls seeking comment on his
positions on these issues.

Both vice president Dick Cheney
and president Bush have been convicted of drunk driving, twice
each. They employ at least one convicted felon, Elliot Abrams,
in the white house, and won't tell reporters how many other felons
they employ. President Bush won't answer any questions about
his drug use in the past, apparently believing the electorate
has no business knowing if he violated the nation's felony laws
against drug use and possession. Of course, if he has not violated
such laws, one would think a simple denial would suffice. Yet
they condemn Kerry as being soft on crime when he is anything
but.

Bush's policies engender opposition
and there is some awareness that he is little more than a bag
man for corporate interests. Under Clinton not only were the
rights of prisoners set back decades, there was no resistance
to it. When Reagan and Bush I attempted to gut habeas corpus,
there was opposition and the attempts failed. When Clinton tried,
there was no opposition and it succeeded. The same thing occurred
with regards to "welfare reform." It is likely that
a Kerry presidency would see a similar phenomenon.

Some members of the "anybody
but Bush" camp argue that Kerry should be supported at any
cost but that lowers the bar for all candidates. The most common
argument is that at least Kerry supports abortion rights for
women. However, Kerry states he is personally opposed to abortion
and would not impose an abortion litmus test on any judicial
appointments he makes. This argument also implicitly assumes
that the more than 2 million victims of mass incarceration in
this country, almost all of whom are poor and who are
disproportionately black and Hispanic and mostly men,
expendable and of no consequence, politically or morally.
That their liberty, human rights and
families mean nothing and are political fodder to be trashed
for political gain. Poor, disenfranchised and with no voice anyone
in power seems compelled to listen to, prisoners and criminal
justice reformers have little choice in the presidential race
of 2004. Two empty bottles with different labels indeed. Take
your pick.

Paul Wright is a human rights advocate and the
founder and editor of Prison
Legal News , an independent monthly magazine which reports
on criminal justice issues. www.prisonlegalnews.org. He is also
co-author of The Celling of America: AN Inside Look at the
Prison Industry (Common Courage, 1998) and Prison
Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor (Routledge,
2003).

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

8) Robertson: If Bush 'touches' Jerusalem, we'll form 3rd party
By Daphna Berman , Haaretz correspondent, and agencies
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 09:33 05/10/2004
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/484861.html

Influential American evangelist Pat Robertson said Monday that
Evangelical Christians feel so deeply about Jerusalem, that if
President George W. Bush were to "touch" Jerusalem, Evangelicals
would abandon their traditional Republican leanings and form a
third party.

Evangelical Christians - estimated at tens of millions of Americans -
overwhelmingly support Bush for his pro-Israel policies, Robertson
told a Jerusalem news conference Monday.

But if Bush shifted his position toward support for Jerusalem
as a capital for both Israel and a Palestinian state, his Evangelical
backing would disappear, Robertson indicated.

"The President has backed away from [the road map], but if he
were to touch Jerusalem, he'd lose all Evangelical support," Robertson
said. "Evangelicals would form a third party" because, though people
"don't know about" Gaza, Jerusalem is an entirely different matter.

Robertson, an outspoken supporter of Israel who is in the country to
celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, also added that visitors to Israel
should not be overly critical of the government's political decisions.

He has refrained from overtly criticizing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
disengagement plan and says only that he hopes the "Israeli people
will make the right decision" in matters of territorial concessions.

"It is unwise for a visitor from America to get involved in Israeli
politics," he stated at a press conference in the capital's
International Convention Center.

Together with an estimated 5,000 Christians from around the
world, Robertson has been touring the Holy Land this week, in
effort to support and pray for the people of Israel. He led a prayer
service on Sunday outside the Knesset, where he blasted Hezbollah,
Hamas, and the idea of jihad.

"Arab nations want a conflict and want to keep the suffering of
people in Gaza," he said. "They don't want peace; they want the
destruction of Israel."

Robertson urged that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) be abolished, given what he called the organization's
active role in the "perpetuation" of the Palestinian refugee problem.
He warned that a Palestinian state would become "a constant source
of irritation" that would "endanger the territorial integrity" of Israel.

"A Palestinian state with full sovereignty would be a launching
ground for various types of weapons, including weapons of mass
destruction," the former presidential candidate said.

Thousands of Christians march for Jerusalem
As many as 20,000 marchers were expected to take part in the
annual Jerusalem March procession, which was to pass through
the heart of the city on Monday the afternoon, among them
thousands of Evangelicals and other Christians.

Police officials began closing streets at 1:30 P.M. to allow marchers
to pass. Among the central Jerusalem traffic arteries closed, either fully
or in sections, were Ben-Zvi, Bezalel, Ben-Yehuda, King George, Jaffa,
Shlomzion HaMalka, Koresh, Azza, Agron, Menashe Ben-Israel, HaEmek,
HaRav Kook, Havatzelet, Heleni HaMalka, Histadrut, Shammai and
Hillel Streets.

Most of the streets were to have been re-opened by 5:30 P.M.

In a gathering of more than 4,000 pilgrims at a Jerusalem convention
center Sunday, Robertson warned that some Muslims were trying
to foil "God's plan" to let Israel hold on to its lands. The number
of pilgrims was about 25 percent higher than the past three years,
according to organizers with the International Christian Embassy.

"I see the rise of Islam to destroy Israel and take the land from
the Jews and give East Jerusalem to [Palestinian Authority
Chairman] Yasser Arafat. I see that as Satan's plan to prevent
the return of Jesus Christ the Lord," said Robertson, a Christian
broadcaster.

In two Jerusalem appearances, Robertson Sunday praised Israel
as part of God's plan and criticized Arab countries and some Muslims,
saying their hopes to include Israeli-controlled land in a Palestinian
state are part of "Satan's plan."

Robertson, who has made critical statements of Islam in the past,
called Israel's Arab neighbors "a sea of dictatorial regimes."

He said he "sends notice" to Osama bin Laden, Arafat and
Palestinian militant groups that "you will not frustrate God's
plan" to have Jews rule the Holy Land until the Second Coming
of Jesus.

Only God should decide if Israel should relinquish control of
the lands it captured in the 1967 war, including the Gaza Strip,
West Bank and East Jerusalem, Robertson said, in a reference to
Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza next year.

"God says, 'I'm going to judge those who carve up the West Bank
and Gaza Strip,'" Robertson said. "'It's my land and keep your
hands off it.'"

Blowing rams' horns and exclaiming "Hallelujah," hundreds of
pilgrims - including visitors from Norway, England and Germany
- gathered in downtown Jerusalem to pray for peace and celebrate
Israel's unification of the city with the capture of East Jerusalem in 1967.

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