U.S. OUT OF IRAQ NOW!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH,
5:00 p.m. POWELL AND MARKET, SF
(NOTE: THE BAUAW MEETING IS CANCELLED!)
We can't be silent about the massacre
taking place now in Iraq. U.S. ground
troops have begun a massive assault
through the streets of the poorest
sections of Iraq. One of their first
targets was a hospital!
While the U.S. claims that civilians
have left Falluja facts prove
that most have been unable to leave
because there is no food, water or supplies
available to them outside of the city.
This is Vietnam all over again and we say NO!
This demonstration was initiated
by ANSWER. There have been calls for
actions against this new offensive
from both UFPJ and USLAW. Bay Area
United Against War is in full support
of a united demonstration tomorrow.
The demonstration initiated by
Not In Our Name, on Nov. 3rd showed that
we are all on the same page when it comes to the war.
We call on all groups and individuals
to endorse and join this action. What
is needed most now is a truly united
movement-worldwide-calling
for the immediate withdrawal of all
US and US allied troops from Iraq
and Afghanistan and everywhere!
Peace and solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Mon 11/8 & Tues. 11/9
HELP MOBILIZE FOR THE EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION:
STOP THE FALLUJAH ATTACK! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
2489 Mission St. (Room 24) at 21st St.
Call 415-821-6545 for more info.
Help prepare for the Emergency Demo on Tues. make signs,
paint banners, flyering and postering
2) Top U.S. Marine in Iraq Calls for Massacre in Fallujah
3) Iraqi commandos seize Falluja hospital
Allawi declares state of emergency before expected assault
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/07/iraq.main/index.html
4) Allawi Approves U.S.-Led Offensive on Falluja
By Michael Georgy
NEAR FALLUJA (Reuters)
Mon Nov 8, 2004 07:58 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6744118&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
5) G.I.'s Open Attack to Take Falluja From Iraq Rebels
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
and ROBERT F. WORTH
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 8
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/08CND_IRAQ.html?hp&ex=109997
6400&en=8b32979d8c8d9235&ei=5094&partner=homepage
6) Dear Friends of the Cuban Five:
The following is an important update for the campaign to
win visiting rights for the Families of our Cuban brothers,
unjustly held in U.S. prison.
[La versión en Español sigue a la versión en Inglés.]
November 6, 2004
7) Big Tax Plans, Big Tax Risks
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
WASHINGTON
November 8, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/politics/08fiscal.html?hp&ex=1099976400&en
=b5711c91696001b1&ei=5094&partner=homepage
8) Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court
By NEIL A. LEWIS
GUANTÃNAMO BAY, Cuba
November 8, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/national/08gitmo.html?hp&ex=1099976400&en=
0cda89130ffeca11&ei=5094&partner=homepage
9) Despite Drop in Crime, an Increase in Inmates
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
November 8, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/national/08prisons.html?oref=login&oref=lo
gin
10) State of the Birds USA 2004
From Audubon Magazine September-October 2004:
http://www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds/
How are our nation's birds really faring? Audubon's science
team has pooled the best data available since Silent Spring
to report on their overall health. Depending on the habitat
in which they live, they could be flying high or sinking fast.
11) Confirmation Of Concentration Camps
For Americans In America
Free Press International
10.23.2004
http://www.freepressinternational.com/army.10232004.camps.7817625340989.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Mon 11/8 & Tues. 11/9
HELP MOBILIZE FOR THE EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION:
STOP THE FALLUJAH ATTACK! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
2489 Mission St. (Room 24) at 21st St.
Call 415-821-6545 for more info.
Help prepare for the Emergency Demo on Tues. make signs,
paint banners, flyering and postering
Schedule of Worksessions:
Mon. 11/8
2pm Bannermaking
5pm Mass Leafletting at Powell and Market and other locations
6pm Alert Phone Calls and Postering
Tues. 11/9
11am-3pm Signmaking
Loading for demo 3:30pm
Call 415-821-6545 if you can VOLUNTEER at the Tues.
Emergency Demonstration.
We are NOT having an ANSWER Activist Meeting this
Tues. 11/9 because of the Demonstration. Please join
us Tues. 11/16 at 2489 Mission St. for our next weekly
ANSWER activist meeting.
To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
To remove your address from the list, just send a message to
the address in the ``List-Unsubscribe'' header of any list
message. If you haven't changed addresses since subscribing,
you can also send a message to:
For addition or removal of addresses, We'll send a confirmation
message to that address. When you receive it, simply reply to it
to complete the transaction.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Top U.S. Marine in Iraq Calls for Massacre in Fallujah
U.S. troops entered the western outskirts of the city on Monday
seizing a hospital and two bridges over the Euphrates River. The
U.S. has surrounded the sealed off Fallujah and is preparing to
launch the complete destruction of the city. They have told the
people that any traffic on the street is now subject to attack and
any males between the ages of 15 and 55 who go outside will
automatically be killed by the U.S. soldiers. The U.S. is terrorizing
and bombing the citizens of Fallujah every night, recently targeting
and fully destroying its emergency hospital, collapsing homes around
families, dismembering children. Many of the 300,000 population have
fled for their lives, everything they have ever had left behind or
destroyed.
Now the top enlisted Marine in Iraq has called on his troops to commit
war crimes against the tens of thousands of remaining residents and
what stands of that proud and historic city. Referring to the assault
on the ancient citadel city of Hue, destroyed by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam,
Sgt. Maj. Carlton W. Kent told an assembled group of 2,500 Marines in
a "pep-talk": "You're all in the process of making history. This is another
Hue city in the making. I have no doubt, if we do get the word, that
each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done -
kick some butt." (AP, November 7 2004)
The U.S. moved to reoccupy Hue after Vietnamese forces has liberated
it in the Tet Offensive of 1968. The Under Secretary of the Air Force,
Townsend Hoopes, described the results of the U.S. assault on Hue
in a March 1968 memo as leaving "a devastated and prostrate city.
Eighty per cent of the buildings had been reduced to rubble, and in
the smashed ruins lay 2,000 dead civilians... Three quarters of the
cityÂ’s people were rendered homeless and looting was widespread,
members of the ARVN [U.S. backed South Vietnamese troops] being
the worst offenders." (Noam Chomsky's forward to the papers of the
1967 International War Crimes in Vietnam Tribunal)
The resistance in Iraq is carrying out coordinated efforts across the
country to dislodge U.S. occupation forces with attacks on police
stations and other targeted representatives of U.S. puppet installations.
In recent days many U.S. soldiers have been badly wounded and there
is more to come as the U.S. military leadership predicts the most
bloody urban fighting since Vietnam. The U.S. is using all of its
firepower, night vision, high-tech weaponry, and bombing capacity
against defenseless civilians as well as resistance fighters primarily
armed with Kalishnakov rifles and improvised explosive devises.
With all this military might, the U.S. is unable to stop the Iraqi people
from fighting for their national sovereignty. The U.S. installed
"prime minister" of Iraq has today declared martial law in Iraq
for the next two months aggregating even greater unilateral
authority.
This is no time for anti-war and progressive people in the U.S.
to "mourn," dwell and lament on the failure of the Democratic
Party candidate to defeat the Republican Party candidate, at
least not those who are really committed to ending this criminal
war and securing justice at home. If nothing else, we all know
that if Kerry was President-elect, nothing would be different for
the people of Iraq right now. Kerry has not condemned the
bombings of Falluljah at any point, nor the attacks on the Iraqi
people, nor the use of U.S. soldiers as cannon fodder in this
war of aggression and conquest.
Now the people of Fallujah wait for the next attack, and
the U.S. soldiers wait for their orders to carry out actions
that they will have to reconcile for the rest of their lives,
if they survive.
A.N.S.W.E.R. activists across the U.S. are planning emergency
demonstrations Tuesday, Nov. 9, the DAY AFTER a reinvasion
of Fallujah. We call on other committed organizations and
activists to also initiate such actions, at local federal buildings,
recruiting stations, or traditional public assembly locations.
Please make a commitment today to fight for change. If you can
help take the next steps by making a contribution please do so
by clicking here. http://www.pephost.org/ANSWERdonate
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War End Racism
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.
To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
To remove your address from the list, just send a message to
the address in the ``List-Unsubscribe'' header of any list
message. If you haven't changed addresses since subscribing,
you can also send a message to:
For addition or removal of addresses, We'll send a confirmation
message to that address. When you receive it, simply reply to it
to complete the transaction.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Iraqi commandos seize Falluja hospital
Allawi declares state of emergency before expected assault
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/07/iraq.main/index.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The seizure of the main hospital in Falluja by
Iraqi special forces marks the start of the planned offensive to retake
the city, Pentagon officials said Sunday, but it remained unclear when
the main assault into the city would begin.
The hospital -- on the western edge of the city -- was taken by the
36th Iraqi Commando Battalion without firing a shot, except for an
accidental discharge of a weapon, according to a U.S. pool reporter.
Pentagon officials -- speaking on condition of anonymity -- said
taking the hospital was one of the initial objectives of the planned
offensive, but they would not say whether U.S. and Iraqi forces would
push into the city in the coming hours.
U.S. military officials said the hospital needed to be secured so that
workers there could attend to casualties without facing intimidation
by insurgents, and to end its use as a source of anti-U.S. propaganda.
In the past, hospital officials had said U.S. airstrikes killed only
innocent
civilians, a claim that the U.S. military disputed.
Iraqi and U.S. forces are trying to stabilize the nation in advance of
national elections, set for January.
Earlier Sunday, Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared
a 60-day state of emergency.
"The council of ministers has approved this, the presidency has
approved it," Allawi said of the state of emergency. "We declared
it today, and we are going to implement it whenever is necessary
and wherever is necessary."
The interim prime minister cautioned that Iraqi and U.S. forces
"are not going to be easy" with suspected terrorists and insurgents.
"We are going to bring them to justice, and we are going to ensure
the safety of the people of Iraq," he said.
Kurdish-ruled areas in northern Iraq are exempt from the state
of emergency, Allawi spokesman Thaer Naqib said.
Allawi said time is up for the insurgents in Falluja.
"We can't wait indefinitely," he said. "We have made our case
very clear. We are ready to intervene as far as we can to salvage
the people who have been taken hostage by the bunch of terrorists
and bandits and insurgents who have been part of the old regime ...
and were involved in atrocities when [former Iraqi leader] Saddam
[Hussein] was around."
Falluja has been the target of daily artillery and air attacks as
Marines and Iraqi forces prepare for their expected assault on the city.
Fleeing residents have pared Falluja's normal population of about
250,000 down to about 50,000 people.
And Marines said they believe there are about 3,000 hard-core
insurgents remaining in the Sunni Muslim city.
U.S. warplanes, including powerful AC-130 gunships, have
bombarded insurgent targets in recent days ahead of the offensive.
Several explosions jolted the region early Saturday, with fireballs
lighting up the nighttime sky and the sound of AC-130 cannon fire
rattling the area. (Full story)
U.S. tanks were also engaged in the northeastern part of Falluja,
and artillery was fired at insurgent positions. Machine gun and
small-arms fire could be heard as well.
"We're going to start at one end of the city, and we're not going
to stop until we get to the other," said Lt. Col. Pete Newell,
a battalion commander from the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division.
"If there's anybody left when that happens, we're going to turn
around and we're going to go back and finish it."
Marines attacked Falluja in April after four U.S. private security
contractors were killed and mutilated. The ensuing battles led
to many deaths. The U.S.-led forces established an indigenous
Falluja brigade to restore peace to the city, but in the summer,
the brigade fell apart and insurgents solidified control there.
The city, which is known as the City of Mosques because of the
scores of places of worship, will provide dangerous terrain for the
thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops, who expect a textbook urban
warfare scenario.
Marines hope to surprise insurgents with speed -- using infantry,
tanks and attack helicopters.
Meanwhile, a captain in the Iraqi army deserted his unit Friday after
hearing about plans for the Falluja assault, a U.S. military spokesman
said Sunday.
Because the captain only received a "very low-level briefing," the U.S.
military was not worried that his desertion posed a security threat,
said the spokesman, U.S. Army Capt. Steve Alvarez.
It is believed the captain, a Kurdish company commander from the
5th Battalion of the Iraqi forces, returned home to northern Iraq,
Alvarez said.
Sunday violence
At least 32 people were killed Sunday in attacks in Ramadi, Baghdad,
Balad, Baquba and Latifiya, officials said.
At least 21 of Sunday's victims were killed in Ramadi in near-
simultaneous attacks on three Iraqi police stations, police and
hospital officials said. Most of those killed were police officers.
In Baghdad's Karada district Sunday, a car bomb exploded near the
home of interim Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, killing
a bodyguard. An official with the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq -- of which Mahdi is a member -- said Mahdi
was not home at the time of the attack. The council is a 70-member
general assembly representing various Islamic movements and scholars.
A second car bomb Sunday killed a bystander and wounded another
near Baghdad's Virgin Mary Catholic Church.
In Balad, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, attackers hit a U.S. military
convoy Sunday, killing an American soldier with the U.S. Army's 81st
Brigade Combat Team, the U.S. military said. The report puts the
number of U.S. military killed in the Iraq war at 1,129, including 868
in hostile action, according to the U.S. military.
In Baquba, unknown gunmen killed Iraqi police Col. Abdul Adim Abed
and his driver Sunday in the Mualmeen neighborhood, police officials
said.
South of Baghdad in Latifiya, insurgents battled Iraqi and coalition
forces Sunday -- fighting that killed six civilians and wounded four
others.
Other developments
* Insurgents struck a military convoy near Ramadi on Saturday,
wounding 16 soldiers, a U.S. military official said.
* The bodies of 12 kidnapped Iraqi civilians were found shot to
death in Latifiya on Friday, Iraqi police sources said.
* The Base of Jihad, an Islamist militant group believed to be led
by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for an attack
that killed three British Black Watch troops south of Baghdad on
Thursday. The claim, issued on several Web sites, cannot be
independently confirmed.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre, Karl Penhaul, Kianne Sadeq, Cal Perry, Kevin
Flower, Nermeen Al-Mufti and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed
to this report.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Allawi Approves U.S.-Led Offensive on Falluja
By Michael Georgy
NEAR FALLUJA (Reuters)
Mon Nov 8, 2004 07:58 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6744118&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
NEAR FALLUJA (Reuters) - U.S. planes and artillery pounded Falluja
on Monday and Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he had
authorized a U.S.-led offensive to rid the Sunni Muslim city of insurgents.
"I gave my authority to the multinational forces, Iraqi forces. We are
determined to clean Falluja from the terrorists," Allawi told a news
conference in Baghdad.
This reporter witnessed about eight air strikes on the city within
20 minutes. Plumes of smoke rose as explosions from the artillery
fire boomed out every minute or so.
U.S.-led troops backed by tanks and aircraft also battled guerrillas
around the city west of Baghdad, moving to forward positions ahead
of the expected full-scale assault.
Marines advanced to the edge of Falluja but failed to draw out
guerrillas. "We didn't see any insurgents," said tank unit commander
Captain Robert Bodisch. "The only thing I saw was mortar impacts
when they landed all around me."
But as soon as Marines returned to their staging area after moving
to within a few hundred meters of the city, insurgents fired light
arms at them.
A hospital official said more than 12 people had been killed and
double that number wounded in Falluja fighting.
Allawi said he was using emergency powers to impose a curfew
on Falluja and its sister city of Ramadi further west and to close
Baghdad international airport for 48 hours.
"I have no other choice but to resort to extreme measures to protect
the Iraqi people from these killers and to liberate the residents
of Falluja so they can return to their homes."
He said Iraqi forces had taken Falluja's main hospital, killing
38 insurgents in the process. Earlier pool reports said U.S. and
Iraqi special forces had seized the hospital in western Falluja in
the early hours without firing a shot.
Allawi also tightened controls on the borders with Jordan and
Syria, saying only essential goods would be allowed in.
He said the curfew in Falluja and Ramadi would start at 6 p.m.
(1500 GMT). He did not say how long it would last.
Allawi declared 60 days of emergency rule on Sunday to crush
an insurgency ahead of planned elections in January.
ZARQAWI CALL TO HOLY WAR
With the U.S. offensive shaping up, al Qaeda ally Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi called on Muslims to take up arms against America.
"Oh people, the war has begun and the call for jihad (holy war)
has been made," he said in an Internet statement.
Zarqawi's appeal did not mention Falluja by name. The U.S.
military says fighters loyal to him are holed up in the city along
with Iraqi insurgents loyal to Saddam Hussein.
Guerrillas hit back in Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew
up his red Opel car near a U.S. convoy on the main airport road,
killing at least three people, witnesses said.
A Reuters photographer saw U.S. soldiers taking three bodies
from a white vehicle wrecked in the blast and loading them
into a military ambulance. The U.S. military had no word on
casualties in the explosion.
Inside Falluja, masked guerrillas roamed empty streets with
assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Reuters
Television footage showed one man in the western Jolan district
firing a grenade launcher at an unidentified target.
Men wept as they buried seven white-shrouded bodies, some
of them fighters, in a narrow trench in Falluja's makeshift
graveyard in a former soccer stadium, the footage showed.
Guerrillas in other Iraqi cities and towns have stepped up
attacks to show their muscle, killing at least 60 people in
weekend violence that mostly targeted the security forces.
Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for most of the
assaults, including those that killed 34 people and wounded
49 in the restive city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, on Saturday.
U.S. planes bombed targets in the Jubairiya area just north
of Samarra on Monday, killing one person and wounding four,
police and hospital officials said.
U.S. and Iraqi forces stormed Samarra in early October to
clear out insurgents in what was seen at the time as a pilot
operation for larger assaults in Falluja and Ramadi, but
Saturday's violence showed the city is far from pacified.
Allawi said emergency law measures could be imposed
anywhere in Iraq, except for Kurdistan in the north, to ensure
security before the Jan. 27 polls that President Bush says will
be a vital step toward a democratic Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Fadel al-Badrani in Falluja, Sabah
al-Bazee in Samarra, Omar Anwar in Baghdad and Dubai bureau)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) G.I.'s Open Attack to Take Falluja From Iraq Rebels
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
and ROBERT F. WORTH
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 8
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/08CND_IRAQ.html?hp&ex=109997
6400&en=8b32979d8c8d9235&ei=5094&partner=homepage
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 8 - American jets bombed targets in
Falluja this morning and explosions and heavy gunfire thundered
across the city as American troops seized control of two strategic
bridges, a hospital and other objectives in the first stage of
a long-expected invasion aimed at the center of the Iraqi insurgency.
Hours before the battle started on Sunday night, Prime Minister
Ayad Allawi, faced with an expanding outbreak of insurgent
violence across the country, formally proclaimed a state of
emergency for 60 days across most of Iraq. The proclamation
gave him broad powers that allow him to impose curfews, order
house-to-house searches and detain suspected criminals and
insurgents.
Today, Mr. Allawi said that the American-led operation in Falluja
had his full backing.
"I gave my authority to the multinational forces, Iraqi forces,"
he said at a news conference.
" "Yesterday evening the Iraqi forces were able to take control
of Falluja hospital to defeat the terrorists and armed groups
so the citizens of Falluja will get help," he said.
Mr. Allawi said that four foreign terrorists were detained in
a raid on the hospital and 38 people were killed, but it was not
clear whether they were Iraqis. "They were barricaded in the
hospital to carry out their terrorist acts," Mr. Allawi said.He added
that emergency measures would be applied in Ramadi and Falluja,
with a curfew and highway closures.
Other measures include the closure of some institutions, a ban
on all weapons, and sealing the borders with Syria and Jordan
"to prevent terrorists from crossing" he said.
The first of several thousand marines in tanks, Humvees and
armored personnel carriers began taking up positions this morning
along the northern edge of Falluja to prepare for an attack, and
American jets began bombing targets.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 American soldiers and marines backed
by newly trained Iraqi forces were besieging the city for what American
commanders said was likely to be a brutal, block-by-block battle
to retake control and capture, kill or disperse an estimated 3,000 to
4,000 hard-core insurgent fighters. The battle could prove the most
important since the American invasion of Iraq 19 months ago.
Troops were on the move by 9 p.m. Sunday to the west and south
of Falluja, just across the Euphrates River. After two hours of steady
pounding by American guns, tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and
AC-130 gunships, at least one objective - a hospital about half
a mile west of downtown Falluja - was secured by American Special
Forces and the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion.
Tracer fire lighted up the sky as the operation began, helicopters
crisscrossed the battlefield, and at least one American vehicle was
fired upon with a rocket-propelled grenade as American and Iraqi
forces converged on Falluja General Hospital. Shortly before midnight,
American forces were exchanging gunfire across a bridge near the
hospital with several insurgent positions on the other side.
"There has been extensive gunfire going across the river," said the
American commander of the Special Forces operation at the hospital.
"Bradleys have been shooting over to the east of us, and there has
been extensive machine gun fire to the southwest of us."
As that firefight raged, extensive airstrikes and artillery fire pummeled
the northern and western sections of Falluja, with great blossoms
of flame brightening and then fading with each boom of the heavy
cannons on the AC-130 gunships, circling over the city like birds
of prey.
A huge fire burned in the midst of the city. The streets themselves,
as seen through the powerful night-vision equipment aboard one
Bradley fighting vehicle southeast of Falluja, appeared eerily deserted.
By midnight, the bridge near the hospital and a second strategic
bridge, just to the south, were secured.
Before American jets began their bombing this morning, American
troops in front of the hospital took intense fire from small arms and
rocket-propelled grenades from insurgents across the river. American
Bradleys and tanks began returning fire.
In Washington, Pentagon officials said Secretary of Defense Donald H.
Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, were monitoring the preparations and updated combat reports.
Most civilians in Falluja, a city of about 250,000 people 35 miles west
of Baghdad, were believed to have left by the time the invasion began.
It was the second time in six months that a battle had raged in Falluja.
In April, American troops were closing in on the city center when popular
uprisings broke out in cities across Iraq. The outrage, fed by mostly
unconfirmed reports of large civilian casualties, forced the Americans
to withdraw.
American commanders regarded the reports as inflated, but it was
impossible to determine independently how many civilians had been
killed. The hospital was selected as an early target because the American
military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties.
"It's a center of propaganda," a senior American officer said Sunday.
This time around, the American military intends to fight its own information
war, countering or squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most
potent weapons. The military hopes that if it can hold its own in that war,
then the armed invasion - involving as many as 25,000 American and Iraqi
troops, all told - will smash what has become the largest remaining
insurgent stronghold in Iraq.
And with only three months to go until the country's first democratic
elections, American and Iraqi officials are grasping for any tool at their
command to bring the insurgency under control.
On Sunday, guerrillas staged brazen attacks that left at least 37 people
dead across the country. A day earlier, insurgents carried out coordinated
bomb and mortar attacks in Samarra and the surrounding area, killing
at least 30 people, many of them Iraqi policemen.
The strikes on Saturday demonstrated that a major American-led offensive
last month in Samarra, like Falluja a "no go" zone for the Americans during
much of the summer, had failed to rid the city of insurgents or secure
crucial parts of town. Samarra's slip back into chaos raised serious doubts
about whether the Iraqi government can maintain order in Falluja should
an American-led offensive kill or drive out most of the insurgents here.
American-led forces will be deployed to help enforce the law, a senior
American military official said in Baghdad on Sunday. That could include
operating more checkpoints and increasing patrols across the country,
all with an eye toward the elections in January.
"We want elections to take place," Dr. Allawi said on Sunday. "We want
to secure the country so elections can be done in a peaceful way and
the Iraqi people can participate in the elections freely, without the
intimidation by terrorists and by forces who are trying to wreck the
political process in Iraq."
Though Dr. Allawi has tried hard to cast himself as a strongman since
taking office, Iraqi confidence in the interim government has plummeted
as the insurgency has become stronger and deadlier. Dr. Allawi's move
is as much a show of force in a time of uncertainty as it is a way to give
military forces a freer hand in combating the guerrillas.
He said he had imposed the state of emergency only after getting the
approval of his cabinet and the office of the president, Sheik Ghazi
al-Yawar.
A guerrilla fighter in the city who gave his name as Abu Muhammad
said in a telephone interview on Sunday that the streets were empty,
with only a few people scurrying to shops in the western part to buy
groceries. During the overnight bombardment, he said, mosques in
the city blared "God is great!" through their loudspeakers.
"We will see in the end who will win - those who worship God or those
who deride him," Abu Muhammad said. "We are ready to face them,
we will not let the city down, and with God's help we will teach them
a lesson and inflict heavy casualties on them."
Before the battle started, more than 2,000 marines gathered to hear
a last-minute pep talk from their commanders, including Lt. Gen.
John F. Sattler, the top Marine commander in Iraq.
"This town is held by mugs, thugs, murderers and intimidators,"
General Sattler said. The marines' job, he said, was to help Iraqis
do what they could not do alone.
The mayhem around the country on Sunday gave a taste of what
the forces may be up against.
At dawn, said Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry
spokesman, insurgents armed with explosives and Kalashnikov
rifles raided three police stations and killed at least 21 people in
the western reaches of Anbar Province, which contains Falluja. And
in an attack south of Baghdad, he said, guerrillas gunned down three
officials from Diyala Province as the officials were driving to the funeral.
Insurgents dressed as policemen also ambushed a dozen Iraqi national
guardsmen on their way home to the southern holy city of Najaf and
murdered them all, officials in Najaf said. The attackers, who called
themselves the Furkan Brigades, beat up a civilian driver and told
him to pass a message on to the people of Najaf: If they wanted
to get back the headless bodies of the victims, they would have
to pay millions of dollars.
Dexter Filkins contributed reporting from near Falluja for this
article, Edward Wong and James Glanz from Baghdad, and Eric
Schmitt from Washington.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Dear Friends of the Cuban Five:
The following is an important update for the campaign to
win visiting rights for the Families of our Cuban brothers,
unjustly held in U.S. prison.
[La versión en Español sigue a la versión en Inglés.]
November 6, 2004
As you know, Olga Salanueva, wife of René González, and Adriana Pérez,
wife of Gerardo Hernández, have been denied entry into the United States by
the U.S. government several times. As a result they are not able to visit
their
husbands in prison.
Little 6-year-old Ivette, daughter of Olga and René, is also not able to
visit her
father, although she is a U.S.-born citizen. Adriana has not seen her
husband
Gerardo for more than six years. Olga and Ivette have not seen René for more
than four years.
The mothers, wives of the other Cuban Five brothers, and other relatives,
have also had to wait excessive periods of time to receive entry visas from
the
U.S. government.
For example, Mirta RodrÃguez, mother of Antonio Guerrero, was only last able
to visit her son November 2003. It is one year since she has seen Antonio.
Rosa Aurora Freijanes, wife of Fernando González, has only been able to see
her husband three times since his imprisonment six years ago. Magali Llort,
mother of Fernando, has not been granted an entry visa from the U.S. since
she last saw him in February, despite applying for a visa months ago.
Elizabeth Palmeiro, wife of Ramón Labañino, and the children, AilÃ, Lisbet
and Laura, have been able to visit him only four times in six years. Their
last
visit was February.
This treatment of the families is not an accident. It is part of the harsh
and
punitive treatment given to the five political prisoners and their families
by
Washington.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has the authority to grant entry visas
to
Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, as well as to speed up the process of
visas for the other family members. We believe it is necessary to let him
know
that thousands of people are aware of the Five's case and the denial of
family
visits.
THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN HELP.
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is asking all supporters to
immediately send letters to John Ashcroft, to call on him to grant Olga and
Adriana entry visas, and to speed up the pace of approval for family visits.
If
you can, please e-mail us to let us know you took action.
On our newly-designed Website, www.freethefive.org
you will find all the necessary material:
1. A Brochure that concisely describes the wives and families' situation. It
is
useful to read completely, to become more aware of the visits issue;
2. A sample letter that you can download and mail directly or send by fax or
e-
mail, to Ashcroft;
3. More articles on the web that go into further detail on the Family Visits
Campaign.
PLUS:
A subcommittee of the National Committee is organizing Congressional visits
to ask members of Congress to sign a Letter to Ashcroft. If you are able to
organize a small delegation to your congressperson, or other prominent
people, please call us at:
415-821-6545 or e-mail: freethefive@actionsf.org
It is important that you call us about the Congress visits, because some are
already being organized in New York City area, Illinois, Washington state,
California, Wisconsin, Oregon, and elsewhere, and it is helpful to
coordinate
to be more effective. Also, we will be glad to send you very useful
literature.
Any day now the decision could come down from the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Atlanta. We will let you know immediately as soon as the court
decides.
Let's all work together to win entry rights for the families of the five
Cuban
heroes.
Free the Cuban Five!
National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
6 de noviembre, 2004
Queridos amigos de los Cinco cubanos:
Le enviamos esta importante información sobre la campaña por el derecho
que deben tener los familiares de nuestros Cinco hermanos encarcelados
injustamente en EEUU, de que se les otorguen visas de entrada para
visitarlos.
Como ya saben, a Olga Salanueva, esposa de René González, y Adriana
Pérez, esposa de Gerardo Hernandez, el gobierno de los EEUU les ha
negado las visas de entrada varias veces. Como resultado, no han podido
visitar a sus esposos en prisión.
La pequeña Ivette, de solo 6 años, hija de Olga y René, tampoco puede
visitar a su padre, a pesar de que nació en los EEUU y es ciudadana.
Adriana no ha visto a su esposo Gerardo por más de seis años. Olga e Ivette
no han visto a René por más de cuatro años.
Las madres, y esposas de los otros Cinco hermanos, y otros familiares, han
tenido también que esperar mucho tiempo para que el gobierno de EEUU les
otorgue visas de entrada
Por ejemplo, Mirta RodrÃguez, la madre de Antonio Guerrero, pudo visitar a
su hijo por última vez en noviembre del 2003. Hace un año desde que Mirta
visitó por última vez a Antonio.
Rosa Aurora Freijanes, esposa de Fernando González, sólo ha podido ver a
su esposo tres veces desde que fue apresado hace seis años. Magali Llort,
madre de Fernando, no ha recibido una visa de entrada por parte de los
EEUU desde que vio a Fernando en febrero, a pesar de solicitarla meses
atrás.
Elizabeth Palmeiro, esposa de Ramón Labañino, y sus hijas, AilÃ, Lisbet y
Laura, han podido visitarlo solamente cuatro veces en seis años. Su última
visita fue en febrero.
Este tratamiento a las familias no es accidental. Es parte del castigo que
Washington le da a los cinco prisioneros y sus familiares.
El procurador general de los EEUU John Ashcroft tiene la autoridad de
otorgarles visas a Olga Salanueva y Adriana Pérez, como asà también de
agilizar el proceso de visas para los otros miembros de la familia. Creemos
que es necesario hacerle saber que miles de personas están al tanto del
caso de los Cinco y sobre la negativa de visas a sus familiares.
ASI ES COMO USTED PUEDE AYUDAR
El Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos esta pidiendo a
todos sus partidarios que envÃen inmediatamente cartas a John Ashcroft,
para exigirle que le otorgue visas a Olga y Adriana y que agilize el proceso
de aprobación de las visas para los demás familiares. Si puede, por favor
envÃenos copia del correo que envÃa para que nosotros tengamos
conocimiento del hecho.
En nuestra página recientemente rediseñada, www.freethefive.org puede
encontrar todos los materiales necesarios:
1. Un panfleto que describe con precisión la situación de las esposas y los
demás familiares. Es importante que se familiarice con la información para
entender mejor el problema de las visitas. Para recibir los panfletos en el
correo, mándenos solicitud por correo y les mandaremos el material.
2. Una carta ejemplo que puede bajar de la página y enviársela directamente
a Ashcroft por correo, por fax o por correo electrónico.
3. Mas artÃculos en la página web que explica en mas detalle la Campaña de
Visitas Familiares.
ADEMAS:
Un subcomité del Comité Nacional está organizando visitas a los
congresistas para pedirle a miembros del Congreso que firmen una carta
dirigida a Ashcroft. Si usted puede organizar una pequeña delegación a su
congresista, o a otra persona de renombre, por favor contáctenos a :
415-821-6545 o correo electrónico: freethefive@actionsf.org
Es importante que nos llame sobre las visitas al Congreso, porque algunas
ya han sido organizadas en el área de la ciudad de New York City, el estado
de Washington, California, Wisconsin, Oregon, Illinois, y en otras partes, y
es
mejor coordinarlas para ser más efectivos. Además, les enviaremos con
gusto cualquier información que usted necesite.
El fallo de la Oncena Corte de Apelaciones de Atlanta sucederá en cualquier
momento. Le informaremos inmediatamente en cuanto conozcamos la
decisión.
Trabajemos juntos para ganar los derechos de visita de los Familiares de los
cinco héroes cubanos.
¡Libertad para los Cinco!
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freethefive/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
freethefive-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Big Tax Plans, Big Tax Risks
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
WASHINGTON
November 8, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/politics/08fiscal.html?hp&ex=1099976400&en
=b5711c91696001b1&ei=5094&partner=homepage
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 - Hardly anybody likes the current tax system.
But as President Bush undertakes the potentially historic task of coming
up with something better, he is confronting an issue that is more
ideologically explosive, politically risky and economically complex
than he let on during the campaign.
In the days since his re-election, Mr. Bush has signaled that he is
serious about following through, highlighting the topic in both his
victory speech on Wednesday and his news conference on Thursday.
He has been vague about what he has in mind, but Republican advisers
to the administration say the White House is debating whether Mr. Bush
should back ambitious, even radical proposals like a national sales tax
or a flat tax on income. By doing so, he would blast away a philosophy
that has governed tax policy since Woodrow Wilson was in the White
House: that higher levels of income should be taxed at higher rates.
By the end of the year, Mr. Bush intends to name a bipartisan
commission to study the issue and make specific recommendations
sometime next year. He has already laid down some markers; he wants
to retain two of the most politically popular breaks in the tax code, the
deductions for mortgage interest and charitable giving, and he wants
any overhaul of the system neither to raise taxes over all nor to cut them.
Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, told "Fox News Sunday" that
Mr. Bush "believes we need to step back and look at the code in it
entirety and discuss and have a dialogue as to what is necessary to
keep this economy flexible and dynamic and growing."
Even before the election, Mr. Bush's aides were studying the issue
intently, grappling with the most elemental question: should the nation
improve the existing tax code, built around the progressive income tax,
or throw it out and start over?
There is plenty of sentiment inside the administration for going the
latter route, but even though the White House has been studying the
issue for several years, no decision appears imminent. Among those
who favor scrapping the current system - a group said to include Vice
President Dick Cheney - there is a raging debate over what should
replace it, with the basic options being some sort of national sales tax
or a single-rate flat tax on income.
The list of hurdles to any change is long. Any overhaul of the system
would ignite a battle by special interests to hold on to the tax breaks
that now clog the tax code. With the government already running a big
deficit, there would be little or no money available to grease the
legislative
wheels by providing new breaks. Democrats, even in the minority, could
make it hard to pass legislation.
"It's difficult bordering on impossible to find a broad tax reform that does
not either explode the deficit or create tens of millions of losers," said
Gene Sperling, who was director of the National Economic Council in the
Clinton administration. "If you are lowering taxes on people in the top
20 percent, then either the deficit is going up or more of the tax burden
will fall on people in the lower 80 percent. There's no way around that."
Most Democrats view a national sales tax and a flat tax as thinly veiled
efforts to cut taxes on the wealthy and shift more of the burden to those
who earn less. They argue, for example, that the burden of a sales tax
would fall hardest on low-income people who spend everything they
earn. Most flat-tax plans envision a rate of about 20 to 25 percent,
meaning that some people who are now paying tax at a 10 or 15 percent
rate would pay a higher rate, while wealthy people who are paying as
much as 35 percent on some of their income would pay at a lower rate.
Advocates of both options, though, say they could be structured
to exempt many low- and-middle-income people and would give the
economy a substantial boost by effectively eliminating taxes on savings
and investment, creating a bigger pool of capital to finance business
expansion, technological innovation and better productivity. And
Republicans say the election results favor the bold. They point to
Senator-elect Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, who won
on Tuesday despite being attacked by his opponent for his support
of a national sales tax.
On "Fox News Sunday," Mr. Rove did not directly answer when asked
whether Mr. Bush would back either a national sales tax or a flat tax.
The questions that need to be answered, Mr. Rove said, are: "How can
we encourage savings? How can we encourage ownership? How can we
encourage a dynamic, growing economy and do so in a fair way that
requires a minimum amount of paperwork and compliance costs?"
The issue leave many Democrats in a bind. They are suspicious of
the Republican approach, believing that it will amount to another
tax cut for the wealthy, but fear being seen as defenders of the
Internal Revenue Service. As a result, Democrats appear to be moving
toward a position that changing the tax system is good policy and
good politics but only if it can be done in a way that keeps the
progressive income tax system, focuses on simplification and
concentrates the benefits on the middle class.
"It strikes me that there's consensus in the country, and hopefully
in Washington, that the tax system is too complex, that it's full of
loopholes that are exploited by special interests and that we need
to simplify them," said Senator-elect Barack Obama of Illinois,
a Democrat who won easy election to an open seat.
Mr. Obama, speaking on "This Week" on ABC, said, "If we can
arrive at a tax simplification agenda that is not resulting in a shift
toward a more regressive tax system, but is instead genuinely making
it simpler for ordinary Americans to file their tax returns without
a lot of paperwork and gobbledygook, then I think that's something
we could work together on."
Should the administration choose to take a relatively simple and
bipartisan approach, it could develop a proposal that addressed
both the complexity of the tax code and a growing problem for
many middle- and-upper-income families: the alternative minimum
tax. The minimum tax was established to ensure that wealthy people
would not be able to escape income taxes through use of deductions
and shelters. But the income levels it applies to were not adjusted for
inflation, so every year it applies to more and more people, increasing
the complexity of their returns for many people and often resulting in
a higher tax bill.
The next most ambitious approach would be one modeled on the
1986 tax package worked out by President Ronald Reagan and with
bipartisan support from Congress. It reduced tax rates and eliminated
or tightened many deductions and loopholes. Such an approach could
have bipartisan appeal, but it would no doubt set off a furious fight by
all kinds of special interests intent on making sure their tax breaks are
not eliminated in the name of lower rates.
Should Mr. Bush choose to go all the way and create an entirely new way
of raising revenue for the government, he would face not just a special
interest battle but also a furious ideological fight over ending progressive
taxation.
The sales tax and the flat tax are built on the same idea, that the tax
system should encourage more savings and investment and that
taxation should therefore be largely or wholly focused on consumption.
The sales tax accomplishes that goal in a straightforward way, by only
taxing consumption. The flat tax gets to the same place less directly;
by allowing taxpayers to deduct any income that goes to savings
or investment, it would subject to tax only what is left, which by
definition would be money that people spend.
There are numerous variations and combinations of the sales and
flat taxes, including some that include a value-added tax on
businesses.
Supporters of a national sales tax and supporters of a flat tax say
the rates could be made low enough and enough transactions or
people exempted that the systems would be attractive to nearly
everyone.
Critics say the rates would inevitably have to be so high that many
people, especially middle-income people, would end up worse off,
or at least would not benefit as much as wealthier people, who
would pay lower rates on much of their income.
The House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, also appearing on "Fox
News Sunday," said there needed to be a national debate about
several types of tax systems that might replace the income tax.
"You know, when we get done looking at it, maybe we can say we
can't do it," Mr. Hastert said. "Maybe the entrenched groups that
have their pieces in the tax bill won't let that happen. But I think
we need to have a long, serious look at it.''
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court
By NEIL A. LEWIS
GUANTÃNAMO BAY, Cuba
November 8, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/national/08gitmo.html?hp&ex=1099976400&en=
0cda89130ffeca11&ei=5094&partner=homepage
GUANTÃNAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 7 - Each day, several shackled
detainees are marched by their military guards into a double-wide
trailer behind the prison camp's fences and razor wire to argue
before three anonymous military officers that they do not belong here.
One, a 27-year-old Yemeni, spent more than an hour on Saturday
telling a panel that he was not a member of Al Qaeda or a sympathizer,
saying that he had never fought against the United States and should
never have been detained here at Guantánamo as an unlawful enemy
combatant.
The Yemeni, a scraggly-bearded man bound hand and foot, sat in
a low chair, his shackles connected to a bolt in the floor, frustrating
his efforts to gesture with his hands to make his arguments. Inside
the small, harshly lighted room, he alternated between pleading his
case and angrily criticizing the process as unfair. Although he spoke
Arabic that had to be translated by a woman sitting beside him, there
was no mistaking his contempt for the panel members, who sat on
a raised platform about 10 feet away and whose questions he ridiculed
frequently.
These briskly conducted proceedings, which have received little notice,
constitute the Bush administration's principal answer to the Supreme
Court's ruling regarding the rights of detainees who have been
imprisoned since the administration began its fight against terrorism
after the Sept. 11 attacks. The court ruled 6 to 3 in June that the
detainees
had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court, saying that even
though the base is outside the sovereign territory of the United States,
federal judges have jurisdiction to consider petitions for writs of habeas
corpus from those who argue that they are being unlawfully held.
The hearings here have come under heavy criticism because they do not
meet the traditional standards of court proceedings. For one thing, the
detainees are left to argue their cases for themselves, without assistance
from lawyers.
The hearings, formally called combatant status review tribunals, were
hurriedly devised and put into place just weeks after the Supreme Court's
ruling. The administration, which has been battling to have the military
retain as much control as possible over the detainees, told a federal
court in Washington last week that the tribunals more than satisfy the
Supreme Court ruling. The government argued that because of the
tribunals, federal judges should reject the dozens of petitions they
have received from defense lawyers asking them to intervene.
Capt. Charles Jamison of the Navy, who oversees the tribunal proceedings
here at Guantánamo, said he expected to have them completed for all
550 remaining prisoners by the end of the year. So far, some 320
detainees have appeared before the tribunals, and so far, the Pentagon
has passed final judgment on 104. Of that group, 103 were found to
have been properly deemed unlawful enemy combatants and properly
imprisoned; one detainee was released.
Those deemed unlawful enemy combatants will have a chance to argue
in a separate proceeding that they should be released because they are
no longer a threat.
Even without any legal proceedings, the United States has released more
than 150 Guantánamo detainees to their home governments, saying they
no longer posed a threat, and it is expected that many of the remaining
ones will also be released.
The Yemeni who appeared Saturday denied through his translator that he
had any affiliation with Al Qaeda. He said the United States had no proof
and "should know that a person is innocent until proven guilty, not the
other way around." Throughout the hearing, the man, whose name may
not be published under the conditions set by the military, complained,
sometimes with sarcasm, that "this is like a game."
An officer not on the panel acted as sort of a prosecutor in assembling
the charges, while yet another acted as the detainee's personal
representative to explain the proceedings but not to serve as a defense
lawyer. All the officers had their name tags covered by tape.
Critics have complained that the tribunals are fatally flawed, not only
because the detainees do not have lawyers but because they are generally
hampered in disputing any charges because they are not allowed to see
most of the evidence against them because it is classified.
Captain Jamison said the tribunals were administrative procedures and
thus did not have to meet standards of regular criminal proceedings.
One official said it was apparent from the unconvincing explanations
of many detainees as to why they had been carrying a gun or were at
a battle site that they were indeed enemy combatants.
Like detainees at all the hearings, the Yemeni was given an unclassified
summary of the charges, but the evidence to support the most serious
accusations is classified and was considered in a closed session after
he was taken back to his cell.
In the public session, an officer told the panel that the man was
"a supporter of Al Qaeda" because he had traveled to Pakistan from
his home country and had been "recruited by Jama'at al-Tabligh,"
an organization based in Pakistan that posed as an Islamic missionary
group but was really a cover for helping Qaeda terrorists with travel
arrangements.
The man asked the panel, "Where's the proof?" He said that if the
government was claiming he had a connection to Al Qaeda, "there
should be evidence that I support Al Qaeda." The Army colonel who
was the panel's president responded, "We're not here to debate these
points." She said, "This is what we're given and this is your opportunity
to give us your story."
The Yemeni was disdainful of another panel member, a Navy
commander, who asked him if he believed in jihad, answering that
he did so as all Muslims did but that that did not mean he meant
harm to America.
Another detainee, a 33-year-old Afghan who served as a municipal
police commissioner in his village, tried to convince a different military
panel on Thursday that he was an unwilling member of the Taliban
government. The man admitted that he had supervised a ritual stoning
to death of three people charged with adultery but said he had not
chosen the people or the penalty.
A Tunisian detainee on Thursday decided at the last moment to refuse
to attend his hearing. His personal representative, an Air Force lieutenant
colonel, said the Tunisian man said he had been told by Allah not to
attend. The officer, however, offered the detainee's responses to the
charges that he was a member of Al Qaeda and had a Kalashnikov assault
rifle when he was captured.
About a third of the detainees decline to attend the tribunals, officials
said, and they are then tried in absentia, as was the Tunisian prisoner.
The military has established a panel at the Pentagon to hear many of
those cases. There are four panels here at Guantánamo.
The detention of hundreds of men at Guantánamo has led to a variety
of legal proceedings, some wholly contained within the military and
others involving federal courts.
Last week, for example, a military commission heard pretrial motions
in the set of war-crimes trials being conducted on a different part of
the base. Four detainees have been charged in those proceedings.
The war-crimes trials before a military commission have faced difficulties,
including translation problems and complaints from military lawyers that
the officers on the panel are unsuitable. Although the war-crimes
proceedings are separate from reviews of the detainees' enemy
combatant status, the two collided last week. One of the three officers
on the military commission trying war crimes asked to see the information
from the combatant review tribunal for David Hicks, 29, an Australian
who is charged with terrorism and attempted murder and whose case
was being considered last week.
Joshua Dratel, a civilian lawyer from New York representing Mr. Hicks,
erupted in anger in the courtroom, saying it was outrageous for the
commission to consider information from a proceeding with lesser
guarantees of due process.
"This man is on trial for his life," Mr. Dratel said. He said that for the
military commission to consider accepting evidence from the other
proceeding - a proceeding in which the prisoner cannot confront his
accuser or see all of the evidence against him - showed that the
war-crimes trials were "not just on a different island from the rest
of the world but a different planet."
Lt. Col. Sharon Shaffer, the deputy chief judge of the Air Force who
is defending another detainee before the war-crimes commission,
said it was wrong for an enemy combatant review tribunal to question
a detainee who was represented by a lawyer in other proceedings.
Colonel Shaffer represents Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of
Sudan, who is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and terrorism.
The colonel instructed Mr. Qosi to demand that one of his lawyers
accompany him to the enemy combatant tribunal. She said they simply
tried him in absentia and declared him an enemy combatant.
Conversations with senior military officials suggest that there is an
informal expectation that after most of the detainees are found to be
enemy combatants, the military will start releasing what eventually will
be a majority of them after yet another set of proceedings. Those
proceedings, called annual review boards, are expected to start as
early as next month and are supposed to determine if the enemy
combatant remains a threat and may be released. One official said
that approach would allow the military to assert that most of the
detainees were not wrongfully imprisoned, but it would also provide
a solution for the administration's desire not to hold such a large
number for years.
The administration has asserted that the Guantánamo detainees are
not entitled to the prisoner-of-war protections of the Geneva Conventions
as they do not meet the criteria of regular soldiers. International lawyers
have criticized the United States, saying that the Geneva Conventions
require hearings to determine whether they can be deemed other than
P.O.W.'s.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Despite Drop in Crime, an Increase in Inmates
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
November 8, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/national/08prisons.html?oref=login&oref=lo
gin
The number of inmates in state and federal prisons rose 2.1 percent
last year, even as violent crime and property crime fell, according to
a study by the Justice Department released yesterday.
The continuing increase in the prison population, despite a drop or
leveling off in the crime rate in the past few years, is a result of laws
passed in the 1990's that led to more prison sentences and longer
terms, said Allen J. Beck, chief of corrections statistics for the
department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and an author of the report.
At the end of 2003, there were 1,470,045 men and women in state
and federal prisons in the United States, the report found. In addition,
counting those inmates in city and county jails and incarcerated
juvenile offenders, the total number of Americans behind bars was
2,212,475 on Dec. 31 last year, the report said.
The report estimated that 44 percent of state and federal prisoners
in 2003 were black, compared with 35 percent who were white,
19 percent who were Hispanic and 2 percent who were of other
races. The numbers have changed little in the last decade.
Statistically, the number of women in prison is growing fast, rising
3.6 percent in 2003. But at a total of 101,179, they are just 6.9 percent
of the prison population.
Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University, said one
of the most striking findings in the report was that almost 10 percent
of all American black men ages 25 to 29 were in prison.
Such a high proportion of young black men behind bars not only has
a strong impact on black families, Professor Blumstein said, but "in
many ways is self-defeating." The criminal justice system is built on
deterrence, with being sent to prison supposedly a stigma, he said.
"But it's tough to convey a sense of stigma when so many of your
friends and neighbors are similarly stigmatized."
In seeking to explain the paradox of a falling crime rate but a rising
prison population, Mr. Beck pointed out that F.B.I. statistics showed
that from 1994 to 2003 there was a 16 percent drop in arrests for
violent crime, including a 36 percent decrease in arrests for murder
and a 25 percent decrease in arrests for robbery.
But the tough new sentencing laws led to a growth in inmates being
sent to prison, from 522,000 in 1995 to 615,400 in 2002, the report
said.
Similarly, the report found that the average time served by prison
inmates rose from 23 months in 1995 to 30 months in 2001.
Among the new measures were mandatory minimum sentencing laws,
which required inmates to serve a specified proportion of their time
behind bars; truth-in-sentencing laws, which required an inmate to
actually serve the time he was sentenced to; and a variety of three-
strikes laws increasing the penalties for repeat offenders.
In the three states with the biggest prison systems, California, Texas
and Florida, the number of newly admitted inmates grew last year,
but the number of those released either fell or remained stable,
Mr. Beck said.
Several states with small prison systems had particularly large
increases in new inmates, led by North Dakota, up 11.4 percent,
and Minnesota, up 10.3 percent.
New York had a 2.8 percent decrease in new inmates, reflecting
the continued sharp fall in crime in New York City, Mr. Beck said.
Over all, Mr. Beck said, the prison population is aging. Traditionally
the great majority of inmates are men in their 20's and early 30's, but
middle-aged inmates, those 40 to 54, account for about half of the
increase in the prison population since 1995, he said.
This is a result both of the aging of the general American population
and of the longer sentences, Mr. Beck said.
But the number of elderly inmates is still small, despite longer sentences
and more life sentences. Those inmates 65 and older were still only
1 percent of the prison population in 2003.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
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10) State of the Birds USA 2004
From Audubon Magazine September-October 2004:
http://www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds/
How are our nation's birds really faring? Audubon's science
team has pooled the best data available since Silent Spring
to report on their overall health. Depending on the habitat
in which they live, they could be flying high or sinking fast.
Methodology
This report sums up the status of 654 bird species native to the
continental United States according to the country's four major types
of natural habitat—grass, shrubs, trees, and water. Urban habitat, which
is increasing more rapidly than any other type, is also included; the
ability
of birds to adapt to it has become a major factor for their survival. An
additional 46 species native to the continental United States use a variety
of habitats and were not part of the analysis.
The population trends reported for each bird species and in the pie charts
of increasing and decreasing species within habitats are based on national
Breeding Bird Survey data from 1966 through 2003. Coordinated and
analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey, this annual count provides
a comprehensive picture of population change for more than half of
all non-game species. Estimates of each species' population were
calculated by the four bird-conservation initiatives for wetlands and
wood mentioned below. Audubon has also correlated many of these
trends with our own Christmas Bird Count, and that initial analysis
supports these findings. In these web pages, we include the full report
from the magazine, plus tables of WatchList species that prefer each
of the five habitat types (grass, shrubs, woods, water, and urban).
These results do not take into account loss in each of these habitat
typles prior to 1966, when most of AmericaÂ’s wetland loss, and much
of the loss of AmericaÂ’s forestland, occurred. This may appear to indicate
that loss of habitat and declines in bird species in forests and wetlands
is not severe, but this is not the case. The loss of habitat and bird
declines
in these areas was more severe in the decades before 1966. All declines
catalogued in “State of the Birds” are compounded upon earlier losses,
and wetland and forest species continue to suffer from the effects of
poor land management.
All species were assigned to one of three color-categories: green
(of no or low conservation concern), yellow (of moderate concern),
or red (of high concern). These designations were based on assessments
conducted by Partners in Flight, Waterbirds for the Americas, the U.S.
Shorebird Council, and the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
Species in the green category are so widespread that their survival is not
now in question; at the same time, many of them are experiencing startlingly
rapid and precipitous declines. Birds in the red and yellow categories
comprise the Audubon WatchList of species at risk. Red species are of
the highest conservation concern, because they suffer small population
and range size, and declining population trends, and because they face
major threats. Yellow species are of high concern for the same reasons,
but their problems are not as severe. A pie chart to the right of each
habitat description (grass, shrubs, woods, water, and urban)shows
the proportion of that habitat's species classified as green, yellow,
and red.
The Big Picture
Americans love birds. There's no denying it. A third of all adults in
this country, 69 million people, take time out of their busy lives
to watch them, according to a survey co-sponsored by the U.S. Forest
Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While
most bird-watching is done from the comfort of home, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service reports that 18 million of us travel at least a mile
out of our way during the year to see them, and spend $32 billion
annually on gear, services, and trips.
Birds contribute to our economy in more subtle ways, too. They eat
up to half their weight each day in rodents, insects, weed seeds, and
other pests. They pollinate flowers and distribute beneficial plant seeds.
And when forces begin to upset the environmental balance, they serve
as important indicators that something should be done to correct it.
In the classic case, plummeting populations of Brown Pelicans, Ospreys,
and Bald Eagles sounded an alarm about the toxicity of the chemical DDT,
leading to its ban in 1972. The subsequent recovery of these species has
been one of our great environmental success stories. But today we face
a similar harbinger. Poor land use decisions, certain agricultural
practices
and overgrazing have caused the dramatic decline of grassland and
shrub-land birds described in this report. If we heed this signal and
take appropriate action, we may yet be able to celebrate another victory
for wildlife.
Thanks to several cooperative efforts—under the umbrella of the North
American Bird Conservation Initiative—we have valuable information about
current U.S. bird populations. We now know which species are most rare,
which have the smallest ranges, which have had the steepest population
declines, and which face the most serious threats. This report brings
together all of this information for the first time. The result is a
powerful
assessment of U.S. bird populations and the actions needed to help them
recover.
Threats to avian life in the United States are many, but the most serious
is the outright loss of habitat due to poor land use, the clear-cutting of
forests, the draining of wetlands, and sprawl. Even when habitat is not
totally lost, it is being degraded by poor agricultural practices, bad
forestry practices, excessive water diversion, unsustainable mining and
drilling, pollution, exploitation of resources (particularly commercial
over-fishing), and invasive non-native species (which include predators,
plants, insects, diseases, and even other birds).
Because the most formidable dangers are habitat-based, this report
summarizes the state of nearly all North American birds according to
the five environments—grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, water, and
urban—that make up the continent. But birds here face other perils as
well. Climate change, air and water pollution, pesticides, and collisions
with buildings, towers, and wind turbines also take a toll.
Many birds leave our borders to breed in Canada or winter in the West
Indies or Latin America. Since we must work collaboratively throughout
the Western Hemisphere to protect them, Audubon has become a full
partner with BirdLife International. The two organizations share
a commitment to conserve the most threatened species and Important
Bird Areas—habitat critical to their survival.
Figure 1. These are the primary habitat associations of the 700 species
that regularly occur in the continental United States: 47 in grasslands,
107 in shrublands, 232 in woodlands, 268 in water or wetlands, and
46 in multiple habitats.
Birds have always filled an important niche in our ecosystem, as well
as a special place in our hearts and imaginations. There are more than
700 species native to this country alone—each beautiful, wild, and
unique. For even one to go the way of the Passenger Pigeon is
a tragedy of epic proportions. To have 85 percent of grassland birds
declining, as they are now, is unthinkable. The State of the Birds
is something each of us has had a hand in writing; by working together,
each of us can have a hand in rewriting it, too.
What You Can Do?
Don't be intimidated by all the numbers—here are 12 ways everyone
can help to keep common birds common and reverse the decline of
globally threatened species. Start small, but think big.
PERSONAL
1. Make your yard a haven for birds by creating a pesticide-free habitat
of native plants, providing supplemental food and water, and putting
out birdhouses to encourage nesting. Also, keep cats indoors and add
decals—such as dots or bird silhouettes—to clear-glass windows. The
Audubon At Home website has more handy tips.
2. Go birdwatching and share your enthusiasm by inviting others to
join you. Wherever you go, be sure to remind the businesses you
patronize and the people you meet in the community that you're there
because they've preserved important avian habitat. For an example of
a birding "calling card," visit the Florida Birding Trail web site. Look
for other opportunities at www.audubon.org.
3. Make sure your purchases help bird populations, not hurt them.
For instance, AudubonÂ’s shade-grown coffee creates important winter
habitat for migratory songbirds, organic produce is grown without
agricultural chemicals that kill beneficial insects and pollute the
environment, and nontoxic cleaning products keep harmful chemicals
out of watersheds.
4. Participate in citizen-science projects, like the Christmas Bird
Count and the Great Backyard Bird Count, which further our
knowledge of avian populations. Audubon chapters, nature
centers, and state offices are a valuable resource to help get
you started; contact information for them is located here.
5. Adopt a local Important Bird Area, a site designated as essential
habitat for one or more bird species. Participate in bird counts there,
help with maintenance and restoration efforts, and educate your
neighbors about its value. You can also nominate a new site to
your state IBA coordinator; contact information for your state's
coordinator can be found here.
POLITICAL
6. Protect wildlife habitat and Important Bird Areas by advocating
more funding for the Land and Water Conservation Act, which
allocates money to expand and protect national parks, forests,
and wildlife refuges, besides offering matching grants for state
and community open-space projects; the North American Wetlands
Conservation Act, which gives matching grants for projects that
benefit wetlands-associated birds in the United States, Canada,
and Mexico; and the National Wildlife Refuge System, 95 million
acres of land and water managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service for habitat and recreation.
7. Help state wildlife agencies save "at-risk" bird species before
they become endangered, by asking Congress to increase funding
for the State Wildlife Grants Program. These grants enable state
agencies to implement on-the-ground conservation with public
and private landowners, avoiding the cost and controversy of last-
ditch recovery efforts. Each state is currently writing a wildlife
conservation strategy, but additional funding will be required to
carry them all out.
8. Speak out for long-distance migrants, many of which nest in
Canada in summer, and fly south to Mexico, Central and South
America, or the Caribbean for the winter. The Neotropical Migratory
Bird Conservation Act provides matching grants for projects that
conserve Neotropical species through habitat protection, education,
research, and monitoring. This important piece of legislation should
be fully funded at the $5 million level currently authorized by Congress,
and the authorized amount should be increased as well. Projects in
the United States and Latin America are now eligible for grants;
Canadian projects should also be included.
9. Fight back against invasive species, which threaten more than
one-third of the birds on the Audubon WatchList. Invasives are
the chief menace in national wildlife refuges and Important Bird
Areas, as well as in the privately owned landscapes that connect
these habitats. Two bills pending in the current Congress would
help combat them: The Species Protection and Conservation of
the Environment Act earmarks grant money to states to control
invasives where they pose a significant risk to native birds and
wildlife; and the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act prevents
and controls introductions of aquatic invasive species.
10. Defend the Endangered Species Act. If passed, recently
introduced bills would cripple the designation of "critical habitat"
required for a species' recovery and throw up roadblocks to the
listing of species. The Bush administration has also proposed
excluding wildlife experts from the process of determining if
pesticides harm endangered species.
11. The report shows that grassland and shrubland birds need to
be a higher priority for conservation. Thus, public and private lands
that support grassland and shrubland birds should receive special
attention for conservation action in agricultural conservation programs
and the Farm Bill.
12. Bird conservation is being thrown a curve through global warming
that affects the location and persistence of appropriate bird habitat.
Action to begin the long-term process of addressing climate change
must begin and The McCain-Lieberman "Climate Stewardship Act,"
is a start.
To receive alerts on these legislative issues, sign up for the Audubon
Advisory. This biweekly e-mail provides background on votes pending
in Congress and quick links for you to take action. Each voice counts,
so make sure yours is heard.
To join Audubon, click here or call 800-274-4201.
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11) Confirmation Of Concentration Camps
For Americans In America
Free Press International
10.23.2004
http://www.freepressinternational.com/army.10232004.camps.7817625340989.html
During World War II more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned
behind barbed wire concentration camps in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming,
Arkansas, California, Indiana and Utah. President Roosevelt himself
called the facilities "concentration camps" and more than half of
these American prisoners were children.
Former Texas Congressman Henry Gonzales, who is now deceased, was
asked about the existence of civilian detention camps in America
replied, "The truth is yes -- you do have these stand by provisions,
and the plans are here...whereby you could, in the name of stopping
terrorism...evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in
detention camps."
The week before August 14, 2002 Attorney General John Ashcroft
disclosed a little publicized plan that would allow him to order the
indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of
their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them
"enemy combatants."
According to Army Regulation 210–35, The Civilian Inmate Labor
Program, a new regulation provides Army policy and guidance for
establishing civilian inmate labor programs and "civilian prison
camps" on Army installations.
After 9/11 FEMA moved ahead with plans to create "temporary cities"
that could handle millions of Americans after mass destruction attacks
on U.S. cities. President Bush also unveiled a Homeland Security
proposal to allow soldiers to "enforce quarantines" of civilians in
the event of a chemical or biological weapons attack.
Since the attack on the World Trade Center about 5,000 people, many
who are Americans, have been arrested and "detained" by the Justice
Department with no due process. Sound familiar? Not one single person
has been successfully prosecuted and convicted by Ashcroft's Justice
Department.
The Civilian Inmate Labor Program .pdf
PBS: Children Of The Camps
Presidential Executive Order 12656
Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision
Bush Unveils Homeland Security Plan
The Henry B. Gonzalez Archives
FEMA's Plan for Mass Destruction Attacks
Executive Power Grab On Tap At White House?
The Case Against Bush
WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION -- Ethiopian Proverb
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