Cheers to Not In Our Name for organizing a very
successful and needed demonstration against the
war last evening. (Wed. Nov. 3rd) Folks are encouraged
to send donations to Not In Our Name to help offset
the costs of this action:
Donate online
donate.notinourname.net
Or send your tax-deductible contribution today to:
Not in Our Name
3945 Opal Street, Oakland CA 94609
phone: 510-601-8000
email: bayarea@notinourname.net
local: bayarea.notinourname.net
nat'l: www.notinourname.net
The energetic demonstration endorsed by most
antiwar groups in the Bay Area stretched from Powell
and Market to Van Ness Avenue at one point on
its journey to 24th and Mission Street. It was dark
and hard to see to the end of the march but it was
tightly packed, about 18-20 people abreast. We were
being led by drummers from Loco Bloco on a flatbed
truck that, at one point, was trailed by a great
trombone player, Michael Davis.
It was an energetic group dedicated to
continuing the fight against the war. The overwhelming
sentiment among the speakers was the need to organize
ongoing actions against the war. The marchers were
cheered by passers by and drivers who honked their
horns in solidarity.
On the ride down to Powell St. on the MUNI, passengers
were commenting on their opposition to the war which
brings me to other good news, Proposition N won with 64% of
the vote! This vote was the closest thing to a
democratic vote in this election. It was a clear
expression of the sentiment of the majority of people
in San Francisco.
These are the people we want to bring into the antiwar
movement and into the streets in the next (and there
must be a next) united international day of protest
against this war. The war is now escalating fiercely
causing the deaths of thousands more of the innocent
based on a pack of lies. And where will these lies
take us to next?
Come to the next meeting of Bay Area United Against War.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 7:00 p.m.
1830 VALENCIA STREET
(Between 24th & 25th Streets)
Help us build a united movement in opposition to the war.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Veteran's Day March
Please join us on Sunday November 7th
11:30 Am at 2nd and Market to lend our support
to the Veteran's for Peace at the veteran's day March.
UFPJ will be bringing the panels out to carry in the March
2) JUSTICE FOR CAMMERIN BOYD
*** PLEASE FORWARD ***
6 MONTHS - 5 OFFICERS - NO JUSTICE
MARCH ON CITY HALL
RALLY STARTS AT 4:00 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2004
MARCH AND VIGIL TO FOLLOW
Meet at Koshland Park -- Laguna and Larch Street
(Between Eddie and Turk) in San Francisco
March to San Francisco City Hall
Join family and friends of Cammerin Boyd in
a march and vigil to mark the six months anniversary
of the murder of Cammerin Boyd by San Francisco
Police Officers.
3) Transcript of John Kerry's Concession Speech
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/03cnd-kerry-text.html
5) U.S. Bombardment Kills Five in Iraq's Falluja
By Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 4, 2004 09:38 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6716512&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
6) US deploys military satellite jamming system
Reuters
October 30, 2004
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231286.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) JUSTICE FOR CAMMERIN BOYD
*** PLEASE FORWARD ***
6 MONTHS - 5 OFFICERS - NO JUSTICE
MARCH ON CITY HALL
RALLY STARTS AT 4:00 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2004
MARCH AND VIGIL TO FOLLOW
Meet at Koshland Park -- Laguna and Larch Street
(Between Eddie and Turk) in San Francisco
March to San Francisco City Hall
Join family and friends of Cammerin Boyd in
a march and vigil to mark the six months anniversary
of the murder of Cammerin Boyd by San Francisco
Police Officers.
BACKGROUND ON CAMMERIN BOYD
On Wednesday, May 5, San Francisco Police Officers shot and
Cammerin, who was disabled, was clearly and vocally surrendering.
He had his hands above his head, but the police shot him anyway.
They stole his life and robbed his daughters of their father, his
mother of her son, and his loved ones of a dear friend and relative.
For years, SFPD has had a "shoot first, lie later" policy- especially
when it comes to black people and disabled people. With no effective
investigation or discipline mechanisms, the department has developed
a culture of impunity for rogue officers. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!!
NO MORE KILLER COPS ON OUR STREETS
* please forward widely *
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Transcript of John Kerry's Concession Speech
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/03cnd-kerry-text.html
Following is a transcript of Senator John Kerry's concession speech
yesterday in Boston, as recorded by The New York Times:
You just have no idea how warming and how generous that welcome
is, your love is, your affection, and I'm gratified by it.
I'm sorry that we got here a little bit late and a little bit short.
Earlier today, I spoke to President Bush and I offered him and
Laura our congratulations on their victory. We had a good
conversation. And we talked about the danger of division in
our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity for
finding the common ground, coming together.
Today I hope that we can begin the healing.
In America it is vital that every vote count and that every vote
be counted. But the outcome should be decided by voters, not
a protracted legal process.
I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we
would prevail. But it is now clear that even when all the
provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there
won't be enough outstanding votes for us to be able to win
Ohio. And therefore we cannot win this election.
My friends, it was here that we began our campaign for the
presidency. And all we had was hope and a vision for a better
America. It is a privilege and a gift to spend two years traveling
this country, coming to know so many of you. I wish that I could
just wrap you up in my arms and embrace each and every one
of you individually all across this nation.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I will always be particularly grateful to the colleague that you
just heard from who became my partner, my very close friend,
an extraordinary leader, John Edwards , and I thank him for
everything he did, and John and I would be the first to tell
you that we owe so much to our families. They're here with
us today. They were with us every single step of the way.
They sustained us. They went out on their own and they
multiplied our campaign all across this country.
No one did this more with grace and with courage and candor,
that I love, than my wife, Teresa. And I thank her. Thank you.
And our children were there every single step of the way. It was
unbelievable. Vanessa, Alex, Chris, Andre and John from my
family and Elizabeth Edwards, who is so remarkable and so
strong and so smart. And Johnnie and Kate, who went out there
on her own, just like my daughters did and also Emma Claire
and Jack who were up beyond their bedtime last night like a lot of us.
I want to thank my crewmates and my friends from 35 years ago,
that great band of brothers, who crisscrossed this country on my
behalf for 2004.
They had the courage to speak the truth back then and they spoke
it again this year. And for that I will forever be grateful.
And thanks also, as I look around here, to friends and family of
a lifetime, some from college, friends made all across the years
and then all across the miles of this campaign. You are so special.
You brought the gift of your passion for our country and the
possibilities of change. And that will stay with us and with this
country forever.
Thanks to Democrats and Republicans and independents who stood
with us, and everyone who voted, no matter who their candidate was.
And thanks to my absolutely unbelievable, dedicated staff led by
a wonderful campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, who did an
extraordinary job.
There's so much written about campaigns and there's so much
that Americans never get to see. I wish they could all spend a day
on a campaign and see how hard these folks work to make America
better. It is its own unbelievable contribution to our democracy and
it's a gift to everybody, but especially to me. And I'm grateful to each
and every one of you. And I thank your families and I thank you for
the sacrifices you've made.
And to all the volunteers all across this country who gave so much
of themselves, you know, thanks to William Field, a 6-year-old who
collected $680, a quarter and a dollar at a time, selling bracelets
during the summer to help change America.
Thanks to Michael Benson from Florida who I spied at a rope line
holding a container of money. And it turned out he'd raided his
piggybank and wanted to contribute.
And thanks to Ilana Wexler, 11 years old, who started Kids for
Kerry all across our country.
I think of the brigades of students and people, young and old,
who took time to travel, time off from work, their own vacation
time, to work in states far and wide. They braved the hot days of
summer and the cold days of the fall and the winter to knock on
doors because they were determined to open the doors of
opportunity to all Americans. They worked their hearts out and
I wish - you don't know how much - that I could have brought
this race home for you, for them.
And I say to them now: Don't lose faith; what you did made
a difference. And building on itself, we go on to make a difference
another day. I promise you: That time will come; the time will come;
the election will come when your work and your ballots will change
the world. And it's worth fighting for.
I want to especially say to the American people: In this journey, you
have given me the honor and the gift of listening and learning from
you. I have visited your homes. I've visited your churches. I've visited
your community halls. I've heard your stories. I know your struggles.
I know your hopes. They are part of me now. And I will never forget
you and I'll never stop fighting for you.
You may not understand completely in what ways, but it is true when
I say to you that you have taught me and you've tested me and you've
lifted me up and you've made me stronger. I did my best to express
my vision and my hopes for America. We worked hard and we fought
hard. And I wish that things had turned out a little differently.
But in an American election, there are no losers. Because whether or
not our candidates are successful, the next morning, we all wake up
as Americans. And that - that is the greatest privilege and the most
remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.
With that gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work
together for the good of our country. In the days ahead, we must find
common cause. We must join in common effort without remorse or
recrimination, without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity
and longing for a larger measure of compassion.
I hope President Bush will advance those values in the coming years.
I pledge to do my part to try to bridge the partisan divide. I know
this is a difficult time for my supporters. But I ask them - all of you
- to join me in doing that.
Now, more than ever, with our soldiers in harm's way, we must stand
together and succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror. I will also
do everything in my power to ensure that my party, a proud
Democratic Party, stands true to our best hopes and ideals.
I believe that what we started in this campaign will not end here.
And I know - our fight goes on to put America back to work and to
make our economy a great engine of job growth. Our fight goes on
to make affordable health care an accessible right for all Americans,
not a privilege. Our fight goes on to protect the environment, to
achieve equality, to push the frontiers of science and discovery and
to restore America's reputation in the world.
I believe that all of this will happen, and sooner than we may think.
Because we're America and America always moves forward. I've been
honored to represent the citizens of this commonwealth for the - in
the United States Senate now for 20 years. And I pledge to them that
in the years ahead, I'm going to fight on for the people and for the
principles that I've learned and lived with here in Massachusetts.
I'm proud of what we stood for in this campaign and of what we
accomplished. When we began, no one thought it was possible to
even make this a close race. But we stood for real change - change
that would make a real difference in the life of our nation and the
lives of our families. And we defined that choice to America.
I'll never forget the wonderful people who came to our rallies, who
stood in our rope lines, who put their hopes in our hands, who
invested in each and every one of us. I saw in them the truth that
America is not only great, but it is good.
So here - so with a grateful heart, I leave this campaign with
a prayer that has even greater meaning to me now that I have
come to know our vast country so much better thanks to all of
you. And what a privilege it has been to do so.
And that prayer is very simple: God bless America.
Thank you.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) U.S. Bombardment Kills Five in Iraq's Falluja
By Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 4, 2004 09:38 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6716512&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. artillery shelled Falluja on Thursday
after overnight air and tank attacks killed five people in Iraq's most
rebellious city, braced for an all-out offensive now the U.S.
presidential election is over.
The U.S. military said two air raids after midnight destroyed
"fighting barricades" prepared by insurgents in the northeast
and southeast of the Sunni Muslim city.
The strikes followed what witnesses called an intense half-
hour bombardment of eastern and northwestern areas by AC-130
planes and tanks that shook the city late on Wednesday night.
They said the attacks were the heaviest for several weeks.
Hospital doctor Ahmed Mohammed said five people had been
killed, including a woman and a child. All had been in a car
hit in an air raid while trying to escape the violence.
U.S. artillery was back in action during the day, a Reuters
reporter with Marines near Falluja said.
A woman was seriously wounded and a teenage girl lost a leg
in earlier air strikes on Wednesday, hospital officials said.
Marines are poised to assault Falluja, 50 km (30 miles)
west of Baghdad, and its sister city of Ramadi, where a man and
a woman were also injured in clashes, as part of the interim
government's drive to pacify Iraq before polls due in January.
Ahead of the polls, Hungary said it may have to pull its
300 troops out by the end of the year if it cannot win
opposition support to maintain the deployment until end-March
as planned.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, now visiting Europe,
has not publicly given the go-ahead for the storming of Falluja
and Ramadi, but the Marines say they only need the order from
him and newly re-elected President Bush.
Shi'ites in the slums of Sadr City, where anti-American
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has a strong following, said Bush must
now keep his pledges to reconstruct Iraq and hold elections.
"It is Bush who destroyed this country and our city and he
is obliged to rebuild them," said resident Qassem al-Kaabi.
Fattah al-Sheikh, editor of a pro-Sadr newspaper, said Bush
should pay more attention to Iraq and shun military options.
"We want the Americans to promote the political process in
Iraq, especially the coming elections," he said.
UNHAPPY WITH BUSH WIN
Sadr, whose militia staged two uprisings this year, has
recently moved toward joining the political process, ordering
his Mehdi Army fighters to hand in their weapons in Sadr City.
People in Falluja said the prospect of four more years of
Bush depressed them and one man, Sattar Ibrahim, 30, said his
family had hoped challenger John Kerry would win because they
believed he would have improved chances for peace.
"Choosing Bush creates a crisis for Iraqis and especially
for Falluja because we believe he will continue his policy
against our country and our city," said Mohammed Ali.
"His policy is based on violence and hatred against Muslims
and Arabs," the 20-year-old student added.
Other Iraqis have said they are too busy trying to survive
postwar bloodshed and kidnapping to care about the U.S. vote.
A car bomb went off in the town of Iskandariya, 50 km (30
miles) south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
He had no immediate word on casualties.
Militants in Iraq issued a videotape of three Jordanian
truck drivers shown pleading with their government to warn its
nationals against working with U.S.-led forces in the country.
"We will not have mercy on anyone. We will strike with an
iron fist whoever deals with the occupation," one of three
masked gunmen said on the videotape released to Reuters.
It showed three Jordanian drivers sitting in front of the
gunmen under a black banner that reads Army of Islam Counter
Attack Brigades. The tape showed close-ups of their passports.
It was not immediately clear if the three were among four
Jordanian drivers kidnapped in western Iraq on Tuesday.
Militants have seized scores of foreigners since April to
try to drive foreign troops and workers from Iraq. Many have
been freed. More than 35 have been killed, some beheaded.
There was no word on whether the unidentified captors of
British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan had carried out a
threat made on Tuesday to hand her to a group led by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi within 48 hours unless British troops quit Iraq.
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for hostage
beheadings and some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide attacks.
Medecins sans Frontieres, one of the few international aid
groups still working in Iraq, said it was halting activities
because of the "extreme risks" facing aid workers in here.
Nepali junior foreign minister Prakash Sharan Mahat will
meet officials and religious leaders in the United Arab
Emirates and Saudi Arabia next week to seek their help in
freeing a kidnapped Nepali, named as Iunus Kaware, a
27-year-old cook.
Two Americans, one of Lebanese origin and a Filipino are
among foreigners seized in Iraq this week. (Additional
reporting by Michael Georgy near Falluja, Waleed Ibrahim in
Baghdad, David Chance in Budapest and Gopal Sharma in
Kathmandu)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) US deploys military satellite jamming system
Reuters
October 30, 2004
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231286.htm
- -US military control of space is one of four missions
spelled out under a national space policy adopted by
former president Bill Clinton in 1996. The goal is to
make sure US forces have unhindered access to space
and space-based services and to deny an enemy any
similar benefits.
The US Air Force quietly has put into service a new
weapon designed to jam enemy [...] satellite
communications, a significant step toward US control
of space.
The Counter Communications System was declared
operational late last month at Peterson Air Force Base
in Colorado Springs, the Air Force Space Command said
on Friday in emailed replies to questions from
Reuters.
The ground-based jammer uses electromagnetic radio
frequency energy to knock out transmissions on a
temporary and reversible basis, without frying
components, the command said.
"A reversible effect ensures that during the time of
need, the adversary's space-based capability to
threaten our forces is diminished," said Captain Angie
Blair, a spokeswoman.
"Following the time of need, the space-based
capabilities used by the adversary can return to its
original state."
The device appears to have been put into service
considerably earlier than had been projected by the
Air Force as recently as February.
At that time, a long-range planning document, dubbed
the Transformation Flight Plan, said such a system
would let the United States by 2010 "deny and disrupt
an adversary's space-based communications and early
warning" of attack.
US military control of space is one of four missions
spelled out under a national space policy adopted by
former president Bill Clinton in 1996. The goal is to
make sure US forces have unhindered access to space
and space-based services and to deny an enemy any
similar benefits.
The US military has experimented with a range of
"anti-satellite" (ASAT) weapons, including lasers, to
knock out enemy craft by destroying them or damaging
their sensors.
Theresa Hitchens, vice president of the private Centre
for Defense Information in Washington, welcomed the
new system on the grounds that it would not create
debris that could threaten global use of space and
would not destroy satellites, only jam them
temporarily.
"Unfortunately, it seems we are not going to limit our
quest for 'space control' to benign systems," she
said, citing the danger of a space arms race.
The deployment was disclosed without fanfare late last
month at a technical conference of the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in San
Diego, California.
The system is operated by the 76th Space Control
Squadron, a unit created in 2001 to explore
technologies for controlling space, Brigadier General
Larry James, vice commander of the Space and Missile
Systems Command told the conference.
The Air Force Space Command, in its emailed replies,
said the system was built from off-the-shelf
commercial equipment, and made up an antenna,
transmitters and receivers that can be loaded into a
trailer and moved from place to place.
Three such systems had been delivered since late last
year, the command said. The program's budget for
fiscal 2005 totalled $US6.2 million, according to the
Congressional Research Service.
The primary integrator was Northrop Grumman, said Joe
Davidson, a Space and Missile Centre spokesman.
Citing "operational security" concerns, military
officials declined to discuss how the jammer worked
but equated it with traditional Air Force electronic
warfare weapons that have been used since World War II
to deceive, disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy targets.
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