demonstrations sponsored by Not in Our Name and ANSWER
on Nov. 3 and Nov. 9.
At the concluding rally of the emergency demonstration ANSWER
called to protest the U.S. assault on Fallujah, Jahahara, of AFSC
and N'COBRA, issued a kind of challenge to all the major antiwar
organizations to make a unified response to the U.S. government's
war against Iraq. He called on the national organizations, of which
we are all affiliated to one or more-ANSWER, UFPJ, NION-to unify
in building a massive antiwar movement.
This call is so timely because the war and occupation continue
unabated, the consequences for the Iraqis are devastating (over
100,000 civilians killed by U.S. actions) and over 1,110 U.S. troops
are dead and tens of thousands injured.
Those of us who are old enough to have participated in the
movement against the U.S. war on Vietnam know that the most
effective mass actions against that war that called for bringing all
U.S. troops home now [Out Now!] were unified actions where
people of different ideologies were able to come together for
Out Now despite their divergent opinions on other topics. The
mass movement that was built on the streets of the U.S. created
a supportive environment for U.S. soldiers to resist the war in
multiple ways eventually becoming an unreliable fighting force
for U.S. imperialism.
Now, it is very clear from all who spoke at the last two
demonstrations, that we have wide areas of agreement. We all
agree about the need for the movement to get back into the streets
to protest the war in massive demonstrations. We all spoke
about the need for unity. We all spoke about the way to bring
peace and end the war, was for the U.S. government to get out of
Iraq.
The next step is for all our organizations to meet together and
concretely plan how this unity will be carried out.
Bay Area United Against War is willing to host such a meeting,
or participate in such a meeting called by others.
Let's make it happen.
Bring the Troops Home Now!
Carole Seligman, Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW)
COME TO THE NEXT BAUAW MEETING AND BRING YOUR IDEAS ON HOW TO
ACHIEVE UNITY IN THE MOVEMENT:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH, 7:00 p.m.
1380 Valencia Street
(Between 24th & 25th Streets, SF)
BAUAW: 415-824-8730
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) U.S. Troops Comb Falluja;
Baghdad Bomb Kills 17
By Michael Georgy and Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 11, 2004 08:10 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6786158&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
2) US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous
gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion
of Fallujah
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-11/10/article05.shtml
3) US Assault Leaves Fallujah in Ruins
and Unknown Numbers Dead
By James Cogan
11 November 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/fall-n11.shtml
4) Arafat: Israel seals West Bank and Gaza
11 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=581644&host=3&dir=75
5) Alberto Gonzales: A Record of Injustice
6) TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD, CA
7) Iraqi democrats against ocupation IDAO site
published this news: 9 November, Iraqi Railway workers
boycott supplies to US troops
www.idao.org
8) Companies Sue Union Retirees
To Cut Promised Health Benefits
Firms Claim Right to Change
Coverage, Attempt to Pick
Sympathetic Jurisdictions
The Process Server Pays a Call
By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 10, 2004; Page A1
9) Mordechai Vannunu arrested
Call the Israeli Consulate 415-844-7500 in SF lets flood them with
phone calls demanding the release of Mordechai. also anyone intersted
in doing an action in the Israeli Consulate in regards to this let
Me Know off line i would be up for doing that.
peace
keith
Mordechai Vanunu:
An Interview
By Johannes Wahlstrom, Jerusalem
10) Hard Lesson in Battle: 150
Marines Meet 1 Sniper
THE INSURGENTS
By DEXTER FILKINS
FALLUJA, Iraq
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11snipers.html?hp
&ex=1100235600&en=0879c52c261dfe9b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
11) As U.S. Advances in Falluja,
New Fighting Erupts in Northern Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ and MARIA NEWMAN
BAGHDAD
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11cnd-iraq.html?
hp&ex=1100235600&en=b76e3d2520471f73&ei=5094&partner=homepage
12) Europe Must Adapt to U.S. View on
Terror, NATO Chief Says
By WARREN HOGE
UNITED NATIONS
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/europe/11cnd-nato.html?hp&ex
=1100235600&en=95c8c80a284ba55a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
13) The Things They Wrote
VETERANS DAY
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/opinion/11intro.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) U.S. Troops Comb Falluja;
Baghdad Bomb Kills 17
By Michael Georgy and Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 11, 2004 08:10 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6786158&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops hunted rebels in the battered Iraqi
city of Falluja on Thursday, but rebels hit back with an armed rampage
in Mosul and a powerful car bomb that killed 17 people in a crowded
Baghdad street.
The late morning car bomb in the heart of the Iraqi capital also wounded
at least 20, a police source said.
A Reuters reporter saw four bodies in burned-out cars after the blast
near a police patrol in a busy street just off Nasr Square. The bomb
devastated a nearby building and littered the street with twisted metal
and glass from shattered shop windows.
The Falluja assault has provoked an upsurge in violence elsewhere
in Iraq, as happened in April during an earlier failed U.S. attempt
to subdue the country's most rebellious city.
Marines fired mortar barrages against elusive guerrillas in Falluja's Jolan
district as tanks squeezed down alleys to eliminate resistance on the
third full day of the offensive.
Impacts from relentless mortar blasts and sporadic artillery fire blanketed
parts of the city with black smoke as rebels responded with occasional
mortar rounds and sniper fire.
U.S. officers said Marine Corps and army units had gained a large
presence throughout Falluja but were still taking some fire from
Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign militants.
Tanks punched through Jolan to the Euphrates river and were
chasing down remaining rebels to consolidate control over the
city 32 miles west of Baghdad.
"Things are going, I think, as planned. We've got about 70
percent of the city under control," U.S. General Richard Myers,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CBS television.
"There have been hundreds and hundreds of insurgents who
have been either killed or captured," he said.
But while U.S.-led troops fought for the upper hand in
Falluja, insurgents in the northern city of Mosul set police
stations ablaze, stole weapons and roamed the streets.
Residents said Iraq's third largest city seemed to slide
out of control as grenade blasts and gunfire rang through empty
streets and smoke billowed from two burning police stations.
Rebels attacked Iraqi national guards controlling a bridge
in the city center, killing five of them, witnesses said.
"REALLY CRAZY"
A cameraman for Reuters filmed gunmen raiding weapons and
flak jackets from a police station before setting it on fire.
"It's crazy, really, really crazy," said Abdallah Fathi,
a resident who witnessed the police station attack.
A photographer working for Reuters was shot in the leg and
taken to hospital. Doctors said one civilian had been killed
and at least 25 wounded in the past two days of fighting.
Violence has worsened in Mosul, a strongly nationalist city
of three million people, over the past year, but residents said
the chaos of the past two days had broken new ground.
"Yesterday, the city felt like hell, today it could be the
same or worse," Fathi said.
Apparently responding to the Falluja offensive, insurgents
have staged attacks this week in the Sunni towns and cities of
Samarra, Baiji, Baquba, Tikrit, Ramadi and parts of Baghdad.
Six national guards were killed near Tikrit, Saddam's home
town, by a roadside bomb on Wednesday night, witnesses said.
Kirkuk's provincial governor escaped unhurt when a car bomb
blew up near his convoy in the northern city, wounding 16
people, police and hospital officials said.
In Falluja, residents said the stench of decomposing bodies
hung over the battered city, power and water supplies had been
cut for five days and food was running out for thousands of
civilians trapped in their homes by the fighting.
About 10,000 U.S. troops, backed by 2,000 Iraqi government
troops, are engaged in the battle for Falluja.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who ordered the
assault, has come under personal pressure from Islamist
militants who kidnapped three of his relatives on Tuesday.
The militants have threatened to behead Allawi's
75-year-old cousin Ghazi and two women relatives unless he
calls off the assault. The government has said its policy will
not change.
The Iraqi military governor in Falluja said his men had
found "slaughterhouses" where militants had held and killed
hostages, along with records of victims.
But Major-General Abdul-Qader Jassim told reporters he
could not say if the evidence offered any clues to the fate of
at least nine foreign hostages still missing.
Allawi and his U.S. backers have vowed to pacify Falluja
and the rest of the country before elections due in January.
(Additional reporting by Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul, Aref
Mohammed in Kirkuk and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous
gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion
of Fallujah
http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-11/10/article05.shtml
FALLUJAH, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US troops are
reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale
offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder
of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988.
"The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting
them with internationally-banned chemical weapons," resistance sources
told Al-Quds Press Wednesday, November 10.
The fatal weapons led to the deaths of tens of innocent civilians, whose
bodies litter sidewalks and streets, they added.
"They use chemical weapons out of despair and helplessness in the face of
the steadfast and fierce resistance put up by Fallujah people, who
drove US troops out of several districts, hoisting proudly Iraqi flags
on them. Resistance has also managed to destroy and set fire to
a large number of US tanks and vehicles.
"The US troops have sprayed chemical and nerve gases on resistance
fighters, turning them hysteric in a heartbreaking scene," an Iraqi
doctor, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press.
"Some Fallujah residents have been further burnt beyond treatment by
poisonous gases," added resistance fighters, who took part in Golan
battles, northwest of Fallujah.
In August last year, the United States admitted dropping the
internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq,
despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the "horrible" weapon
had not been used in the three-week invasion of Iraq.
After the offensive on Iraq ended on April 9 last year, Iraqis began
to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter
cities.
Media Blackout
A US tank pushing its way in Fallujah streets
The sources said that the media blackout, the banning of Al-Jazeera
satellite channel and subjective embedded journalists played well into
the hands of the US military.
"Therefore, US troops opted for using internationally banned weapons
to soften the praiseworthy resistance of Fallujah people.
"More and more, the US military edits and censors reports sent by
journalists to their respective newspapers and news agencies," the
sources added.
Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan had said Tuesday,
November 9, would be decisive.
"Al-Shaalan declaration meant nothing but the use of chemical
weapons and poisonous gases to down Fallujah fighters,"
observers told Al-Quds Press.
The reported gassing stands as a grim reminder of Saddam
Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurdish community in the
northern city of Halbja in 1988.
While the West insisted that Saddam was the one behind
the heinous attack, the ousted president pointed fingers at
the then Iranian regime.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) US Assault Leaves Fallujah in Ruins
and Unknown Numbers Dead
By James Cogan
11 November 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/fall-n11.shtml
The US assault on Fallujah is a criminal and barbaric operation.
The descriptions of the thrust through Fallujah's northern suburbs
make clear the city is being destroyed, and its poorly-armed defenders
slaughtered, by 10,000 American soldiers over whom all moral
constraints have been lifted.
AChristian Science Monitor journalist embedded with a marine unit
wrote Wednesday: "Every vehicle is treated as a potential car bomb
and every person as a possible enemy. Approval even came over the
radio to shoot dogs with shotguns, to prevent them carrying explosives."
As the American forces advanced into the city, a Chicago Tribune
journalist reported that a psychological operations unit trailed behind,
blaring out Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"-the music used by film
director Francis Ford Coppola to accompany the scene in Apocalypse
Now in which US troops massacre civilians in a Vietnamese village.
Iraqi fighters in Fallujah's north were overwhelmed by the firepower
and the murderous tactics of the US military. While American infantry
waited a safe distance away, jets, helicopters, tanks and other armoured
vehicles pounded the buildings ahead of them with rockets, shells and
heavy-calibre machine-guns to clear them of any defenders. Explosive
coil designed to clear mine-fields was fired down city streets and
detonated. Artillery bombarded residential areas with phosphorous
rounds, which explode into a fireball that cannot be put out with
water. No attempt has been made by the US military to avoid civilian
casualties.
Iraqi journalist Fadil al-Badrani, reporting for Reuters from Fallujah,
recounted on Tuesday: "Every minute, hundreds of bombs and shells
are exploding... The north of the city is in flames. I can see fire and
smoke. Fallujah has become like hell...
"Electricity is cut off because of damage to the main power station
from the bombardment. The water supply has been cut off too. People,
particularly children and women, tend to stay at home, fearing being
mistaken for a military target."
On Wednesday, Badrani reported to Al Jazeerah that "almost half" of
the city's 120 mosques "have been destroyed after being targeted by
US air and tank strikes".
According to the New York Times' correspondents, more than half
the houses in the northern suburbs of Jolan and Askeri have been
destroyed. They reported Wednesday: "Dead bodies were scattered
on the streets and narrow alleys of Jolan, one of Fallujah's oldest
neighborhoods. Blood and flesh were splattered on the walls of
some of the houses, witnesses said, and the streets were full of
holes."
Other reports by journalists embedded with US units include references
to five-storey apartment complexes and hospitals being raked with
tank fire and heavy machine-guns, after Iraqi fighters engaged
US troops from them. Women and boys as young as 12 are among
those who have taken up arms to defend their city against the
invasion force.
The contrast between the firepower being unleashed by the US
military and the capacity of the Iraqis to fight back was graphically
contained in a report by the Los Angeles Times on the capture of
the Al Hadra al-Muhammadiya mosque, the focus of the popular
resistance in Fallujah to the US occupation of Iraq.
A marine captain told the newspaper: "This is the nerve centre of
the resistance-and we're here." The weapons found in the "nerve
centre" consisted of only rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), AK-47s,
obsolete rifles, materials for homemade bombs and improvised
blasting caps.
How many people in Fallujah have been killed in the inferno of
bombs, bullets, collapsing buildings and fire is not known, and
may not be known for weeks or months. By the US military's own
estimate though, between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians were still
in the city before it began its rampage.
A Marine Corp spokesman declared on Wednesday that the US military
has "no information of anyone [civilians] being hurt". The only
conclusion that can be drawn is that they are not looking for such
information. A Fallujah resident told the British Guardian by phone:
"People cannot reach the clinics or the hospital and there are many
wounded people. Most people are staying in their houses... There
are a lot of people dead who I saw with my own eyes."
As the assault progresses and it is clear that the US military is treating
the entire population as a target, the Bush administration has
abandoned its cynical propaganda that the city was being attacked
to "liberate" it from foreign terrorists headed by Abu Musaab
al-Zarqawi before elections are held in January.
An unnamed military official in Washington told the New York Times :
"The important idea to consider is that this is not an operation against
Zarqawi and his network. It is just one of the many steps that need
to be taken in order to defeat a complex and diverse insurgency, in
which the Zarqawi network is but one element." US generals and
officials are now stating it is likely Zarqawi and the "foreign terrorists"
have left Fallujah-without providing any evidence to refute the claims
of the Fallujah resistance leaders that they were never in the city
in the first place.
The US media, which dutifully reported every airstrike on Fallujah
over the past five months as a "precision strike" on Zarqawi safehouses,
has barely commented on the shifting rationale for the attack on the
city. It can be predicted with virtual certainty, however, that it will
prominently report US military claims that Zarqawi has "surfaced"
in Ramadi, Samarra, Baquaba or whichever is the next Iraqi city
slated for destruction.
The savagery in Fallujah is the real face of the US occupation of Iraq.
The claim by the Bush administration that the slaughter taking place
in the city will facilitate "democratic elections" in January is obscene.
Fallujah is being razed to the ground as part of a perspective of killing
or driving underground every voice of opposition to the US presence
in the country. The only participants in any elections will be the venal
pro-occupation organisations that joined the puppet Iraqi interim
government headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
The occupation of Iraq will not give rise to "democracy", but a pro-US
police-state that sanctions the indefinite presence of American troops
and the looting of the country's oil resources by American corporations.
Allawi, the intended head of such a regime, is earning the nickname
that Iraqis have given him-"Saddam without the moustache". Already
accused of personally murdering prisoners, he has invoked martial
law across most of the entire country and requested that the US
military conduct bloody offensives against the resistance in as many
as 21 other Iraqi cities and towns. On Tuesday night, Allawi rejected
outright an appeal for a four- or five-hour truce in Fallujah so that
the injured and noncombatants could be evacuated from the city.
The fighting in Fallujah is continuing in the southern suburbs and
is likely to rage for days to come. The conquest of the city, however,
will have the opposite effect to that intended by the Bush administration
and the US military. Far from weakening or intimidating the opposition
to the occupation, resistance groups have already stepped up their
attacks throughout the predominantly Sunni Muslim regions of
central and northern Iraq. Clashes between US troops and guerillas
have taken place over the past 48 hours in Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi,
and other smaller towns.
The reports of occupation casualties are climbing as a result, even
without accurate figures on the number of American dead and
wounded in Fallujah. So far in November, 30 US troops have been
confirmed killed in action, as well as four members of the British
Black Watch regiment that the Blair government made available
to the US military for the Fallujah operation.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Arafat: Israel seals West Bank and Gaza
11 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=581644&host=3&dir=75
Israel sealed the West Bank and Gaza Strip and sent troop
reinforcements to the areas today, in response to Yasser
Arafat's death, the military said.
Israel also increased security at Jewish settlements, fearing
widespread Palestinian riots in the coming days.
"The Israeli Defence Forces are deploying to allow a dignified
funeral ceremony for chairman Arafat," an army statement said.
The military said it would restrict access to the funeral, set for
Saturday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, and only allow
Palestinians with the necessary permits to attend.
The military will allow symbolic funeral processions to be
held in towns and refugee camps across the West Bank and
Gaza, officials said.
In the past four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Israel has
imposed strict travel restrictions on the Palestinians and severely
limited their access to Israel.
Today's blanket closure means no Palestinians will be able
to enter Israel.
The military also sent troop reinforcements to the West Bank
and Gaza.
In the UK, the Foreign Office today revised its travel advice
for Israel and the Occupied Territories in response to
Mr Arafat's death.
British travellers were already advised against travelling
to certain parts of Israel and large parts of the territories,
which are made up of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The advice now includes: "Following the death of Yasser
Arafat, the security situation remains unclear throughout
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"You should be aware that staff from the British Embassy
and Consulate-General are not entering either the West
Bank or the Gaza Strip until further notice.
"Because of current travel and other restrictions, there are
limits to the level of consular assistance we can provide in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
The Foreign Office said that the amendment reflected "the
potential for deterioration in the security situation in the
Occupied Territories following Mr Arafat's death".
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Alberto Gonzales: A Record of Injustice
As White House Counsel
GONZALES APPROVED MEMO AUTHORIZING TORTURE: An August 2002 Justice
Department memo "was vetted by a larger number of officials,
including...the White House counsel's office and Vice President
Cheney's office." According to Newsweek, the memo "was drafted after
White House meetings convened by George W. Bush's chief counsel,
Alberto Gonzales, along with Defense Department general counsel
William Haynes and [Cheney counsel] David Addington." The memo
included the opinion that laws prohibiting torture do "not apply to
the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants."
Further, the memo puts forth the opinion that the pain caused by an
interrogation must include "injury such as death, organ failure, or
serious impairment of body functions—in order to constitute torture."
The methods outlined in the memo "provoked concerns within the CIA
about possible violation of the federal torture law [and] also raised
concerns at the FBI, where some agents knew of the techniques being
used" overseas on high-level al Qaeda officials. [Gonzales 8/1/02
memo; WP, 6/27/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8534-2004Jun26.html;
Newsweek, 6/21/04 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5197853/site/newsweek;
NYT, 6/27/04
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E14FB3C5C0C748EDDAF0894DC4
04482]
GONZALES BELIEVES MANY GENEVA CONVENTIONS PROVISIONS ARE OBSOLETE: A
1/25/02 memo written by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales said "the
war against terrorism is a new kind of war" and "this new paradigm
renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy
prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." The memo pushes
to make al Qaeda and Taliban detainees exempt from the Geneva
Conventions' provisions on the proper, legal treatment of prisoners.
The administration has been adamant that prisoners at Guantanamo are
not protected by the Geneva Conventions. [Gonzales 1/25/02 memo;
Newsweek, 5/24/04 http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989481/]
GONZALES ADMITTED HIS VIEWS 'COULD UNDERMINE U.S. MILITARY CULTURE':
The 1/25/02 memo shows Alberto Gonzales was aware of the risk that
ignoring the Geneva Conventions could create for the military. One
concern expressed is that failing to apply the Geneva Conventions
"could undermine U.S. military culture which emphasizes maintaining
the highest standards of conduct in combat, and could introduce an
element of uncertainty in the status of adversaries," which is what
happened at Abu Ghraib. Secretary of State Colin Powell strongly
warned against taking this decision, as did lawyers from the Judge
Advocate General's Corps, or JAG. This week, a federal judge ruled
that "President Bush had both overstepped his constitutional bounds
and improperly brushed aside the Geneva Conventions" when he
established military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to try
detainees as war criminals. [Gonzales 1/25/02 memo; Bloomberg, 6/14/04
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_woolner&si
d=aJEp1ExaMybo;
New York Times, 11/9/04]
GONZALES BLOCKS INFORMATION FROM CONGRESS: Historically, senators have
been allowed to review some memoranda by judicial nominees. But, in a
letter [about nominee Miguel Estrada], Gonzales told the Democrats
that the administration would not produce the memos, because to do so
would chill free expression among administration lawyers and violate
the principle of executive privilege, which protects the internal
deliberations of the president's aides. [New Yorker, 5/19/03
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030526fa_fact]
As Texas Chief Legal Counsel
DEATH PENALTY MEMOS: GONZALES'S NEGLIGENT COUNSEL: As chief legal
counsel for then-Gov. Bush in Texas, Gonzales was responsible for
writing a memo on the facts of each death penalty case – Bush decided
whether a defendant should live or die based on the memos. An
examination of the Gonzales memoranda by the Atlantic Monthly
concluded, "Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of
crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of
interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." His
memos caused Bush frequently to approve executions based on "only the
most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute." Rather than
informing the governor of the conflicting circumstances in a case,
"The memoranda seem attuned to a radically different posture, assumed
by Bush from the earliest days of his administration—one in which he
sought to minimize his sense of legal and moral responsibility for
executions." [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003
http://www.fdp.dk/act/030928_texas_clemency.php]
MEMORANDUM ON TERRY WASHINGTON: A CASE STUDY IN INCOMPETENCE: In his
briefing on death-row defendant Terry Washington – a mentally retarded
33-year-old man with the communication skills of a seven-year-old –
Gonzales devoted nearly a third of his three-page report to the
gruesome details of the crime, but referred "only fleetingly to the
central issue in Washington's clemency appeal—his limited mental
capacity, which was never disputed by the State of Texas—and
present[ed] it as part of a discussion of 'conflicting information'
about the condemned man's childhood." In addition, Gonzales "failed to
mention that Washington's mental limitations, and the fact that he and
his ten siblings were regularly beaten with whips, water hoses,
extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts, were never made known to
the jury, although both the district attorney and Washington's trial
lawyer knew of this potentially mitigating evidence." Nor did he
mention that Washington's lawyer had "failed to enlist a mental-health
expert" to testify on Washington's behalf, even though "ineffective
counsel and mental retardation were in fact the central issues raised
in the thirty-page clemency petition" it was Gonzales's job to review.
This all came at a time when "demand was growing nationwide to ban
executions of the retarded." [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003
http://www.fdp.dk/act/030928_texas_clemency.php]
GONZALES TOLD GOV. BUSH HE COULD IGNORE INTERNATIONAL LAW: In 1997,
Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo for then Gov. Bush to justify
non-compliance with the Vienna Convention. The Vienna Convention,
ratified by the Senate in 1969, was "designed to ensure that foreign
nationals accused of a crime are given access to legal counsel by a
representative from their home country." Gonzales sent a letter to the
U.S. State Department in which he argued that the treaty didn't apply
to the State of Texas, as Texas was not a signatory to the Vienna
Convention. Two days later, Texas executed Mexican citizen Irineo
Tristan Montoya, despite Mexico's protestations that Texas had
violated Tristan's rights under the Vienna Convention by failing to
inform the Mexican consulate at the time of his arrest. (Slate,
6/15/04 http://slate.msn.com/id/2102416)
GONZALES GETS BUSH OUT OF JURY DUTY TO KEEP DUI SECRET: In 1996, as
counsel to Gov. Bush, Gonzales helped to get him excused from jury
duty, "a situation that could have required the governor to disclose
his then-secret 1976 conviction for drunken driving in Maine."
Gonzales argued "that if Bush served, he would not, as governor, be
able to pardon the defendant in the future." [USA Today, 3/18/02
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020318/3948380s.htm]
As Texas Supreme Court Justice
GONZALES DOES ENRON'S BIDDING: As an elected member of the Texas
Supreme Court, "Enron and Enron's law firm were Gonzales's biggest
contributors," giving him $35,450 in 2000. Overall, Gonzales raked in
$100,000 from the energy industry. In May 2000, "Gonzales was author
of a state Supreme Court opinion that handed the energy industry one
of its biggest Texas legal victories in recent history." Since Bush
brought him into the White House, Gonzales has worked doggedly to keep
secret the details of energy task force meetings held by Vice
President Cheney. [New York Daily News, 2/2/02 ]
ACCEPTING DONATIONS FROM LITIGANTS: In the weeks between hearing oral
arguments and making a decision in Henson v. Texas Farm Bureau Mutual
Insurance, Justice Alberto Gonzales collected a $2,000 contribution
premium from the Texas Farm Bureau (which runs the defendant insurance
company in this case). In another case, Gonzales pocketed a $2,500
contribution from a law firm defending the Royal Insurance company
just before hearing oral arguments in Embrey v. Royal Insurance.
[Texas for Public Justice
http://www.tpj.org/page_view.jsp?pageid=117&pubid=60]
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD, CA
LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM armored tanks showed
up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood.
The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves
in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the
protesters were gathered.
Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police
quickly cleared the street.
The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but after
about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the
tanks were deployed to this location.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/11/10/0844742
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Iraqi democrats against ocupation IDAO site
published this news: 9 November, Iraqi Railway workers
boycott supplies to US troops
www.idao.org
9 November, Iraqi Railway workers boycott supplies to US troops or
forces belonging to US-appointed Allawi government. Employees of
the National Iraqi Railways Company also declared that they will only
agree to carry food supplies to the Iraqi people as part of the UN for
food programme, and threatened national strike if forced to do
otherwise. The Allawi government reacted by accusing the railway
works of carrying civil disobedience. Meanwhile more than 40 Muslim
clerics of the Shia and Sunni faiths have urged Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani
to publically declare his opposition for Iraqi troops taking part in the
attack on the people of Falluja.
8 November, Al-Sadr movement, in a statement today, declared that
the attack on Falluja is an attack on the whole of Iraq and called on
members of the US-trained National Guard not to participate in the
US occupiers assault on Falluja.
U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)
www.uslaboragainstwar.org
PMB 153
1718 "M" Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Gene Bruskin and Bob Muehlenkamp, Co-convenors Amy Newell,
National Organizer Michael Eisenscher, Organizer & Web Coordinator
Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Companies Sue Union Retirees
To Cut Promised Health Benefits
Firms Claim Right to Change
Coverage, Attempt to Pick
Sympathetic Jurisdictions
The Process Server Pays a Call
By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 10, 2004; Page A1
When a deputy sheriff came to his door with a court summons, George Kneifel,
a retiree in Union Mills, Ind., was mystified. His former employer was suing
him.
The employer, beverage-can maker Rexam Inc., had agreed in labor contracts
to provide retirees with health-care coverage. But now the company was
asking a federal judge to rule that it could reduce or eliminate the
benefit.
Many companies have already cut back company-paid health-care coverage for
retirees from their salaried staffs. But until recently, employers generally
were barred from touching unionized retirees' benefits because they are
spelled out in labor contracts. Now, some are taking aggressive steps to
pare those benefits as well, including going to court.
In the past two years, employers have sued union retirees across the
country. In the suits, they ask judges to rule that no matter what labor
contracts say, they have a right to change the benefits. Some companies also
argue that contract references to "lifetime" coverage don't mean the
lifetime of the retirees, but the life of the labor contract. Since the
contracts expired many years ago, the promises, they say, have expired too.
The companies taking such steps remain a minority. Most big employers
continue to provide the retiree health coverage spelled out in labor
contracts. But the number of employers using the courts to attempt to reduce
benefits for union retirees is rising, and some have been successful.
"There's absolutely no doubt that there's been an increasing number of cases
over the past three years," says Richard Brean, associate general counsel of
the United Steelworkers of America.
They have little to lose by trying. Typically, as such legal cases drag on,
the employers save money as some of the retirees, who have to pay growing
portions of their health-care costs, forgo costly care, drop out of the
plans or die. If companies lose in court, the worst that happens is they
have to resume paying benefits. They don't face punitive damages or
penalties. And they may not have to resume benefits for those retirees who
dropped out of the health plans.
What's more, their earnings get a pop. That's because at the same time as
they sue, employers typically announce reductions in the retirees' benefits.
Doing so entitles them to lessen the liabilities carried on their books.
Lower liabilities translate to higher earnings.
The retirees, by contrast, often find themselves in a bind -- unsure of
their recourse and facing, as they age, the court system's typical long
waits for legal resolution. The U.S. Labor Department is of little help.
Retired workers "aren't our constituents anymore," says a spokeswoman for
the department.
Unions often do go to bat for retirees. The United Auto Workers and the
Steelworkers have been the most active in filing suits to protect retirees
whose benefits a company has unilaterally changed. But unions aren't allowed
to strike or file unfair-labor-practice complaints on behalf of retirees.
Employers that want to cut union retirees' health coverage or make retirees
pay a larger portion could just impose changes and wait to be sued. But by
suing first, they stand a chance of choosing the jurisdiction. This is
important, because federal circuits' appellate courts tend to take differing
positions in these disputes. Indeed, the unsettled nature of the law on
these issues -- with employers' arguments sometimes succeeding and sometimes
not -- may be a factor prompting some companies to have a go at gaining the
legal right to change benefits.
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"Freedom is always and exclusively
freedom for the one who thinks differently"
--Rosa Luxemburg
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Mordechai Vannunu arrested
Call the Israeli Consulate 415-844-7500 in SF lets flood them with
phone calls demanding the release of Mordechai. also anyone intersted
in doing an action in the Israeli Consulate in regards to this let
Me Know off line i would be up for doing that.
peace
keith
Mordechai Vanunu:
An Interview
By Johannes Wahlstrom, Jerusalem
Ten minutes stroll northward from the lively alleyways of the Old City
and its renowned Golden Dome lays one of the Holy Land's smallest
parishes; the Anglican Church, with its neo-gothic St George Cathedral.
The massive towers and defence-walls give the impression of an
impregnable bastion, while inside one finds a green oasis of tranquillity.
In the inner yard, surrounded by grapes, almonds, olives, pomegranates,
sage, narcissus, cypress, oleander, roses and all other imaginable and
unimaginable biblical plants, lays a Guesthouse. Here, weary Jerusalem
pilgrims rest their sore feet after a long day in the Holy City. And here
for the past four months, a fellow-Anglican, the nuclear whistleblower
Mordechai Vanunu has taken his refuge.
Despite of Israel's nuclear capacity, Vanunu believes the bombs are
useless.
"It's not an issue of UN resolutions; the world would intervene if Israel
used its holocaust weapons." When it comes to having them as
a deterrent," Vanunu explains. "The problem isn't Iran, Iraq or
North Korea; it's Israeli aggression.
A technician at the Dimona nuclear weapons production plant, he blew
the whistle, and revealed the Israeli nuclear arms program to the nation
and the world; a revelation that would cost him dearly. After being
kidnapped Israeli Mossad agents in Rome, Vanunu was sentenced at
a secret trial to 18 years of jail, 12 years out of them he served in
solitary confinement. In the solitude of the jail, he wrote:
I am your Spy. I am the clerk, the technician, the mechanic, the driver.
They said: Do this, do that, don't look left or right, don't read the text.
Don't look at the whole machine. You are only responsible for this
one bolt. For this one rubber-stamp. This is your only concern.
Don't bother with what is above you. Don't try to think for us.
Go on, drive. Keep going. On, on.
"I refused to be a bolt in the deadly machinery", Vanunu says after his r
elease in an exclusive interview. After receiving death threats from
Jewish extremists and being placed under surveillance and travel
restrictions by the Israeli government, Vanunu has taken refuge at
St George Cathedral in East Jerusalem. Here Vanunu attends services,
rings the bells, and dreams to leave the unyielding clutches of the
Jewish state - for England or elsewhere.
He is suntanned, his handshake is firm, and his stare is fixed. The
only mark bearing witness to the 18 years of torment and isolation
is his stern face. What makes a man follow his heart and beliefs and
to pay so dearly for his convictions?
Vanunu pours a bottle of local Palestinian beer into his glass. The
golden label reads Taibeh, or 'tasty' in Arabic. "Ever since I was a child
I have learned to be open to other views", he says, "to criticize, to be
independent, and most importantly to be faithful to the truth. This is
why I have always tried to serve mankind, by contributing to peace
and foremost to justice for the much-suffering Palestinians."
Vanunu has however paid the price of refusing conformity, of being
independent. In the 70's he supported the Palestinian cause, and lost
his job. In the 80's he entered the Anglican Church and was ostracized
by his Jewish family. When he revealed the Israeli nuclear program in
order to avert a nuclear holocaust, he was imprisoned. Now again he
refuses to be subdued as he rejects the restrictions placed upon him
by the Israeli government.
"I'm being punished for no crime," Vanunu says while cautiously
squeezing the beer cap in his hand. "I'm not allowed to leave the
country for a year; I have to report to the police of my whereabouts,
and even if I want to overnight elsewhere I have to get their permission."
Vanunu is not allowed to talk to foreign press, to pass in the vicinities
of embassies, borders or airports, write e-mails or chat by internet.
He is well aware that by defying the restrictions in giving this
interview, he can once again be incarcerated.
The Israeli court regards Vanunu as a 'security threat'. And although
he has served his sentence, emergency regulations from the time of
the British Mandate have been enforced upon him. These laws have
become part of Israeli legal practise and can revoke the fundamental
democratic rights of a citizen if an army general regards him as a
"security threat".
What kind of security threat is Vanunu? Is he biding his time to
reveal more nuclear secrets? "I have no secrets that I haven't already
revealed." Besides, he points out, "I live among Palestinians, the
'enemy'. So why can't I speak to foreigners?"
Vanunu speaks his mind without weighing his words; maybe this
is what they are afraid of? "I repeat all the things that Israel wants
to be kept silent; I remind of Israel's nuclear weapons program,
I speak of the barbaric treatment in Israeli prison, and I express
my political views of the conflict," he sums up.
One of the most astounding revelations that Vanunu gave
concerned the size of Israel's nuclear arsenal. The photos he
took and the calculations he conducted at Dimona nuclear centre
showed that apart from manufacturing hydrogen bombs, Israel
was producing 40 kg of plutonium yearly, and at the time had
a capacity of 200-300 atomic weapons, sufficient for turning
Europe into a parking lot many times over.
Vanunu whispering nuclear secrets to Shamir :)
"I have no secrets that I haven't already revealed." Besides,
he points out, "I live among Palestinians, the 'enemy'. So why
can't I speak to foreigners?"
While pondering why they needed so many bombs, Vanunu
came to the conclusion that "it was like a factory production;
while the first ones are expensive to make, the rest are cheap."
Despite of Israel's nuclear capacity, Vanunu believes the bombs
are useless. "It's not an issue of UN resolutions; the world would
intervene if Israel used its holocaust weapons." When it comes
to having them as a deterrent, Vanunu explains: "the problem
isn't Iran, Iraq or North Korea, its Israeli aggression. Iraq didn't
have any nuclear weapons, I'm sure that neither does Iran. If
Israel wasn't so aggressive with its nuclear arms, none of the
other countries would even need to get them." He concludes
that the international community should intervene and stop
the Israeli aggression before it gets out of hand.
Vanunu's voice takes on a tense and serious tone when Israel
is described as 'the only democracy in the Middle East'. "First
they invade a sovereign nation while kidnapping me in Rome.
Then they sentence me at a secret trial, where neither I nor my
attorney is allowed take part of the evidence. They imprison and
torture me for the crime of talking to a journalist. And still they
deny me my freedom of speech and the freedom of movement."
He explains that the phrase may have been valid in the 50's.
"But what kind of democracy is it now, with all these emergency
laws? I am a living proof that Israel is not a democracy." The anger
on his face seems to subside; he reaches for the perspiring glass
on the table.
At Vanunu's release from prison in April, he was not only welcomed
by world media and a crowd of supporters, but equally by an angry
mob chanting for his death. The Israeli newspaper Maariv published
a census showing that a majority of Israelis disagreed with letting
him free; 33 percent thought he should be executed. Now he doesn't
venture into the Jewish-held parts of the city, the chance of being
lynched is much too real; in a few instances he has even been
assaulted by Jewish extremists outside of the church.
If the Israelis were fooled about their country's nuclear arms why
do they consider Vanunu a traitor? "This is one of the reasons
I refuse to speak to Israeli press," he explains. "They played a cruel
game on me and spread vicious lies while I was in total isolation,
saying I celebrated suicide bombings and so on".
Vanunu has now filed a multimillion shekel lawsuit against the
Israeli tabloid, Yediot Aharonot for falsely accusing him in providing
nuclear production skills to Hamas. According to Vanunu, the
media incited the Israeli public for they perceived him as a
Christian that betrayed the Jews.
He is convinced that his baptism is a greater issue than the nuclear
revelations, where both the media as well as the court would have
treated him differently had he not converted. "They could have lived
with the revelations; I could even have been treated as a hero
among the Jews," Vanunu explains. "They are not really thinking
about nuclear weapons, they think I'm a traitor for going to the
gentiles. But I had to turn to the British press, since the Israeli
media is completely infiltrated; they all work for the Mossad." Even
Vanunu's parents are more concerned with his conversion, and he
explains that "if there is one thing they can't accept it's the rejection
of Judaism".
On Sundays, at the back row of St George church, Vanunu participates
in the local Palestinian mass. One by one the members of the parish
line up to receive the Holy Communion. From Edward VII church tower,
the Jerusalem courthouse reminds of its presence just down the road;
here Vanunu was sentenced 18 years ago. Opposite the courthouse is
the ministry of Justice; two armed men in black patrol the entrance
and guard it from intruders and curious journalists. Further down the
road, hundreds of Palestinian women and men have gathered at the
fortified gates of the Ministry of Interior. Today, as they do every
other day, they stand in line to receive their mandatory ID-cards
asserting which zones they are allowed to visit.
Vanunu passes here every day as he ventures outside the protective
keep of the cathedral. The constant presence of soldiers and guards
checking on ID-cards at every corner reminds him that he is still
not free. "Just like the Palestinians I want to have my rights and the
freedom to go wherever I want, to do whatever I please. Israel has
to become a secular democratic state; a state without apartheid
and Jewish laws, a state that respects freedom of speech and
other religions."
But Vanunu doesn't want to talk on behalf of the Palestinians.
"They have their own representatives. I am just a man with my
views, and I have to be able to express them, it can't be
reasonable to be imprisoned for talking to journalists."
Out on the street, Palestinians passing by wave at Vanunu;
sometimes they approach, press his hand respectfully and invite
him for coffee or dinner. For many of them he is a symbol of hope
and coexistence with the Israelis. For Vanunu it is in the
Palestinian society that he feels free and appreciated.
During his years of isolation, Vanunu developed an intricate
friendship with his Palestinian inmates at the Ashkelon Prison.
Although they had never met they would always leave him a glass
of tea with mint at the courtyard, and during Ramadan they would
give him the traditional Arabic sweets, baklawa. Once the prison
guards forgot to bring him in and he got the chance to meet his
benefactors. "Those twenty minutes at the courtyard was the only
time we met. We talked and laughed, we became friends, and then
the guards came and we parted forever."
In prison, Vanunu was incarcerated at the 'Agaf seven', a secret
section run by the security service. Here he was tortured and abused.
And even as the prison guards did all they could to make him
aggressive, he refused to play by their rules. Once he couldn't
keep his temper and called them Nazis. "Then they got a reason
to hit me. After that I learned not to give them any more such
chances." Instead Vanunu relied upon his faith and international
support.
In 1987 Vanunu was granted the "Right Livelihood Award", better
known as the Alternative Peace Prize. The real Nobel Peace Prize,
Vanunu reminds bitterly, was given to Shimon Peres, the man
responsible for his kidnapping and the driving force behind Israeli
nuclear ambitions. Since his initial incarceration Vanunu has received
numerous awards, the latest of which was Yoko Ono's Lennon Peace
grant. The award, given with the motivation that he had "spoken out
for the benefit of the human race", will, due to the restrictions placed
upon him, be sent to the care of St George Cathedral rather than being
delivered in person at the UN building in New York.
Vanunu now pleads to the international community: "I'm waiting for
the world to intervene, to deal with Israel." And he adds that "the only
way to be free is to be free from Israel." In order to leave the country
Vanunu is trying to cancel his Israeli citizenship, but for the authorities
to approve of it, he needs a foreign one. While he has applied for Swedish,
Norwegian, Danish, Irish and even Palestinian citizenship, his application
for British citizenship has yet to receive any clear response. Yet it was
a British newspaper that published his revelations, and he was trapped
by the Mossad on British soil.
Vanunu moved to Israel as a 10 year old Jewish child from Morocco,
now he indeed feels as though he has long since overstayed his
welcome in the country. "If I where you", he says, "I wouldn't be here,
I would rather sit somewhere in peace and quiet, study history and
write a book." In the holy city of Jerusalem, Vanunu wants nothing
more than to get away from the constant patrolling of police and
military, away from oppression, away from occupation and walls.
As a convalescent after years of laying-in, he cautiously walks the
streets, discovers the simple pleasures of a swim, of a friendly
company, of a dinner with fork and knife.
Outside the protective keep of the cathedral the streets are full
of life. In the green tranquillity of the inner yard Mordechai
Vanunu wonders whether after 18 years he will finally be free.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Hard Lesson in Battle: 150
Marines Meet 1 Sniper
THE INSURGENTS
By DEXTER FILKINS
FALLUJA, Iraq
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11snipers.html?hp
&ex=1100235600&en=0879c52c261dfe9b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 10 - American marines called in two
airstrikes on the pair of dingy three-story buildings squatting
along Highway 10 on Wednesday, dropping 500-pound bombs
each time. They fired 35 or so 155-millimeter artillery shells,
10 shots from the muzzles of Abrams tanks and perhaps 30,000
rounds from their automatic rifles. The building was a smoking ruin.
But the sniper kept shooting.
He - or they, because no one can count the flitting shadows in
this place - kept 150 marines pinned down for the better part of
a day. It was a lesson on the nature of the enemy in this hellish
warren of rubble-strewn streets. Not all of the insurgents are holy
warriors looking for martyrdom. At least a few are highly trained
killers who do their job with cold precision and know how to survive.
"The idea is, he just sits up there and eats a sandwich," said Lt. Andy
Eckert, "and we go crazy trying to find him."
The contest is a deadly one, and two marines in Company B, First
Battalion, Eighth Regiment of the First Marine Expeditionary Force
have been killed by snipers in the past two days as the unit advanced
just half a mile southward to Highway 10 from a mosque they had
taken on Tuesday.
Despite the world-shaking blasts of weaponry as the Americans
try to root out the snipers, this is also a contest of wills in which
the tension rises to a level that seems unbearable, and then rises
again. Marine snipers sit, as motionless as blue herons, for 30
minutes and stare with crazed intensity into the oversized scopes
on their guns. If so much as a penumbra brushes across a windowsill,
they open up.
With the troops' senses tuned to a high pitch, mundane events
become extraordinary. During one bombing, a blue-and-yellow
parakeet flew up to a roof of a captured building and fluttered about
in tight circles before perching on a slumping power line, to the
amazement of the marines assembled there.
On another occasion, the snipers tensed when they heard
movement in the direction of a smoldering building. A cat
sauntered out, unconcerned with anything but making its
rounds in the neighborhood.
"Can I shoot it, sir?" a sniper asked an officer.
"Absolutely not," came the reply.
This day started at about 8 a.m., when the marines left the
building where they had been sleeping and headed south toward
Highway 10, which runs from east to west and roughly bisects the
town. At the corner of Highway 10 and Thurthar, the street they
were moving along, was a headquarters building for the Iraqi
National Guard that had been taken over by insurgents.
Almost immediately, they came under fire from a sniper in the
minaret of a mosque just south of them. Someone in a three-
story residential building farther down the street also opened
up. The marines made 50-yard dashes and dived for cover, but
one of them was cut down, killed on the spot. It was unclear
what direction the fatal bullet had come from.
"I don't know who it was," Lt. Steven Berch, leader of the fallen
marine's platoon, said of the attacker, "but he was very well
trained."
After two hours of bombardment, the sniper at that mosque
ceased firing. But just around the corner at the famous blue-
domed Khulafah Al Rashid mosque, another sniper was pinning
down marines, and airstrikes were called in on it, too. The issue
of striking at mosques is so sensitive in the Arab world that the
American military later issued a statement saying that the strike
on the Khulafah mosque was unavoidable and that precision
munitions merely knocked down a minaret.
By noon, the marines had worked their way down to the national
guard building, still taking fire from the sniper, or snipers, on the
other side of Main Street. Inside was a sign in Arabic that said:
"Long live the mujahedeen." Soon the marines had spray-painted
another sign over it: "Long live the muj killers."
But for the next five hours, they could not kill whoever was running
from window to window and firing at them from the other side of
Main Street, despite the expenditure of enormous amounts of
ammunition.
"We're not able to see the muzzle flashes," said Capt. Read
Omohundro, the company commander. "As a result," he said,
"we end up expending a lot of ammunition trying to get the snipers."
At one point, they thought that they had a bead on someone
running back and forth between the two buildings. Then Capt.
Christopher Spears exclaimed: "He's on a bike!"
And somehow, through a volley of gunfire, whoever it was got
away.
At 5 p.m., the marines finally crossed Highway 10 and searched
the smoking remains of the two buildings. At 5:30 p.m., a sniper
opened up on them.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) As U.S. Advances in Falluja,
New Fighting Erupts in Northern Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ and MARIA NEWMAN
BAGHDAD
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11cnd-iraq.html?
hp&ex=1100235600&en=b76e3d2520471f73&ei=5094&partner=homepage
BAGHDAD, Nov. 11 - Insurgents opened a new front against
American-led forces today, attacking several police stations in
the northern city of Mosul and pushing that city to the brink of
chaos, while an enormous car bomb in the heart of Baghdad just
before noon killed at least 13 people.
The violence in the north came as American marines and soldiers
renewed their three-day-old push through Falluja. The invasion
began at the northern boundary of the city early Monday but had
through town. This morning, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said coalition forces now controlled well more
than half of Falluja.
"Things are going, I think, as planned," he said on the CBS "Early
Show." "We've got about 70 percent of the city under control."
Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division,
said today that 18 American troops and 5 Iraqi government soldiers
had been killed in action since the start of the Falluja offensive, The
Associated Press reported, and that 69 American and 34 Iraqi troops
had been wounded. "Today our forces are conducting deliberate
clearing operations within the city, going house to house, building
to building looking for arms caches," he said.
Various military officials have estimated the number of dead guerrillas
in the hundreds, out of as many as 3,000 who were thought to have
gathered in Falluja before the American-led attack. American forces
have also taken an undetermined number of suspects prisoner.
In Mosul, insurgents attacked the police academy and the Zuhoor
police station with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades beginning
about 10 a.m., then looted the buildings, which had apparently been
abandoned by the police. Similar scenes played out at half a dozen
police stations all together, news reports from the region said.
Two Iraqi military vehicles were burned near Mosul University after
being chased down by insurgents. The fate of their occupants was
unknown. American military forces appeared to witnesses to be doing
little to stop the mayhem, taking up positions in the suburbs and on
the airport road, at least during the early fighting.
Smoke rose from several areas as American warplanes streaked
overhead, The Associated Press reported. The authorities in Mosul
warned residents to stay away from the five major bridges across the
Tigris River because of fighting, the news agency said, and militants
brandishing rocket-propelled grenades were seen in front of the
Ibn Al-Atheer hospital in the city's Jammia district.
A spokeswoman for the American military, Capt. Angela Bowman,
said that some of the attacks on the police stations had overwhelmed
"the capabilities of the existing police force" and that five police
stations had been "ransacked.''
"The insurgents continue to fire at the Iraqi National Guard and the
multinational forces," she told an A.P. reporter. "The operations are
still ongoing and probably will for some time until we fully secure
the city."
The news agency said Captain Bowman rejected claims by some
residents that parts of Mosul had fallen under insurgent control,
saying that guerrillas "have not taken any parts of the city."
Insurgents also attacked the headquarters of pro-American Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan Party, forcing those inside to leave after guards
were overpowered, The A.P. said. Residents saw masked gunmen
roaming the streets, setting police cars on fire. The local television
station in Mosul went off the air.
In Baghdad, the car bomb exploded around 11:30 a.m. in Nasir
Square, near a bridge leading toward the fortified, American-
controlled Green Zone. Charred bodies littered the street after
the explosion, including the headless body of a civilian. A witness,
Ali Safi, 25, said that he thought the bomber had been chasing
a convoy of GMC sport utility vehicles, a choice target of suicide
bombers here because they are commonly used by American
contractors.
As the newly intensified battles raged in Iraq, General Myers
said in several televised interviews that he was optimistic about
the outcome, but acknowledged that the campaign against
terrorism would be a long one.
"The fighting, I think, has looked easy, but it's only easy because
we've got very professional armed forces members conducting
that operation, both marines and United States Army and others,''
he said on the "Early Show."
"There have been hundreds and hundreds of insurgents who have
been either killed or captured,'' he said. "We hope that in, you
know, the next few days we'll be able to return Falluja to the
citizens there without the intimidation that the insurgents brought
and that as we go to elections in Iraq here in January that the
citizens of Falluja can participate in that event as well.''
The general said that he did not consider Mosul a "no man's land,''
but acknowledged that much work needed to be done to stabilize
that northern city. He also said that it would take more than just
military action to bring order to Iraq if elections were to be held in
January. He said that United States military and the Iraqi forces were
working to bolster three prongs of Iraq's society: security system,
a democratic government and the economy.
"But there are some tough challenges ahead,'' he said. "As you
mentioned, all the car bombs going off. These are the extremists
killing their fellow Muslims, killing Iraqis. There are a lot more
Iraqis that have been killed by these extremists than coalition
forces over this fight.''
On the NBC "Today" program, General Myers said: "I think this
war on terrorism is going to be a long war. I don't know that it's
always going to have the military on the front lines every year. We
certainly hope not.''
James Glanz reported from Baghdad for this article and Maria
Newman reported from New York.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
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12) Europe Must Adapt to U.S. View on
Terror, NATO Chief Says
By WARREN HOGE
UNITED NATIONS
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/europe/11cnd-nato.html?hp&ex
=1100235600&en=95c8c80a284ba55a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 11 - The head of NATO said today that there
was a critical "perception gap" between Europe and the United States
on the subject of global terror and that Europeans must move closer
to the American view of the seriousness of the threat.
"Your country focused very much on the fight against terror while in
Europe we focused to a lesser extent on the consequences for the
world," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's secretary general, said in an
interview. "We looked at it from different angles, and that for me is
one of the reasons you saw such frictions in the trans-Atlantic
relationship."
As a result, he said, Europe was lagging behind the United States in
merging external and internal security to combat terrorism, and Europe
had to catch up.
"If the gap is to be bridged, it has to be done from the European side
and not from the United States," he said, adding that the conflict in Iraq,
the issue that helped divide the alliance, now provided an opportunity
for uniting it.
"Where allies very much agree and must agree is the fact that whatever
ways they have looked at the war in Iraq and the run-up to it and the
split we saw, we cannot afford to see Iraq go up in flames," he said. "It
is everyone's obligation that we get Iraq right."
Mr. de Hoop Scheffer is a former Dutch foreign minister who backed
the Bush administration on the war in Iraq without alienating other
European leaders and became NATO's head on Jan. 1. He said that
a meeting he had with President Bush in Washington Wednesday should
be taken as a sign that trans-Atlantic frictions had eased.
"It's not as if I came here with doubt and my meeting with the President
washed it all away,'' he said. "I have never doubted that commitment, but
whatever way you look at it, the fact that the secretary general of NATO
is the first foreign visitor that President Bush has met since the election
is a clear sign sign of the full commitment of this administration and of
this president to the trans-Atlantic alliance."
NATO has been asked by the Iraqi government to train its security forces,
and Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said that 10 of the 19 member states were
contributing to that training, both within Iraq and in places outside Iraq,
the preference of France, Germany and Spain - like Jordan and European
military schools. He said he hoped to have the program fully operational
by the end of the year.
The experience of Iraq had taught him two lessons as a European and
an Atlanticist, he said.
"The first is that if Europe sees its integration process as one directed
against the United States, it will not work because the result will be
a split in Europe, and that is an ambition that no European should
have,'' he said.
"The second is that if you want to have a trans-Atlantic dialogue between
grownups, I know that any president and any American administration
is willing to listen to the European voice as long as it is one European
voice. If it is five different voices, they will not take the trouble to
listen
and they will wonder what is Europe."
NATO has 9,000 troops and a broadening reconstruction campaign
under way in Afghanistan, but Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said his greatest
concern there now - one he planned to raise in a meeting with
Secretary General Kofi Annan today - was the explosion in the heroin
trade and its threat to the country's political future and to NATO's
work there.
"Poppy fields are growing in large parts of the country, certain
warlords are financed from the revenues of the crop and the
economy of Afghanistan is dominated by the illegal profits of
this growth," he said.
While the mission was one for the international community and
not for NATO, he said, it could end up undermining his organization's
effort to secure and stabilize the country.
"My point,'' he said, "is that if the international community
doesn't take this problem head on, then what are we doing there?"
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
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13) The Things They Wrote
VETERANS DAY
November 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/opinion/11intro.html
A year ago the Op-Ed page marked Veterans Day by publishing
excerpts from letters written home by soldiers who lost their lives
in Iraq. At the time, fewer than 400 Americans had died in
Operation Iraqi Freedom. This year Veterans Day takes place
during the battle for the Iraqi city of Falluja, where at least
11 Americans have been killed this week. Since the beginning
of the war, the number of American dead in Iraq, according to
the Pentagon, stands at 1,149. Thousands more have been
wounded.
Below are passages from letters sent this year by men and women,
now dead, to their families in the United States.
Excerpts from letters to his parents from Pfc. Moisés A. Langhorst
of the Marines. Private Langhorst, 19, of Moose Lake, Minn., was
killed in Al Anbar Province on April 6 by small-arms fire.
March 13
As far as my psychological health, we look out for each other pretty
well on that. ... I've been praying a lot and I hope you're praying for
the Dirty 3rd Platoon, because there is no doubt that we are in the
Valley of the Shadow of Death.
March 15
After standing in the guard tower for seven-and-a-half hours this
morning, we went on our first platoon-size patrol from about
1200 to 1700. It was exhausting, but it went very well. I had to
carry the patrol pack with emergency chow, a poncho and night
vision goggles. That's what really wore me out.
We toured the mosques and visited the troublesome abandoned
train station. The people were friendly, and flocks of children
followed us everywhere.
When I called you asked me if Iraq is what I expected, and it really
is. It looks just like it does on the news. It hardly feels like a war,
though. Compared to the wars of the past, this is nothing. We're
not standing on line in the open - facing German machine guns
like the Marines at Belleau Wood or trying to wade ashore in chest-
deep water at Tarawa. We're not facing hordes of screaming men at
the frozen Chosun Reservoir in Korea or the clever ambushes of
Vietcong. We deal with potshots and I.E.D.'s. With modern medicine
my chances of dying are slim to none and my chances of going home
unscathed are better than half. Fewer than 10 men in my company
have fired their weapons in the 10 days we've been here.
March 24
While not always pleasant, I know this experience is good for me.
It makes me appreciate every little blessing God gives me, especially
the family, friends and home I left behind in Moose Lake.
Excerpt from an e-mail message to her cousin on his wedding day
from Sgt. First Class Linda Ann Tarango-Griess of the Army.
Sergeant Tarango-Griess, 33, of Sutton, Neb., was killed on July
11 in Samarra by an improvised explosive device.
May 14
So today is your big day? Wow! It seems like just yesterday that
I was making you peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Malt-O-
Meal. We experienced a lot together as we grew up and for the
life of me, I can't think of a time that you and I never got along.
IS THAT NORMAL?
I never thought I would see the day that you settle down and get
married, but here you are. You couldn't have picked a more
wonderful person than Rachel. She is very sweet, very giving
and most important, she loves you. Be good to her. I am sorry
I can't be there to share in your day, but here I am in hopes that
one day, these people will have the chance to be as happy as you.
Just know that I AM with you ... just close your eyes, place your
hands on your heart, and you will feel me there.
Excerpts from letters to his 2-year-old son and his wife from
Sgt. Christopher Potts of the Army. Sergeant Potts, 38, of
Tiverton, R.I., was killed on Oct. 3 in Taji by small-arms fire.
January
Hi my big guy. How are you? I miss you bad. I miss things like
you calling for me in the morning when you hear me in the kitchen,
or when you come home at the end of the day. I also miss cooking
for you and Mom. But most of all I miss your big hugs. I enjoy
hearing your voice on the phone and seeing the pictures you draw
for me. I'm sorry for not writing you till now. But the days are very
long here, and we only get about four-and-a-half hours sleep
a night. I got up a little early to write this because I know you
need your own letter too.
March 18
Hi my love. Well, where should I start? First we left Kuwait after
being issued a combat load of ammo - M-16 ammo, grenades,
smoke grenades, grenade-launcher ammo and C-4. I knew that
night that this is for real. Some people paced, some people slept,
some of us had to write the just-in-case letters, some just sat.
The letter-writing was a real hard thing to do, it definitely makes
you aware of the situation and your life. But you'll never have to
read it - unless you want to when I get home. It's weird because
I'm not afraid of what might happen, or the pain of it. I'm just
afraid of not being able to see you again.
The first leg of the trip through the desert was really bad. There
were children of all ages from God knows where begging for food
and water. The dust was blowing all over them, and some had torn
outgrown clothes, and some were barefoot. I looked over at my
driver and we were both crying after a few miles. I said to him,
You know, this is why I'm here, so that my kids won't ever have
to live like that. Then we just drove in silence for a while.
As we got closer to Baghdad you could see blown-up military
equipment, ours and theirs. People were on the side of the road
selling gasoline out of plastic jugs. There was diesel and fuel
spilled everywhere ... then you'd see some slaughtered lambs
on the side of the road. The meat is hanging out in the sun and
dirt and germ-infested air. Farther down the road there were
people bathing and washing up. Other people were picking
through garbage.
I hope today I can call. I miss you so much that as I write this
part my eyes are running. The TV in the mess hall said you
got snow yesterday. I wish I was there to shovel. I hope you
are being taken care of.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
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