STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.
NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:
SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 11AM
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
INFORMATION REGARDING TELEMARKETING AND YOUR CELL PHONE:
Starting Jan 1, 2005, all cell phone numbers will be made public to
telemarketing firms! This means as of Jan 1, your cell phone may
start ringing off the hook with telemarketers, but unlike your home
phone, most of you pay for your incoming calls. These telemarketers
will eat up your free minutes and end up costing you money in the
long run.
According to the National Do Not Call List, you have until Dec. 15th
2004 to get on the national "Do not call list" for cell phones (to
keep from having your cell number released to the telemarketing
companies). That's only 3 days from now!
To get on the Do Not Call list, call 1-888-382-1222 from the cell
phone that you wish to have put on the "do not call list" and follow
the simple instructions. It's easy and takes less than a minute.
Or you can register online at http://www.donotcall.gov
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Where you can still see the "must-see" film, WMD: Weapons of
Mass Deception.
This film is being downplayed by the mass media. It must have
something to do with the searing criticism of that very media that
is the content of the film. Go and see it.
WMD will play in the following theatres in the
Bay Area on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2004:
San Francisco, CA
Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema
601 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 267-4893
Berkeley, CA (currently playing)
The Oaks Theater
1875 Solano Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707
(510) 526-1836
Orinda, CA
Orinda Theater
2 Orinda Theater Square
Orinda, CA 94563
(925) 254-906
Richard Castro
Outreach & Special Distribution
Cinema Libre Studio
818.349.8822 Ph.
818.349.9922 Fax
www.cinemalibrestudio.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) A Giant Falls
GARY WEBB - PULITZER PRIZE WINNER, AUTHOR OF DARK ALLIANCE
CIA-DRUG SERIES DEAD OF REPORTED SUICIDE
Press Accounts Fail to Mention His Vindication by CIA Inspector
General Reports and Congressional Investigations
By Michael C. Ruppert
c) Copyright 2004, From The Wilderness Publications,
www.fromthewilderness.com . All Rights Reserved.
May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site
for non-profit purposes only.
December 13, 2004 1400 PDT (FTW)
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/121304_gary_webb.shtml
[Please distribute widely]
2) Trashed by the CIA's Claque
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
December 13, 2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12132004.html
3) Silencing the Messenger
Censoring NarcoNews
March 21, 2001
By Gary Webb
CounterPunch
4) Suicide by Multiple Gunshot wounds to the head?
Multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head?
Is that possible?
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/12/1709633.php
5) THE AMERICAN POLITICS OF MORALITY
[Col. Writ. 11/20/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
6) WHAT KIND OF 'DEMOCRACY' IS THIS?
[Col. Writ. 11/18/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
7) ENDING THE WAR AND PROTECTING OUR TROOPS AND VETERANS
(adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council delegates'
meeting on December 13, 2004)
From: OWC CAMPAIGN NEWS - distributed by the Open World
Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence &
Democratic Rights, c/o S.F. Labor
Council, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.
To SUB/ UNSUBSCRIBE, contact the OWC at
Phone: (415) 641-8616 Fax: (415) 440-9297.
Visit our website at www.owcinfo.org - Notify if any change in
email address.
(Please excuse duplicate postings, and please feel
free to re-post.)
8) Israeli Troops Raid Gaza, Told to Target Militants
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters)
Tue Dec 14, 2004 07:41 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7088089&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
9) BUSH CALLS FOR "NEW WORLD ORDER / PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES"
http://www.freepressinternational.com/bushnwo_12112004_87493029871647684.htm
l
10) US adopts National ID: Homeland Security Now In charge
of Regulations for all US States Drivers Licenses and
Birth Certificates
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 11:59 PM
Subject: Fwd: Congress Passes Law Mandating National ID Cards
Jonathan Wheeler | December 10 2004
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/intelligence_bill_natl_id.htm
11) US Airways Workers Authorize Job Actions
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP)
Filed at 9:35 p.m. ET
December 13, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-US-Airways-Flight-Attendants.htm
l?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
12) If you go to http://www.narconews.com/petras1.html
"Dirty Money" Foundation of U.S. Growth and Empire
Size and Scope of Dirty Money Laundering by Big U.S. Banks
From La Jornada, May 19, 2001
By James Petras
13) GI whistle-blower treated like madman
Whitewashing torture?
A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that
he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was
strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -
even though there was nothing wrong with him.
By David DeBatto
14) NLM Introduces New Environmental Site
In a message dated 12/14/04 10:18:21 AM,
holtlabor@igc.org writes:
15) Rights Group Reports Deaths of Men
Held by U.S. in Afghanistan
DETAINEES
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan
December 14, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/international/asia/14abuse.html
16) ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS
a one-man show featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca
directed by Francesca Prada
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) A Giant Falls
GARY WEBB - PULITZER PRIZE WINNER, AUTHOR OF DARK ALLIANCE
CIA-DRUG SERIES DEAD OF REPORTED SUICIDE
Press Accounts Fail to Mention His Vindication by CIA Inspector
General Reports and Congressional Investigations
By Michael C. Ruppert
c) Copyright 2004, From The Wilderness Publications,
www.fromthewilderness.com . All Rights Reserved.
May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site
for non-profit purposes only.
December 13, 2004 1400 PDT (FTW)
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/121304_gary_webb.shtml
[Please distribute widely]
December 13, 2004 1400 PDT (FTW) -Gary Webb, 49, the Pulitzer
Prize winning reporter from the San Jose Mercury News made America
hold its breath in 1996 when he showed us proof of direct CIA
involvement in drug trafficking. For a few months many of us
had hope.
He reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the
head two days ago. His body was discovered at 8:20 AM Saturday
as movers reportedly found a note on the door of his residence
asking them not to enter but to call for paramedics.
Webb's August 1996 series Dark Alliance for the San Jose Mercury
News pulled deep covers away from US covert operations and
American denial about connections between the CIA and drugs.
Gary left a bigger historical footprint than anyone who has ever
touched the subject including among others, Peter Dale Scott,
Alfred McCoy, Jonathan Kwitny and me.
His footprint was made possible in large part for two reasons.
First, his reporting was meticulous and produced hard records
that could not be effectively denied. Second, prominent African-
American leaders like Jesse Jackson and representatives Maxine
Waters and Juanita Millender-McDonald of Los Angeles and
Compton respectively took up the torch lit by Gary and ran with
it just before the 1996 presidential election which saw Bill Clinton
win his second term just eight weeks after the stories broke.
I was there at that time and it is not an understatement to say
that much of this country was "up in arms".
Waters at one point vowed to make the CIA-drug connections,
fully documented by Webb, her "life's work" if necessary.
In death the major press is beating him almost as ruthlessly as
they did in real life. No part of the major press has acknowledged
that Webb's work was subsequently vindicated by congressional
investigations and two CIA Inspector General's reports released in
1997 and 1998. FTW did report on Webb's vindication and his
legacy has - at least at the level of authentic journalism -
not been lost.
Please see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/RendGW.html , and
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/volii.html
For more FTW coverage of Gary Webb's life please use the search
engine at www.fromthewilderness.com .
The LA Times obituary, in all of its meanness and inaccuracy is here .
Of the six obituaries I have seen on him, the one from the L.A. Times
was the most brutally Soviet in its attempt to crush out his memory
as thoroughly as his work. Of course the Times would have to do that.
It was in Los Angeles where Webb dug up and documented the direct
connection between the CIA and cocaine smuggling/trafficking as
crack cocaine ravaged this city in the 1980s and the Contra war
decimated Central America.
The Times already had known of this for decades. Starting in 1979
I dealt extensively with the Times trying to report the same connections
with regard to heroin smuggling by the CIA. Cocaine did not become
a national epidemic until around 1980. By 1996 I had 17 bitter years
of funneling hard evidence to the Times and watching as staff writer
David Rosenzweig -- among others including Ron Soble and David
Johnston (now of the New York Times ) - kept taking the information,
promising to do something, and then spiking the stories in exchange
for promotions.
When Gary autographed his 1998 best-seller Dark Alliance to me he
wrote: "To Mike. You were there before I was."
Richard Heinberg, author of The Party's Over and Powerdown
observed after reading the Times' obituary, "The LA Times obit
is disgusting. 'What's our attitude toward investigative journalism?
Well, of course we try to discourage it wherever we can, but
sometimes it happens anyway. Then we get especially nasty--
we have to, naturally, to protect our reputation.'"
I always knew it was a fight to the death. I don't think he ever fully
understood that. Retired DEA agent Cele Castillo who had reported
on direct CIA drug involvement from Honduras and El Salvador in
the 1980s and I both told him in 1996 what he was up against and
what it might cost him.
GRATITUDE
There would be no FTW , or Crossing the Rubicon without Gary
Webb. Catherine Austin Fitts and I would never have met had it
not been for Gary Webb. Dick Gregory would not have made me
his white son on the radio had it not been for Gary Webb. I would
never have confronted John Deutch at Locke High had it not been
for Gary Webb.
I myself might have committed suicide in 1996 - broke, divorced
and having given up all hope of making people listen -- had it
not been for Gary Webb. For some years now it has been the
farthest thing from my mind.
I rediscovered my purpose and maybe Gary lost his. This is
a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.
KNOWN DETAILS
I called the Coroner shortly after the first flash came in here
from Bay Area journalist and producer Kellia Ramares. His time
of death was listed at 8:20 AM. Since it was Saturday, the homicide
detectives would have been off and had to be paged. I estimate
two hours (minimum) for them to get to the crime scene (unless
a uniformed supervisor handled it). Add three hours minimum f
or crime scene, photos etc; that means he went to the Coroner's
most likely around 1 PM. It could have been much later depending
on response times on a Saturday before Christmas.
When I called the Sacramento Coroner's Office at 8:20 PM on
Saturday I spoke with an unidentified female who stated that he
had just been there since late that afternoon. I identified myself as
a friend, ex-cop and journalist and she confirmed a single shot to
the head. I wasn't sure it was our Gary Webb so I got his date of
birth, hair and eye color. They matched. Gary was a good looking
man with a moustache and I asked if that fit. She hesitated for
quite a while before answering, "I can't tell."
This led me to suspect that the weapon used was a shotgun.
I then confirmed his death with the San Jose Mercury News
and the L.A. Times . We will see if later facts don't mesh with
what has been reported thus far.
I called the Times again at about 9:15 because I wanted to make
sure someone said some good things about Gary. I dropped
some names and got to the writer or the editor on the story who
wouldn't ID himself. He said he'd have someone call me back to
get my statement. No one ever called back and then the Times
published their maliciously spiteful obituary just after midnight
Sunday. It was clear to me that they wanted/needed to put
a spin on his death.
Gary Webb deserved better than this and those of us who
knew him and benefited from his work will see that he gets it.
I am going to the funeral and I will be asking questions in
Sacramento. Given the disproportionate number of "suicides"
of authors and journalists who have covered such stories, and
the mainstream's horrendously dishonest coverage of such
events, it is right to see if there are grounds to be cautiously
suspicious of these accounts. But it is also right to avoid hysteria
and unsupported conclusions until there are solid reasons to
suspect foul play.
Gary would have wanted us all to do this by the numbers,
patiently and thoroughly. That was his style. That was why
he was so good.
When funeral arrangements are announced FTW will publish
them and we encourage all of our subscribers to send flowers,
write letters and show their thanks to this man who changed
all of our lives forever.
It wouldn't hurt if you wanted to let the L.A. Times know what
you think of their obituary.
Sleep well, Gary. Wherever men and women of honor gather
together from now on, your name will be spoken with reverence,
respect and gratitude.
Mike Ruppert
www.fromthewilderness.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Trashed by the CIA's Claque
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
December 13, 2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12132004.html
News came over the weekend that Gary Webb had died Friday from
a gunshot wound to the head in his home in Sacramento, California.
It appears to have been self inflicted. The news saddens us, and
rekindles our anger at the fouls libels he endured at the hands
of his colleagues.
Webb was a great reporter whose best-known work exposed the
CIA'S complicity in the import of cocaine into the United States in
the 1980s, during the US onslaught on the Sandinista government
of Nicaragua. His devastating series Dark Alliance, published in the
San Jose Mercury News in 1996, provoked a series of wild attacks
in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post,
purporting to demolish Webb and exonerate the Agency.
The attacks were without merit, but the San Jose Mercury News
buckled under the pressure and undercut its own reporter with
a groveling and entirely unmerited retraction by its publisher.
It was a very dark day in the history of American journalism. We
described the entire saga in detail in our book Whiteout: the CIA,
Drugs and the Press which sets the story in the larger context of
the Agency's complicity in drug smuggling since its founding.
Webb left the Mercury News, and expanded his series into his
excellent book Dark Alliance. He also did other fine journalism,
notably  in Esquire  the definitive expose of what came to be
known as "driving while black", about the system program of
racial profiling by cops across the country. For now, here is
Webb's own, briskly robust account, which he sent us and which
we ran on this site in March, 2001, of the storm over his series,
along with his generous appeal to help a crusading journalistic
enterprise, Narco News. (see next article #3 below)
Later this week we will run a longer reprise on Webb and his
famous series.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Silencing the Messenger
Censoring NarcoNews
March 21, 2001
By Gary Webb
CounterPunch
Not long after I wrote a series for the San Jose Mercury News about
a drug ring that had flooded South Central Los Angeles with cheap
cocaine at the beginning of the crack explosion there, a strange
thing happened to me. I was silenced.
This, believe it or not, came as something of a surprise to me.
For 17 years I had been writing newspaper stories about grafters,
crooked bankers, corrupt politicians and killers -- and winning
armloads of journalism awards for it. Some of my stories had
convened grand juries and sent important people to well-deserved
jail cells. Others ended up on 20/20, and later became a best-
selling book (not written by me, unfortunately.) I started doing
television news shows, speaking to college journalism classes
and professional seminars. I had major papers bidding against
each other to hire me.
So when I happened across information implicating an arm of
the Central Intelligence Agency in the cocaine trade, I had no
qualms about jumping onto it with both feet. What did I have
to worry about? I was a newspaperman for a big city, take-no-
prisoners newspaper. I had the First Amendment, a law firm,
and a multi-million dollar corporation watching my back.
Besides, this story was a fucking outrage. Right-wing Latin
American drug dealers were helping finance a CIA-run covert
war in Nicaragua by selling tons of cocaine to the Crips and
Bloods in LA, who were turning it into crack and spreading
it through black neighborhoods nationwide. And all the
available evidence pointed to the sickening conclusion that
elements of the US government had known of it and had
either tacitly encouraged it or, at a minimum, done
absolutely nothing to stop it.
And that's when this strange thing happened. The national
news media, instead of using its brute strength to force the
truth from our government, decided that its time would be
better spent investigating me and my reporting. They kicked
me around pretty good, I have to admit. (At one point, I was
even accused of making movie deals with a crack dealer I'd
written about. The DEA raided my film agent's office looking
for any scrap of paper to back up this lie and appeared
disappointed when they came up emptyhanded.)
To this day, no one has ever been able to show me a single
error of fact in anything I've written about this drug ring, which
includes a 600-page book about the whole tragic mess. Indeed,
most of what has come out since shows that my newspaper
stories grossly underestimated the extent of our government's
knowledge, an error to which I readily confess. But, in the end,
the facts didn't really matter. What mattered was making the
damned thing go away, shutting people up, and making anyone
who demanded the truth appear to be a wacky conspiracy theorist.
And it worked.
As a result, the CIA was allowed to investigate itself, release
a heavily censored report admitting that it had worked with
cocaine traffickers, and simultaneously declare itself innocent
of any wrongdoing. And that's where our firebrand national news
media has let the matter lie to this day.
Now it's NarcoNews' turn for the silence treatment. And, if
I had to guess, I'd venture to say that it's probably more important
to the folks selling us the Drug War to shut up Al Giordano than
it is to silence mainstream reporters who, in my father's eloquent
words, wouldn't say shit if they had a mouth full of it.
No one can lean on NarcoNews's editors, or their bosses, or its
board of directors to reign Al in or, failing that, reassign him to
the night copy desk. The only person they can lean on is Al, who
doesn't take to being leaned on. And they can't shut down the
Internet either. So two choices remain.
They can grit their teeth and suffer Al's reporting, day after
aggravating day, as he exposes the ugly underside of this endless
war on drugs - and actually makes things happen, like real
journalists are supposed to do. Or they can try to make it
impossible for him to do his job by harassing him with specious
lawsuits, bedevil him with lawyers and depositions and
interrogatories and subpoenas, and reduce him to penury.
Why? To silence him. To make him go away. To keep him
from looking under rocks that reporters aren't supposed
to look under.
Make no mistake. This court fight isn't about any particular
story NarcoNews has done. It's about ALL of them, and all
of the ones yet to come. And it's a battle over the continued
independence of Internet journalism as well. The silencing
of Al Giordano and NarcoNews isn't a theoretical possibility
that might happen a couple years from now. It's already
happening. Al and his volunteer lawyers are hip-deep in
it right now. And they need our help.
Narco News and Al Giordano face an April 9th deadline to
respond to the Banamex censorship lawsuit or they will be
declared in default - guilty without a single fact being
heard in a case where the facts prove them right.
A civil lawsuit is different than a criminal case: complex
legal issues require trained lawyers to dig through the law
books on procedural issues so far from the basic truths
about photographs of cocaine trafficking on the coast of
Mexico. The bank's lawyers at Akin Gump are paid astronomic
fees to raise every small point of process and delay the day
when the facts come to light in New York City court.
If this case goes to trial, that's when Narco News will triumph.
And all of us will win with it as the real facts of the corruption
of the international drug war come to light in the media center
of New York.
The hard part comes right now, in navigating the maze of
irrelevant process issues, as any reporter who has covered
the courts has seen. Narco News will either be able to have
skilled attorneys get them through this complicated phase or -
I can see it coming - Al will have to take a long trip to the law
library himself, abandon reporting for the coming weeks or
months in order to wage his own defense. Then you and I will
not be able to read new reports on Narco News at this key moment
when Plan Colombia explodes regionally and more Latin American
voices are raised against the drug war, like the Mexican police chief
yesterday, who, if not for Narco News, would never be heard by
those of us who speak and read in English.
That is what is at stake: Whether a skilled reporter has to retire for
months to become a pro se lawyer, or whether he can continue
reporting the facts to us.
I was silenced but am not silenced any more. When, the other
day, the film rights to my book Dark Alliance about US complicity
in the cocaine trade were purchased for a television movie, I wrote
Al to pledge part of those proceeds to his defense. In the years to
come, there is no question that Narco News will be proven right
and will be helping the next generation of reporters fight efforts
to censor them.
But wouldn't it be wonderful if this time the censors failed
entirely to take Al and Narco News out of circulation, for
a year, for months, even for a week? Wouldn't that be the best
deterrent against bankers and lobbyists from waging these
frivolous lawsuits against Free Speech on the Internet? I understand
that Narco News needs only about $13,000 more to be able to have
the most difficult stage of the lawsuit process - that which it faces
immediately - handled with professional legal assistance, thus
allowing Al to continue expending his energy and time in reporting
to us the facts. One person of means could solve this problem with
a check. Two dozen people giving $500 could do it. 130 people
giving a hundred dollars... you can do the math: If half of Narco
News' readers give one dollar each, Narco News will keep
publishing.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Suicide by Multiple Gunshot wounds to the head?
Multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head?
Is that possible?
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/12/1709633.php
Use http://web.archive.org to find sites that have disappeared from the
web, ie:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://nakedgov.com income tax is
voluntary
http://web.archive.org/web/*/dcia.com DE-CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
No one is above the law. It was human folly for the UNITED STATES to
empower an agency of government to specifically break its own laws. The
CIA and the Constitution there after became mortal enemies --- until
the day one will overpower the other in a final victory. Will we be a
nation under law or a nation under law breakers?
The CIA undermines and assassinates popular leaders abroad -- and at
home --- and fixes elections abroad --- and at home. This organization
that routinely gets away with murder finds little challenge dominating
the world's narcotics trade. By reliable estimates the U.S. CIA and DOD
usher in half of the narcotics that come into this country. The very
same persons responsible for massive drug trafficking advocate
"toughening" the drug laws that alone make this trade so obscenely
profitable. In the last 5 years the CIA has had 5 directors --- none
knowing what to do. The CIA is a staggering giant waiting to fall. The
legislation to kill the CIA is waiting for acclaimation. Brian Downing
Quig 12-11-96
Suicide by Multiple Gunshot wounds to the head?
Multiple self inflicted gunshot wounds to the head?
Is that possible?
Obituary: Gary Webb, prize-winning investigative reporter --Gary Webb,
a prize-winning investigative journalist whose star-crossed career was
capped with a controversial newspaper series linking the CIA to the
crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles, died Friday of self-inflicted
gunshot wounds, officials said. Mr. Webb, 49, was found dead in his
Carmichael home Friday morning of gunshot wounds to the head, the
Sacramento County Coroner's Office said Saturday.
[Hey, I hit the cerebrum. Let me try again.]
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news%a0
Assassination of US Investigative Journalist Gary Webb?
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/XYM412A.html
Potential Witness Syndrome, one symptom of which is
"suicide by multiple gun shot wounds to the head".
This is apparently exactly what Gary Webb died of (watch
as the stories are refined to change 'wounds' to 'a gunshot wound').
R.I.P. Gary Webb -- Unembedded Reporter
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1213-31.htm
Support the CIA; Buy Crack Today!
Cocaine Import Agency; that's "CIA" for you and me.
Other journalists who followed in Gary Webb's footsteps,
Exposing CIA importation of Cocaine, Opium, Heroin, etc:
http://narconews.com
http://copvcia.com Michael Ruppert
http://counterpunch.org Alexander Cockburn
http://dcia.com
http://drugwar.com
http://cispes.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) THE AMERICAN POLITICS OF MORALITY
[Col. Writ. 11/20/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
It is utterly amazing to hear mouthpieces for the corporate
media sound off about 'morality issues' now driving the
American political machine.
One wonders: what does morality mean? Does it have
anything to do with life and death; with war and peace;
with slaughter and genocide? Or does it only have to do
with sex?
What would a member of the first peoples, the so-called
Indians, say about American morality? A man we now
recall by the given name of Powhatan, who was called by
his people, Wahunsonacock (1547-1618), who was principal
chief of a confederacy of 32 tribes, and who ruled over an
area of hundreds of miles, was threatened by Capt. John
Smith with destruction.
Chief Powhatan's reply gives us some insight into early
American morality:
... Why should you take by force that from us which you
can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have
provided you with food? What can you get by war?
We can hide our provisions, and fly into the woods
and then you must consequently famish by wronging
your friends. What is the cause of your jealousy?
[From *Great Speeches by Native Americans*,
Bob Blaisdell, ed. (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2000). p. 4].
Smith owed his very life to Powhatan's daughter,
Pocahontas, who had saved him from execution a year
before he threatened her father. Nor was Wahunsonacock's
rap about the white colonists' near starving mere words.
Smith himself wrote, in *The General History of Virginia*,
"So great was our famine that a savage we slew and
buried, the poorer sort took him up again and ate him;
And one amongst the rest did kill his wife, powder her
and had eaten part of her" [4th Book, p. 294].
How many Americans know that among their
'founding fathers' were cannibals?
Some 200 years later, Americans would force a
'loyal' Indian tribe, the Cherokees, off of their ancestral
lands, in what has become known as "The Trail of Tears."
A leader of the Cherokees, a war chief known as Junuluska,
had fought with Andrew Jackson in the Battle of the Horse
Shoe against the Creek. Junuluska brought 500 of his
young braves to assist Jackson, and saved Jackson's life
when a Creek warrior had him at his mercy. Junuluska's
tomahawk literally saved the man who would later
become president.
When white colonists in Georgia attacked Cherokee
lands, and the U.S. government sought to remove them,
Junuluska traveled to Washington, D.C. to plead for his
tribe. Jackson received him coldly, telling him, "There is
nothing I can do for you."
Within a short time, over 7000 Army troops and volunteers
struck Indian country, and men, women, and suckling babes
were forced, at bayonet point, into stockades, where they would
be imprisoned until the long walk, from Georgia to Oklahoma.
Thousands would die, of hunger, sickness, fear, and broken
hearts on this "Trail of Tears." Junuluska, seeing the way
his people, who were called 'the civilized Indians' because
of their Christian faith, their European style of building,
and their literacy, were treated by Americans, said, "Oh
my God, if I had known at the Battle of the Horse Shoe
what I know now, American history would have been
differently written" [See Zinn, Howard and Anthony Arnove,
*Voices of A People's History of the United States* (NY:
Seven Stories, 2004), pp. 144-5].
What do you think they would say about American
political morality? What about the long train of coups, and
counter-coups waged by the US CIA all over the world?
There are more dictators, autocrats, tyrants than I have
time to name, who owe their reigns to Washington. They
have ravaged their countries, devastated their workers,
sold away their souls, for their American masters.
What kind of political morality unleashes psychopaths
upon the peoples of the world, in the name of democracy?
What kind of political morality seeks to keep the vast
majority of the world's people in subjection, in peonage
to the Empire?
There is no such thing as political morality; it's an
oxymoron, like compassionate conservative, or military
intelligence.
Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) WHAT KIND OF 'DEMOCRACY' IS THIS?
[Col. Writ. 11/18/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
"Authority is never with hate."
-- Euripides (480-406 B.C.E.), Greek Poet
We live under the reign of almost universal political
contempt. It doesn't matter which party, politicians are
in the employ of others, and that isn't remotely those who
voted for them, but rather those who could afford to
finance them.
Oh, they don't come out and say it (often); but look at
how politicians treat those who claim to be their constituents.
The only common denominator is betrayal. Former
president, Bill Clinton perfected this to a high art. Virtually
everybody who voted for him got betrayed, sooner or later.
And the real deal is, it isn't personal; that's the way the system
was designed, and has developed.
To many of the men who we are accustomed to call 'the
founding fathers', the word 'democracy' was a bad word. They
hated, dreaded, and feared the very idea of a democracy.
New York's delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1789,
Alexander Hamilton admired monarchy, and sought ways to
check "the amazing violence and turbulence of the democratic
spirit" [see Jerry Fresia's *Toward an American Revolution:
Exposing the Constitution & Other Illusions* (Boston: South
End Press, 1988), p. 16]. Historian Brian Price put it neatly
at a lecture at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington,
when he asked:
Is it possible for a class which exterminates the native
peoples of the Americas, replaces them by raping
Africa for humans it then denigrates and dehumanizes
as slaves, while cheapening and degrading its own
working class -- is it possible for such a class to
create democracy, equality, and to advance the cause
of human freedom? (Fresia, p. 5)
It took centuries of struggles by Africans, workers, women, and
others to begin to erect some semblance of democracy, but,
as in a pendulum, things swing from one end to another;
nothing stands still. When folks stop fighting, other interests
fight on.
In the present political structure, wealthy anti-democratic
elements continue to wage war through the purchase (or rental)
of politicians, who then use their positions to advance the
economic interests of their benefactors. That's how quietly,
almost invisibly, through both Democrats and Republicans,
the silent march of globalism has come to almost dominate
all areas of our lives. The WTO, the IMF, and other
international pacts, eat out the hearts of local communities,
by supporting the efforts of international trade, while carving
out spaces where little vestiges of democracy once reigned.
And war, because it is used by States to mobilize people
in ways they wouldn't accept otherwise, is but an instrument
in this global trade war. I mean, seriously: does anybody
*really* believe that the Iraq war is 'to bring democracy?'
The great socialist leader, Emma Goldman, at her anti-war
trial (for opposing World War I), said:
"Verily poor as we are in democracy, how can we
give of it to the world?" [Howard Zinn & Anthony
Arnove, *Voices of a People's History of the United
States*. (NY: Seven Stories Press, 2004), p. 23].
And even if we accept the present political structure, how
can we reconcile this system of 'winner take all' with any
idea of democracy? Even in the parliaments of Europe, in
England, or France, or Germany, minority parties receive
representation in proportion to their voting strength. Here, 51%
of the votes means 100% of the power. The 49%? Nothing.
We don't really believe in democracy in America, nor have
we ever done so. America stands for domination. Period.
It is domination that is being exported to the Middle East,
just as it was exported 100 years ago to Indian Country; to
Oklahoma, and to Mexican territories. 'Democracy' was a
bad word then; it's a bad word now, used only as a mask
for something else.
How else, in the name of democracy, could we be so
dominated, so controlled, so acquiescent? How else could
we be so powerless, in the face of ever-growing repression?
Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) ENDING THE WAR AND PROTECTING OUR TROOPS AND VETERANS
(adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council delegates'
meeting on December 13, 2004)
From: OWC CAMPAIGN NEWS - distributed by the Open World
Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence &
Democratic Rights, c/o S.F. Labor
Council, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.
To SUB/ UNSUBSCRIBE, contact the OWC at
Phone: (415) 641-8616 Fax: (415) 440-9297.
Visit our website at www.owcinfo.org - Notify if any change in
email address.
(Please excuse duplicate postings, and please feel
free to re-post.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
The resolution below was adopted unanimously by the San Francisco
Labor Council (AFL-CIO) regular delegates' meeting on December
13, 2004. The resolution was submitted by Alan Benjamin,
Ed Rosario and Howard Wallace, all members of the SFLC
Executive Board.
The vote on this resolution was preceded by a report by Alan
Benjamin on the December 4 National Leadership Assembly
of US Labor Against the War. A full report on this leadership
gathering is being prepared by the USLAW national organizers
and should be available within the next few days. It will be
posted on the USLAW website, which is
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org.
Unionists and antiwar activists in the S.F. Bay Area are invited
to a USLAW Leadership Assembly Report-Back on Wednesday,
December 15 at 7 p.m. at the hall of SEIU Local 250 in
Oakland: 560 - 20th Street (between San Pablo and Telegraph).
Delegates from the Bay Area unions that participated in this
Leadership Assembly will report on the decisions of this
important gathering.
Hope to see you there!
Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin,
OWC Co-coordinators
PS: This is the last OWC posting that will be signed by Ed
Rosario while still in the Bay Area. After more than 20 years
on the "Left Coast," Brother Rosario is returning to Brooklyn,
N.Y., where he will continue his activities in the labor and
social justice movements. At the SFLC delegates' meeting
on Dec. 13, SFLC Secretary-Treasurer-Emeritus Walter
Johnson presented Brother Rosario with a plaque to honor
his distinguished service to the Council during these
20-plus years.
Brother Rosario will continue to serve as co-coordinator
of the Open World Conference Continuations Committee
from New York. He will be sorely missed, however, by all
of us in the Bay Area who have grown accustomed to his
loud roar at the labor marches and picketlines and his
constant presence and leadership in all the struggles
waged by working people and our communities in the
Bay Area. Hasta pronto, compañero Rosario. -- Alan B.
ENDING THE WAR AND PROTECTING OUR TROOPS
AND VETERANS
(adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council delegates'
meeting on December 13, 2004)
WHEREAS, the Bush administration carried out an invasion
of Iraq using the pretense that Iraq possessed weapons of
mass destruction, and therefore posed an immediate threat
to the security of the United States. But no evidence has
been found that Iraq possessed these weapons or the
capability to deploy them, and
WHEREAS, the administration has embraced a new and
dangerous path of preemptive war without an imminent
threat to the United States that has made us less, not
more secure, that has stoked rather than reduced the
threat of terrorism and that has put Iraqis on a path to
civil war and brought them no closer to a democratic
society, and
WHEREAS, the war and military occupation of Iraq have cost
the lives of over 1200 U.S. troops, the wounding and disabling
of thousands more, the deaths of an estimated 100,000 Iraqi
civilians, casualties among soldiers of other nations, and the
devastation of the entire country, and
WHEREAS, we recognize the courage of U.S. military personnel,
many of whom are members or family of members of our unions.
They have faced extraordinary danger and have made huge
sacrifices in this war; they now want to come home; and bringing
them home is the best means of protecting them, and
WHEREAS, the Bush administration has used the Iraq war and
national security hysteria as a pretext to create a climate of fear
at home, to restrict civil liberties and to attack the rights of
workers and unions, and
WHEREAS, the war and occupation have cost over two hundred
billion dollars, leading directly to cuts in social and human services,
education and even benefits for the very veterans of this and other
conflicts, while war spending has lined the pockets of immensely
wealthy anti-labor corporations, and
WHEREAS, the Bush administration has announced the wholesale
privatization of Iraqi factories and workplaces, and kept in force
a ban on unions in the public sector, to benefit corporate investors
at the expense of Iraqi people, and
WHEREAS, the Bush administration has divided us here at home
while inspiring fear and distrust among other nations of the world
community, and has sacrificed the unity and friendship our country
enjoyed in the days and months after September 11, and
WHEREAS, five national unions (SEIU, AFSCME, CWA, APWU, GCIU),
and numerous state labor federations, central labor councils, local
unions and other labor bodies representing millions of union members
have passed resolutions calling for our troops to be brought home, and
WHEREAS, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has asked the labor
movement at every level to discuss important issues, challenges
and problems we confront in preparation for the AFL-CIO Executive
Council meeting in March and the national convention in July, and
given that the issues of war and peace and destruction of the
social safety net are paramount among them,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the San Francisco Labor Council
calls on President Bush to bring our troops home from Iraq now and
reject the philosophy of pre-emptive war without a clear imminent
threat to the United States, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Francisco Labor Council calls
on President Bush to provide adequate veterans' benefits and otherwise
meet the needs of returning veterans, and our people in general,
to jobs, education and healthcare, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Francisco Labor Council calls
on the National AFL-CIO to demand an an immediate end to the U.S.
occupation of Iraq, the return of U.S. troops to their homes and
families, and the reordering of national priorities toward peace
and meeting human needs, and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the San Francisco Labor Council submits
this resolution to the California Federation of Labor for its concurrence
and immediate action, and also calls on the California Federation of
Labor to distribute this resolution to all its affiliates for their
concurrence and immediate action.
(submitted to the San Francisco Labor Council by Alan Benjamin,
Ed Rosario and Howard Wallace)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Israeli Troops Raid Gaza, Told to Target Militants
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters)
Tue Dec 14, 2004 07:41 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7088089&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops demolished several Palestinian homes
and raided an Islamist stronghold in Gaza City on Tuesday as the
army intensified operations in the wake of a deadly militant attack.
Growing violence in the occupied Gaza Strip has dampened hopes
of a peace breakthrough after Yasser Arafat's death on Nov. 11. Israel
ordered more efforts to target militants after an attack that killed five
Israeli troops on Sunday.
Touring the ruins of the army post blown up on the Gaza-Egypt
border, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel would keep
fighting until the Palestinian Authority began to act against the
armed groups.
"We will continue this fight against terror until someone else fights
the terror," he told reporters.
Troops blew up seven homes in the southern Gaza refugee camp
of Khan Younis after telling residents to leave, Palestinian witnesses
said. The army said it destroyed buildings used as cover for firing
rockets and mortars at Jewish settlements.
Israeli tanks later rolled up to Gaza City's Shijaia neighborhood,
a stronghold of Islamic militant groups sworn to destroying the
Jewish state. Gunfire erupted between soldiers and militants who
rushed to the scene.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the clash. An
Israeli soldier was hurt when a rocket fired by militants hit
a collective farm near the Gaza Strip, the army said.
PRESSURE ON PALESTINIAN LEADERS
Violence in Gaza has soared ahead of a planned Israeli pullout
next year from the territory captured in the 1967 Middle East
war, but the latest bloodshed has also sent a strong message
of militant muscle to new Palestinian leaders.
A vote is scheduled on Jan. 9 for a successor to Arafat as
Palestinian president.
The only candidate with a realistic chance, Mahmoud Abbas,
is a veteran official favored by Israel and the United States
who is expected to try to revive peace talks that stalled in
2000 before the Palestinian uprising erupted.
Resolving one dispute before the elections, Israel and the
Palestinians agreed that Palestinian residents of East
Jerusalem would cast votes at post offices in the holy city as
they did during the last Palestinian election in 1996.
Israel has promised to help ensure that the vote goes
smoothly, but Sharon said on Monday that there would be no
talks with Palestinian leaders unless they managed to rein in
militants in a way that Arafat failed to.
Criticizing the latest Israeli raids, Palestinian cabinet
minister Saeb Erekat said: "Bullets will breed bullets and
hatred will generate more hatred. I urge the Israeli government
to resume a meaningful peace process."
Regardless of any negotiations, Sharon plans to abandon the
Gaza Strip and four of 120 settlements in the West Bank next
year under an initiative to "disengage" from the conflict.
Palestinians fear Sharon's real aim is to strengthen
Israel's hold on the West Bank in exchange for giving up
impoverished Gaza, though Western countries support the plan as
a possible step to peace.
(c) Reuters 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) BUSH CALLS FOR "NEW WORLD ORDER / PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES"
http://www.freepressinternational.com/bushnwo_12112004_87493029871647684.htm
l
What I want to know is how come this was NOT COVERED in any
Television News
Media reports.
Did you see a T.V. news report on this statement Bush made?
If not, why was it not covered? I think I know why. If had been more widely
covered, then all of the American public would be on to the real agenda of
the Bush administration.
In my opinion, Bush's agenda is to create a police-state-based New World
Order, as he has said himself, "through pre-emptive action against enemies
of democracy." The passing of the Patriot Act II was only the beginning of
this agenda.
So how many more wars, like the one in Iraq, are planned for our nations
future? How many "dissidents" among the American public will be considered
"enemies of democracy" for opposing Bush's plans? How many of our own
citizens will be taken away in "pre-emptive action against enemies of
democracy?"
That, is what I'm pondering now.
Free Press International 12.11.2004
http://www.freepressinternational.com/bushnwo_12112004_87493029871647684.htm
l
On December 2, 2004 while President Bush was in Canada, he challenged
international leaders to create a 'new world order' through pre-emptive
strikes against what he calls, 'enemies of democracy'.
The Washington Post (WP) wrote, "President Bush yesterday challenged
international leaders to create a new world order, declaring pre-September
11 multilateralism outmoded and asserting that freedom from terrorism will
come only through pre-emptive action against enemies of democracy".
The title of the WP story is, "Bush Calls For New World Order; Strikes
Against Enemies of Democracy".
Did you hear the television networks report on Bush's call for a new world
order with pre-emptive strikes? ===================================== Bush
Calls for Global Cooperation
WASHINGTON TIMES | December 2, 2004 By Joseph Curl
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/bush_calls_for_nwo.htm
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - President Bush yesterday challenged international
leaders to create a new world order, declaring pre-September 11
multilateralism outmoded and asserting that freedom from terrorism will
come only through pre-emptive action against enemies of democracy. In his
first major foreign-policy speech since his re-election, the president set
out an expansive second-term agenda with three distinct goals: reforming
multilateral institutions, prosecuting the war on terrorism and spreading
democracy in the Middle East.
But even as Mr. Bush urged a new effort by free nations to join forces, he
criticized the multilateral process that splintered as his administration
moved toward war in the absence of action by the United Nations against
former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "The success of multilateralism is
measured not merely by following a process, but by achieving results," Mr.
Bush said. "The objective of the U.N. and other institutions must be
collective security, not endless debate." The president, who was seated near
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, did not bring up the United States'
disagreement with Canada over the U.S.-led Iraq war or chastise other
nations that opposed the pre-emptive strike on Saddam, such as France,
Germany or Russia. But one day after declaring in Ottawa that Americans on
Election Day had endorsed the Bush administration's foreign policy and its
doctrine - which calls for pre-emptive action against states that harbor or
aid terrorists - the president had a clear message for the rest of the
world. "Defense alone is not a sufficient strategy," he said. "There is
only one way to deal with enemies who plot in secret and set out to murder
the innocent and the unsuspecting: We must take the fight to them." The
president declared that multilateralism has, of late, resulted in little
action. Although he vowed to make an effort to build coalitions with
foreign powers, he said those efforts must be geared toward results. "My
country is determined to work as far as possible within the framework of
international organizations, and we're hoping that other nations will work
with us to make those institutions more relevant and more effective in
meeting the unique threats of our time," he said. While applauding Canada's
expansive military role in the world, with its peacekeeping troops in
Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Haiti, Sudan, Cyprus and the Middle East,
Mr. Bush recalled Canada's pre-emptive entry into World War II, noting,
"Some Canadians argued that Canada had not been attacked and had no
interest in fighting a distant war." The Canadian prime minister echoed Mr.
Bush's view of the post-September 11 world, saying the terrorist attacks on
America "have redefined many realities in the world and on our own
continent." "We're in a war against terrorism, and we are in it together,
Americans and Canadians. ... Together we have come to realize that the world
is indeed smaller since 9/11. It's more complex, perilous, more
challenging," Mr. Martin said. Both leaders called for renewed efforts in
prosecuting the war on terrorism. "In the new era the threat is different,
but our duties are the same. Our enemies have declared their intentions -
and so have we. Peaceful nations must keep the peace by going after the
terrorists," Mr. Bush said. He also called on all free nations to become
more involved in spreading democracy in the Middle East. "By taking the
side of reformers and democrats in the Middle East, we will gain allies in
the war on terror and isolate the ideology of murder and help to defeat the
despair and hopelessness that feeds terror. The world will become a much
safer place as democracy advances," Mr. Bush said. But again, he urged all
parties to avoid the endless debate over the decades-old issue, dismissing
past efforts to accept small compromises over borders and settlement sites.
"This approach has been tried before without success," he said. "The
Palestinian people deserve a peaceful government that truly serves their
interests, and the Israeli people need a true partner in peace." The
president caused a bit of a stir when he mentioned the U.S. missile-defense
program, which many Canadians oppose. The first U.S. missile bases in the
shield have been set up in Alaska and California - and with Canada in
between, the question of whether Canada will help out could become a
sensitive point. Mr. Martin told reporters after Mr. Bush had left that
whatever his government decides, it "will be in Canada's interests. We are a
sovereign nation, and we will make our own decisions on our airspace," he
said, but added, "We are opposed to the weaponization of space." During his
speech, Mr. Bush was conciliatory toward Canada and its prime minister, who
replaced Jean Chretien, a vehement opponent to the war in Iraq. He said that
because the United States and Canada are neighbors that are engaged in
"more multilateral institutions than perhaps any two nations on Earth" and
conduct $1 billion in trade each day, "when frustrations are vented, we must
not take it personally." Mr. Bush visited Halifax because on September 11,
2001, about 33,000 passengers on airplanes bound for U.S. airports were
diverted to Canadian provinces, including Nova Scotia. "You opened your
homes and your churches to strangers, you brought food, you set up clinics,
you arranged for calls to their loved ones, and you asked for nothing in
return," the president said. "Thank you for your kindness to America in an
hour of need." Mr. Martin replied, "Well, Mr. President, that's what
neighbors do."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) US adopts National ID: Homeland Security Now In charge
of Regulations for all US States Drivers Licenses and
Birth Certificates
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 11:59 PM
Subject: Fwd: Congress Passes Law Mandating National ID Cards
Jonathan Wheeler | December 10 2004
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/intelligence_bill_natl_id.htm
In a chilling act more reminiscent of the now defunct
Soviet Union or the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler, the
United States Congress passed legislation yesterday
that requires the States to surrender their regulatory
rights over driver's licenses and birth certificates
to The Department of Homeland Security.
The massive US Intelligence Reform Bill weighed in at
over 3,000 pages and though unread by individual
Members of either the House or Senate nevertheless
passed all of the legislative hurdles needed in order
to become law.
President Bush lobbied hard for these provisions, only
objecting when Senator Sensenbrenner attempted to
require these same provisions for illegal aliens but
which the President opposed. This provision was
dropped from the final bill.
Beginning in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security
will issue new uniformity regulations to the States
requiring that all Drivers Licenses and Birth
Certificates meet minimal Federal Standards with
regard to US citizen information, including biometric
security provisions.
Added to currently existing Federal Laws and Supreme
Court rulings American citizens when born will be
issued a Social Security Number that will be included
on their Birth Certificates, along with DNA biometric
markers. All birth certificates will also be
registered in a Federal Government database maintained
by the Department of Homeland Security. No child will
be allowed enrollment to schools or be entitled to
either State of Federal Government benefits programs
without first presenting a certified Homeland Security
registered Birth Certificate.
Drivers Licenses will also contain DNA biometric
markers and include the holders Social Security Number
and be required for receiving and applying for all
State and Federal benefits programs. Previous Supreme
Court rulings have also upheld State and Federal Law
Enforcement authorities right to request
Identification from any American citizen, for any
reason and at any time as not being violations of
their, the citizens, constitutionally protected
rights.
Major Banks and credit card companies have applauded
the adoption of a National ID system as being
important to counter fraud and increasing instances of
identity theft. National ID cards with biometric
markers will eliminate them from having to issue
Credit and Debit cards, which for the first time in US
history have surpassed the usage of checks and cash.
Utilizing The Department of Homeland Securities
centralized federal database, Banks and credit card
companies will only require the presentation of a
citizens Driver's License to make purchases as all of
the persons financial information, including credit
and cash balances, will already be known in 'real
time'. (The combining of Homeland Security and Banking
databases on citizen's balances and purchases, along
with their past and present purchasing information,
has been allowed under previous Federal Laws including
the Patriot Act.)
Also included in this bill is a law to require The
Department of Homeland Security to establish a
separate ID system for citizens to use prior to
boarding airplanes, and which is eerily reminiscent of
the Soviet and Nazi regimes dreaded Internal Passport.
Never before in our history have the words of Benjamin
Franklin been so correct when he stated: "people
willing to trade their freedom for temporary security
deserve neither and will lose both".
Today, December 9, 2004 will be one of those moments
in time that future historians will look back on and
pin point as being the day that the United States of
American, and as it was founded by its forefathers,
ceased to exist.
"Find out just what any people will
quietly submit to and you have found
out the exact measure of injustice
and wrong which will be imposed upon
them. These wrongs will continue
till they are resisted with either words or
blows, or both. The limits of tyrants
are prescribed by the endurance of
those whom they oppress."
Frederick Douglas
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) US Airways Workers Authorize Job Actions
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP)
Filed at 9:35 p.m. ET
December 13, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-US-Airways-Flight-Attendants.htm
l?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Flight attendants at US Airways have
overwhelmingly authorized their union to engage in strike-related
activities should a federal bankruptcy court permit management
to cancel its collective bargaining agreement with its employees.
Pat Friend, international president of the Association of Flight
Attendants-CWA, said Monday that flight attendants would engage
in intermittent strikes on flights, with the union choosing the
dates and locations.
US Airways last month asked a bankruptcy judge in Alexandria,
Va., to cancel the collective bargaining agreement for flight
attendants and several other unions. The airline wants to impose
a 15 percent pay cut on the flight attendants, with no pay raise
until 2008, and eliminate their pension plan.
US Airways, bankrupt for the second time in two years, is seeking
to transform itself into a low-cost carrier in the mold of America
West or JetBlue . The airline says it needs to drastically cut worker
pay, change work rules, terminate its remaining pension plans and
eliminate most medical benefits for retirees to become competitive
with such airlines.
Christina Ulosevich, manager of employee communications for
US Airways, said the airline is continuing to negotiate with flight
attendants and wants an agreement both sides can accept
without a court ruling.
She also said the company's position is that a strike by the flight
attendants is illegal under the current contract.
About 5,200 AFA flight attendants work for US Airways.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) If you go to http://www.narconews.com/petras1.html
"Dirty Money" Foundation of U.S. Growth and Empire
Size and Scope of Dirty Money Laundering by Big U.S. Banks
From La Jornada, May 19, 2001
By James Petras
The first two paragraphs state:
"There is a consensus among U.S. Congressional Investigators,
former bankers and international banking experts that U.S. and
European banks launder between $500 billion and $1 trillion of
dirty money annually, half of which is laundered by U.S. banks alone.
"As Senator Levin summarizes the record: 'Estimates are that
$500 billion to $1 trillion of international criminal proceeds are
moved internationally and deposited into bank accounts annually.
It is estimated half of that money comes to the United States.'"
These were the estimates in the year 2000. Imagine what they are
like now, since Afghanistan is now the world's largest producer
of Heroin.
The CIA involvement with drugs is big business and is practically
the only force capable to bring drugs of the magnitude that exists
in the United States today.
When one understands the impligation of these facts, one can
realize why the attacks upon Gary Webb's integrity were so vicious
and cruel. And why it appears that his gun shot wounds to have
been self inflicted. (Or did the CIA make it look thatway?)
The major media bears some of the blame for failing to tell
the true story of Coxain and the CIA.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) GI whistle-blower treated like madman
Whitewashing torture?
A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that
he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was
strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -
even though there was nothing wrong with him.
By David DeBatto
Dec. 8, 2004 | On June 15, 2002, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a
counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd Military
Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told his
commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five
incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and
requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a
49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army
and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on a
gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and medevac'd
to a military medical center outside the country.
Although no "medevac" order appears to have been written, in violation of
Army policy, Ford was clearly shipped out because of a diagnosis that he
was suffering from combat stress. After Ford raised the torture
allegations, Artiga immediately said Ford was "delusional" and ordered a
psychiatric examination, according to Ford. But that examination, carried
out by an Army psychiatrist, diagnosed him as "completely normal."
A witness, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Marciello, claims that Artiga became
enraged when he read the initial medical report finding nothing wrong with
Ford and intimidated the psychiatrist into changing it. According to
Marciello, Artiga angrily told the psychiatrist that it was a "C.I.
[counterintelligence] or M.I. matter" and insisted that she had to change
her report and get Ford out of Iraq.
Documents show that all subsequent examinations of Ford by Army
mental-health professionals, over many months, confirmed his initial
diagnosis as normal.
An officer at the California Office of the Adjutant General in Sacramento,
Calif., Sgt. Maj. Patrick Hammond, has known Ford for over 15 years during
their service in the California National Guard. Hammond said, "I have never
had any reason to question his honesty and I don't do so now." This
reporter served in the military with Ford in Iraq for seven months and can
also attest that he is sane and level-headed.
Ford, who has since left the military, claims that his superiors shipped
him out of the country to prevent him from exposing the abusive behavior.
"They were determined to protect their own asses no matter who they had to
take down," he says.
Col. C. Tsai, a military doctor who examined Ford in Germany and found
nothing wrong with him, told a film crew for Spiegel Television that he was
"not surprised" at Ford's diagnosis. Tsai told Spiegel that he had treated
"three or four" other U.S. soldiers from Iraq that were also sent to
Landstuhl for psychological evaluations or "combat stress counseling" after
they reported incidents of detainee abuse or other wrongdoing by American
soldiers.
Artiga and other higher-ups in the 223rd M.I. Battalion deny Ford's
charges. But in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib scandal, federal agencies
including the Department of Defense, the Army's Criminal Investigation
Command (CID), and the FBI are finally looking into them. The Department of
the Army's Office of the Inspector General has launched an investigation,
according to Ford and his attorney, Kevin Healy, who have been contacted by
investigators. If Ford's allegations are proven, the Army would be faced
with evidence that its prisoner abuse problem is even more widespread than
previously acknowledged -- and that some of its own officers not only
turned a blind eye to abuses but actively participated in covering them up.
The 223rd M.I. Battalion was one of the first divisions to enter Iraq after
the U.S. "Shock and Awe" aerial bombardment ended, in mid-April 2003. (I
also served in that unit in-country from April through October 2003. I met
Ford in February 2003, at Fort Bragg, N.C., and continued to stay in
contact with him until he was shipped out of the country. I have also since
left the military.) The battalion's mission was to collect
counterintelligence. Its agents, highly trained soldiers responsible for
force protection and for investigating national security crimes committed
against the Army, were divided into small units called Tactical Human
Intelligence Teams, or THTs. Every day, these teams went out from their
forward operating bases in Iraq and interacted with the local people in an
effort to gather critical intelligence on such matters as the location of
conventional and unconventional weapons and the whereabouts of the
fugitives depicted on the Pentagon's 55-most-wanted playing cards. It was
arguably one of the most sensitive and important jobs in the entire Iraqi
theater of operations. As the team sergeant of his THT, Ford was second in
command of his four-person team and responsible for training, discipline,
logistics and supervision of day-to-day operations. He was also the team's
designated combat life saver, or medic.
Ford spent his first weeks in Iraq at Balad Air Base, also known as Camp
Anaconda, about 50 kilometers north of Baghdad along the Tigris. In early
May, he was assigned to a THT that was headed for Samarra, another 20
kilometers to the northeast. An ancient trading center that dates to the
Mesopotamian era, Samarra was known as a hotbed of Sunni Arab loyalists,
ex-Baath Party officials, and Islamist extremists. The two-story police
station the Army occupied was located in the center of town, closely
surrounded by taller buildings, giving anyone who cared to fire on the
Americans an excellent field in which to do so. And fire they did. Almost
every night, Ford and his teammates would be forced to dive from their
bunks for cover as mortar rounds rocked the compound. The concussions shook
the foundation and broke whatever glass windows remained. Fortunately, the
Iraqi mortar crews proved wildly inaccurate, and no Americans were killed,
but several were wounded and the attacks never let up. There was immense
pressure on the THT to find out who was behind the attacks and to supply
the information to the "gunslingers" of the 4th Infantry Division. It was
in that environment that Ford says he saw the incidents that led to the end
of his long military career.
full: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/08/coverup/index.html
Message: 21
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:52:27 -0500
From: Louis Proyect
To: marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Message-ID: <6.2.0.14.0.20041208085044.01f48080@pop.panix.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Salon.com
Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
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14) NLM Introduces New Environmental Site
In a message dated 12/14/04 10:18:21 AM,
holtlabor@igc.org writes:
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) announced an interactive Web site
that showson mapsthe amount and location of certain toxic chemicals
released into the environment in the U.S. The site, called TOXMAP
(http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov), is free and requires no registration.
TOXMAP focuses on the geographic distribution of chemical releases, their
relative amounts, and their trends over time. This release data comes from
industrial facilities around the U.S., as reported annually to the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). TOXMAP also links to NLM_s extensive
collection of toxicology and environmental health references, as well as to
a rich resource of data on hazardous chemical substances in its TOXNET
databases (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov). There are also fact sheets and
summaries about the various chemicals, written by the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry.
NLM has created a number of consumer-oriented Web sites in the last several
years. TOXMAP joins Web resources for consumer health information
(MedlinePlus.gov), research studies (ClinicalTrials.gov), and older
Americans (NIHSeniorHealth.gov).
Source: National Library of Medicine
---
Shannon Sheppard, MLIS
Director
Holt Labor Library
50 Fell St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
phone: (415) 241-1370
email: holtlabor@holtlaborlibrary.org
web: http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org
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15) Rights Group Reports Deaths of Men
Held by U.S. in Afghanistan
DETAINEES
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan
December 14, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/international/asia/14abuse.html
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec.13 - Human Rights Watch said Monday
that new cases of deaths of men in American custody in Afghanistan
had come to light. It accused the Defense Department of operating
outside the law there and failing to investigate abuses, including killings.
In an open letter to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Human
Rights Watch, which is based in New York, described the deaths of
three detainees, including a member of the newly established Afghan
Army. Six men are now known to have died in American custody here,
and only two people have been charged in the deaths, the organization
said.
The detention system operated by American forces in Afghanistan
continues to operate outside the rule of law, the letter said. The
United States continues to hold Afghan detainees in legal limbo
and in many cases incommunicado, in violation of American
obligations under the international laws of armed conflict and
applicable Afghan law, it said. Accusations of abuse and arbitrary
detention continue to surface at American bases around Afghanistan,
it added.
Failure to investigate and prosecute abuses created a culture of
impunity among some interrogators, and allowed abuse to spread,
in particular to the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the organization said
in a statement issued with the letter.
"It's time for the United States to come clean about crimes
committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan," said Brad Adams,
Asia division director for Human Rights Watch.
The three deaths include one that occurred in 2002 but was
disclosed only last week after internal Department of Defense
documents were released to the American Civil Liberties Union in
response to a Freedom of Information Act request. According to
the documents, an Afghan man was killed in or before September
2002 by four American soldiers - a captain and three sergeants -
after they detained him on suspicion of following their movements
in Afghanistan. The case was investigated in 2002, but no one was
prosecuted, Human Rights Watch said.
The other two cases emerged in news media reports, Human Rights
Watch said. It said Jamal Naseer, of the American-backed official
Afghan Army, was killed in March 2003 after he and seven other
soldiers were mistakenly arrested by American forces and taken
to a base in Gardez. They were badly beaten, Human Rights Watch
said, citing reports by the United Nations office in Gardez, the
office of the attorney general of the Afghan Army, and the
nongovernmental Crimes of War project.
The Army Criminal Investigative Command opened an inquiry
into the case in May 2004 but has not charged anyone, Human
Rights Watch said. The latest case, Human Rights Watch said, is
of Sher Mohammad Khan, who was arrested on Sept. 24, 2004,
in a raid on his family's home near Khost in eastern Afghanistan
and died the next day at an American base. His brother was fatally
shot by American forces in the raid, the group said. Relatives
reported bruises on Sher Mohammad Khan's body when they
retrieved it, Human Rights Watch said, calling for an investigation
of the death.
Human Rights Watch had already documented the deaths of three
other detainees. Two Afghan men died in detention at the United
States air base at Bagram in December 2002, and American
pathologists ruled at the time that their deaths were homicides.
A third man, Abdul Wali, died in June 2003 in a forward operating
base in Kunar Province. Only two people have been charged in the
deaths, and the inquiries have stalled, the rights group said.
A Pentagon spokesman in Washington, Lt. Col. Joe Yoswa, declined
to comment on the letter to Mr. Rumsfeld, but said that as a matter
of practice, "we go out and investigate the deaths of all detainees."
Chris Grey, of the Army Criminal Investigation Command, said
investigators had looked into the deaths of eight detainees in
American military custody, Reuters reported.
Other reports of deaths of detainees in Afghanistan were not
mentioned by Human Rights Watch. In a case documented by
the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, an Afghan
named Abdul Wahed died in the American special forces bases
at Gereshk in November 2003. He was tortured by the Afghan
commander guarding the base and then given to American forces
when close to death, the United States military has acknowledged.
No charges have been brought, and the Afghan commander
continues to work with the special forces at the base, Human
Rights Watch said.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
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16) ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS
a one-man show featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca
directed by Francesca Prada
Just a quick note to let you know that my one-man show,
"Italian.Queer.Dangerous" will open at the Sims Center on
January 14 and continue through the 29th, Friday and Saturday
nights only. Info below. Please reserve tickets ASAP since space
is limited. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Thanks and hope to see you all soon...Please feel free to share
this e-mail with your lists...in other words, send it around, please!
tommi
ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS
a one-man show featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca
directed by Francesca Prada
JANUARY 14-29 (Friday and Saturday nights only:
14, 15; 21, 22; 28, 29)
JON SIMS CENTER, 1519 Mission/between Van Ness and 11th
8pm, $5-10 sliding scale (no one turned away)
seating is limited, for reservations: 415-554-0402
Through monologue and spoken word, well-known San Francisco
queer activist and writer Tommi Avicolli Mecca tells his story of
growing up gay in South Philly's Little Italy. At age 19, fired up
with new pride in being gay, he came out to the world--and his
traditional Roman Catholic southern Italian famiglia--on a TV talk
show. The rest is history, and the subject of this performance.
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