From: PatLevasseurP@aol.com
www.lynnestewart.org
212-625-9696
The jury began deliberating around 2 p.m. today. After today they
can deliberate as late as they want and on Friday if they choose to.
Lynne would like people to come by if they can and wait with the
defense during deliberations. The jury may have questions or ask
for read back of testimony. So if you are in New York and even have
an hour or so to go to the courtroom please do. As soon as a verdict
is announced I will get the word out. Pat
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NEXT BAUAW MEETING:
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 11:00 a.m.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH ST. IN S.F.)
HELP GET THE MILITARY OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS!
KILLING AND BEING KILLED IS NOT A CAREER CHOICE!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.
Washington, D.C.:
Converge at 4th St. & Pennsylvania Ave.
on the north side of the parade route
2) Let's Hit the Streets
On the 32nd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
To Defend Abortion Rights!
Saturday, January 22
10 am Rally at Powell & Market Streets, San Francisco
11 am March to the Embarcadero
www.indybay.org/womyn
Driving? Need a ride? Visit http://drivingvotes.org/rides/sfprochoice.php
ALSO: Join the Women‚s Rights Contingent in the San Francisco
Counter-Inaugural Protest on January 20th. Meet at 5 pm at the
corner of Grove and Polk in Civic Center Plaza.
3) PICTURES OF WAR
4) ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS
a one-man show featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca
directed by Francesca Prada, Jan. 14-19, 8:00pm,
JON SIMS CENTER
1519 Mission, Between Van Ness and 11th Sts., SF
5) You are invited To Celebrate and claim victory on
James Yee's case and his Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army
Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
JOIN THOUSANDS in the Freedom March
When: Monday, January 17, 2005
11:30 A.M. TO 12:30 p.m.
Where:J4NA members will meet at
3rd & Mission at 11:30 a.m and join the parade.
The big march will start at the San Francisco Caltrain Station
(4th St. and Townsend St.,) proceeding to Mission Street @
Third Street, continuing to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
6) Health Care? Ask Cuba
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
OP-ED COLUMNIST
January 12, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/opinion/12kris.html?oref=login&hp
7) A High Level of Alert for the Inauguration
"This is the most visible manifestation of our democracy,"
Mr. Ridge said, adding, "So there's very little intelligence,
but we're as vigilant as ever."
By DAVID JOHNSTON and MICHAEL JANOFSKY
January 12, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/politics/12security.html
8) What the First Lady Will Wear
"She has gone from being just folks to being a bit
imperial, assuming a bit more of a queenly role,"
By RUTH LA FERLA
January 11, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/fashion/11DRES.html
9) Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?
By Robert Scheer
January 11, 2005
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011305Z.shtml
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer11jan11,0,4938608
,print.column
10) U.S. MULLS STRIKES ON SYRIA
By Richard Sale
United Press International
January 12, 2005
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050111-105709-6329r.htm
11) URGENT: Mumia Hearing Cancelled,
Stay Tuned for Update on Action of Feb.11th!
Ona MOVE!
In a message dated 1/11/05 6:57:34 PM, icffmaj@aol.com writes:
12) 1000 Days of Hell
After three years' incarceration, Guantanamo Britons are
set to be freed
By Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent
12 January 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=599984
13) January 20: Inauguration Day
Not Our President! Not in Our Name!
14) Should a Defender of Immigrants and Critic of
the Patriot Act be silenced?
A tribute to Manlin Chee, a local and national hero
Who is Manlin Chee?
15) BOEING SCANDAL PART OF DEEPER PENTAGON CORRUPTION
By David Phinney
From: "CorpWatch"
Date: Thu,6 Jan 2005 20:54:38 -0800 (PST)
List-Id:
List-Subscribe:
List-Owner:
List-Archive:
16) GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST ON THE TWO-YEAR
ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRAQ WAR
SATURDAY, MARCH 19:
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
* End the War * Bring the Troops Home Now
* Rebuild Our Communities *
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
17) JANUARY 20, 2005 COUNTER INAUGURAL EVENT
THE COST OF WAR - THE PRICE WE'RE ALL PAYING
JOIN US AS WE STATE THE FACTS
AND OFFER ALTERNATIVES
WHERE: The Foundry United Methodist Church
1500 16TH Street, NW and P Street
(near DuPont Circle), Washington, D.C.
WHEN: 10:00 AM – 11:30 PM
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.
Washington, D.C.:
Converge at 4th St. & Pennsylvania Ave.
on the north side of the parade route
A permit has been obtained for a mass convergence at 4th St. and
Pennsylvania Ave. along the north side of the parade route. You can
bring your own signs or pick up signs, banners and other materials
at this location. Any sign that is made of cardboard, posterboard
or cloth and that is no larger than 3 feet by 20 feet and 1/4 inch in
thickness can be brought to the parade route. We will provide
additional logistical information in the coming days.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Let's Hit the Streets
On the 32nd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
To Defend Abortion Rights!
Saturday, January 22
10 am Rally at Powell & Market Streets, San Francisco
11 am March to the Embarcadero
Jan. 22 is the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court
decision that established the constitutional right to reproductive freedom.
On the same day, anti-choice extremists plan to march in San Francisco
against women‚s health and rights. The anti-choice minority might be
emboldened by the climate in Washington, DC but they are not
welcome here!
Join the San Francisco Area Pro-Choice Coalition to Stand Up for
Reproductive Freedom and Demonstrate that San Francisco is PRO-CHOICE!
Sponsored by the San Francisco Area Pro-Choice Coalition. For more
information or to get involved, visit www.indybay.org/womyn
Driving? Need a ride? Visit http://drivingvotes.org/rides/sfprochoice.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) PICTURES OF WAR
PLEASE ACCESS:
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
I have obtained the originals of the photos I recently posted which were
taken from inside Fallujah.
These are of much higher quality.
Some of the comments have been updated, and there are some additional
pictures added which I did not have before.
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/
view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=1
More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com
You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/ to subscribe or
unsubscribe to the email list.
(c)2004 Dahr Jamail.
All images and text are protected by United States and
international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's
Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice
and a prominent link to the DahrJamailIraq.com website. Any
other use of images and text including, but not limited to,
reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing
requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free
to forward Dahr's dispatches via email.
Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/
view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=1
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/26138
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/26138
Virginion Pilot via AP - Photos - click here
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=79598&ran=187050
TSUNAMI PHOTOS:
A Community Labor News E-Zine
http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/2.html
This one has a BUNCH of different sources. I liked the
CTV site and the maps on the Washington Post site.
ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/indian-ocean-disaster.html
Readers may email your article submissions
or your comments to ListAdmin@CLNews.org
http://www.clnews.org/MailList/subscribtion.htm
"Freedom is always and exclusively
freedom for the one who thinks differently"
--Rosa Luxemburg
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) ITALIAN.QUEER.DANGEROUS
a one-man show featuring Tommi Avicolli Mecca
directed by Francesca Prada, Jan. 14-19, 8:00pm,
JON SIMS CENTER
1519 Mission, Between Van Ness and 11th Sts., SF
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
To volunteer to help with the show, call 415-552-6031
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) You are invited to Celebrate and claim victory on
James Yee's case and his Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army
Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
JOIN THOUSANDS in the Freedom March
When: Monday, January 17, 2005
11:30 A.M. TO 12:30 p.m.
Where:J4NA members will meet at
3rd & Mission at 11:30 a.m and join the parade.
The big march will start at the San Francisco Caltrain Station
(4th St. and Townsend St., )proceeding to Mission Street
@ Third Street, continuing to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
BART FREEDOM TRAINS
For free flash passes go to the transportation page
call (510) 268-3777
We encourage you to take home made signs to celebrate honorable
discharge of Chaplain James Yee
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Health Care? Ask Cuba
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
OP-ED COLUMNIST
January 12, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/opinion/12kris.html?oref=login&hp
Here's a wrenching fact: If the U.S. had an infant mortality rate as good
as Cuba's, we would save an additional 2,212 American babies a year.
Yes, Cuba's. Babies are less likely to survive in America, with a health
care system that we think is the best in the world, than in impoverished
and autocratic Cuba. According to the latest C.I.A. World Factbook,
Cuba is one of 41 countries that have better infant mortality rates
than the U.S.
Even more troubling, the rate in the U.S. has worsened recently.
In every year since 1958, America's infant mortality rate improved,
or at least held steady. But in 2002, it got worse: 7 babies died for
each thousand live births, while that rate was 6.8 deaths the year before.
Those numbers, buried in a recent report from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, didn't get much attention. But
they are part of a pattern of recent statistics dribbling out of the
federal government suggesting that for those on the bottom in
America, life in our new Gilded Age is getting crueler.
"America's children are at greater risk than they've been in for at
least a decade," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean at the
Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and
president of the Children's Health Fund. "The rising rate of infant
mortality is an early warning that we're headed in the wrong
direction, with no relief in sight."
It's too early to know just what to make of the increase in infant
mortality in 2002 for American babies. Reliable data for 2003 and
2004 are not out yet. Sandy Smith of the Centers for Disease
Control says that the statisticians are pretty sure there was not
a further deterioration in 2003, but that it's too soon to know
whether there was an improvement or just a leveling off at the
higher rate.
Singapore has the best infant mortality rate in the world: 2.3 babies
die before the age of 1 for every 1,000 live births. Sweden, Japan
and Iceland all have a rate that is less than half of ours.
If we had a rate as good as Singapore's, we would save 18,900 babies
each year. Or to put it another way, our policy failures in Iraq may
be killing Americans at a rate of about 800 a year, but our health
care failures at home are resulting in incomparably more
deaths - of infants. And their mothers, because women are
70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe.
Of course, deaths in maternity wards occur one by one, and
don't generate the national attention, grief and alarm of an
explosion in Falluja or a tsunami in Sri Lanka. But they are far
more frequent: every day, on average, 77 babies die in the U.S.
and one woman dies in childbirth.
Bolstering public health isn't as dramatic as spending $300 million
for a single F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet, but it can be a far more
efficient way of protecting Americans.
For example, during World War II, the employment boom meant
that many poor Americans enjoyed regular health care for the
first time. So even though 405,000 Americans died in the war,
life expectancy in the U.S. actually increased between 1940 and
1945, rising three years for whites and five years for blacks.
True, infant mortality and many other American health problems
are largely intertwined with poverty, and experience suggests that
neither the left nor the right has easy solutions for intractable
poverty. But some of the steps the government is now taking or
talking about - like cutting back further on entitlements,
particularly those giving children access to health care - would
aggravate the situation. Last year, a study by the Institute of
Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated
that the lack of health insurance coverage causes
18,000 unnecessary deaths a year.
As readers know, I complain regularly about the Chinese government's
brutality in imprisoning dissidents, Christians and, lately, Zhao Yan,
a New York Times colleague in Beijing. Yet for all their ruthlessness,
China's dictators have managed to drive down the infant mortality
rate in Beijing to 4.6 per thousand; in contrast, New York City's
rate is 6.5.
We should celebrate this freedom that we enjoy in America - by
complaining about and working to address pockets of poverty and
failures in our health care system. It's simply unacceptable that the
average baby is less likely to survive in the U.S. than in Beijing
or Havana.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) A High Level of Alert for the Inauguration
"This is the most visible manifestation of our democracy,"
Mr. Ridge said, adding, "So there's very little intelligence,
but we're as vigilant as ever."
By DAVID JOHNSTON and MICHAEL JANOFSKY
January 12, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/politics/12security.html
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 - Tom Ridge, the homeland security secretary,
said Tuesday that even in the absence of any specific security threat
to next week's presidential inauguration, civilian and military forces
had been ordered to an extraordinarily high state of alert.
"You can well imagine that the security for this occasion will be
unprecedented," Mr. Ridge said at a news conference. "Protective
measures will be seen. There will be quite a few that are not seen.
Our goal is that any attempt on the part of anyone or any group to
disrupt the inaugural will be repelled by multiple layers of security."
In his first detailed outline of inauguration security planning,
Mr. Ridge said that more than 6,000 civilian and military personnel
trained in crisis response, crowd control and dignitary security
would be in place, with thousands more available to respond if
necessary.
At the heart of the plan are tightly controlled security zones that
will restrict pedestrian and vehicle access to the streets around
the Capitol, where Mr. Bush will be sworn in, and over the route
of the traditional parade along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White
House.
Before the inauguration events, security teams will sweep through
hotels and office buildings along the parade route, in some cases
barring office workers from sitting near windows overlooking the
procession.
Even now, security teams are working to ensure the safety of food
that will be served to President Bush and other guests at inaugural
events. Caterers are being instructed to arrive for work at 7 p.m.
the night before the inauguration.
For next Thursday's swearing-in ceremonies, sniper teams will
be in position on rooftops. Specialists in chemical, biological
and radiological terrorism will mingle with the crowds, carrying
hand-held detection devices designed to pick up any sign of
unconventional weapons. Squads of plainclothes agents, with
federal prosecutors among them, will move along the parade
route scouting for potential problems. Armed Coast Guard
boats will patrol the Potomac River.
Security will be tighter than at recent high-profile events like
last year's political conventions.
"Our system of government is rooted in the sovereign principle
of democratic authority bestowed by the people," Mr. Ridge
said. "And the people, both the inauguration participants and
city residents, are resolved to go forward with an event that
so deeply reflects that ideal."
Mr. Ridge said that the security for the inauguration would
cost millions of dollars but that he did not know the total
amount
Costs have created at least one conflict between the federal
government and the District of Columbia. The city is underwriting
about $17.3 million of the cost, and Washington officials are
not happy about it.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams has asked Mr. Ridge and Joshua B. Bolten,
director of the Office of Management and Budget, why the city
should cover security costs out of federal grants that are otherwise
used for everyday needs, like protecting buildings, bridges,
subways and waterways, as well as for emergencies and events
like the funeral of President Ronald Reagan last year.
City officials say this is the first time that the federal government
has not promised to cover all of the district's inauguration expenses,
leaving open the possibility that district taxpayers might have to pay.
"We're delighted to be part of this; it's a great honor," said Gregory
McCarthy, Mr. Williams's deputy chief of staff. "But we shouldn't
be raided for something as predictable as this."
Asked about the issue, Mr. Ridge said that city governments of
Boston and New York had agreed to spend federal security money
to cover costs associated with protecting last year's political
conventions in their cities.
Even as Mr. Ridge emphasized the urgency of preventive steps,
several senior security officials said in private that planning for
security at inaugurations seemed to be growing beyond the
precautions that could be justified based on the threat level.
They also said that security planning for the inauguration was
a well-rehearsed responsibility involving agencies whose roles
were well known from past inaugurations.
"There's not much about this that we haven't done before,"
a senior law enforcement official said.
In part, the officials said, the extraordinary security arrangements
at this year's swearing-in, parade and related events represent
a chance for the nearly 50 federal agencies involved to show
newly bought exotic equipment, specially trained antiterror
units and communications networks put into place after the
September 2001 attacks.
The military will play a more visible role in this inauguration,
with 2,500 troops involved in security, said Maj. Gen. Galen
B. Jackman, commander of the Joint Task Force-Armed Forces
Inaugural Committee, which coordinates military operations
for the inauguration.
"We believe we are ready to deter any type of attack," General
Jackman said before Mr. Ridge's news conference.
The general wore camouflage gear as he spoke with reporters
in front a group of battle-dressed soldiers who carried
automatic weapons.
The security plan for the inauguration is based on a system
of overlapping zones. Vehicular traffic will be restricted from
an outer zone about six blocks from inauguration sites.
Pedestrians will be screened at 22 checkpoints set up around
an inner zone perimeter about two blocks from event locations.
An even more restrictive area in the vicinity of the swearing-in
and the parade bleachers will be closed to anyone without
a ticket or an invitation.
In a break with past inauguration parades, protest groups are
being assigned specific areas for their demonstrations in
a way that protest organizers say will enable law enforcement
agencies to exert tighter control over them.
Access to the presidential entourage itself will be limited to
people who have been subjected to fingerprinting and criminal
background checks.
Security is under the control of the Secret Service, which will
manage the event from a central command center, known as
the Joint Field Office, in a Virginia suburb. A number of federal
agencies will open operations centers in a network being
coordinated through 13 subcommittees, each with
responsibilities ranging from the processing of drunken
revelers to a nuclear attack.
Not everything is working smoothly, officials said. At one
training exercise this week intended to test the complex
communications network that links federal, state and local
agencies, personnel were handed a 10-page phone directory
of agencies listed only by acronym. The directory was so confusing
- even to emergency workers - that officials ordered a new phone
book with the names of agencies written out in full.
Mr. Ridge said that the nation's color-coded alert level would not
be raised for the inauguration. The alert level is at yellow, for
a heightened but not imminent threat.
"This is the most visible manifestation of our democracy,"
Mr. Ridge said, adding, "So there's very little intelligence,
but we're as vigilant as ever."
Mr. Ridge has said that several factors may help explain
the absence of threats, among them efforts by the United
States and its allies to disrupt terrorist networks overseas
and initiatives by the government to reduce the nation's
vulnerability to attack.
Some intelligence officials have offered other reasons for the
fewer reports of threats, including the possibility that planning
for an attack might be going on undetected or that extremists
might be turning their attention to other objectives like
interfering with Iraqi elections scheduled this month.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times
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8) What the First Lady Will Wear
"She has gone from being just folks to being a bit
imperial, assuming a bit more of a queenly role,"
By RUTH LA FERLA
January 11, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/fashion/11DRES.html
Laura Bush has made her choice. Ending weeks of speculation
on Seventh Avenue about what she would wear on Inauguration
Day, Jan. 20, Mrs. Bush said Monday that Oscar de la Renta would
design her inaugural ball gown, a dress that for a time at least
will be the most scrutinized in the country.
The silver-blue tulle gown, embroidered with bugle beads and
outlined in Austrian crystals, is the stately if conventional
centerpiece in a wardrobe Mrs. Bush will wear during four
days of festivities in Washington, including 10 balls,
candlelight dinners, a parade and fireworks.
In addition to Mr. de la Renta, a longtime couturier to the
fashionable elite, designers for Mrs. Bush's wardrobe include
Carolina Herrera, who fills a similar niche, and Peggy Jennings,
a little-known designer who has been quietly wardrobing
Mrs. Bush from her apartment at the Waldorf Towers in
Manhattan for two years.
The president's daughters, Jenna and Barbara, will be
dressed by Badgley Mischka, Lela Rose, Derek Lam and
Mr. de la Renta for the inaugural festivities.
The first lady's wardrobe is sure to be studied for clues
about her evolving personal style and even for hints about
the overall tone of the White House in the next four years.
"The first lady is certainly a reflection as to the man holding
the office," Mr. de la Renta said. He was reluctant to ascribe
special significance to Mrs. Bush's sartorial choices, which
are more glamorous than anything the White House has
seen since the Reagan years.
But another observer, Catherine Allgor, a historian of first
lady style, suggested that in anointing Mr. de la Renta and
Mrs. Herrera, mainstays of taste among wealthy women,
Mrs. Bush appears to be displaying a growing awareness
that "her power is entrenched." "She has gone from being
just folks to being a bit imperial, assuming a bit more of
a queenly role," said Ms. Allgor, the author of "Parlor Politics:
In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and
a Government" (University Press of Virginia, 2002).
Mrs. Bush, who during her husband's first term sometimes
professed an aversion to fashion, preferring straight-fitting,
neutral and matronly suits that concealed her shape, has
reversed herself. She has embraced Seventh Avenue to the
point of visiting Mr. de la Renta and Mrs. Herrera in their
design showrooms - a departure from White House tradition.
Bush watchers point out that Mr. de la Renta and
Mrs. Herrera are light years in sophistication from the image
Mrs. Bush conceived four years ago by employing Michael
Faircloth, a little-known Texas designer, to make her scarlet
lace gown for the inauguration.
The dress was much deprecated by style-watchers. Since
then, Mrs. Bush has projected a more feminine, worldly
image, and she seems more conscious of her role as
a symbol of state. "Mrs. Bush has very successfully created
a strong iconography for herself," said Hamish Bowles, an
editor of Vogue who was curator of an exhibition on the
style of Jacqueline Kennedy in the White House for the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2001. "She is less provincial,
more urbane, but still on the safe side," he said, adding
that her image is "calculated not to frighten the horses."
There is nothing intimidating about Mr. de la Renta's
ice-blue ball gown. To judge from the sketches released
by the White House on Monday, it has a reassuringly
familiar look, reminiscent in spirit and in silhouette of
the gowns James Galanos designed for Nancy Reagan
in the 1980's.
Since 2001, Mrs. Bush's fashion sense has ripened with
nudges from her daughters and design world friends.
She appeared with President Bush to claim victory in the
election in November dressed in a pale pink suit by
Ms. Jennings that discreetly showed off her figure,
slimmed down to a size 6, the designer said over the
weekend. Ms. Jennings has designed a rose-colored
hand-beaded lace gown that Mrs. Bush will wear to
candlelight dinners on Jan. 19.
In addition, she will wear a raspberry-colored striped
silk shirtdress by Mrs. Herrera to the Texas State
Society's black tie and boots ball on Jan. 19. Mrs. Bush
will pay for all of her dresses, said Gordon Johndroe,
her press secretary.
In Vogue this month, the first lady is photographed
modeling a streamlined Herrera suit and a deep blue
silk shirtwaist gown by Mr. de la Renta, accessorized
with amber beads that match her hair, which was clipped
for a youthfully breezy look by Sally Hershberger, who
shears the heads of the Hollywood elite.
Through Mr. Johndroe, Mrs. Bush acknowledged that she
is increasingly taking style cues from her 22-year-old twin
daughters, who have been dressed by New York arbiters of
hip like Zac Posen and Narciso Rodriguez. "Mrs. Bush has
really enjoyed working with some of the designers Barbara
and Jenna favor," Mr. Johndroe said.
The glamorization of Mrs. Bush's image began as far back
as the aftermath of the 2001 inauguration. Preparing to have
her photographed for Vogue, Anna Wintour, the magazine's
editor, requested that Mr. de la Renta provide some clothes.
The designer, who dressed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the
White House, balked at first. "I didn't think Mrs. Bush would
want to wear my clothes," he recalled. "I had been so closely
identified with Mrs. Clinton."
But Mrs. Bush, it seemed, had notions of her own. "She arrived
at the shoot with a red suit of mine that she had bought in
Austin, Tex.," Mr. de la Renta said, and specifically asked to see
more of his work. He has been dressing her since.
What he did not acknowledge is that coaxing Mrs. Bush out of
the prim, upholstered-looking suits she once favored is a job
requiring a vast reservoir of tact.
"You have to be very diplomatic to dress a president's wife," said
Arnold Scaasi, who has wardrobed his share, including Barbara
Bush, the president's mother; Mrs. Kennedy; and Mamie Eisenhower.
"You must tell them nicely that they didn't look too great before
you, and would look so much better now if they would only
listen to you. "
Ms. Jennings, who met with Mrs. Bush last Saturday for a fitting
in Manhattan, prides herself on having persuaded Mrs. Bush to
wear more form-fitting, feminine clothes. "The first gown that
I made for her I took the liberty of making the neckline too low,"
Ms. Jennings said. She recalled that Mrs. Bush responded with tact.
" `You know, Peggy,' the first lady told me, `maybe this would
look nicer if the neckline were a little higher,' " Ms. Jennings recalled,
adding that she recut the dress.
For designers inaugural commissions are well worth it. For prestige
they know no equal, not even a dress for the Oscars. "Designing
for the first lady is the best sort of attention you can get," Mr. Scaasi
said, translating into dresses that are widely copied and widely
ordered by stores.
Mr. Faircloth, whose star has faded a bit since Inauguration Day
in 2001, still designs for Mrs. Bush. As a fashion billboard, she
trumps any celebrity, he said. "Celebrities are like chameleons,
playing many different roles in their careers and in their fashion
statements," he said. "I feel more in line with someone who wants
to create a consistent image."
Mr. Scaasi agreed. "There are 2,700 girls out there that have
a one-night shot and stardom, and then you never see them
again," he scoffed. "The first family is beyond all that."
Copyright 2005 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?
By Robert Scheer
January 11, 2005
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011305Z.shtml
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer11jan11,0,4938608
,print.column
Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the
center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy,
does not exist?
To even raise the question amid all the officially inspired hysteria is
heretical, especially in the context of the U.S. media's supine
acceptance of administration claims relating to national security.
Yet a brilliant new BBC film produced by one of Britain's leading
documentary filmmakers systematically challenges this and many
other accepted articles of faith in the so-called war on terror.
"The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear,"
a three-hour historical film by Adam Curtis recently aired by the
British Broadcasting Corp., argues coherently that much of what
we have been told about the threat of international terrorism "is
a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians.
It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through
governments around the world, the security services and the
international media."
Stern stuff, indeed. But consider just a few of the many questions
the program poses along the way:
€ If Osama bin Laden does, in fact, head a vast international
terrorist organization with trained operatives in more than
40 countries, as claimed by Bush, why, despite torture of
prisoners, has this administration failed to produce hard
evidence of it?
€ How can it be that in Britain since 9/11, 664 people have been
detained on suspicion of terrorism but only 17 have been found
guilty, most of them with no connection to Islamist groups and
none who were proven members of Al Qaeda?
€ Why have we heard so much frightening talk about "dirty
bombs" when experts say it is panic rather than radioactivity that
would kill people?
€ Why did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim on "Meet
the Press" in 2001 that Al Qaeda controlled massive high-tech
cave complexes in Afghanistan, when British and U.S. military
forces later found no such thing?
Of course, the documentary does not doubt that an embittered,
well-connected and wealthy Saudi man named Osama bin Laden
helped finance various affinity groups of Islamist fanatics that
have engaged in terror, including the 9/11 attacks. Nor does
it challenge the notion that a terrifying version of fundamentalist
Islam has led to gruesome spates of violence throughout the
world. But the film, both more sober and more deeply provocative
than Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," directly challenges the
conventional wisdom by making a powerful case that the Bush
administration, led by a tight-knit cabal of Machiavellian
neoconservatives, has seized upon the false image of a unified
international terrorist threat to replace the expired Soviet
empire in order to push a political agenda.
Terrorism is deeply threatening, but it appears to be a much
more fragmented and complex phenomenon than the
octopus-network image of Al Qaeda, with Bin Laden as
its head, would suggest.
While the BBC documentary acknowledges that the threat
of terrorism is both real and growing, it disagrees that the
threat is centralized:
"There are dangerous and fanatical individuals and groups
around the world who have been inspired by extreme Islamist
ideas and who will use the techniques of mass terror - the
attacks on America and Madrid make this only too clear. But
the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organization
waiting to strike our societies is an illusion. Wherever one looks
for this Al Qaeda organization, from the mountains of Afghanistan
to the 'sleeper cells' in America, the British and Americans are
chasing a phantom enemy."
The fact is, despite the efforts of several government commissions
and a vast army of investigators, we still do not have a credible
narrative of a "war on terror" that is being fought in the shadows.
Consider, for example, that neither the 9/11 commission nor any
court of law has been able to directly take evidence from the key
post-9/11 terror detainees held by the United States. Everything
we know comes from two sides that both have a great stake in
exaggerating the threat posed by Al Qaeda: the terrorists
themselves and the military and intelligence agencies that have
a vested interest in maintaining the facade of an overwhelmingly
dangerous enemy.
Such a state of national ignorance about an endless war is, as
"The Power of Nightmares" makes clear, simply unacceptable in
a functioning democracy.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) U.S. MULLS STRIKES ON SYRIA
By Richard Sale
United Press International
January 12, 2005
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050111-105709-6329r.htm
NEW YORK -- Bush administration hard-liners have been considering launching
selected military strikes at insurgent training camps in Syria and
border-crossing points used by Islamist guerrillas to enter Iraq in an
effort
to bolster security for the upcoming elections, according to former and
current administration officials.
Pressure for some form of military action is also coming from interim Iraqi
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, these sources said.
Some former and serving U.S. intelligence officials who have usually been
opposed to any expansion of U.S. military activities in the region are
expressing support for such strikes.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official told United Press International,
"I
don't usually find myself in sympathy with the Bush neo-cons, but I think
there is enough fire under this smoke to justify such action."
Referring to the escalating attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq by Iraqi
insurgents, he added, "Syria is complicit in the (anti-U.S.) insurgency up
to
its eyeballs."
"Syria is the No. 1 crossing point" for guerrillas entering Iraq," Gary
Gambill, editor of the *Middle East Intelligence Bulletin*, said. He added
that Damascus "does nothing about it."
An administration official said Syria has "camps in which Syrians are
training
Iraqis for the insurgency and others where Iraqis are training Syrians for
the
same purpose" which could be hit by U.S. air strikes.
Gal Luft, a former Israeli military official with ties to Israeli and U.S.
intelligence, said, "I have heard of the same thing about the camps."
Recently, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said
that
senior Baath Party officials from Iraq are operating from Syria where they
provide financing and direction to the cells of Iraqi insurgents killing
Americans, sparking new discussions within the administration about possible
measures against Syria.
"There are all sorts of discussions going on, the White House, the Pentagon,
the Joint Chiefs," said former CIA counterterrorism chief, Vince
Cannistraro.
He felt the talk of strikes "is part of a general plan of intimidation."
The White House did not return phone calls.
U.S. officials told United Press International that money, direction,
weapons
and personnel are flowing into Iraq from Syria, ending up in Iraqi cities
such
as Iskanderiya, Baqouba, Latafiya and Fallujah.
Damascus is also home to associates of a top insurgency commander now
affiliated with al-Qaida, Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi, who is responsible
for
many major suicide bombing attacks in Iraq, U.S. officials said.
The presence of a Zarqawi branch in Damascus, discovered last summer,
was said to have acted as a major spur in uniting France and the
United States in supporting U.N. Resolution 1559 that demanded
Syria withdraw from Lebanon and that elections be held in April 2005,
U.S. officials said.
Gambill charged that a major Zarqawi deputy lives in Damascus.
In addition to Syria being used as a rear area for insurgents, it is a key
center of finance for former Saddam Hussein officials who are leading the
insurgency, thanks to stashes of Iraqi cash that could run as high as $3
billion, which is all in the Syrian banking system, according for former and
serving administration officials.
There are also allegedly "many millions of dollars" from Palestinian groups
flowing into Syria that are also being used to help finance anti-American
guerrilla groups in Iraq, these sources said.
The Bush administration has applied increasing pressure on Syrian President
Bashar Assad to halt the activities of militant groups inside Syria, and to
arrest and extradite former Saddam Hussein officials who are the leading
financiers, according to several U.S. government sources.
So far there has been no positive response, they said.
What especially worries U.S. former and serving intelligence analysts is the
seeming weakness of Assad to act against these groups. According to these
sources, Assad is "well aware of the U.S. Army on its border to the east,"
and
does not want to antagonize the United States, in the words of one.
In fact, Bashar's inner circle of key advisers consists of reformist,
"smart,
streetwise young technocrats" who are urging Bashar to yield to U.S.
pressure
and begin to shut down some of the anti-U.S. activity, one U.S. official
said.
But Bashar is also surrounded by "the old guard" -- rogue members of the
ruling circle, "various people who are making millions and millions of
dollars" by allowing former Baath officials to shelter in Syria, this source
said.
"If something goes wrong, they can pack up and go and live in Geneva," he
said.
Because of the rogue elements, after the technocrats (who are also
pro-reform)
give Bashar their views, they often find themselves visited the next day by
hard-line members of Syria's Mukhabarat, or secret police, who tell them to
keep their mouths shut, according to this official.
"Bashar is trapped," this U.S. government official said. "He's the prisoner
of Zenda."
Luft agreed, saying, "The Mukhabarat and some of the old guard are
known to be pressuring Bashar's senior confidents to
ignore U.S. demands."
One former senior CIA official, usually an administration critic, said, "We
should send a cruise missile into south-side Damascus and blow the
Mukharbarat headquarters off the map. We should first make clear
to them that they are the target."
But are the hawks likely to get their strikes?
Former CIA Syria expert, Martha Kessler doesn't think so. "I don't think
the
administration can afford to destabilize another country in the region," she
said.
Kessler pointed out that Syria has tried, often in vain, to cooperate with
the
United States, only to be either snubbed or ignored.
According to Kesssler, Syria offered to station U.S. forces on its soil
before
the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The Syrians have also opened their
intelligence books that identify assets in Europe, including front
companies,
to the administration in an attempt to help track down al-Qaida.
But Kessler said a chief reason for not moving against Damascus is that any
strikes would "destabilize Lebanon," where the Lebanese Hezbollah movement
awaits orders from Iran before launching retaliations against Israeli
attacks.
"Damascus is not the heartbeat of this Iraqi insurgent movement," she said.
However, one administration official said, "We have got one hell of a
problem."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) URGENT: Mumia Hearing Cancelled,
Stay Tuned for Update on Action of Feb.11th!
Ona MOVE!
In a message dated 1/11/05 6:57:34 PM, icffmaj@aol.com writes:
Judge Pamela Dembe cancelled Mumia's scheduled Feb. 11th court
hearing. Her reasoning was explained by Mumia's attorney, Robert Bryant:
"Judge Pamela Dembe, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia, has ordered
briefing by February 15 on the issue of whether the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court's recent decision in Commonwealth v. Johnson, 2004 Pa. LEXIS
3118, "speaks to the jurisdiction of the Court to proceed in defendant's
third PCRA petition." This is disturbing since the court's preliminary
interpretation of the Johnson case appears to be wrong, for it does not
prevent her from granting us a hearing on two issues of great significance
relating to the unfairness of the trial. There is no new law in Johnson,
rather it is just the application of long-established law to the facts of
Mumia's case."
Legally, cancelling a hearing at this late date is not the norm, but
Mumia's case has consistently been subject to rule bending against
him. Dembe should be pressured to do right by Mumia. Call her and demand
that Mumia's hearing be reinstated, with him present, to let the evidence
be heard and ultimately release him!
phone 215-683-7148
fax 215-683-7150
We previously scheduled a meeting to organize for the hearing. This
meeting will go ahead as planned: tomorrow, Wednesday January 12th, 7 pm,
at the AFSC (Cherry and 15th). We need your presence at the
meeting! There will still be an action on Feb. 11th to keep the pressure
on! There is even *more* work ahead of us now-- to attack Dembe and her
contemporaries flagrant disregard for justice and most importantly to press
forward for Mumia's freedom at this critical juncture!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) 1000 Days of Hell
After three years' incarceration, Guantanamo Britons are
set to be freed
By Robert Verkaik, Legal Affairs Correspondent
12 January 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=599984
1000 Days of Hell
Promise to pursue convictions secures the repatriation of last British
inmates
Prisoners freed a year ago struggle to rebuild their lives
Leading article: The return of the last British detainees will not end the
disgrace of Guantanamo
It has been just over a thousand days since Pakistani security officers
broke down Moazzam Begg's front door and bundled him into the
boot of a waiting police car.
His terrified wife and three children looked on helplessly as Mr Begg
was taken away in the middle of the night, transported to Bagram air
base near Kabul before being flown to the infamous prison camp at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The former law student and bookshop owner from Birmingham joined
hundreds of other "unlawful combatants", shackled and dressed in
orange jump suits, and then held without charge, trial or even access
to lawyers.
For much of his detention he has been held in solitary confinement,
often exposed to extreme weather conditions and deprived of basic
necessities.
His letters home, supported by testimony from former Guantanamo
detainees, reveal that Mr Begg may also have been tortured by US
military officials, increasingly desperate to extract a confession
from him.
Last night the end of his ordeal appeared to be in sight after the
British and American governments brokered a deal to release
Mr Begg and three other Britons from the notorious US detention
centre.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said following "intensive and
complex" discussions with the US, the four men would be
returned to Britain to face questioning. But for Mr Begg and his
elderly father, Azmat, who has tirelessly campaigned for his son's
release, freedom will come at a price.
Their reunion after three turbulent years is likely to be tempered
by the psychological and physical toll of the ordeals endured by
both men. Mr Begg, or detainee JJEEH#00558 as he is known to his
American captors, will not be the same man who first left Birmingham
with his family four years ago to help educate children in Afghanistan.
Azmat Begg said: "I will be very happy, I will be the happiest person
that he is released. But my concern is about his mental health and
his physical health after he has spent three years in solitary
confinement without talking to people.
"I am very much worried because I was told that even after three
or four weeks in solitary confinement, like he had, that people go
out of their minds." The detainee's father, a retired bank manager,
is still haunted by the telephone call that he received from his son
while he was in the boot of the police car driving through Islamabad.
"I can't help thinking how terrifying that must have been for him
and how distraught he must have been to have been separated from
his wife and children without a chance to say goodbye or say where
he was being taken." Moazzam Begg's three-year detention at
Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta has also taken its toll on the health
of his father, who is diabetic. Doctors have twice treated Azmat
Begg, 66, for a heart condition they believe may have been brought
on by stress caused by his son's detention: as a result, he suffers
paralytic spasms.
His ill-health has not prevented him running a high-profile
campaign for his son's release, including two trips to Washington
to try to persuade the Americans of his son's innocence and the
injustice of his continued detention. The story of Moazzam Begg,
argue his family and supporters, is a case of an innocent abroad
who took his wife and three young children to Afghanistan to
help educate the local children.
Mr Begg was a law student at Wolverhampton University before
dropping out in his second year. After marrying a local girl he
opened a bookshop in Birmingham, but started to feel the need
to play a bigger part in the education of the children in poorer
countries. So he took his young family to Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan.
His father said: "The Taliban didn't allow any co-education so
his wife wanted to teach the girls and he wanted to teach the
boys. But he ran into trouble with Taliban red tape. While he was
waiting for clearance he took his family to a remote area to make
tube wells to improve their access to water."
Then the US bombardment started and the family fled to Pakistan.
It was while the Beggs were waiting in Islamabad to return to
teaching that he was arrested, taken to the US-controlled Bagram
airbase, and then to Guantanamo Bay.
Moazzam Begg's wife, stepmother and three brothers will spend
the next few days waiting anxiously for the RAF plane that will
bring him home. But it will be the Begg children who have suffered
the most. "The eldest one can remember the day when the police
came and took her father away and she still wakes in the middle
of the night screaming," said Azmat Begg.
There is one other member of the Begg family who has never seen
his father. Ibrahim Begg, nearly three, was born shortly after his
mother Sally, 33, returned to Britain. Azmat Begg added: "He is
nearly old enough to be told the story of his father - it's not a story
any child should be told."
(c) 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) January 20: Inauguration Day
Not Our President! Not in Our Name!
Order posters and stickers online, or make your own!
On January 20th, the day George W. Bush is inaugurated, Not in
Our Name is planning a massive day of protest declaring "NO" to
Bush and all he represents. In addition to a massive poster and
media campaign-and building for an outpouring of resistance in
the streets of San Francisco that evening-we are calling for groups
and individuals to choose an intersection or overpass to hold
a banner during the morning commute that morning to greet
commuters with a very visible repudiation! "Not Our President!"
is the suggested theme.
Help make it happen!
VOLUNTEER WORK PARTIES
Wednesday, January 12 ~ 6pm-8:30pm
Thursday, January 13 ~ 6pm-8:30pm
Meet at the Not in Our Name office for phone banking, poster
prep, banner making prep, and more! Join us to get ready for
January 20! Not in Our Name, 3945 Opal Street, Oakland
(at 40th Street-short walk towards the hills from Macarthur BART)
OUTREACH
Saturday, January 15 ~ 11am
Meet at Macarthur Bart parking lot - we'll leave at 11am sharp
to do poster blitzes throughout the entire Bay Area!
BANNER MAKING PARTY
Sunday, January 16 ~ 11am-6pm
Laney College - Student Center Quad
(From the Lake Merritt Bart station walk directly onto Laney
campus, and then to the Student Center - look for Not in
Our Name signs!)
JANUARY 20-DAY OF
Morning Commute Banner/Sign Holding
Join Not In Our Name on January 20 to hold a banner declaring
NO to Bush during the morning commute. Call or email to
claim a corner or overpass, make your own banner, or use
one of ours! Stay tuned for more details - or call our office
at 510.601.8000. Email: bayarea@notinourname.net
"Stop the War! Fight the Right" March and Rally
Join the Not In Our Name contingent at the January 20 march a
nd rally! Powell and Market, San Francisco ~ 5pm. Declare
"Not Our President!" with us - look for the banners, and red "
NO" posters!
The Not in Our Name Project
needs your support!
Donate online
donate.notinourname.net
Or send your tax-deductible contribution today to:
Not in Our Name
3945 Opal Street, Oakland CA 94609
www.notinourname.net
phone: 510-601-8000
email: bayarea@notinourname.net
local: bayarea.notinourname.net
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) Should a Defender of Immigrants and Critic of
the Patriot Act be silenced?
A tribute to Manlin Chee, a local and national hero
Who is Manlin Chee?
Manlin is a defense attorney specializing in immigration law.
Some facts:
*One of the first Asian-American women to graduate from
Wake Forest School of Law in 1978.
*Called "one of the foremost immigration attorneys in North
Carolina, if not the country" by the Triad Business News.
*Presented the American Bar Association's Pro Bono Public
Award in 1991 by U. S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra
Day O'Connor.
*Recipient of the 1990 William L. Thorp Pro Bono Award by
the North Carolina Bar Association.
*Graduate of Guilford College.
*Naturalized Citizen.
*Wife and Mother.
For years Manlin helped her clients navigate the complex and
daunting web of immigration regulations. She is well known
for going beyond an attorney's duties by assisting her clients
to obtain work, education, credit, and housing.
She also challenged North Carolinians to learn about and
appreciate the rich histories and customs of people from other
countries.
Should Manlin and her daughter Chernlian Forgay be punished?
Is this right?
Beginning in Spring 2003 Manlin, her clients past and present,
and her staff became the target of an extensive investigation
by the FBI and the Dept. of Homeland Security. After months
of scrutinizing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cases that
Manlin had handled over the years, the government finally
sent two undercover agents into Manlin's office, where they s
olicited advice that they knew to be illegal. One "client,"
appealing to Manlin's well-known sense of compassion for
immigrants and concern for human life, pretended to be
gay and from a country where homosexuality is punishable
by death. The other wanted an arranged marriage.
Significantly, both of the agents were immigrants, whose
insecure position made them extremely vulnerable to
government "persuasion."
The relentless and unprecedented investigation made it
impossible for Manlin's law practice to continue, leaving
her clients without legal representation. It is now known
that government investigators attempted to "sweat" information
out of her immigrant clients by subjecting them to interrogation
sessions that often lasted for hours. Some of her office staff
had to endure this as well.
To get more leverage in their efforts to silence Manlin Chee,
the government even resorted to charging her daughter
Chernlian, who worked in the law office as a paralegal for
only 10 months. Manlin admitted to the seven charges
involving the two agents and was prepared to contest the
other 20 charges. The following week the government
dismissed all charges not linked to the undercover agents.
Of course, Manlin Chee is not the only immigration attorney
in the Triad. Why, then, has the government spent so much
time and taxpayer money investigating her only to dismiss
the charges?
Why is Manlin being singled out?
Could it be because:
*She spoke out against the Patriot Act at a forum at the
Greensboro Public Library, which was broadcast repeatedly
on local television? Shortly after this forum Manlin became
aware that she was the target of a federal investigation.
*She carried the largest caseload of Muslim and Middle Eastern
clients in the area? Beginning after 9/11 she would wear Muslim
dress to work one day a week in solidarity with this beseiged
population.
*She pointed out that John Ashcroft's involuntary registration
of Muslims after 9/11 was identical to procedures in Nazi Germany?
She was the only immigration attorney in the area who personally
accompanied her clients to the registrations to prevent them from
being secretly deported.
*She has been an outspoken critic of the severe and overly complex
regulations of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
(formerly the INS)?
This follows a pattern of the Federal government where individuals
are accused of crimes which are widely and uncritically reported
in the media, only to have the "evidence" fail to stand up to scrutiny.
Such individuals include Capt. James Yee, a Muslim chaplain at the
military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was accused of spying,
and attorney Brandon Mayfield, who was acccused of involvement in
the Madrid terrorist attacks that killed 191 people. In both
these cases accusations either evaporated or charges were
dropped.
Why We Care
We believe that in singling out Manlin for investigation and
prosecution the federal government is attempting to chill dissent
and our constitutional right to free speech, as well as sending a
threatening message to attorneys and other defenders of immigrants.
By forcing her out of her law practice and attempting to
silence her, the immigrant community has been deprived of an
effective, passionate advocate.
(photos not shown)
For more information please email us at
defendchee@hotmail.com
Hands off Manlin Chee!
First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, but by that time no one
was left to speak up.
-Pastor Martin Niemoellor, concentration camp
survivor, on repression in Hitler's Germany
You Be the Judge
* Organization listed for indentification purposes only
We, the undersigned, believe that Manlin Chee has been
a friend to immigrants and a force for good in our community
for many years. We believe any attempt to silence and punish
her sets a dangerous precedent and is incompatible with the
right of free speech and dissent that is
essential to a just society. In addition, we are concerned
about the role that some local media played in this case,
uncritically printing stories about "marriage rings" and articles
that promoted the U.S. Government's allegations against Manlin
Chee that have since been found to be false.
Daniel Bayer, journalist °¥ Elizabeth Ito, ESOL teacher
°¥ Joseph Gruendler °¥ Tim and Robin Hopkins, Not In
Our Name Project °¥ Ann F.
Deagan °¥ Lewis A. Brandon, III, Beloved Community
Center* °¥ Ginger Holt °¥ Ronda J. Cranford °¥
Lynn Dorn °¥ Jane Cranford °¥ Roberta M.
Trulove, teacher °¥ Leia Forgay, student °¥ Linda
Horney °¥ Scott Trent, Blue Triangle Network °¥ Larkin
Carroll, Blue Triangle Network °¥ John
Rash, Slave Magazine °¥Carolyn S. Allen, Truth &
Community Reconciliation Project* °¥Signe Waller °¥Marnie
Thompson, Partnership Project*
°¥Edward Goins °¥Liz Seymour,
Greensboro Community Arts Collective °
¥Diane Phoenix-Neal °¥Calvert "Butch"
Stewart, October 22 Coalition
Against Police Brutality °¥ Edward L.
Whitfield, Greensboro Peace Coalition* °¥
John Skujins °¥ Deborah Greene °¥ Muslims
for a Better North
Carolina °¥ Barbara P. Walker °¥ Chris Censullo
°¥ Chellie Mason °¥ Rev. Alex L. Richardson,
Unitarian Universalist Church of Greensboro °¥ Rev.
Nelson Johnson °¥ Marilyn Clayton °¥ Anita Earls,
UNC Center for Civil Rights °¥ Brenda Howerton,
mother of Daryl Howerton °¥ Tina Mercado
l
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) BOEING SCANDAL PART OF DEEPER PENTAGON CORRUPTION
By David Phinney
From: "CorpWatch"
Date: Thu,6 Jan 2005 20:54:38 -0800 (PST)
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BOEING SCANDAL PART OF DEEPER PENTAGON CORRUPTION
By David Phinney
Military contractors like Boeing, Halliburton and Lockheed, have
beome increasingly embedded with the Pentagon bureaucrats who give
them lucrative work as the jailing of Darleen Druyun, a former U.S.
Air Force weapons buyer, demonstrates.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11780
HOT OFF THE PRESS!
Seven Stories Press publishes "Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation."
Read the most complete chronicle to date of the exploits of private
contractors hired to reconstruct and manage Iraq. Donate to CorpWatch
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IN THE NEWS
GUATEMALA: Supermarket Giants Crush Farmers
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11770
US: War is Bad for Business
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11771
US: Departing Lawmakers Cash in Years of Service for Big Bucks
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11773
WORLD: Newmont Must Keep Focus on the Goal
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11779
IRAQ: Families Sue Blackwater Over Deaths in Fallujah
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11772
EU: Corporate Lobbying Grows
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11774
IRAQ: Four Halliburton Workers from U.S. Killed
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11775
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16) GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST ON THE TWO-YEAR
ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRAQ WAR
SATURDAY, MARCH 19:
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
* End the War * Bring the Troops Home Now
* Rebuild Our Communities *
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
March 19-20 marks the two-year anniversary of the U.S. bombing
and invasion of Iraq. After all of the death and destruction, and with
the Bush administration claiming a mandate to continue their war,
there's a new urgency and a stronger determination within the
global antiwar movement to bring the troops home now.
LOCAL ACTIONS NATIONWIDE
UFPJ calls on supporters of peace and justice in every corner of
the country, in communities large and small, to organize local
protests against the war on Saturday, March 19. These can take
many forms: vigils, rallies, marches, nonviolent civil disobedience.
We especially encourage creative efforts to put the spotlight on
the institutions of militarism at home by organizing actions
outside military bases or military recruitment offices. List your
activities on the UFPJ website calendar at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/events
(select "March 19" under Event Type).
On the first anniversary of the war, at least 319 cities and towns
across the United States organized protests. This year there is
the potential to organize even more demonstrations, and to
bring more people than ever out into the streets. The Bush
Administration will soon ask Congress to pump as much as
$100 billion more into the war; March 19 is an opportunity to
call for an end to this disaster, and to demand that the billions
be allocated instead for rebuilding our communities at home
and paying for the damage in Iraq.
MAJOR REGIONAL PROTEST IN FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.
UFPJ is also supporting a major regional demonstration in
Fayetteville, North Carolina. We hope those of you within
driving distance of Fayetteville will make this action your priority.
Fayetteville is home to Fort Bragg - ground zero for the 82nd
Airborne Division and many of the Army's elite units. Beyond
Fort Bragg, North Carolina hosts four other of the nation's largest
military bases, making the state one of the friendliest to the
military-industrial complex.
Less well-known is the fact that Fayetteville is also home to
a growing base of anti-war activists and organizations. They
are military folks, veterans, families of active-duty soldiers
and veterans, students, workers, housewives, clergy, educators,
and all are part of a vibrant, and growing, statewide network.
They stand firm in the knowledge that organizing in Fayetteville
is a key to bringing the troops home from Iraq.
Military Families Speak Out (http://www.mfso.org/
(http://www.bringthemhomenow.org
Iraq Veterans Against the War
(http://www.ivaw.net
Veterans For Peace (http://www.veteransforpeace.org
Fayetteville Peace with Justice, the North Carolina
Peace and Justice Coalition (http://www.ncpeacejustice.org
Carolina Council of Churches
(http://www.nccouncilofchurches.org
the Fayetteville action. Please do all you can to
be in Fayetteville this year; by actively building
and participating in this demonstration, we have
the opportunity to support the efforts of Southern
organizers to build a Southern network, and
a Southern movement, to replace war and
occupation with justice and self-determination.
BE PART OF A GLOBAL ANTIWAR MOVEMENT
In addition to the many protests already being planned in the
United States, people all around the world will be taking action
on March 19 as well. Responding to a call from the European
Social Forum's Assembly of Social Movements, European
activists are organizing national mobilizations across Europe.
Brussels will be the site of a central demonstration on the eve
of a meeting of the European Council, where demonstrators
will march against war, racism, and a corporate-dominated
Europe. India's national Anti-War Assembly recently committed
to major protests on the second anniversary of the war. And
we anticipate that the World Social Forum will join this call
when it meets later this month in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
GET OUT THE WORD
Circulate this email wide and far. UFPJ will soon have flyers,
stickers, and other resources available to help you get
out the word.
BEGIN PLANNING LOCAL MARCH 19th ACTIONS
Bring together local groups to plan March 19th actions in
your community. Post your plans at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/events
UFPJ mailing list
UFPJ@mediajumpstart.net
https://secure.mediajumpstart.net/mailman/listinfo/ufpj
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17) JANUARY 20, 2005 COUNTER INAUGURAL EVENT
THE COST OF WAR - THE PRICE WE'RE ALL PAYING
JOIN US AS WE STATE THE FACTS
AND OFFER ALTERNATIVES
WHERE: The Foundry United Methodist Church
1500 16TH Street, NW and P Street
(near DuPont Circle), Washington, D.C.
WHEN: 10:00 AM – 11:30 PM
PROGRAM: 10:00 -11:30 a.m. Speakers and Discussion
· Jana Meyer, Minister, FUMC
· Elias Vlanton, Co-author of www.costofwar.org
· Erik Leaver, Associate at Foreign Policy in Focus
www.fpif.org)
· Other speakers, including representatives from Military
Families Speak Out and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
REFRESHMENTS
11:30 Join DC Anti War Network members as we walk down 16th Street
to the Inaugural Parade.
DONATIONS WELCOME ON SITE
BRING: Signs showing the cost of war for YOUR STATE, COUNTY
or CITY and what those dollars could buy (go to
www.costofwar.org ). Supporters. Fact sheets for distribution.
Organizational materials (tables available).
DO: Contact your media.
RSVP: Malachy (malachykilbride@yahoo.com, Debby
dchurchm@yahoo.com or Moya (moyaatk@att.net)
Sponsored by
Foundry United Methodist Peace with Justice Mission – and Hosts
Middle Atlantic Region of the American Friends Service Committee
Northern Virginians for Peace and Justice
Arlingtonians for Peace
DC Anti-War Network (DAWN)
Prince George's Co. Peace & Justice Coalition
UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545
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It is not a discussion list.
To engage in online discussion of UFPJ matters, join our
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<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
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