wrote: folks from the NLG asked that the following
be passed on to activist listservs and organizations:
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS - DONT TALK - GET LEGAL ADVICE!
If you are contacted by the FBI
or other law enforcement officers, or
subpoenaed to a grand jury,
or if you are not a citizen and
have a question about the impact
of your political activity on your
immigration status, call the
National Lawyers Guild Post-9/11 Hotline, 415 285-1041.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
BAUAW Benefit Presentation of Howard Zinn's
one man show, MARX IN SOHO
Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
Thursday, August 4, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday,August 6, 2:00 p.m.
Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
1519 Mission Street between 11th Street
and South Van Ness*
Advance tickets: $10
Door: $20.00
Call:415-824-8730 or email: giobon@sbcglobal.net for
Advance tickets.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
CONGRATULATIONS TO COLLEGE NOT COMBAT!
CAN’T WAIT FOR THE CAMPAIGN TO BEGIN!
Press Conference to Submit College Not Combat Petitions for
November Election Took Place Monday, July 11th; noon
East steps of City Hall, San Francisco
CONTACT: Ragina Johnson at 415-412-4540 or
college_not_combat@yahoo.com http://us.f335.mail.yahoo.com/ym/
Compose?To=college_not_combat@yahoo.com&YY=45579&order=down&a
mp;sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
On July 11th 2005, College Not Combat activists delivered a
remarkable 15,000 signatures to the Department of Elections at San
Francisco's City Hall. These signatures, gathered by volunteers
in just six weeks, represent public disapproval of military
recruitment in the facilities of San Francisco's public
high schools, colleges, and universities.
With the death toll of American soldiers in Iraq almost 1800, the US
military is struggling to meet its recruitment goals. Consistently
falling well below its monthly quotas, military recruiters are using
a number of tactics to persuade young people to join their ranks.
Among these tactics is the presentation of economic incentives, used
to make military service an appealing prospect to low-income youth.
Acknowledging the passing of last November's Proposition N, in which
the people of San Francisco voted by 63% to "bring the troops safely
home now", the College Not Combat petition also represents opposition
to the policy that is driving the war in Iraq.
Speakers included:
Aimee Allison - Green party member who is running for Oakland City
Council.
Cindy Sheehan, lost her son Casey, a soldier in Iraq, in April of 2004
and is the founder of Gold Star Families for Peace.
Supervisor Chris Daly
Ragina Johnson, campaign director of the College Not Combat campaign
And Others.
For more info, call 415-248-1701, or go to
www.CollegeNotCombat.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) HANDS OFF VENEZUELA SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA FILM
SHOWING: 7:00 PM, FRIDAY JULY 15
Center for Political Education
522 Valencia, Third Floor,
Near 16th Street, SF
(not wheelchair accessible)
Close the 16th Street BART
$5/$3 Students, Seniors, Unemployed
2) SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE
PRESENTS: "DOING GOOD"
A play based loosely on the book, "Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man", by John Perkins.
JULY 16, PRECITA PARK
MUSIC: 1:30 P.M.
SHOW: 2:00 P.M.
(This play is fresh, new, brilliantly performed,
insightful, full of content, and the music is the
icing on the cake!...BW)
SPONSORED BY BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR
Help get the word out about the ballot proposition
and upcoming antiwar events. Free antiwar posters!
FREE!
3) BAUAW Benefit Presentation of Howard Zinn's
one man show, MARX IN SOHO
Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
Thursday, August 4, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
1519 Mission Street between 11th Street
and South Van Ness*
Advance tickets: $10
Door: $20.00
Call:415-824-8730 or email: giobon@sbcglobal.net for
Advance tickets.
4) Cut all Public School Ties to the Military!
Speak up and Picket the S.F. Board of Education
the Fourth Tuesday of Each Month.
Next picket line: Tuesday, July 27, 6:30 P.M.-7:30 P.M.
(The July Board of Ed. meetings have been cancelled. But we
will still hold a picket July 27 at 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
in front of the Board of Education building.)
The next picket line after July 27 is August 23, 6:30 P.M.
-7:30 P.M. (just before school starts back.)
August 23, 6:30 p.m.-7:30 P.M.
555 Franklin St., S.F,
To get on the speakers list call:
415-241-6427, 241-6493 or 241-6000
(For more info call: 415-824-8730)
5) Op-Ed Columnist
It Just Gets Worse
By BOB HERBERT
Published: July 11, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/opinion/11herbert.html?hp
6) Part-Time Forces on Active Duty Decline Steeply
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: July 11, 2005
"Eventually, the Pentagon could be forced to remobilize units
that have already been deployed especially if recruiting
problems persist, General Libby and other Guard officials
said. That would require changing the 24-month limit, something
the Pentagon says now it has no need to do. Military personnel
experts say such a move would only worsen recruiting for the
Guard and Reserve, which are both lagging behind their quotas
for the year, although strong re-enlistments have offset some
of the recruiting slump....For Pentagon planners, the main
focus of concern is the Army National Guard and Reserve, which
currently have 115,645 troops mobilized, or about 84 percent
of all reserve forces activated worldwide."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/politics/
11reserves.html?ei=5094&en=bdef14b7f08346e6&hp=&ex=1121140800&adxnnl=1
&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1121100417-4gI5MgdvJcxq7ckIztz9mw
7) Israeli Barrier in Jerusalem Will Cut Off 55,000 Arabs
By GREG MYRE
Published: July 11, 2005
"JERUSALEM, July 10 - Israel's separation barrier in Jerusalem
will cut off 55,000 Palestinian residents from the rest of the
city, Israeli officials acknowledged Sunday. Palestinians
responded sharply, saying they will face daily complications
in reaching jobs, schools and hospitals."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/international/middleeast/11mideast.html
8) Cancer Drugs Offer Hope,
but at a Huge Expense
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: July 12, 2005
"Ten thousand dollars once seemed a lot to pay for
a few months' supply of a drug... But they are all highly expensive,
up to $100,000 for a course of treatment that lasts a few months.
That is hundreds of times the cost of older, more toxic cancer drugs,
and several times the annual cost of AIDS drugs, whose prices
caused widespread anger during the 1990's."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/business/
12cancer.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=7c40d71f337a6617&ei=5094&partner=ho
mepage
9) Man and Young Daughter Die
in Shootout With Police
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: July 12, 2005
The child's mother, Lorena Lopez,
said she had no doubt who fired the fatal shots.
"The police killed my daughter,"
Ms. Lopez said, tearfully and in Spanish,
in the driveway of her green frame house
on the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 104th Street.
She said she had told the police during the crisis
that Mr. Pena, from whom she is separated, was
depressed about his failing business. "I told them
he needed to be helped," she said.
Ms. Lopez said that no one from the
police department had contacted her to
explain how her daughter died. "I want
the police to pay for this," she said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12shooting.html
10) From No Man's Land to Displacement
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
by Dahr Jamail
from Left Turn Magazine
11) The Battle after the Battle
By Les Blumenthal
The News Tribune
Sunday 10 July 2005
Soldiers say military pushes them
to discharge before medical needs are met.
The day before his 22nd birthday,
a bomb hanging from a tree along a road near
Fallujah exploded above Rory Dunn's Humvee.
Dunn's forehead was crushed from ear
to ear, leaving his brain exposed.
His right eye was destroyed by shrapnel;
the left eye nearly so. His hearing
was severely damaged.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/071105X.shtml
12) WHEN THEY SAY "AID", THEY MEAN "RAID"
[Col. Writ. 6/13/05] Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
13) UN Occupation Forces Carry Out Massacre
of Poor in Port-au-Prince
On Wednesday morning, July 6th, at approximately 3:00 AM, UN occupation
forces in Haiti carried out a major military operation in the
working-class neighborhood of Cite Soleil, one of the poorest in
Port-au-Prince and also a stronghold of support for Haiti's majority
political party Lavalas and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Presumably,
the purpose of the operation was to crack down on illegal "gang activity",
in particular on "gang" leader Dread Wilme. In actuality, a US trade union
and human rights delegation in Port-au-Prince discovered evidence of a
massacre conducted by the UN forces, targeting the larger community
itself.
14) Indiana Hunger Strike Alert
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) HANDS OFF VENEZUELA SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA FILM
SHOWING: 7:00 PM, FRIDAY JULY 15
Center for Political Education
522 Valencia, Third Floor,
Near 16th Street, SF
(not wheelchair accessible)
Close the 16th Street BART
$5/$3 Students, Seniors, Unemployed
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
2) SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE
PRESENTS: "DOING GOOD"
A play based loosely on the book, "Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man", by John Perkins.
JULY 16, PRECITA PARK
MUSIC: 1:30 P.M.
SHOW: 2:00 P.M.
(This play is fresh, new, brilliantly performed,
insightful, full of content, and the music is the
icing on the cake!...BW)
SPONSORED BY BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR
Help get the word out about the ballot proposition
and upcoming antiwar events. Free antiwar posters!
FREE!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
3) BAUAW Benefit Presentation of Howard Zinn's
one man show, MARX IN SOHO
Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
Thursday, August 4, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
1519 Mission Street between 11th Street
and South Van Ness*
Advance tickets: $10
Door: $20.00
Call:415-824-8730 or email: giobon@sbcglobal.net for
Advance tickets.
The premise of the play is that Marx dies yet he is
able to see what's happening on earth for 100 years
since his death in 1883. He is supposed to go back to
Soho in London but, by mistake, is sent to Soho
in New York and finds himself on stage before an
audience. Imagine all Karl Marx would have to say
after one hundred years of just being able to watch...
The single actor in this one-man play is Jerry Levy,
who has been teaching sociology at Marlboro College
and been acting with the Actors' Theater of Brattleboro
since he moved there from Chicago in 1975. Originally
directed by Michael Fox Kennedy of the Actors' Theater,
Levy has been on the road with Zinn's version of Karl
Marx for a year, performing at benefits, colleges, small
theaters and other venues around the state. At Middle
Earth he was sponsored by the Bradford-based Coos Peace
and Justice Alliance and performed free of charge but
charged with mighty talent and a bottomless love of the play.
WWW.BAUAW.ORG
Contact person: Bonnie Weinstein 415-824-8730-office/home
415-990-4237-cell
*The Jon Sims Center is located at 1519 Mission Street
(between 11th Street and South Van Ness), South of Market,
San Francisco, CA 94103
BY CAR:
From the East Bay: Take 80 North then 101 North to the
Mission Street exit. Stay on the right hand side of the exit.
Turn right off the exit, and stay on Mission Street. The Jon
Sims Center is two blocks past Van Ness, next to Firestone.
From the South Bay: Take 101 North to the Mission Street
Exit. Stay on the right hand side of the exit. Turn right off
the exit, and stay on Mission Street. The Jon Sims Center
is two blocks past Van Ness, next to Firestone.
From the North Bay: Take 101 South to Lombard, make
a right on Van Ness and then a left onto Mission. Jon Sims
Center is two blocks past Van Ness, next to Firestone.
Parking: Daytime parking is very difficult. We encourage
day users to take public transportation. In the evening,
street parking along Mission Street, Minna Street and
11th Street is not horrible (in San Francisco terms) after
6:00 PM, but the closer you are to 6:00 PM, the better
your chances of finding parking. There is no parking
along Mission between 4-6 PM, and you will be
promptly towed.
VIA BART/MUNI/SAMTRANS:
Go to http://www.transitinfo.org for more information
about Bay Area public transportation.
BART: Take BART to the Civic Center station, then transfer
to the outbound Muni J,K,L,M or N train. Exit at the next
stop (Van Ness Station). Walk 1 block south, cross Mission,
and the Jon Sims Center is next to Firestone.
MUNI: The Jon Sims Center is 1 block south of the Van
Ness Muni underground station, accessible from any Muni
streetcar. Additionally, the 14 Mission, 42 Loop 49 and
47 Van Ness bus stop at Mission and 11th Street, only
1/2 block from the Jon Sims Center. Current Muni fare is $1.25.
SamTrans: The SamTrans DX, KX, MX, NX, PX, RX and
TX buses stops at Mission and 9th Streets. Walk three
blocks west (towards Sutro tower) to reach the Jon Sims
Center. Current SamTrans fare is $1.10. Please note that
SamTrans buses to the City only run during rush hours.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
4) Cut all Public School Ties to the Military!
Speak up and Picket the S.F. Board of Education
the Fourth Tuesday of Each Month.
Next picket line: Tuesday, July 27, 6:30 P.M.-7:30 P.M.
(The July Board of Ed. meetings have been cancelled. But we
will still hold a picket July 27 at 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
in front of the Board of Education building.)
The next picket line after July 27 is August 23, 6:30 P.M.
-7:30 P.M. (just before school starts back.)
August 23, 6:30 p.m.-7:30 P.M.
555 Franklin St., S.F,
To get on the speakers list call:
415-241-6427, 241-6493 or 241-6000
(For more info call: 415-824-8730)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
5) Op-Ed Columnist
It Just Gets Worse
By BOB HERBERT
Published: July 11, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/opinion/11herbert.html?hp
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
6) Part-Time Forces on Active Duty Decline Steeply
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: July 11, 2005
"Eventually, the Pentagon could be forced to remobilize units
that have already been deployed especially if recruiting
problems persist, General Libby and other Guard officials
said. That would require changing the 24-month limit, something
the Pentagon says now it has no need to do. Military personnel
experts say such a move would only worsen recruiting for the
Guard and Reserve, which are both lagging behind their quotas
for the year, although strong re-enlistments have offset some
of the recruiting slump....For Pentagon planners, the main
focus of concern is the Army National Guard and Reserve, which
currently have 115,645 troops mobilized, or about 84 percent
of all reserve forces activated worldwide."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/politics/
11reserves.html?ei=5094&en=bdef14b7f08346e6&hp=&ex=1121140800&adxnnl=1
&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1121100417-4gI5MgdvJcxq7ckIztz9mw
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
7) Israeli Barrier in Jerusalem Will Cut Off 55,000 Arabs
By GREG MYRE
Published: July 11, 2005
"JERUSALEM, July 10 - Israel's separation barrier in Jerusalem
will cut off 55,000 Palestinian residents from the rest of the
city, Israeli officials acknowledged Sunday. Palestinians
responded sharply, saying they will face daily complications
in reaching jobs, schools and hospitals."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/international/middleeast/11mideast.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
8) Cancer Drugs Offer Hope,
but at a Huge Expense
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: July 12, 2005
"Ten thousand dollars once seemed a lot to pay for
a few months' supply of a drug... But they are all highly expensive,
up to $100,000 for a course of treatment that lasts a few months.
That is hundreds of times the cost of older, more toxic cancer drugs,
and several times the annual cost of AIDS drugs, whose prices
caused widespread anger during the 1990's."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/business/
12cancer.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=7c40d71f337a6617&ei=5094&partner=ho
mepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
9) Man and Young Daughter Die
in Shootout With Police
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: July 12, 2005
The child's mother, Lorena Lopez,
said she had no doubt who fired the fatal shots.
"The police killed my daughter,"
Ms. Lopez said, tearfully and in Spanish,
in the driveway of her green frame house
on the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 104th Street.
She said she had told the police during the crisis
that Mr. Pena, from whom she is separated, was
depressed about his failing business. "I told them
he needed to be helped," she said.
Ms. Lopez said that no one from the
police department had contacted her to
explain how her daughter died. "I want
the police to pay for this," she said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12shooting.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
10) From No Man's Land to Displacement
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
by Dahr Jamail
from Left Turn Magazine
The Iraqi/Jordanian border is a land of desolation. Coils of razor wire
stretch into the desert whilst sun-grayed plastic bags caught in their
sharpness flap in the hot, dry winds. In No Man's Land, Jamail exposes
yet another face of the human consequences of the US occupation of Iraq
- the suffering and resistance of displaced Kurdish-Iranian and
Palestinian refugees.
Long columns of trucks wait at the Jordanian border to carry their loads
of supplies into war-torn Iraq. When Iraqi drivers wish to enter Jordan,
they now wait up to 18 days to be allowed in. The al-Karama border is a
land of waiting, but not just for the truck drivers. There have been
others waiting to enter Jordan for far longer. The refugee camp situated
in this bleak area is called No Man's Land camp because it literally is
just that: an area of land caught between the borders of two countries
with nowhere else to go.
"If you leave me here I will die," said the elderly Merza Shahawaz as he
was groaning from the pain in his kidneys, "Please help me." In his tent
covered with plastic sheeting inside the camp, his wife was helping him
sit up. He cannot sit without her holding him up.
"I ask you to help me. I plead for humanitarian people to help us now,"
mumbled the 66 year-old man in dire need of dialysis. His family sitting
nearby shed tears as they brushed flies away from their faces.
His 42 year-old son pleaded, "We are all dying slowly here. You see us
with your eyes, I ask for help. He is dying in front of his family's
eyes but nobody is doing anything for him. We don't want our children's
fate to be this. Death is better than this life. If our children grow up
like this it means they are dead."
It is one example of the suffering of so many in the camp of over 700
people.
*Hunger strike*
Kurdish-Iranian refugees have a long history of suffering. Initially
having left Iran under persecution from the government over 20 years
ago, some of them were members of the Kurdish peshmerga militia who
fought against fundamentalist Islamic rule and were lucky enough to
escape with their lives. Many of them fled to Iraq, where the regime of
Saddam Hussein placed them in the al-Tash refugee camp, located 80 miles
west of Baghdad, which held over 12,000 Iranian Kurds.
Many of these refugees, after the US-led invasion of Iraq in spring of
2003, said they were threatened by armed groups and told they had to
leave. Several refugees I interviewed in No Man's Land camp said they
were instructed to leave Al-Tash by the US-backed Iraqi government.
Palestinians, Iraqis, Jordanians and Syrian refugees were also in the mix.
At the time of the invasion the Jordanian government agreed to provide
temporary protection for Iraqis fleeing the fighting and chaos in their
country. But when the Iranian-Kurds from Al-Tash camp reached the
Jordanian border, they were denied access. Others were denied access
because they lacked valid passports. Already burgeoning with refugees
from Palestine and Iraq, the government of Jordan felt it had reached
its limits and denied access to future refugees.
While the local Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization - with help
from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), CARE
International and other organizations - has been working to assist the
refugees, it appears as though it is not enough.
A tattered sheet tied to a chain-link fence which surrounds No Man's
Land camp flittered in the wind. It read: "We Iranian Kurd refugees have
gone on hunger strike because we have been paid no attention from UNHCR
and they use demagogy policy towards our just issue and have not tended
to our demand which is resettlement in third countries. Dying once is
better than daily death."
On the other side of the fence a tarp provides shade for 21 men who were
on hunger strike, demanding more assistance from UNHCR.
Omar Abdul Aziz, is 39 years old. He was living in Al-Anbar at Al-Tash
camp near Ramadi before he came here. "We used to live 23 years at
Al-Tash camp," he explained, "After the war the horrible security came.
Due to the fact that the occupation forces didn't control the borders,
Iranian intelligence came into Iraq and began raiding Al-Tash, so we had
to leave."
The soft spoken man, weak with hunger nine days into the strike, sat on
a mat while he talked. "I am on hunger strike because UNHCR didn't do
anything for us. This is not the right place for women and kids to live
in, and we have an unknown future. We have no solution here, only moving
from camp to camp, from desert to desert."
Flies buzzed languidly about the faces of the downtrodden men in the
tent as Aziz continued. "We don't want to go to Iraq because it is
unstable and it is not our country. What has happened to us is due to
the illegal American invasion of Iraq. We ask the American people,
appealing to their humanity, to evacuate us from this horrible
situation. We are the orphans of the international community. The
international community has kept their mouths closed about us, and
especially the Americans."
Others spoke of spending over two years in the horrible conditions of
the camp where snakes, sandstorms and scorpions are a daily reality as
they languish in tents seeking shelter from the scorching desert sun.
"We are depressed and we are dying here," Zaman Shakary told me. The
frustration of the 45 year-old man was vented in anger towards UNHCR.
"Condoleeza Rice goes and shakes hands with Barzani, but does nothing
for us here. I have given an order that if I lose consciousness 10 times
I will continue my hunger strike if UNHCR does not respond and help us.
Humans cannot live this way."
Most of the refugees were asking for resettlement, but not necessarily
to another refugee camp. "We are asking for resettlement in another
country. I have been on hunger strike for 9 days, and my demands are
that if I die it is for life, I do not live for death," said Suwady
Rashat. The 43 year-old added, "I want to tell the American people that
the Iraqi government deprived us of what we need, and it is because of
the invasion which has not truly benefited Iraqis."
Nearby sat a 6 year-old boy with a lost, sad look on his face,
antagonized by flies. "I am here because my father is on hunger strike
for 9 days now," he told me, "Please, someone needs to help us here."
Another man in the camp, Hassan Sadiq, lived in the US for a year before
the recent invasion. He returned to Iraq just before the invasion, then
fled to No Man's Land Camp as chaos engulfed Iraq. Prior to his time in
America, Sadiq had fled Iran because of his Human Rights advocacy
against the regime there. He had initially spent time in the nearby
Ruwaished camp - another refugee camp an hours drive into Jordan - where
he went on hunger strike for 36 days in protest of UNHCR, who according
to him, were not doing enough to assist him from being extradited back
to Iran.
"Now UNHCR wants to close this camp and put us back in Ruwaished. When I
was there I was under constant threat of being extradited back to Iraq.
Now I'm concerned they will transfer us back to Ruwaished, which is
nothing but a jail in the desert." His situation is reflective of many
others in the camp. "I would like to say to the American government that
I remember George Bush says he is fighting for freedom. But by God, here
I need freedom and they have forgotten us. The US has been ignoring us
since 1974. The American government is responsible for us being here,
because we are displaced because of the war."
The camp was fraught with health problems - without enough clean water
or medical care, diarrhea, minor respiratory problems, sore eyes, and
dehydration abound. Many people tell me they have trouble breathing when
sandstorms hit, which is several times each week.
In another tent a man told me his 13 year old son was killed on the road
by a passing truck. His wife aborted her fetus when fighting broke out
near the Iraqi border several months ago. There have been problems in
the camp, aside from the aforementioned health and depression symptoms.
The hunger strike was aimed at UNHCR for not doing enough to help them;
however, UNHCR recently managed to move the entire camp into Jordan.
*
Dismal Place*
On May 29, with the assistance of the Jordanian Hashemite Charity
Organization and CARE International, UNHCR moved the 743 residents of No
Man's Land camp to the Ruwaished refugee camp. The long struggle to
obtain permission from the Jordanian government ended with the agreement
that UNHCR would vigorously pursue further solutions for the refugees,
who were moved in three convoys.
Jaqueline Parleviet is the Senior Protections Officer for UNHCR in
Amman, Jordan. "The hunger strike ended because of the move," Parleviet
noted. "All of the refugees I spoke with were happy to be moved. The
problems and resistance we encountered inside the camp went away when we
moved them."
UNHCR is now pursuing the solutions of either voluntary return or
resettlement to another country for each refugee in the Ruwaished camp,
which is now filled with about 880 refugees. Yet Ruwaished camp, while
at least sitting inside a country, still remains a dismal place. There
are no trees in sight of the wire fence enclosed spot in the middle of
the desert.
While there are some improvements - residents can leave for short
shopping trips in nearby Ruwaished, CARE international is providing some
vocational training and schooling, and the Jordanian Hashemite Charity
Organization is providing food, stoves, water and other necessities -
the mood remains quite bleak.
Rahma Shaban left Palestine in 1948. Under the intense midday sun, she
told me of having to leave Iraq because of the horrible security
situation after the invasion. "Baghdad is a great place," she added,
"But I must have security for my children." Other refugees blame the new
Iraqi government for there difficulties. "I can't blame Iraqis for our
problems," said Donia Baltergy, "I blame these Iraqis who came with the
invaders."
She began to cry as she continued to discuss her situation in the camp.
"It's difficult for us to live in this harsh place," she said while
holding her hands out while she pleads, "We've been sitting here for two
years. They don't let us go out, they don't like for us to talk to the
press, they don't give us rights to do anything."
Like the former No Man's Land camp, the Ruwaished camp is plagued with
sandstorms and scorpions, and the residents continue to endure health
problems and cope with ongoing depression. There was little hope for
change when I visited, and many refugees expressed discontent towards
UNHCR and other organizations for not doing more to assist them.
According to Parleviet, some of the Somali and Sundanese refugees were
resettled in the US and Australia, along with 387 Iranian Kurds
previously moved to Sweden. "We have cases pending now for the UK and
Ireland," she added. Yet despite small instances of success, the
refugees recently relocated from No Man's Land are now united with 133
other displaced people in the middle of the desert, close to one of the
worst conflict zones on the planet today.
Discontent towards what has become of Iraq, the country most of these
people love and had to leave, continues to be vented at the US. Standing
in front of a small brown tent used to teach women health classes, Rahma
Shaban exclaimed through tears, "The Americans said they were coming to
help Iraqis. Now we see their lies, proven by the fact that they have
done nothing but cause us pain, suffering, and erased our future and the
futures of our children."
And until their situation is changed, these feelings will most likely
persist.
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.
Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches
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11) The Battle after the Battle
By Les Blumenthal
The News Tribune
Sunday 10 July 2005
Soldiers say military pushes them to discharge before medical needs are met.
The day before his 22nd birthday, a bomb hanging from a tree along a road near
Fallujah exploded above Rory Dunn's Humvee.
Dunn's forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed.
His right eye was destroyed by shrapnel; the left eye nearly so. His hearing
was severely damaged.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/071105X.shtml
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12) WHEN THEY SAY "AID", THEY MEAN "RAID"
[Col. Writ. 6/13/05] Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Recently, the news columns were full of a supposed dispute
between the Americans and the British about foreign aid relief
to Africa. If the news reports are to be believed, the British
wish to push the Americans further, to provide more debt relief
for countries staggering under their economic burdens.
The media image that arises is one of the rich, Western, White
nations caring about the lives and conditions of starving Black
Africa. And like many media images, it simply isn't true.
What is often lost in this angelic imagery is the truth behind
the so-called aid. That 'aid' that was given years ago, was given
to military dictatorships, and it was often military aid meant
to strengthen dictatorships, against, not foreign attacks, but
popular resistance, from their own people!
Indeed, in a 1960 meeting of the U.S. National Security Council,
American spies and diplomats spoke rather openly about U.S.
support for military regimes. The minutes of the meeting
record them saying:
We must recognize, although we cannot say it publicly, that
we need the strong men of Africa on our side. It is important
to understand that most of Africa will soon be independent and
that it would be naive of the U.S. to hope that Africa will
be democratic ... Since we must have the strong men of Africa
on our side, perhaps we should in some cases develop military
strong men as an offset to Communist development of the labor
unions. The President agreed that it might be desirable for
us to try to 'reach' the strong men of Africa ...
[Fr. NSA mtg., 1/14/60 as published in *Foreign Relations,
1958-1960, Vol. XIV*, pp. 73-78.]
From meetings such as this, came US 'aid' to such dictators
as Zaire's late Mobutu, who was among one of the wealthiest
men in Africa, if not the world. Through 'African strong men'
such as he, the U.S. ran many countries as neocolonies, through
which they could further exploit the people of the continent.
The late U.S. President, Richard Nixon, spoke a powerful
political truth when he said: "Let us remember that the main
purpose of aid is *not to help other nations* but to help
ourselves." [Fr. Graham Hancock, *Lords of Poverty*
(New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989, p. 71].
Think about it this way: when millions of dollars in military
aid is given to a dictatorship, where does the money go? To
the receiving country, or to the arms dealers and defense
contractors which makes the weapons? So, how is this 'aid'?
It's aid to ourselves to arm forces that keep their own people
in line. Also, since at least the 1970s, U.S. food aid has
been tied to the myth of population control. In order to receive
'aid' from the nice, White, West -- African, Latin American and
Asian countries have had to pledge they would reduce their
populations.
Why would countries that are agricultural gardens of Eden
even need food aid? That's because, after formal colonialism,
Western powers often installed military dictators who spent
the nation's resources on weapons used to break and destroy
labor unions! A 1986 study by the National Academy of Sciences
found that the single country of Zaire, alone, could feed it's
own population -- 62 times over! Indeed, that one country,
with high agricultural outputs, could feed the entire
continent of Africa!
But, under the rapacious U.S. -supported military dictatorship
of Mobutu, much of that agricultural potential, and it's vast
wealth of resources, was squandered, and sent into Belgian
and European banks.
The late, great Kwame Nkrumah said 'political independence,
without economic independence, is but a mirage.'
The sweet words of 'aid' muttered by British and American
officials to Africa is to lull the people asleep with promises.
It is, in truth, yet another plan to exploit people who have
been exploited by outsiders for millennia.
True 'aid' is reparations, for the crimes of colonialism.
Real 'aid' would be an end to the support of military regimes.
Real 'aid' would be an end to political, economic, and social
interference in the social, cultural and familial affairs of
African people.
Real 'aid' would be an end to imperialism!
Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
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13) UN Occupation Forces Carry Out Massacre
of Poor in Port-au-Prince
On Wednesday morning, July 6th, at approximately 3:00 AM, UN occupation
forces in Haiti carried out a major military operation in the
working-class neighborhood of Cite Soleil, one of the poorest in
Port-au-Prince and also a stronghold of support for Haiti's majority
political party Lavalas and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Presumably,
the purpose of the operation was to crack down on illegal "gang activity",
in particular on "gang" leader Dread Wilme. In actuality, a US trade union
and human rights delegation in Port-au-Prince discovered evidence of a
massacre conducted by the UN forces, targeting the larger community
itself.
According to accounts from many different members of the community, many
of whom chose to remain anonymous, as well as from journalists who were on
the scene during the operation, UN forces surrounded two neighborhoods
within Cite Soleil, Boisneuf and Project Drouillard, sealing off the
alleys with tanks and troops.
Two helicopters flew overhead. At 4:30 AM, UN forces launched the
offensive, shooting into houses, shacks, a church, and a school with
machine guns, tank fire, and tear gas. Eyewitnesses reported that when
people fled to escape the tear gas, UN troops gunned them down from the
back.
UN forces shot out electric transformers in the neighborhood. People were
killed in their homes and also just outside of their homes, on the way to
work. According to journalists and eyewitnesses, one man named Leon
Cherry, age 46, was shot and killed on his way to work for a flower
company. Another man, Mones Belizaire, was shot as he got ready to go work
in a local sweatshop and subsequently died from a stomach infection. A
woman who was a street vendor was shot in the head and killed instantly.
One man was shot in his ribs while he was trying to brush his teeth.
Another man was shot in the jaw as he left his house to try and get some
money for his wife's medical costs; he endured a slow death.Yet another
man named Mira was shot and killed while urinating in his home.
A mother, Sena Romelus, and her two young children were killed in their
home, either by bullets or by a 83-CC grenade UN forces threw. Film
footage of many of these deaths was shared with the US human rights
delegation. Eyewitnesses claimed that the offensive overwhelmed the
community and that there was not a "firefight", but rather a slaughter.
The operation was primarily conducted by UN forces, with the Haitian
National Police this time taking a back seat.
Seth Donnelly, a member of the US human rights delegation in
Port-au-Prince, visited Cite Soleil with Haitian human rights workers on
Thursday afternoon, July 7th. The team gathered testimony from many
members of the community, young and old, men, women, and youth. All
verified the previous statements we had received from journalists and
other eyewitness accounts.
These community members spoke of how they had been surrounded by tanks and
troops that sealed off exits from the neighborhoods and then proceeded to
assault the civilian population. The community allowed the team to film
the evidence of the massacre, showing the homes -- in some cases made of
tin and cardboard -- that had been riddled by bullets, tank fire and
helicopter ammunition, as well as showing the team some of the corpses
still there, including a mother and her two children.
The team also filmed a church and a school that had been riddled by
ammunition. Reportedly, a preacher was among the victims killed. Some
community members allowed the team to interview them, but not to film
their faces for fear of their lives. People were traumutized and, in the
cases of loved ones of victims, hysterical.
Many community members -- again young and old, men and women -- spoke
highly of Dread Wilme, referring to him as their "protector" or "father",
and expressed fear for the future. One member said that he heard that
another UN operation against the community was planned for later Thursday
night or early Friday morning.
Multiple community people indicated that they had counted at least 23
bodies of people killed by the UN forces. Community members claimed that
UN forces had taken away some of the bodies. Published estimates indicate
that upwards of 50 may have been killed and an indeterminate number
wounded, and that more than 300 heavily armed UN troops took part in the
assault on this densely populated residential neighborhood.
"There was systematic firing on civilians," said one eyewitness to the
killing. "All exits were cut off. The community was choked off,
surrounded -- facing tanks coming from different angles, and overhead,
helicopters with machine guns fired down on the people. The citizens were
under attack from all sides and from the air. It was war on a community."
The Labor/Human Rights Delegation from the United States, initiated by the
San Francisco Labor Council, had been in Haiti since late last month to
attend the Congress of the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH), the
country's largest labor organization, and met with hundreds of Haitian
workers, farmers and professionals about the current labor and human
rights situation in Haiti.
For more info and updates, visit http://www.haitiaction.net/
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14) Indiana Hunger Strike Alert
On July 1, 2005 the Indiana Department of Corrections partnered with a
private food provider called Aramark Food Services. This company
originates from Kentucky and they are completely violating the rights of
prisoners. Aramark immediately dropped all religious diets for Muslim
prisoners and prisoners who are vegetarian according to their respective
religions. The meals are disproportionately lacking, and the trays have
been reduced to 90 cent servings. They would insult an infant child.
In the spirit of exposing what is occurring by this new food provider,
several prisoners are forced to participate in a collective hunger
strike. Indiana Political Prisoner Brotha Khalfani Malik Khaldun is one of
those prisoners who has stepped up to make this sacrifice for other
prisoners who lack such discipline to endure a hunger strike. Your help is
needed, they need your help to bring attention to this food problem that is
affecting the entire prison population at the Secured Housing Unit in
Indiana. We are calling on you who read this message to protest these
conditions and express your concerns about the health of the
prisoners. Khalfani needs our help. The following people can be called,
e-mailed or written on behalf of the hungerstrikers.
State officials:
J. David Donahue (Commissioner)
Indiana Department of Corrections I.G.C. South
302 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2738
Phone: (317) 232-5111 or fax (317) 232-6798
United States Senator
Evan Bayh
1650 Market Tower
10 W. Market St.
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
(317) 554-0750
Indiana Ombudsman Bureau
Charlene A. Navarro
Indiana Gov. Center South
402 W. Washington St. Rm. W479
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
(317) 234-3190
Governor of Indiana
Mitchell Daniels
Office of the Governor
State House Rm. 206
200 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2797
Phone: (317) 232-4567
Fax: (317) 232-3443
Pam Pattison
Prison Spokeswoman
Ind. Dept. of Corrections I.G.C. South
302 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2738
Phone: (317) 232-5111
Fax: (317) 232-6798
These officials must be pressured to do what
is right. Demand that
Khalfani be transferred to another
facility. We thank you all for your
help and comradely support.
Letters can be sent to Khalfani Malik Khaldun at:
Brotha Khalfani Malik Khaldun
(Leonard McQuay) #874304 B-302
P.O. Box 1111
Carlisle, In. 47838
The names of those on the strike are:
1- Khalfani Malik Khaldun #874304
2- Billy M. Russell #998136
3- Andre Kirby #112879
4- William Rose #885833
5- Chris Davis #951914
6- Micheal Estep #861345
7- Micheal Woods #911570
Announce mailing list
Announce@onepalestine.org
http://mail.onepalestine.org/mailman/listinfo/announce_onepalestine.org
Letter in response from Bonnie Weinstein:
Dear Commissioner Donahue and all concerned,
The State has no right to starve prisoners. Feeding pork
to a Muslim or a Jew is disregarding the right to worship
according to one's own beliefs-that is denying freedom of
religion. Everyone in this country has that right whether
you are a prisoner or not.
Vegetarians also have the right to not eat meat. Even
prisoners have the right to remain healthy and alive.
It is not as if these food issues are difficult to deal
with. These food requirements are simple and inexpensive.
So the only real explanation for not abiding by them is
because of prejudice against these beliefs by you who
are in control. These are not animals in a cage. These
prisoners are human beings. Some of them are even innocent
of the crimes they have been convicted of. Surely you
realize this statistical probability?
Allow each prisoner these basic human rights.
Yours truly,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org)
San Francisco, California
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