---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Urgent Call to Support U.S. Military Officer
to Refuse Illegal IraqWar
June 2, 2006: First U.S. military officer poised to publicly refuse
orders in support of the illegal Iraq War requires immediate support
and assistance. Join this unprecedented political and legal support
campaign today! Information updated daily!
Sign the petition!
Thank you LT for standing up for international, US and military
law by refusing to deploy to Iraq in support of the ongoing
illegal war and occupation.
http://www.thankyoult.org/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
LEASE RSVP ! 2nd SF Civil Rights Revival Cookout,
Sunday 6-4-06 4 pm
COALITION BUILDING
Please Forward Far & Wide !
2nd San Francisco
Civil Rights RevivalCOOKOUT !
Sponsored by:
SF ANSWER
Community First Coalition
Idriss Stelley Foundation
5 a n s w e r @ a c t i o
When : SUNDAY, JUNE 4TH
4PM - 7PM
Where: In the Heart of Bayview:
Idriss Stelley Foundation,
4921 3RD ST, San Francisco
Between Palou &Quesada
Why : Join the SF Bayview Community to celebrate the past and present,
the Struggle for Equality and Self-Determination of our Lands &
Communities !
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
Rally Monday, June 19, 2006, 5:00 P.M.
Palou Avenue and Third Street, S.F.
No matter what the decisions the lawmakers make to "reform" the
immigration laws, we know that they will make some immigrant
workers "legal" and others "illegal."
We will hold a rally June 19, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. at Palou Avenue
and Third Street in San Francisco to demand General and
Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrants. We hold this rally
in celebration of the date of June 19th, 141 years ago when
it was declared the end of slavery by Black people in this country.
Our Black brothers and sisters continue to be a slave of racism
and injustice just as we immigrants. And the government
continues to put on Death Row the great leaders of the Black
movement such as Mumia Abu-Jamal.
We make a call for unity at this rally in the Bayview so we can
honor June 19th by making a commitment to sow the first
seeds together in order to make a reality the emancipation
of the Black people and the immigrants and to demand the
immediate freedom of the great leader of the Black people,
Mumia Abu-Jamal, innocent on Death Row.
For More Information:
People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
Barrio Unido Por una Amnistia General e Incondicional
474 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Contact Persons:
Cristina Gutierrez: 415-431-9925
Kati Sanchez: 415-368-2576
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ABOLISHING JROTC in SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOLS
There will be a special meeting in July when
the School Board will vote on this resolution.
The meeting date is to be announced.
School District Office
555 Franklin St
San Francisco
415/241-6427
Report and Open letter to the Board of Education regarding JROTC:
At the first reading of the resolution to rid the schools
of JROTC on the basis of the policy of "Don't ask, don't
tell" that discriminates against gay's in the military, which
was presented to the Board of Education meeting on May 23, the
JROTC teachers (all retired military officers) mobilized students
to speak on behalf of JROTC. Carole Seligman and I spoke to many
students in the lobby before the meeting began. Repeatedly they
expressed that they loved the program. It gives them confidence
in themselves, provides a supportive environment, encourages good
scholarship in school, and encourages comradeship among the members.
So much so, that a young girl had a silver-colored chain with a tiny
silver-colored and diamond studded bullet. I really couldn't believe
it was a bullet so I asked her if it was. She said, "oh! this? Yes,
it's a bullet. You know, it's between me and my friend, you know,
like, 'I'll take a bullet for you!'"
Need I say more about the virtues of JROTC?
Unfortunately, the resolution that follows says nothing of this
aspect of JROTC. Nothing about the war. Nothing about young people
being taught to "take a bullet for each other". Nothing about the
realities of war. Nothing about asking students, gay or not, to
risk their lives and take the lives of Iraqis for this inhuman
and illegal war brought about by an inhuman and illegal
government.
It was announced by gay supporters of JROTC at the meeting
that they expected the military to lift the prohibition on gays
in the military this year. If this is true this will make this
resolution obsolete before it can ever take effect. Are we to cheer
that our gay brothers and sisters will be able to fight in this war?
What is our plan to convince young gay and straight students that they can't
"be all they can be" if they are dead; or legless and armless; or with the
blood of too many dead in their hearts and head; or permanently
brain-damaged; burnt or blinded by exploding eyeballs and deafened by
exploding eardrums? Who will tell them of depleted uranium illness?
Who will tell them that although there is a very high survival rate for
our injured soldiers there is also a very high rate of survival with such
catastrophic injury and illness? Who will tell them that they are more
likely to be homeless after serving than in college? Who will tell
them about the logic of "following orders" and a "chain of command"
Instead of thinking and reasoning and making decisions for themselves
leads to disaster?
If you haven't seen it, I suggest you watch the HBO special,
"Baghdad ER". In fact it should be shown to all of our students
in middle and high school. (It's far too explicit for very young children.)
We and the majority of the voters in San Francisco want
the military out of our schools immediately!
Here are my comments for the meeting. I was cut off midway
through my timed one-minute delivery. The resolution
follows my comments. Please look at it again and see that a
vital antiwar message is missing from it and correct and
amend the resolution immediately to reflect opposition
to the militarization of our schools and the offering up of our
students as cannon fodder for this bloodthirsty and greedy
government and it's military might.
We want a world without war! How can we teach children
that violence is not the answer when the most powerful
and influential adults in the world--our government--
uses it as their ultimate tool to gain wealth and power
for themselves.
You must take a stronger antiwar stand! I don't care how many
antiwar resolutions you have passed. The proof of the pudding
is in the military presence in our schools!
Sincerely,
Bonnie Weinstein
Addressed to the President, Vice President and the
Commissioners of the San Francisco Board of Education:
I commend the board members who are bringing the motion
to rid our schools of JROTC forward. This is in line with the
wishes of the majority of the voters in San Francisco who
voted to get the military out of our schools this past November.
The military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” is unacceptable.
Our obligation is to educate our children against prejudice
of all kinds—not turn a blind eye—and turn a bigoted military
loose on them. But that is not the only reason we want the
military and JROTC out.
We want our children to engage in physical education, in fact,
to find joy in it; and to study history—to learn how to avoid
the mistakes of the past; to gain satisfaction and experience
joy in learning so they can contribute to human knowledge
themselves as well as help fashion a better world!
We want our children to feel responsible to her or his
community. We want students to gain a sense of
responsibility and pride in a job well done by
contributing to the life and well being of their school,
their home and their community.
We don’t want to teach our children to blindly obey
a chain of command or to glorify war. In fact, it is our
duty to teach our children that blind obedience, violence,
greed, bigotry, prejudice, human inequality, torture, pre-
emptive war, profiting off of war and injustice, inequality
in the application of the law, and poverty in the face of
fantastic wealth is wrong, inhuman and intolerable and
we can do better!
We must rid our schools of the military and JROTC, hire
enough Physical Education teachers immediately, and
re-dedicate our schools to education and human
development—and reject the road to war and militarism.
Just one more thing, I want to correct the notion that the
new school policy regarding military recruiters has resulted
in less military presence in our schools. In fact, it has resulted
in more. Many schools did not invite the military on Career Day
and now they must, and that is a shame, because we want the
military out! We don’t want our children to study war or bigotry
any more! Not for one more second!
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War,
www.bauaw.org, 415-824-8730
The resolution:
Introduction of Replacement Program for JROTC
--Commissioners Mark Sanchez and Dan Kelly
WHEREAS: It is the official policy of the San Francisco Unified School
District to oppose discrimination of any kind against any group
of people; and
WHEREAS: The District’s opposition to discrimination is articulated
in Board Policy 5163, which provides that the San Francisco Unified
School District shall not discriminate on the basis of race, religion,
creed, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, or handicapping
condition in the provision of educational programs, services, and
activities, in the admission of students to school programs and
activities; and in the recruitment and employment of personnel; and
WHEREAS: The San Francisco Unified School District deplores the
"Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy of the U.S. Department of Defense,
which requires the discharge of any member of the armed forces
if such service member has engaged in "homosexual acts," has
revealed that s/he is a homosexual or bisexual, or the member
has married or attempted to marry a person known to be of the
same biological sex; and
WHEREAS: The District believes that the "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell"
policy is an unjust, indefensible, unintelligent, state-sanctioned
act of homophobia; and
WHEREAS: The San Francisco Unified School District cannot justify
committing any funding to a JROTC program because its connection
to the U.S. Department of Defense suggests that discrimination
against some groups is tolerable.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the
San Francisco Unified School District calls for the phasing –out
of the JROTC program of the United States Department of Defense
on San Francisco Unified School District campuses; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board of Education instructs
District staff to provide all JROTC units at SFUSD campuses with
one year notice that the programs will be terminated at all SFUSD
campuses after the 2006-2007 school year; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board of Education calls for the
creation of a special task force to develop alternative, creative,
career-driven programs which provide students with a greater
sense of purpose and respect for self and humankind.
Board has plan to oust ROTC from S.F. schools
Members want to cut program over 'Don't ask, Don't tell'
The students engage in physical training such as running, push-ups
and jumping jacks; and discipline training such as marching,
drill-practice and using a mock chain of command. They also
study military history and perform community service.
- Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/23/MNGIOJ0G7P1.DTL
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLES IN FULL
LINKS ONLY
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
LEASE RSVP ! 2nd SF Civil Rights Revival Cookout,
Sunday 6-4-06 4 pm
COALITION BUILDING
Please Forward Far & Wide !
2nd San Francisco
Civil Rights RevivalCOOKOUT !
Sponsored by:
SF ANSWER
Community First Coalition
Idriss Stelley Foundation
5 a n s w e r @ a c t i o
When : SUNDAY, JUNE 4TH
4PM - 7PM
Where: In the Heart of Bayview:
Idriss Stelley Foundation,
4921 3RD ST, San Francisco
Between Palou &Quesada
Why : Join the SF Bayview Community to celebrate the past and present,
the Struggle for Equality and Self-Determination of our Lands &
Communities !
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
DEFEND S.F. STATE TEN!
Hello! You are invited to come out and support ten SFSU students,
myself included, on Monday as we deliver a petition to University
Administration asking them to uphold our right to protest.
Following our April 14 nonviolent protest of military recruiters in
our gymnasium, we were banned from being on campus for 14 days,
making people who lived in the dorms homeless, making those with
on-campus jobs unemployed, and jeopardizing our academic
standing by barring us from going to class. All of this for just
clapping and chanting 25 feet from the recruiters, without blocking
any walkways. Thanks to your e-mails and phone calls, the university
backed down and allowed us back on campus.
Now they're at it again. The Administration is again wielding its
warhammer, and has sent us letters for individual conferences. These
are the first step to hearings that could get us expelled.
We are asking you to take a moment and send an e-mail, fax, or
phone call to Donna Cunningham, Coordinator of Judicial Affairs,
and Penny Saffold, Vice President of Student Affairs, to ask them
to support the students' right to protest on their campus and stop
judicial proceedings against us. We were not disturbing the peace,
we were disturbing the war. Also, please sign the petition if you
haven't already!
DONNA CUNNINGHAM: (415) 338-2032, drcunn@sfsu.edu
PENNY SAFFOLD: (415) 338-2032, psaffold@sfsu.edu
ONLINE PETITION: http://www.petitiononline.com/sfsu10/petition.html
Thanks so much for your support! We can't much done unless
we're all working together! :)
~Lacy
Lacy MacAuley
Students Against War SFSU
** PRESS CONFERENCE: June 5, 2006 **
Contacts: Karen Knoller, Freshman, SFSU Ten - (818) 554-5382
Doniella Maher, SFSU Ten ˆ (916) 801-0378
SFSU STUDENTS BEING HARASSED BY THEIR ADMINISTRATION,
DENIED LEGAL REPRESENTATION
PRESS CONFERENCE PLANNED TO "DEFEND THE SFSU TEN!"
What: Press conference to deliver petition to Administration,
discuss University actions against the SFSU Ten
When: Monday, June 5, 2006, 11:00 AM
Where: Corner of 19th Ave & Holloway Ave, SF,
next to the Administration Building
Speakers: Nancy Mancias, Peace Campaign Cooridinator:
Global Exchnage; Carlos Villarreal, National Lawyers Guild;
Todd Chretien, Green Party Candidate for U.S. Senate;
Sharon Adams, NLG attorney representing the SFSU Ten;
Karen Knoller, one of the SFSU Ten
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
Rally Monday, June 19, 2006, 5:00 P.M.
Palou Avenue and Third Street, S.F.
No matter what the decisions the lawmakers make to "reform" the
immigration laws, we know that they will make some immigrant
workers "legal" and others "illegal."
We will hold a rally June 19, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. at Palou Avenue
and Third Street in San Francisco to demand General and
Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrants. We hold this rally
in celebration of the date of June 19th, 141 years ago when
it was declared the end of slavery by Black people in this country.
Our Black brothers and sisters continue to be a slave of racism
and injustice just as we immigrants. And the government
continues to put on Death Row the great leaders of the Black
movement such as Mumia Abu-Jamal.
We make a call for unity at this rally in the Bayview so we can
honor June 19th by making a commitment to sow the first
seeds together in order to make a reality the emancipation
of the Black people and the immigrants and to demand the
immediate freedom of the great leader of the Black people,
Mumia Abu-Jamal, innocent on Death Row.
For More Information:
People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
Barrio Unido Por una Amnistia General e Incondicional
474 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Contact Persons:
Cristina Gutierrez: 415-431-9925
Kati Sanchez: 415-368-2576
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Fourth Annual International Al-Awda Convention
San Francisco - July 14-16, 2006
To register: http://al-awda.org/sf-conv_reserve.html
To flyer, the writing is on the wall: http://al-awda.org/pdf/flyer.pdf
For all other info: http://al-awda.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY.ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html "
"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.
"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
PRESERVE INTERNET NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Hi,
I can't imagine that you haven't seen this, but if you
haven't, please sign the petition to keep our access.
Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress
passes a radical law next week that gives giant
corporations more control over what we do and see on
the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress
hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First
Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Right now,
Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which
websites open most easily for you based on which site
pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to
outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your
computer.
If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including
Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection
money to companies like AT&T or risk having their
websites process slowly. That why these high-tech
pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to
Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort
to gut Internet freedom.
So please! sign this petition telling your member of
Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%7C1152463-5QFocRE05wmGUuh8yAMSzg
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Flash Film: Ides of March
http://isahaqi.chris-floyd.com/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reasonsbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
February 13, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-13-education-panel_x.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/decind.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php
Bill of Rights
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Border Patrol Draws Scrutiny as Role Grows
PHOENIX, June 2 — With a major expansion proposed by President
Bush, the Border Patrol may soon overtake the F.B.I. as the largest
federal law enforcement agency. But the stepped-up mission comes
as the Border Patrol wrestles with recruitment and training problems
and several agents face accusations of misconduct and corruption.
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
June 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/us/04border.html?hp&ex=1149393600&en=f8d739ad90946b6e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
2) Getting Used to War as Hell
By JOHN F. BURNS
BAGHDAD, Iraq
June 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/weekinreview/04burns.html
3) Court Rejects Evangelical Prison Plan Over State Aid
In April, the Justice Department announced plans to begin
a religious-based program, offered in a single faith, in at
least a half-dozen federal prisons, according to legal
analysts and critics of the program...The case was filed more than
three years ago by Americans United for Separation of Church and
State against the Iowa Department of Corrections and InnerChange
Freedom Initiative, an organization affiliated with Prison Fellowship
Ministries. Prison Fellowship was founded by Charles W. Colson,
a close ally of President Bush and an influential evangelical who
went to prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up.
By NEELA BANERJEE
June 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/us/03faith.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Border Patrol Draws Scrutiny as Role Grows
PHOENIX, June 2 — With a major expansion proposed by President
Bush, the Border Patrol may soon overtake the F.B.I. as the largest
federal law enforcement agency. But the stepped-up mission comes
as the Border Patrol wrestles with recruitment and training problems
and several agents face accusations of misconduct and corruption.
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
June 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/us/04border.html?hp&ex=1149393600&en=f8d739ad90946b6e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
PHOENIX, June 2 — With a major expansion proposed by President
Bush, the Border Patrol may soon overtake the F.B.I. as the largest
federal law enforcement agency. But the stepped-up mission comes
as the Border Patrol wrestles with recruitment and training problems
and several agents face accusations of misconduct and corruption.
In response to concerns, the inspector general's office of the
Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Border Patrol,
said it would audit the agency's recruitment, hiring and training
practices. A spokeswoman, Tamara Faulkner, said the review
could begin this month.
David V. Aguilar, the head of the Border Patrol, told Congress
last week that the extraordinary growth was vital to national
security, particularly as the authorities seek to clamp down
on illegal crossings along the Mexican border. The agency
has swelled to more than 11,000 agents from 4,000 15 years
ago, with 6,000 more proposed by Mr. Bush by 2008 as a
cornerstone of his immigration overhaul.
"The nexus between our post-Sept. 11 mission and our
traditional role is clear," Mr. Aguilar said. "Terrorists and violent
criminals may exploit smuggling routes used by migrants to
enter the United States illegally and do us harm."
But as the Border Patrol seeks more agents, its training
academy in Artesia, N.M., needs expansion, and some watchdog
groups question its ability to prepare so many new agents in so
little time. As a temporary measure, thousands of National Guard
troops will soon be dispatched here in Arizona and elsewhere
along the 2,000-mile border to assist with logistics and
support work.
"This is not something where you can snap your fingers and
have thousands go on the job," said Deborah W. Meyers, an
analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. "It is a
demanding job, and training is important and intense."
Big buildups in border security in the 1990's coincided with
a rash of embarrassing disclosures about wayward agents and
questions about how well the agency screened recruits. Those
concerns have surfaced again as several agents have been
accused of misconduct and immigrant smuggling, including
one agent from Mexico who was hired in 2002 even though
he is not a United States citizen, as is required.
In January, the Mexican man, Oscar Antonio Ortiz, who had
falsely claimed citizenship on his job application, pleaded
guilty to charges of immigrant smuggling and other crimes
and is awaiting sentencing. Mr. Ortiz, 28, had told recruiters
he had used cocaine in the past, and investigators later
discovered that he had previously been arrested, though not
prosecuted, on suspicion of smuggling after immigration officers
at San Ysidro, Calif., detained him with two illegal immigrants
in his car.
In March, two Border Patrol supervising agents in California,
Mario Alvarez, 44, and Scott McClaren, 43, were also charged
with smuggling. The agents had helped set up an antismuggling
program with the Mexican authorities. They have pleaded not
guilty and are awaiting trial in San Diego. In recent years, several
agents have also been convicted of assaulting border crossers and
other abuses. Advocates for immigrants have long accused the
agency of too often stopping people, particularly Latinos, without
proper justification and of giving little public accounting of any
results of abuse accusations.
"It seems like they just hired Border Patrol agents from Ohio and
brought them down here and put them in our communities," said
Fernando Garcia, director of the Border Network for Human Rights,
a group based in El Paso that monitors law enforcement at the
border in Texas and New Mexico.
Todd Fraser, a spokesman for the Border Patrol, said a relatively
few rogue agents had drawn more attention than the vast majority
of honorable ones, including several who had won praise inside
and outside the agency for efforts to rescue immigrants stranded
in the desert.
Mr. Fraser said that much of the concern about agent misconduct
was outdated and overblown. He said that the agents went through
increasingly extensive preparation for jobs that often involve great
risks, including the threat of confrontation with armed smugglers.
"Border Patrol agents go through a long and intensive training
program that makes them among the most highly trained and
professional officers out there," he said.
Some critics have also expressed greater confidence in the
agency. Representative Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat
who in the early 1990's called for a federal commission to oversee
the agency because of its many problems, said it had made great
strides in raising standards and curtailing questionable tactics.
"I certainly think over the years we are seeing border enforcement
become more professional," Mr. Becerra said. "They have done
a lot to get in line with professional standards."
The Border Patrol has over the years had trouble keeping agents
and hiring enough to compensate for the losses. Agents blame
entry-level pay, which is $35,000 to $40,000, depending on
experience, generally lower than many local and state law
enforcement agencies.
The work, too, is demanding and calls for solitary patrols in
the dead of night in forbidding terrain, often arresting the same
people over and over again. In all, the agents are responsible
for 6,000 miles of land border with Mexico and Canada and
2,000 miles of coastline around Florida and Puerto Rico.
"It is mind-numbingly boring to sit in one spot 10 hours
a day and watch people stream by and be told your job is
not to chase them but call the guy behind you," said T. J. Bonner,
president of the National Border Patrol Council, the agents' union,
referring to a common tactic of stationing agents and vehicles
in place as a deterrent to smugglers. "The problem is there
often is no guy behind you, because we are short staffed."
A large number of agents left shortly after the terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001, to take better-paying jobs in the newly
expanded air marshal service. Many have since returned to their
old posts, however, and the patrol reports attrition has fallen
to about 6 percent, after spiking to nearly 20 percent after
the attacks.
To help meet recruitment goals, the agency has begun a national
television advertising campaign that emphasizes the potential
excitement of the job; has raised the maximum starting age to
40 from 37, to attract more military veterans fresh from their
service; and has shortened the 20-week training course for
recruits who have a command of Spanish, which all agents
are required to know.
The large unknown, Mr. Bonner and others said, is whether
Congress will provide the money in coming years to hire agents
and whether the agency can bring in enough quality recruits
to meet Mr. Bush's goals, given that local police departments
and the military are also heavily recruiting from a similar pool
of potential applicants.
Although Congressional legislation authorized 2,000 additional
agents this year, the final budget wrangling left money for only 1,500.
"It's going to be tough and it's going to be a challenge, but we
are confident we will be able to do it," said Maria Valencia,
an agency spokeswoman. "But the money is the key part
in all of this."
The Border Patrol traces its roots to a Texas Ranger named Jeff
Milton, one of the last of the Old West gunslingers who gained
fame as one of the men who helped hunt down Geronimo and
patrolled the relatively newly drawn Mexican border in the 1880's
with horse and pistol. A 1948 biography of him is subtitled
"A Good Man With a Gun."
Its agents, some still riding horseback among the tumbleweeds,
rely on an arsenal of pistols and high-power weapons that would
surely awe Milton and tools he could never have imagined:
pilotless aerial drones, all-terrain vehicles, infrared night
scopes, embedded motion sensors.
These days, the job still attracts applicants with a bit of cowboy
in them, people who enjoy the outdoors and do not mind the
often rough-and-tumble borderlands.
Devin Harshbarger, 25, is in his first two months on the job at
the Casa Grande station 50 miles southeast of here, some
700 miles from his hometown, Cheyenne, Wyo.
"After 9/11, I wanted to do my part to help keep terrorists out,"
Agent Harshbarger said, adding that he was also drawn to
working outdoors.
The job also attracts people motivated by the immigration
debate.
Adolfo Diaz, 30, an Air Force veteran who is another new
recruit, said he got tired of illegal immigrants crossing the
property of his family ranch near the Arizona-Mexico border.
"Individuals have come to the house and they have threatened
neighbors and families," said Mr. Diaz, who described his first arrest,
of some 25 people hiking across the desert, as "scary" because
he and the two other agents on hand were outnumbered.
But there is debate whether the new agents can significantly ebb
the flow of people crossing the Mexican border, a never-ending
stream that another new recruit, Christine Treviño, called
"really crazy."
Last year, with 11,106 agents, the Border Patrol arrested 1.2
million people on charges of illegally crossing into the United
States; in 1995, with 4,876 agents, it made 1.3 million. Arrests
peaked in 2000, with 1.6 million made by 9,078 agents, and
have swung up and down since then without matching the
2000 mark even as the ranks of agents has swelled. The
Border Patrol estimates that 98 percent of the arrests each
year are made on the Mexico border.
The data, and the complex mix of political, economic and social
factors that contribute to the flow of illegal immigration, make
it difficult to explain the erratic nature of apprehensions and
undermine "the widely accepted assumption that border security
will be automatically improved by the hiring of more agents,"
according to an analysis of the data by the Transactional Records
Access Clearinghouse, a research group connected to Syracuse
University that collects and analyzes federal data.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
2) Getting Used to War as Hell
By JOHN F. BURNS
BAGHDAD, Iraq
June 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/weekinreview/04burns.html
THE story, as told by Iraqi survivors, is as bleak as any to emerge
from the American war in Iraq.
If the survivors' accounts are borne out by American military
inquiries now under way and, in time, by courts-martial, then
what happened in the early morning of Nov. 19, 2005, in the
desert city of Haditha could prove, like the 1968 My Lai
massacre in Vietnam, a baleful marker in the long and
painful American story here.
According to the Haditha survivors, a small number of marines
shot 24 civilians, in cold blood after a roadside bomb exploded
as their platoon left their isolated base in the city, killing
a 20-year-old lance corporal. Some accounts given to
Western news organizations by survivors and by those
familiar with the military investigations say that the killings
extended over several hours, and involved several family
homes next to the site of the bombing. The victims included
women and children. Many were said to have died by gunshots
to the head and torso.
Investigators are also probing whether the Marine chain of
command engaged in a cover-up, beginning with a statement
shortly after the episode claiming that 15 civilians were killed
in the original blast, and that the others who died were insurgents
caught up in a firefight afterward. There appears to have been
no significant challenge to that account within the military until
Time magazine published the first survivors' accounts in March.
Whatever emerges from the military investigations, the narrative
of the Marines' experiences in Iraq will have a central place for
the brutalities associated with Haditha. Last summer, in two
separate attacks over three days, Taliban-like insurgents
operating from bases at mosques in the city killed 20 Marine
reservists, including an enlisted man who was shown
disemboweled on rebel videos that were sold afterward
in Haditha's central market.
Like other Marine battles, from Tripoli to Iwo Jima to Khe Sanh,
the story of their battles in Iraq will center on themes of
extraordinary hardship, endurance and loss, as well as
a remorselessness in combat, that offer a context, though
hardly any exoneration, for what survivors allege happened
that November day.
They also offer a counterpoint to another theme at play here,
one also learned with great bitterness in Vietnam: the hard
cost to military intentions of killing innocent bystanders in
a counterinsurgency. That is a lesson the Marines know well
and accept as an institution. But in recent months in Iraq
it has been recited largely by Army generals, and the
distinction has begun to cause resentments between the
two services as the Haditha investigations begin.
Privately, some marines say the killings at Haditha may have
grown out of pressures that bore down from the moment
in March 2004 when a Marine expeditionary force assumed
responsibility for Anbar province, with Haditha and its 90,000
residents emerging as one of its most persistent trouble spots.
Marine commanders vowed to use a tougher approach than the
Army's 82nd Airborne Division, which was responsible for Anbar
for the first year after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, by
showing "both the palm frond and the hammer."
They soon proved it with the crushing tactics they used, in an
aborted offensive in April and then decisively in November,
when they regained control of Falluja, an insurgent stronghold.
In that eight-day battle, a Marine-led force of about 10,000
Americans destroyed much of the city, including, according
to the city's compensation commissioner, about 36,000
of its 50,000 homes.
Just how tough a fight the Marines have had can be seen
in casualty statistics — from 30 to 40 percent of the nearly
2,500 American troops killed and 17,000 wounded, from
a force that has never been more than 25 percent of the total.
For the Marines, it is a familiar story, echoing their
disproportionately large share of the 58,000 American troops
who died in Vietnam. They have drawn, in Anbar, responsibility
for what is clearly the toughest patch assigned to American
troops in Iraq.
With barely 1.3 million residents on nearly a third of Iraq's
territory, Anbar is one of the most sparsely populated of Iraq's
18 provinces. But in the insurgency, it has been ground zero,
a place where the harsh desert terrain, summer temperatures
that hover near 130 degrees, and the proud and stubborn
character of its Sunni Arab people have combined to give
the Americans the fiercest resistance they have met anywhere.
Anbar abuts Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and that border
of more than 600 miles has been, especially in Syria's case,
the principal conduit for volunteers from elsewhere in the
Arab world who have been at the core of the insurgency's
Islamic militant wing and the perpetrators of many of the
suicide bombings and beheadings. Nor is that all. Although
Saddam Hussein was from the neighboring province,
Salahuddin, the unshakable bastion of the Sunni minority
rule he represented was always Anbar.
In a band of often violent cities strung out along the Euphrates
River, tribal sheiks and fundamentalist imams have cast
themselves as the vanguard of the Sunni Arab world. That has
made the Anbar Sunnis the most fervent opponents of the
American plan to bring democracy to Iraq, and with it, inescapably,
Shiite majority rule.
To this combustible mix, the Marines have brought their own
ethos of uncompromising toughness on the battlefield, captured
in the corps' maxim, "No better friend, no worse enemy,"
a common refrain whenever Marine commanders prepare
their troops for battle in Anbar.
Together, these two cultures, the Anbaris and the Marines,
have combined to produce a catalogue of brutal confrontations.
But it is not the only clash of cultures figuring in the crisis over
the Haditha killings. There are also the differing cultures of the
Army and Marines. It was the Army's second-highest ranking
officer in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, with operational control
of all 135,000 American troops here under the overall command
of another Army commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who
triggered the military's broad investigation into the events at
Haditha. This came after an initial probe by an Army colonel
revealed discrepancies in Marine accounts of the killings.
Though it seems unlikely to have played any role in General
Chiarelli's decision to order the criminal inquiry, given the
seriousness of the Haditha allegations and his legal obligations,
the general has gained a reputation as an outspoken advocate
of what was known in Vietnam as the "hearts and minds" approach
to fighting the war. Like other terms that hark back to Vietnam,
that has fallen out of favor among American commanders here.
They prefer to talk about "kinetic" and "non-kinetic" forms of
defeating the insurgency.
In this context, "kinetic" refers to the kill-and-capture warfare
that has been the Marines' traditional way of battle, and "non-kinetic"
to the efforts that Generals Chiarelli and Casey have stressed —
to reach out to local leaders, help build civic institutions, rebuild
infrastructure and provide jobs, undermining the insurgency's appeal.
General Casey tells American units that it is the military's non-
kinetic activity that will win the war, as much as or more than the
kinetic. But it is not a gospel that has found much favor — nor,
Marine commanders might say, much relevance — in the fight-
to-the-death crucible of Anbar.
Reporters who have spent time embedded with the Marines return,
almost invariably, with a strong sense of the comradeship that
binds the units and an admiration for the discipline and fitness
drilled into the fighting men, and, not least, for the lengths the
corps is prepared to go to get reporters to the battlefront and
to protect them while they're there.
But the harsh Marine battle tactics make an impact, too.
Reporters' experiences with the Marines, even more than with
the Army, show they resort quickly to using heavy artillery or
laser-guided bombs when rooting out insurgents who have
taken refuge among civilians, with inevitable results.
Among the Marines, there is a tendency, an eagerness even,
to see themselves as the stepchild of the American military
effort, sent into much of the hardest fighting, undermanned
for the task, equipped with Vietnam-era helicopters and
amphibious armored vehicles that make lumbering targets
in the desert — then criticized by Army commanders,
sometimes severely, for a lack of proportionality in the
way they fight.
Something of this sense was suggested when a senior
Army commander involved in planning the Falluja offensive
— and convinced of its necessity — visited the city afterward
alongside Marine commanders. He expressed shock at the
destruction, along with concern at the reaction of 200,000
residents whom the Americans had urged to flee beforehand.
"My God," the Army commander said, "what are the folks
who live here going to say when they see this?"
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
3) Court Rejects Evangelical Prison Plan Over State Aid
In April, the Justice Department announced plans to begin
a religious-based program, offered in a single faith, in at
least a half-dozen federal prisons, according to legal
analysts and critics of the program...The case was filed more than
three years ago by Americans United for Separation of Church and
State against the Iowa Department of Corrections and InnerChange
Freedom Initiative, an organization affiliated with Prison Fellowship
Ministries. Prison Fellowship was founded by Charles W. Colson,
a close ally of President Bush and an influential evangelical who
went to prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up.
By NEELA BANERJEE
June 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/us/03faith.html
WASHINGTON, June 2 — A federal judge in Iowa ruled Friday that
a state-financed evangelical Christian program to help inmates
re-enter society was "pervasively sectarian" and violated the
separation of church and state.
The decision has set the stage for an appeals process that is expected
to explore more broadly the constitutionality of the Bush
administration's religion-based initiative programs, according
to plaintiffs, defendants and legal experts.
Prison programs run by religious groups have increased over the
last decade or so, as policy makers, prison and law enforcement
officials and prisoner advocates have focused on the high rates
of recidivism when inmates return to society, said Robert Tuttle,
a law professor at George Washington University who is an expert
on religion-based initiatives. Proponents of such programs in prisons
have said that the transformative experience of religion can
counter recidivism.
In April, the Justice Department announced plans to begin a religious
-based program, offered in a single faith, in at least a half-dozen
federal prisons, according to legal analysts and critics of the program.
The case was filed more than three years ago by Americans United
for Separation of Church and State against the Iowa Department
of Corrections and InnerChange Freedom Initiative, an organization
affiliated with Prison Fellowship Ministries. Prison Fellowship was
founded by Charles W. Colson, a close ally of President Bush and
an influential evangelical who went to prison for his role in the
Watergate cover-up.
In his ruling on Friday, Judge Robert W. Pratt, chief judge of the
Federal District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, said he
was not ruling on the efficacy of religious programs in rehabilitating
inmates or "the ultimate truthfulness about religion."
Instead, Judge Pratt ruled that the InnerChange program had
violated the separation of church and state by using money from
taxpayers to pay for a religious program, one that gave special
privileges to inmates who accepted its evangelical Christian
teachings and terms.
"What we had hoped to make clear was that InnerChange was
pervasively religious, that it gave special benefits to inmates and
that it sought to convert people to Christianity," said Barry W. Lynn,
executive director of Americans United. "InnerChange denied that,
but the judge backed us on all three points. It shows that
government-funded religious programs don't have a place
in prisons."
Judge Pratt said that the program had to be halted in 60 days
and that InnerChange had to return about $1.5 million it had
received from the State of Iowa.
Those penalties, however, are pending an appeal, which
InnerChange plans to file next week at the United States Court
of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, said Mark Earley,
a former attorney general of Virginia who is president of Prison
Fellowship.
"I think it is an extreme decision that if allowed to stand strikes
a pretty serious blow at the religious freedom of prisoners,"
Mr. Earley said. "And it strikes an equally destructive blow to
rehabilitation efforts in the prisons of America."
Mr. Earley said he expected the decision to be reversed on appeal,
either at the Eighth Circuit or in the Supreme Court.
Both sides are banking on the possibility that this case could rise
through levels of appeal and set precedent about religion-based
initiatives, or more significantly, about the separation of church
and state, legal experts said.
Douglas Laycock, professor of constitutional law at the University
of Texas in Austin, said of InnerChange's strategy: "I think they're
betting on getting to the Supreme Court and that Sam Alito and
John Roberts will be there. And they're betting that they have five
votes to win."
Mr. Earley said in a phone interview that anyone of any faith could
participate in the program. On its Web site, however, InnerChange
explains that it is "anchored in biblical teaching" and "Christ-centered."
It operates in six states, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri
and Texas, Mr. Earley said. It is partly financed by the state in all but
Texas and Arkansas, where it uses private money, he added.
Religious programs in prisons once used to be chaplaincy efforts
and occasional visits by volunteers, but they have now grown into
ambitious programs like InnerChange, Professor Tuttle said.
He estimated that about 15 states had such programs.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
LINKS ONLY
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Guest workers sue ranchers
By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News
June 2, 2006
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4744988,00.html
Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight
By LISA CHEDEKEL And MATTHEW KAUFFMAN
The Hartford Courant
May 14 2006
http://www.courant.com/news/specials/hc-mental1a.artmay14,0,6150281.story
Invoking Secrets Privilege Becomes
a More Popular Legal Tactic by U.S.
By SCOTT SHANE
June 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/washington/04secrets.html
Bush Calls for an Amendment Banning Same-Sex Nuptials
By JIM RUTENBERG
June 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/washington/04radio.html
Cubans Jailed in U.S. as Spies Are Hailed at Home as Heroes
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 3, 2006; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201780.html
Killings
Initial Response to Marine Raid Draws Scrutiny
By DAVID S. CLOUD and ERIC SCHMITT
June 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/03/world/middleeast/03haditha.html
Surge in Racist Mood Raises Concerns on Eve of World Cup
By JERE LONGMAN
June 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/sports/soccer/04racism.html?hp&ex=1149393600&en=446ea6c36a4bbad2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
17 Terror Suspects Arrested in Toronto
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:04 p.m. ET
June 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Canada-Terrorism-Arrests.html?hp&ex=1149393600&en=a66d0c77da2de53c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Another Hunters Point Shipyard cover-up
by Ebony Colbert
http://www.sfbayview.com/053106/shipyardcoverup053106.shtml
Danny Schechter | Media Crimes Sanitize War Crimes in Iraq
Danny Schechter writes, "As events in Iraq continue to slip from bad
to worse, the good news brigade is scrambling for new stories
('anything, give me anything') to shore up what's left of public
support for a bloody war without end."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060206A.shtml
Union: Scrapping pacts not needed
By LARRY RINGLER Tribune Chronicle
NEW YORK — Union attorneys spent Friday afternoon in Delphi
Corp.’s bankruptcy hearing building a case that the company
doesn’t need to scrap its labor pacts to cut labor costs because
the unions have agreed to cut jobs.
June 2, 2006
http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=4353
FOCUS | New "Iraq Massacre" Tape Emerges
The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may
have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent
Iraqi civilians. The video appears to challenge the US military's
account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.
The US said at the time four people died during a military
operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately
shot the 11 people.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060206Z.shtml
Dog Handler Convicted in Abu Ghraib Abuse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/us/02verdict.html
Judging Whether a Killer Is Sane Enough to Die
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and ADAM LIPTAK
June 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/us/02execute.html
As Economy Slows, Mixed Data on Inflation
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/business/02econ.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
British Police Shoot Man in Counterterrorism Raid
By ALAN COWELL
June 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/world/europe/01cnd-london.html?hp&ex=1149307200&en=e5e1a6eb00a1e50e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Jobs Report Signals Cooling Economy
By JEREMY W. PETERS
June 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/business/02cnd-jobs.html?hp&ex=1149307200&en=e6846974a241a5f6&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Afghans Call for Trial of U.S. Troops
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0531-11.htm
Chavez's 'citizen militias' on the march
By Mike Ceaser
In Caracas, Venezuela
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4635187.stm
Highest Court in New York Confronts Gay Marriage
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
June 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/nyregion/01marriage.html
Black and Hispanic Home Buyers Pay Higher Interest
on Mortgages, Study Finds
By ERIK ECKHOLM
June 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/us/01minorities.html
Bush Urges Congress to Find Compromise on Immigration
By JOHN O'NEIL
June 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/washington/01cnd-bush.html?hp&ex=1149220800&en=8908c9b5448ad46c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
The List: The World's Water Crises
If oil was the resource of the 20th century, then the 21st century belongs
to water. The lack of clean water and basic sanitation already curbs world
economic growth by $556 billion a year, according the World Health
Organization. FP looks at four countries struggling to quench their thirst.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3473
US probe finds Haditha victims were shot:NYT
Wed May 31, 2006 09:34 AM ET
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=12381467&src=eDialog/GetContent
Well-Intentioned Food Police May Create Havoc With Children's Diets
By HARRIET BROWN
May 30, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/health/nutrition/30essa.html
Chief Named for Troubled G.M. Unit
By NICK BUNKLEY
May 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/automobiles/31auto.html
Is It Tableware or a Leading Indicator?
By DAVID LEONHARDT
May 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/business/31leonhardt.html
Treasury Nominee Faces a Change in Pay and Control
By ERIC DASH
May 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/business/31pay.html?hp&ex=1149134400&en=10dc956562f947be&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Files Contradict Account of Raid in Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID S. CLOUD
May 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/31/world/middleeast/31haditha.html?hp&ex=1149134400&en=ba9330564ff54260&ei=5094&partner=homepage
FUTUREOFTHEUNION.COM LINKS:
The Flies Will Lay Their Eggs
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2729
Basic Economics
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2762
Delphi Workers Prepare Their Delegates
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2726
Soldiers Of Solidarity Message Put To Music
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2765
The Legacy Of The Soldiers of Solidarity
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2747
Jobs Bank Update
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2746
A Dictator, Not A Visionary
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2740
Workers Will Rule When They Work To Rule
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2709
Men Are Born To Labor And The Bird To Fly
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=2687
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