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STOP SPENDING TRILLIONS ON THE WARS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE OF HAITI NOT THE BANKSTERS!
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN!
FREE PALESTINE!
MONEY FOR HEALTHCARE, JOBS AND EDUCATION!
U.S. HANDS OFF LATIN AMERICA!
SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY
SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 11:00 A.M., CIVIC CENTER
GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT MARCH 20!
--Tabling Saturday, January 23, 2:00 P.M., Cortland Ave. at Andover ST.
NEXT MARCH 20 COALITION MEETING:
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
For more information call: 415-821-6545
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Reproductive Rights Actions
Fri. Jan. 22, 9:30am
Rally and clinic solidarity
Family Planning Specialists, 200 Webster St., Oakland
Sat. Jan. 23, 10am
Rally for Reproductive Rights
Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco
Endorsed by the ANSWER Coalition, Bay Area. For more info visit www.BACORR.org.
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HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE CALLS FOR EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION
HAITI - AID THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST AND DO IT NOW!
PROTEST MONDAY, JANUARY 25 5PM
POWELL AND MARKET, SAN FRANCISCO
Respect Haiti!
Aid, Not Troops! Life, Not Death, for Haiti!
As the death count rises in Haiti, the effects of a catastrophic natural disaster are compounded - as in Hurricane Katrina - by political failure, by the consequence of generations of U.S. intervention in Haiti. Six years after it forced out the democratic Aristide government, and replaced it with a brutal coup regime, the U.S. is advancing a massive military operation in Haiti. While thousands of American troops amass in Port-au-Prince, thousands of Haitians are dying from lack of water and medicine, starving while food supplies sit on the airport tarmac.
This is a time for aid, not charity; for solidarity, not a calculated U.S. military take-over. Demand accountability of the US government and the United Nations. Demand respect for the resiliency and courage of the Haitian people, and the return President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his homeland, as the vast majority of Haiti's people demand.
PRIORITIZE MEDICAL AND HUMANITARIAN RELIEF, NOT MILITARY OCCUPATION.
Get the people of Port-au-Prince clean water, food, and medical treatment now
Allow President Aristide to return to Haiti from forced exile in South Africa.
Respect human rights. Do not criminalize a traumatized population that needs aid!
SPREAD THE WORD. LET'S MAKE THIS INTERNATIONAL
DONATE TO HAITI EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND: www.haitiaction.net
For more information, see: www.haitisolidarity.net
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Black History Month Forum & Benefit for Haiti Relief
Stand with the people of Haiti!
What the U.S. government isn't telling you
Fri. Feb. 5, 7pm
Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia St. at 16th St., SF
near 16th St. BART; Wheelchair accessible
Featured speaker: Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee
Plus, cultural performance and dinner to help raise funds
The people of the world are responding to help alleviate the terrible suffering of the Haitian people after the massive earthquake which struck Jan. 12. We urge everyone who can, to attend this important benefit for the Haitian people. Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee will give an important update on the ongoing crisis.
Why is Haiti the most impoverished country in the Western hemisphere? The answer lies in the more than two centuries of U.S. exploitation of-and hostility to-the island nation, whose hard-won independence in 1804 from the French was only the beginning of its struggle for liberation.
Natural disasters are inevitable, but resource allocation and planning can play a decisive role in lessening their impact. But Haiti has been drained of vital resources and income for decades, due to extortionate loans by the U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund and World Bank. These loans enrich the banks while Haitian people die.
Haiti was self-sufficient in rice production until the Clinton administration forced a "free trade" policy on Haiti in the 1990s, and soon U.S. agribusiness began to flood Haiti's markets, displacing thousands of farmers. The chronic malnutrition and poverty is a direct result of U.S. imperialist policy.
President Obama announced that USAID and the Departments of State and Defense will support the rescue and relief efforts in Haiti. Yet, these are the same government bodies responsible for the economic and military policies that reduced Haiti to ruins even before the earthquake hit. We call on the U.S. government to stop deportations of the Haitians from the U.S., and to immediately cancel Haiti's debt, in addition to real assistance for the Haitian people.
$10-20 donation. (no one turned way for lack of funds). All funds collected go to Haiti relief.
Sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition. Co-sponsored by FMLN-N. Calif., Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition, Task Force on the Americas, and others.
Call 415-821-6545 for more info.
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NEXT MARCH 20 COALITION MEETING:
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
For more information call: 415-821-6545
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National Call for March 4 Strike and Day of Action To Defend Public Education
By Elly
http://defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com/?blogsub=confirmed#subscribe-blog
California has recently seen a massive movement erupt in defense of public education -- but layoffs, fee hikes, cuts, and the re-segregation of public education are attacks taking place throughout the country. A nationwide resistance movement is needed.
We call on all students, workers, teachers, parents, and their organizations and communities across the country to massively mobilize for a Strike and Day of Action in Defense of Public Education on March 4, 2010. Education cuts are attacks against all of us, particularly in working-class communities and communities of color.
The politicians and administrators say there is no money for education and social services. They say that "there is no alternative" to the cuts. But if there's money for wars, bank bailouts, and prisons, why is there no money for public education?
We can beat back the cuts if we unite students, workers, and teachers across all sectors of public education - Pre K-12, adult education, community colleges, and state-funded universities. We appeal to the leaders of the trade union movement to support and organize strikes and/or mass actions on March 4. The weight of workers and students united in strikes and mobilizations would shift the balance of forces entirely against the current agenda of cuts and make victory possible.
Building a powerful movement to defend public education will, in turn, advance the struggle in defense of all public-sector workers and services and will be an inspiration to all those fighting against the wars, for immigrants rights, in defense of jobs, for single-payer health care, and other progressive causes.
Why March 4? On October 24, 2009 more than 800 students, workers, and teachers converged at UC Berkeley at the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education. This massive meeting brought together representatives from over 100 different schools, unions, and organizations from all across California and from all sectors of public education. After hours of open collective discussion, the participants voted democratically, as their main decision, to call for a Strike and Day of Action on March 4, 2010. All schools, unions and organizations are free to choose their specific demands and tactics -- such as strikes, rallies, walkouts, occupations, sit-ins, teach-ins, etc. -- as well as the duration of such actions.
Let's make March 4 an historic turning point in the struggle against the cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and the re-segregation of public education.
- The California Coordinating Committee
To endorse this call and to receive more information contact:
march4strikeanddayofaction@gmail.com
and check out:
www.defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com
Andy Griggs
andyca6@gmail.com
310-704-3217
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U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!
San Francisco March and Rally
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
11am, Civic Center Plaza
National March on Washington
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fri., March 19 Day of Action & Outreach in D.C.
People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. see below)
Click here to become an endorser:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=5940&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&autologin=true&link=endorse-body-1
Click here to make a donation:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&autologin=true&donate=body-1&JServSessionIdr002=2yzk5fh8x2.app13b
We will march together to say "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will march together to say "No War for Empire Anywhere!"
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.
Killing and dying to avoid the perception of defeat
Bush is gone, but the war and occupation in Iraq still go on. The Pentagon is demanding a widening of the war in Afghanistan. They project an endless war with shifting battlefields. And a "single-payer" war budget that only grows larger and larger each year. We must act.
Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were predicated on the imperial fantasy that the U.S. could create stable, proxy colonial-type governments in both countries. They were to serve as an extension of "American" power in these strategic and resource-rich regions.
That fantasy has been destroyed. Now U.S. troops are being sent to kill or be killed so that the politicians in uniform "the generals and admirals") and those in three-piece suits "our elected officials") can avoid taking responsibility for a military setback in wars that should have never been started. Their military ambitions are now reduced to avoiding the appearance of defeat.
That is exactly what happened in Vietnam! Avoiding defeat, or the perception of defeat, was the goal Nixon and Kissinger set for themselves when they took office in 1969. For this noble cause, another 30,000 young GIs perished before the inevitable troop pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The number of Vietnamese killed between 1969 and 1973 was greater by many hundreds of thousands.
All of us can make the difference - progress and change comes from the streets and from the grassroots.
The people went to the polls in 2008, and the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House.
But it should now be obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change - on any front - is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country. These corporate interests work around the clock to frustrate efforts for real change, and they are the guiding hand behind the recent street mobilizations of the ultra-right.
It is up to us to act. If people had waited for politicians to do the right thing, there would have never been a Civil Rights Act, or unions, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam war or any of the profound social achievements and basic rights that people cherish.
It is time to be back in the streets. Organizing centers are being set up in cities and towns throughout the country.
We must raise $50,000 immediately just to get started. Please make your contribution today. We need to reserve buses, which are expensive $1,800 from NYC, $5,000 from Chicago, etc.). We have to print 100,000 leaflets, posters and stickers. There will be other substantial expenses as March 20 draws closer.
Please become an endorser and active supporter of the March 20 National March on Washington.
Please make an urgently needed tax-deductible donation today. We can't do this without your active support.
The initiators of the March 20 National March on Washington preceded by the March 19 Day of Action and Outreach in D.C.) include: the ANSWER Coalition; Muslim American Society Freedom; National Council of Arab Americans; Cynthia McKinney; Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective; Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK; Deborah Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild; Ron Kovic, author of "Born on the 4th of July"; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Col. Ann Wright ret.); March Forward!; Partnership for Civil Justice; Palestinian American Women Association; Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines; Alliance for Global Justice; Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC; Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.; Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras; Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico; Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos; Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles; Free Palestine Alliance; GABRIELA Network; Justice for Filipino American Veterans; KmB Pro-People Youth; Students Fight Back; Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter; LEF Foundation; National Coalition to Free the Angola 3; Community Futures Collective; Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival; Companeros del Barrio; Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty, Bay Area United Against War.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
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The US Social Forum II
" June 22-26, 2010 "
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Another World Is Possible! Another US is Necessary!
http://www.ussf2010.org/
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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Sign the petition. Drop the charges against Alexis Hutchinson!
"...four separate court martial charges have been brought against Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single parent with a one-year old son, who missed deployment in early November 2009 when her childcare plan fell through at the last moment, due to circumstances beyond her control."
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/811/1/
Cuba establishes hospital in Port-au-Prince
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/01/17/kastenbaum.haiti.la.paz.hosp.cnn
Disputes emerge over Haiti aid control
[THIS IS A MUST-SEE VIDEO. U.S. AID IS MILITARY OCCUPATION...BW]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F5TwEK24sA&feature=player_embedded
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Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
To: President Barack Obama
WE THE UNDERSIGNED petition you to speak out against the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and all the men, women and children facing execution around the world. This ultimate form of punishment is unacceptable in a civilized society and undermines human dignity. (U.N. General Assembly, Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty, Resolution 62/149, Dec. 18, 2007; reaffirmed, Resolution 63/168, Dec. 18, 2008.)
Mr. Abu-Jamal, a renowned black journalist and author, has been on Pennsylvania's death row for nearly three decades. Even though you do not have direct control over his fate as a state death-row inmate, we ask that you as a moral leader on the world stage call for a global moratorium on the death penalty in his and all capital cases. Mr. Abu-Jamal has become a global symbol, the "Voice of the Voiceless", in the struggle against capital punishment and human-rights abuses. There are over 20,000 awaiting execution around the globe, with over 3,000 on death rows in the United States.
The 1982 trial of Mr. Abu-Jamal was tainted by racism, and occurred in Philadelphia which has a history of police corruption and discrimination. Amnesty International, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, "determined that numerous aspects of this case clearly failed to meet international standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings. [T]he interests of justice would best be served by the granting of a new trial to Mumia Abu-Jamal. The trial should fully comply with international standards of justice and should not allow for the reimposition of the death penalty." (A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
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Alert! New Threat To Mumia's Life!
Supreme Court Set To Announce A Decision
On the State Appeal To Reinstate Mumia's Death Sentence
17 January 2010
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent man on death row and the world's best-known political prisoner, now faces an immediate new threat to his life from the US Supreme Court. The Court ruled last year on Mumia's appeal, by summarily refusing to even consider a reversal of his unjust 1982 murder conviction in a blatantly racist court. And last week, the Supreme Court discussed a cross-appeal by the State of Pennsylvania to reinstate Mumia's death sentence, which had been put on hold by a federal court in 2001. A ruling could be announced as early as Tuesday this week.
It would be an illusion to expect good news. Supporters should stay tuned, and be prepared to participate in actions to free Mumia!
The Vendetta Against Mumia
In making it's flat-out rejection of Mumia's appeal (which it did without making any statement), the Supreme Court had to knowingly violate its own precedent in the 1986 Batson v Kentucky decision. This ruling famously said that purging a jury on the basis of race was unconstitutional. In Mumia's case, at least 10 black jurors were excluded for reasons not applied to their white counterparts. Under Batson, such violations require that the conviction be thrown out!
But this was Mumia Abu-Jamal, the falsely accused "cop killer." And while evidence of his innocence has always been available, along with evidence of the corruption of the cops who framed him, Mumia is the object of a world-wide vendetta led by the Fraternal Order of Police and numerous pundits and politicians. So an exception was made.
The Spisak Case
Meanwhile, the 2001 federal district court decision (besides upholding Mumia's conviction) said that Mumia's death sentence resulted from improper instructions to the jury. The trial judge's instructions to the jury on sentencing had said that a decision had to be unanimous, even on mitigating factors that could result in a sentence of life in prison, instead of death. This violated another Supreme Court precedent, Mills v Maryland, which held that such mitigating factors required only a simple majority.
After tossing out Mumia's appeal in 2009, the Court took it's time on the State's cross-appeal, because another case, Smith v Spisak, dealt with the same issue of jury instructions in sentencing. Frank Spisak is a neo-Nazi who made racist statements in court, wore a Hitler mustache, and confessed to three hate-crime murders in Ohio. The two cases could hardly be more different, yet appeals courts threw out death sentences in both on the basis of the Mills decision. But now, on January 12th, the Supreme Court has reinstated Spisak's death sentence. The decision on Mumia followed shortly thereafter, and the implications are clear. The Spisak decision could open the door to what the cops, courts and ruling class generally want to do most: legally murder Mumia!
The Supreme Court said Mills didn't apply to Spisak for various reasons (that don't seem to apply to Mumia), but the legal ins and outs aren't the point. The point is that the entire legal system is at the service not of the law, but of power in society.
As Mumia Abu-Jamal said in a recent interview, "[Spisak's] case differs from mine substantially, not just in terms of facts, but also in terms of law. But the law is the tool of those in power, so how they use it doesn't depend on the law; it depends on power."
(-Free Speech Radio News, 15 January 2010).
The Question of Innocence!
As an award-winning radical journalist, former Black Panther, and critic of police brutality and malfeasance, Mumia Abu-Jamal is considered an enemy of the state. As such, legal decisions have systematically gone against him, regardless of the law. Batson is only one example of this "Mumia exception."
Manufacturing false confessions, planting evidence, corrupting "witnesses" to say they saw what they didn't see--all of these "illegal" tricks were used against Mumia. The real evidence points to Mumia's innocence, including another man who confessed, witnesses who said Mumia didn't shoot anybody but who were never called to testify, and photos of the crime scene that show that police lied. But very little of this has ever been heard in court.
Rather than follow the "law," the criminal justice system follows a simple rule: "If we want to get you, we will." The US Supreme Court (Herrera v Collins), and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (signed by Bill Clinton in 1996), have effectively said: innocence is no defense!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal has never thought that calling for a new trial, or appealing to the US Justice Department to right the wrongs that they helped create, were anything more than distractions, getting in the way of a mass, working-class movement to free Mumia.
Mumia is a class-war prisoner, and it will take a class struggle to free him: that was position of longshore workers in the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union (ILWU) when they shut down all the ports on the West Coast in 1999, and headed the march in San Francisco, to free Mumia. Oakland teachers, and teachers in Rio de Janeiro Brazil also took work actions to support Mumia. Only this kind of working-class action, combined with mass mobilizations, can defeat a determined frame-up by cops, courts and politicians. Mumia Abu-Jamal is now in imminent danger of a new execution order, so the need for action is urgent. For workers action to free Mumia!
Stay in touch for demonstration details this week.
Visit our newly-rebuilt and updated web site for background information on Mumia's innocence. See the "What You Can Do Now" page: www.laboractionmumia.org
- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
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Also read below:
7) Mumia - Legal Update re US Supreme Court
From Atty Robert Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
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Urgent action needed to stop executions in CA
By Stephanie Faucher, Death Penalty Focus
January 8, 2009
stefanie@deathpenalty.org
Dear supporters,
Please take action today to stop executions from resuming in California. This is very urgent, without your help executions could occur in the near future.
Both Californians and non-Californians are encouraged to take action.
Letters must be received by January 20, 2010 at 5pm PDT.
BACKGROUND:
On January 4, 2010, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) proposed minor revisions to its lethal injection procedures in the form of amendments to its previously proposed procedures. CDCR set a fifteen-day comment period ending January 20, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. during which the public can submit written comments on the proposed amendments.
The amended regulations, which are virtually identical to the regulations proposed in May 2009, can be found here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=DsL2ekA4m2nB2qSfspkiCinFkqj%2BKN3u
The above link contains only those regulations that were amended. To see the full text of the proposed regulations proposed in May 2009, go to this link:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=NHU2PZL0sQWgLuC6BWt%2BfynFkqj%2BKN3u
TAKE ACTION:
We have created a draft letter which you can personalize and send here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1988
A separate letter will also be sent the Governor of California.
Thank you for taking action!
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BAUAW responds:
Here is the letter I wrote as a representative of BAUAW:
I oppose the racist death penalty to its very core. There is no "humanitarian" way to murder someone. It's barbaric.
Already so many who have been on death row for decades have been proven to be innocent victims of gross forensic mistakes or blatant police frame-ups.
The poor are routinely afforded inferior and indifferent legal services that serve mainly as a go-between the prosecution and accused. It can hardly be called legal defense.
Justice is not served equally or fairly in the United States. Most other nations have done away with the death penalty. Here our "great minds of justice" debate the best way to kill.
Under these concrete circumstances, instead of limiting the appeals process for prisoners, the justice system should bend over backwards to hear and re-hear the evidence and set free those who have been convicted unfairly.
Death should never be our conscious choice as a nation.
I am also very concerned about the newly revised lethal injection procedures.
In particular, I have the following concerns:
* The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) added a news article from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat to the rulemaking file. The article mentions that the original creator of the three-drug lethal injection formula has suggested ways to reform the process, including keeping up with changing drugs and science and proper training of lethal injection team members. The recent experience of Romell Broom in Ohio reinforces a point raised in the article, that botched executions are a real possibility, especially in California, due to the limited training of the lethal injection team members and California's repeated failure to meaningfully change its protocol.
* CDCR's amended regulations continue to be wholly inadequate and inapplicable to female condemned inmates. The regulations now specify that a female condemned inmate shall be transported to San Quentin no sooner than 72 hours and no later than six hours prior to the scheduled execution, but contain no provisions to implement the required 45-day chronology of events prior to her arrival at San Quentin. CDCR also fails to address how and if the female condemned inmate will be in contact with her family members and her legal team during her transport, which may take place on the same day as her scheduled execution.
* Contrary to CDCR's claim, the amended regulations continue to treat the condemned prisoner's witnesses differently than the victim's witnesses. The victim's family is allowed an unlimited number of witnesses at the execution, whereas the prisoner scheduled to die is limited to five individuals other than her or his spiritual adviser. In the event of lack of space, the victim's family is provided with the option of remote viewing of the execution, while the same option is not extended to the inmate's family.
*The distinction drawn between Chaplains and "approved" Spiritual Advisors is confusing and it is unclear how and when a person may become a "pre-approved" Spiritual Advisor.
I expect that you will take these concerns very seriously.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, bauaw.org
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The Pay at the Top
The compensation research firm Equilar compiled data reflecting pay for 200 chief executives at 198 public companies that filed their annual proxies by March 27 and had revenue of at least $6.3 billion. (Two companies, Motorola and Synnex, had co-C.E.O.'s.) | See a detailed description of the methodology.
http://projects.nytimes.com/executive_compensation?ref=business
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AMAZING SPEECH BY WAR VETERAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8
The Unemployment Game Show: Are You *Really* Unemployed? - From Mint.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA
Video: Gaza Lives On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU5Wi2jhnW0
ASSESSMENT - "LEFT IN THE COLD"- CROW CREEK - 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmfue_pjwho&feature=PlayList&p=217F560F18109313&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5
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Tom Zaniello is a living, walking encyclopedia of films about labour.
I heard him speak at a conference once, but it wasn't so much a speech as a high-speed tour through dozens of film clips, lovingly selected, all aiming to make a point.
I don't know anyone who knows more about cinema and the labour movement than he does.
And Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An expanded guide to films about labor is his, well, encyclopedia about the subject.
It's a 434 page guide to 350 labour films from around the world, ranging from those you've heard of - Salt of the Earth, The Grapes of Wrath, Roger & Me - to those you've never heard of but will fall in love with once you see them.
Zaniello describes all the films in detail, tells you whether they're available for rental or purchase, and, if so, where.
Fiction and nonfiction, the films are about unions, labour history, working-class life, political movements, and the struggle between labour and capital.
Each entry includes critical commentary, production data, cast list, suggested related films, and annotated references to books and Web sites for further reading.
If you want to know more about labour films, buy this book.
And remember that every copy you purchase helps support LabourStart.
Thanks very much.
Eric Lee
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Letter from Lynne Stewart from behind bars:
Dear Sisters and Brothers, Friends and Supporters:
Well the moment we all hoped would never come is upon us. Good bye to a good cup of coffee in the morning, a soft chair, the hugs of grandchildren and the smaller pleasures in life. I must say I am being treated well and that is due to my lawyer team and your overwhelming support.
While I have received "celebrity" treatment here in MCC - high visibility - conditions for the other women are deplorable. Medical care, food, education, recreation are all at minimal levels. If it weren't for the unqualified bonds of sisterhood and the commissary it would be even more dismal.
My fellow prisoners have supplied me with books and crosswords, a warm it is cold in here most of the time) sweat shirt and pants, treats from the commissary, and of course, jailhouse humor. Most important many of them know of my work and have a deep reservoir of can I say it? Respect.
I continue to both answer the questions put to me by them, I also can't resist commenting on the T.V. news or what is happening on the floor - a little LS politics always! Smile) to open hearts and minds!
Liz Fink, my lawyer leader, believes I will be here at MCC-NY for a while - perhaps a year before being moved to prison. Being is jail is like suddenly inhabiting a parallel universe but at least I have the luxury of time to read! Tomorrow I will get my commissary order which may include an AM/FM Radio and be restored to WBAI and music classical and jazz).
We are campaigning to get the bladder operation scheduled before I came in to MCC) to happen here in New York City. Please be alert to the website I case I need some outside support.
I want to say that the show of support outside the Courthouse on Thursday as I was "transported" is so cherished by me. The broad organizational representation was breathtaking and the love and politics expressed the anger too) will keep me nourished through this.
Organize - Agitate, Agitate, Agitate! And write to me and others locked down by the Evil Empire.
Love Struggle, Lynne Stewart
FREE LYNNE STEWART NOW!
Lynne Stewart in Jail!
For further information contact: Jeff Mackler, Coordinator, West Coast Lynne Stewart Defense Committee 510-268-9429 jmackler@lmi.net
Mail tax free contributions payable to National Lawyers Guild Foundation. Write in memo box: "Lynne Stewart Defense." Mail to: Lynne Stewart Defense, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.
SEND RESOLUTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT TO DEFENSE ATTORNEY JOSHUA L. DRATEL, ESQ. FAX: 212) 571 3792 AND EMAIL: jdratel@aol.com
SEND PROTESTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line - 202-353-1555
To send Lynne a letter, write:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY NY 10007
Lynne Stewart speaks in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQ5_VKRf5k&feature=related
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With a New Smile, 'Rage' Fades Away [SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!]
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/08/health/20091208_Clinic/index.html?ref=us
FTA [F**k The Army] Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g
Jon Stewart: Obama Is Channeling Bush VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/03/jon-stewart-obama-is-chan_n_378283.html
US anti-war activists protest
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/12/200912283650408132.html
Buffy Sainte Marie - No No Keshagesh
[Keshagesh is the Cree word to describe a greedy puppy that wants to keep eating everything, a metaphor for corporate greed]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmAb1gNN74&feature=player_embedded#
Buffy Sainte-Marie - No No Keshagesh lyrics:
http://www.lyricsmode.com/?i=print_lyrics&id=705368
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The Tar Sands Blow
Hi -
I just signed the Tar Sands Blow petition -- and I hope you'll do the same.
The Canadian tar sands produce the dirtiest oil on earth -- including five times the greenhouse gases of conventional oil. World leaders meet next month in Copenhagen to deal with climate change. Sign the petition -- so that we all don't get a raw deal.
http://ien.thetarsandsblow.org/
The Story of Mouseland: As told by Tommy Douglas in 1944
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqgOvzUeiAA
The Communist Manifesto illustrated by Cartoons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUl4yfABE4
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HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
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This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
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Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501c)3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) The Right Testicle of Hell:
History of a Haitian Holocaust
Blackwater before drinking water
by Greg Palast for The Huffington Post
Sunday 17 January 2010
Posted By Greg Palast
January 17, 2010
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-right-testicle-of-hell-history-of-a-haitian-holocaust/
2) Pay Rises for Leaders of Colleges, Survey Says
By JACQUES STEINBERG
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/education/18college.html?hp
3) US accused of annexing airport as squabbling hinders aid effort in Haiti
Priority landing for Americans forces flights carrying emergency supplies to divert to Dominican Republic
By Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, and Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk
Sunday 17 January 2010 21.56 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/us-accused-aid-effort-haiti
4) Is the Haiti Rescue Effort Failing?
By Danny Schechter, AlterNet
Posted on January 18, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145226/
5) Alleged police-torture victim freed
Man spent 23 years in prison for murder after he confessed to Chicago police detectives under direction of former Cmdr. Jon Burge
By Matthew Walberg
Tribune reporter
January 15, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-burge-murder-releasejan15,0,4953389.story
6) Clash over Haiti aid flights
By Harvey Morris in New York
Published: January 17 2010
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/558f15be-038b-11df-a601-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
7) Mumia - Legal Update re US Supreme Court
From Atty Robert Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
8) Volunteer nurses stalled in Haiti earthquake relief
By Matt O'Brien
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 01/17/2010 09:07:28 PM PST
Updated: 01/18/2010 06:45:12 AM PST
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_14213791
9) More Troops and Supplies Arrive in Haiti
By DAMIEN CAVE and DEBORAH SONTAG
January 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/world/americas/19haiti.html?hp
10) U.S. Mulls Role in Haiti After the Crisis
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
News Analysis
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/world/americas/18policy.html?ref=world
11) Candidate Bans Worsen Iraq's Political Turmoil
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html?ref=world
12) Pakistan Says Drone Strike Kills 15
By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/world/asia/18pstan.html?ref=world
13) United States Attorney Plans Drug-Terrorism Unit
[i.e., The war on drugs goes global...bw]
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/nyregion/18terror.html?ref=us
14) Blacks in Retreat
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
January 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/opinion/19herbert.html?hp
15) U.S. Troops Land With Aid at Presidential Site in Haiti
By RAY RIVERA and SIMON ROMERO
January 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/world/americas/20haiti.html?hp
16) The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.html?hp
17) Statement of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Published Jan 20, 2010 8:48 PM
http://www.workers.org/2010/world/aristide_0128/
Former Haiti president Aristide ready to return
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhlaGjzaL7g
18) What's Missing From the Critiques of Obama
Class Clowns
By CARL FINAMORE
January 21, 2010
http://www.counterpunch.org/finamore01212010.html
19) Indian Tribes Await Their Due
Editorial
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/opinion/21thur3.html?th&emc=th
20) Haiti, Katrina, and Why I Won't Give To Haiti Through the Red Cross
By Bruce A. Dixon
Created 01/20/2010 - 12:20
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/haiti-katrina-and-why-i-wont-give-haiti-through-red-cross
21) Journalist Kim Ives on How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti's Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation
January 20, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/journalist_kim_ives_on_how_decades
22) Haiti: NGO's and Relief Groups Call for Immediate and Widespread Distribution of Water and Other Aid Supplies
Author: Center for Economic and Policy Research
Published on Jan 20, 2010 - 10:32:28 AM
http://yubanet.com/haiti/Haiti-NGO-s-and-Relief-Groups-Call-for-Immediate-and-Widespread-Distribution-of-Water-and-Other-Aid-Supplies.php
23) Excerpt From: "The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11"
By the Congressional Research Service1
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf
24) Nightmare in Haiti: Untreated Illness and Injury
"Another grievance among some health professionals was that the American military was not giving enough of a priority to humanitarian aid. Doctors Without Borders has complained that more than one of its planes carrying vital medical equipment has been kept from landing at the airport here, costing lives...
"We are sending them out with basic instructions," he said. "First, listen to people, let them verbalize their feelings. Second, don't promise them any material aid, because you can't deliver."
By MARC LACEY
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/world/americas/21haiti.html?ref=world
25) China on Path to Become Second-Largest Economy
By EDWARD WONG
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/global/21chinaecon.html?ref=world
26) U.S. Envisions a Continuing Civilian Presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan
By MARK LANDLER
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/world/asia/21diplo.html?ref=world
27) Gates Warns of Militant Threat in South Asia
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/world/asia/21gates.html?ref=world
28) Jail Protest by Immigrant Detainees Is Broken Up by Agents
By NINA BERNSTEIN
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/nyregion/21jail.html?ref=us
29) Annual Poll of Freshmen Shows Effect of Recession
By KATE ZERNIKE
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/education/21college.html?ref=education
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1) The Right Testicle of Hell:
History of a Haitian Holocaust
Posted By Greg Palast
January 17, 2010
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-right-testicle-of-hell-history-of-a-haitian-holocaust/
1.
Bless the President for having rescue teams in the air almost immediately. That was President Olafur Grimsson of Iceland. On Wednesday, the AP reported that the President of the United States promised, "The initial contingent of 2,000 Marines could be deployed to the quake-ravaged country within the next few days." "In a few days," Mr. Obama?
2.
There's no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. 200,000 Haitians have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF "austerity" plans.
3.
A friend of mine called. Do I know a journalist who could get medicine to her father? And she added, trying to hold her voice together, "My sister, she's under the rubble. Is anyone going who can help, anyone?" Should I tell her, "Obama will have Marines there in 'a few days'"?
4.
China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China, Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US bases in Puerto Rico: right there.
5.
Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I don't know how this government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it has." We know Gates doesn't know.
6.
From my own work in the field, I know that FEMA has access to ready-to-go potable water, generators, mobile medical equipment and more for hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast. It's all still there. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who served as the task force commander for emergency response after Hurricane Katrina, told the Christian Science Monitor, "I thought we had learned that from Katrina, take food and water and start evacuating people." Maybe we learned but, apparently, Gates and the Defense Department missed school that day.
7.
Send in the Marines. That's America's response. That's what we're good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed - without any emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19 helicopters.
8.
But don't worry, the International Search and Rescue Team, fully equipped and self-sufficient for up to seven days in the field, deployed immediately with ten metric tons of tools and equipment, three tons of water, tents, advanced communication equipment and water purifying capability. They're from Iceland.
9.
Gates wouldn't send in food and water because, he said, there was no "structure ... to provide security." For Gates, appointed by Bush and allowed to hang around by Obama, it's security first. That was his lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water.
10.
Previous US presidents have acted far more swiftly in getting troops on the ground on that island. Haiti is the right half of the island of Hispaniola. It's treated like the right testicle of Hell. The Dominican Republic the left. In 1965, when Dominicans demanded the return of Juan Bosch, their elected President, deposed by a junta, Lyndon Johnson reacted to this crisis rapidly, landing 45,000 US Marines on the beaches to prevent the return of the elected president.
11.
How did Haiti end up so economically weakened, with infrastructure, from hospitals to water systems, busted or non-existent - there are two fire stations in the entire nation - and infrastructure so frail that the nation was simply waiting for "nature" to finish it off?
Don't blame Mother Nature for all this death and destruction. That dishonor goes to Papa Doc and Baby Doc, the Duvalier dictatorship, which looted the nation for 28 years. Papa and his Baby put an estimated 80% of world aid into their own pockets - with the complicity of the US government happy to have the Duvaliers and their voodoo militia, Tonton Macoutes, as allies in the Cold War. (The war was easily won: the Duvaliers' death squads murdered as many as 60,000 opponents of the regime.)
12.
What Papa and Baby didn't run off with, the IMF finished off through its "austerity" plans. An austerity plan is a form of voodoo orchestrated by economists zomby-fied by an irrational belief that cutting government services will somehow help a nation prosper.
13.
In 1991, five years after the murderous Baby fled, Haitians elected a priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who resisted the IMF's austerity diktats. Within months, the military, to the applause of Papa George HW Bush, deposed him.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. The farce was George W. Bush. In 2004, after the priest Aristide was re-elected President, he was kidnapped and removed again, to the applause of Baby Bush.
14.
Haiti was once a wealthy nation, the wealthiest in the hemisphere, worth more, wrote Voltaire in the 18th century, than that rocky, cold colony known as New England. Haiti's wealth was in black gold: slaves. But then the slaves rebelled - and have been paying for it ever since.
From 1825 to 1947, France forced Haiti to pay an annual fee to reimburse the profits lost by French slaveholders caused by their slaves' successful uprising. Rather than enslave individual Haitians, France thought it more efficient to simply enslave the entire nation.
15.
Secretary Gates tells us, "There are just some certain facts of life that affect how quickly you can do some of these things." The Navy's hospital boat will be there in, oh, a week or so. Heckuva job, Brownie!
16.
Note just received from my friend. Her sister was found, dead; and her other sister had to bury her. Her father needs his anti-seizure medicines. That's a fact of life too, Mr. President.
***
Through our journalism network, we are trying to get my friend's medicines to her father. If any reader does have someone getting into or near Port-au-Prince, please contact [2] Haiti@GregPalast.com immediately.
Urgently recommended reading - The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, the history of the successful slave uprising in Hispaniola by the brilliant CLR James.
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2) Pay Rises for Leaders of Colleges, Survey Says
By JACQUES STEINBERG
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/education/18college.html?hp
Many of the nation's public universities eliminated courses and raised tuition last year, but the salaries and benefits of their presidents continued to rise, though at a slower rate than in years past, a new study has found.
In its ninth annual examination of the pay of 185 public university leaders, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Monday that the median rose to $436,111 in 2008-9, an increase of 2.3 percent when compared with the year before. (When adjusted for inflation, The Chronicle said, the median increase was 1.1 percent.)
By contrast, in the previous four years, The Chronicle said, public university leaders' salaries and benefits rose, on average, by at least 7.5 percent each year, and, in 2005, by 19 percent.
Jeffrey J. Selingo, editor of The Chronicle, said in a statement that while the increases of past years had "riled parents, students and politicians," it was most likely "the bad economy and the fiscal crisis facing many states" that "finally put a halt to these large pay increases."
The Chronicle said that "for the first time in recent history," the base salaries of the leaders of more than one-third of the institutions surveyed "stopped growing" last year, and that 10 percent of the presidents received less compensation over all than they did a year earlier.
Still, the largest compensation packages are unlikely to provide much comfort to students and families that have seen tuition rise or financial aid fall, or to professors who may have received pay cuts or even lost their jobs.
As in 2008, E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, topped the Chronicle's ranking for 2009, with an annual compensation package valued at nearly $1.6 million.
He was followed by Mark A. Emmert of the University of Washington ($905,000); Patrick T. Harker of the University of Delaware ($810,600); John T. Casteen III of the University of Virginia ($797,050); and Francisco G. Cigarroa of the University of Texas ($787,260).
The Chronicle also calculated the pay of the leaders of 64 community colleges, and identified the three who were paid the most last year: Eduardo J. Padrón of Miami Dade College ($548,460); Michael B. McCall of the Kentucky Community College and Technical College system ($532,910); and Orlando J. George Jr. of Delaware Technical and Community College ($450,070).
In November, The Chronicle listed the top-earning presidents of private colleges and universities for 2007-8, and found that 23 earned over $1 million. (The highest-paid private college president, Shirley Ann Jackson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., received about $1.6 million.)
At that time, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, criticized private colleges and their leaders for being out of step "with the reality for most parents and students who are trying to pay for college in the midst of high unemployment and after savings for education were either wiped out or greatly diminished."
The salary survey did say that "a growing number of presidents" have given money back to their institutions and cited Mr. Gee of Ohio State among them.
"Last year," The Chronicle reported, Mr. Gee "donated $320,850 from a university bonus to help endow a scholarship fund. This year, he paid the costs for a student majoring in music."
Other leaders who have rejected performance bonuses or other proposed increases in recent months, The Chronicle said, include Sally K. Mason of the University of Iowa and Gregory L. Geoffroy of Iowa State and Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan.
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3) US accused of annexing airport as squabbling hinders aid effort in Haiti
Priority landing for Americans forces flights carrying emergency supplies to divert to Dominican Republic
By Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, and Daniel Nasaw in Washington
guardian.co.uk
Sunday 17 January 2010 21.56 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/us-accused-aid-effort-haiti
The US military's takeover of emergency operations in Haiti has triggered a diplomatic row with countries and aid agencies furious at having flights redirected.
Brazil and France lodged an official _protest with Washington after US military aircraft were given priority at Port-au-Prince's congested airport, forcing many non-US flights to divert to the Dominican Republic.
Brasilia warned it would not _relinquish command of UN forces in Haiti, and Paris complained the airport had become a US "annexe", exposing a brewing power struggle amid the global relief effort. The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières also complained about diverted flights.
The row prompted Haiti's president, René Préval, to call for calm. "This is an extremely difficult situation," he told AP. "We must keep our cool to co-ordinate and not throw accusations at each other."
The squabbling came amid signs that aid was reaching some of the hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of water, food and medicine six days after a magnitude 7 earthquake levelled the capital, killing more than 100,000, according to Haitian authorities.
The UN was feeding 40,000 and hoped to increase that to 1 million within a fortnight, said the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, as he arrived in Port-au-Prince yesterday. "I am here with a message of hope that help is on the way," he said, speaking outside the severely damaged national palace. He also acknowledged "that many people are frustrated and they are losing their patience."
Ban said he has three priorities in Haiti: saving as many lives as possible, stepping up humanitarian assistance and ensuring the co-ordination of aid coming into the country. "We should not waste even a single item, a dollar," he said.
The plight of 80 elderly people at a partially collapsed municipal hospice just a mile from the airport, now a huge aid hub, showed the desperate need. The body of a dead 70-year-old man rotted on a mattress, nearly indistinguishable from the exhausted, hungry and thirsty people around him. "Others won't live until tonight," an administrator, Jean Emmanuel, told the Associated Press.
The Haitian government has established 14 food distribution points and aid groups have opened five emergency health centres. Water-purification units - a priority to avert disease and dehydration - were arriving.
But with aftershocks jolting the ruins, bloated bodies in the street and severe shortages of water and food many survivors had had enough: an exodus trekked on foot out of the city to rural areas.
The security situation worsened, with some looters fighting with rocks and clubs for rice, clothing and other goods scavenged from debris. In places the embryonic aid machine did not even try to organise distribution. Aid workers tossed out food packets to crowds and US helicopters took off as soon as they offloaded supplies, prompting scrambles in which the fittest and strongest prevailed.
"They are not identifying the people who need the water. The sick and the old have no chance," Estime Pierre Deny, _hoping to fill a plastic container with water amid a scrum of people, told Reuters.
Frustration over aid bottlenecks among donors became tinged by national rivalry as it became clear the US was taking ownership of the crisis. A vanguard of more than 1,000 US troops was on the ground and 12,000 were expected in the region by today, including marines aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson which anchored offshore as a "floating airport".
The Haitian government, paralysed by the destruction of the presidential palace and ministries, signed a memorandum of understanding formally transferring control of Toussaint L'Ouverture airport to the US. Former president Bill Clinton said he will travel to Haiti today to meet with government officials and deliver much-needed emergency supplies.
The UN mission, which had a 9,000-strong peacekeeping force in Haiti before the quake, seemed too stunned by its own losses to take control. Its dead include its Tunisian head, Hédi Annabi, his Brazilian deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, and the acting police commissioner, Doug Coates, a Canadian.
Flights seeking permission to land continuously circle the airport, which is damaged and has only a single runway, rankling several governments and aid agencies. "There are 200 flights going in and out every day, which is an incredible amount for a country like Haiti," Jarry Emmanuel, air logistics officer for the UN's World Food Programme, told the New York Times. "But most flights are for the US military. Their priorities are to secure the country. Ours are to feed. We have got to get those priorities in sync."
France, which as the former _colonial power expects a prominent role, _protested when an emergency field hospital was turned back. The foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said the airport was not for the international community but "an annexe of Washington", according to France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier Le Bret.
Brazil, which saw its leadership of the UN peacekeeping mission as a calling card of its burgeoning influence, was also indignant when three flights were not allowed to land. The foreign ministry reportedly asked Hillary Clinton to grant Brazil priority over chartered flights. Nelson Jobim, the defence minister, said Brazil would not relinquish command duties and suggested it, not Washington, would continue to lead UN forces. Analysts said it was vital command issues be resolved.
The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières complained about flights with medical staff and equipment which were redirected to the Dominican Republic. "We are all going crazy," said Nan Buzard, of the American Red Cross.
The Obama administration has enlisted former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton to spearhead relief efforts. In a series of interviews both men deflected right-wing accusations that the White House was seeking political advantage from the disaster. "I'd say now is not the time to focus on politics," Bush said, as he sat beside his predecessor. "You've got children who've lost parents. People wondering where they're going to be able to drink water."
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4) Is the Haiti Rescue Effort Failing?
By Danny Schechter, AlterNet
Posted on January 18, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145226/
Every disaster plan is built to some degree around the idea of triage --
deciding who can and cannot be saved. The worst cases are often
separated and allowed to perish so that others who are considered more
survivable can be treated.
There is a tragic triage underway in Haiti thanks to screw-ups in the US
and western response, and in part because of the objectively tough
conditions in Haiti that blocked access and made the delivery of food,
water and services difficult. But the planners should have known that!
Look at the TV coverage. "Saving Haiti" is the title CNN has given to
its coverage. It shows us all the planes landing, and donations coming
in and celebrity response on one hand, and then the problems/failures to
actually deliver aid on the other.
Much of the coverage focuses on the upbeat -- people being saved. But
despite that frame, which highlights a compassionate America's response,
the reality of what's happening in Haiti is only barely getting through.
It's not pretty.
Everyone wants to believe in the best intentions of all involved but
five days after the quake, with so few being helped, we have to ask: how
did this get so badly done?
It's like Obama's plan to stop foreclosures through modifying loans.
Great idea, but only a handful of homeowners have benefited. There is a
yawning gap between the idea and its execution.
So what happened in Haiti? The short answer: it is too little and in
many cases, much of it too late. A natural disaster has been compounded
by a well-intentioned man-made one.
Why? One global report explained:
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the
importance of the first 72 hours following the 12 January disaster. But
already much of that crucial time has been spent attempting to assess
the situation. The structures usually responsible for dealing with
civilian emergencies have been unable to respond effectively due to
widespread destruction of national and international power structures.
(This means the UN and the Haitian government as well as the US effort).
Lacking outside support, civilians have worked communally to try to save
their own families. Supplies were sent but many have yet to get out of
the airport. Troops have not been assigned to help deliver water or
guard medical facilities. There is a fear of the wrath of a people that
are pissed off at hearing about aid and money donated, and then seeing
nothing trickling down into their neighborhoods.
And there is a deeper fear -- a political fear. With President Aristide,
the man the US considers too radical for its tastes, anxious to return,
there is fear that a possible revolt against the lack of help could turn
angry and political.
Hillary Clinton keeps telling the Haitians that we are their friends --
but many doubt it. They know that Aristide's Lavalas party is the most
popular in Haiti and wants a more profound transformation than the US
wants to allow. It had been banned from taking part in scheduled
elections next month, that are likely to be canceled now. Haiti's
president Preval is weak and dependent on US largesse.
They also know that in the aftermath of earthquakes, like the one that
rocked Manaqua, Nicaraga in the 1970s, there can be revolution. They
don't want that to happen in Haiti. They also know how volatile the
country is, in part because of neglect by the West over the years.
Private help is not getting through either. Western Union offices are
still closed in a country that relies on foreign remittances as a
lifeline. The media is finally admitting the aid mission is failing,
although that's not the word used -- they say the relief effort is
"troubled!" Here's the headline in the NY Times: "Officials Strain to
Distribute Aid to Haiti as Violence Rises." The piece continues: "A
sprawling assembly of international officials and aid workers struggled
to fix a troubled relief effort."
The Guardian/Observer focuses on a water delivery crisis. The article
doesn't ask why armed troops were not assigned to protecting drivers:
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are in desperate need of drinking
water because of an earthquake-damaged municipal pipeline and truck
drivers either unable or unwilling to deliver their cargo.
Many drivers are afraid of being attacked if they go out, some
drivers are still missing in the disaster and others are out there
searching for missing relatives," said Dudu Jean, a 30-year-old driver
who was attacked on Friday when he drove into the capital's sprawling
Cite Soleil slum.
The lack of water has become one of the greatest dangers facing
Haitians in part because earthquake survivors stay outdoors all day in
the heat out of fear of aftershocks and unstable buildings.
But there is something else going on.
The disaster planners have an agenda that goes beyond just saving lives.
They want to use the crisis to rebuild Haiti along lines they support.
(ie. Support of property rights etc) So far they have not spoken about
how policies backed by the United States through the Caribbean Basin
Initiative were responsible for uprooting peasants from the countryside
to move them to the city to be a cheap labor reserve. In that Reagan era
effort, pigs were killed and imported food replaced home grown varieties
to benefit US suppliers. Debt dependence grew -- classic imperialist
policies.
Read this report in coded uncritical top-down language from the
Washington Post:
Even as rescuers are digging victims out of the rubble in Haiti,
policymakers in Washington and around the world are grappling with how a
destitute, corrupt and now devastated country might be transformed into
a self-sustaining nation.
Development efforts have failed there, decade after decade, leaving
Haitians with a dysfunctional government, a high crime rate and incomes
averaging a dollar a day. But the leveled capitol, Port-au-Prince, must
be rebuilt, promising one of the largest economic development efforts
ever undertaken in the hemisphere -- an effort "measured in months and
even years," President Obama said Saturday in an appeal for donations
alongside former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. And those
who will help oversee it are thinking hard about how to use that money
and attention to change the country forever.
"It's terrible to look at it this way, but out of crisis often comes
real change," said C. Ross Anthony, the Rand Corp's global health
director. "The people and the institutions take on the crisis and bring
forth things they weren't able to do in the past."
The Rand Corporation is a military contractor primarily, a center for
spooks and covert strategies. The fact that they are being quoted as
saviors is scary in itself. In other words, Haiti's future is being
planned outside of Haiti and will be imposed step by step.
I don't know about you but anything that George W. Bush is supporting, I
tend to be skeptical of, to say the least.
Let's admit it, this disaster response is itself a disaster. And it's
helping promote a new disaster to come.
Greg Palast points to some of the many contradictions that the TV
networks that are milking Haiti's pain in an orgy of self-congratulatory
reporting have yet to explore:
*China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China,
Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US
bases in Puerto Rico: right there. [Greg, make that 25,000 miles away!]
* Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I don't know how
this government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than
it has." We know Gates doesn't know.
* From my own work in the field, I know that FEMA has access to
ready-to-go potable water, generators, mobile medical equipment and more
for hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast. It's all still there. Army Lt.
Gen. Russel Honoré, who served as the task force commander for emergency
response after Hurricane Katrina, told the Christian Science Monitor, "I
thought we had learned that from Katrina, take food and water and start
evacuating people." Maybe we learned but, apparently, Gates and the
Defense Department missed school that day.
* Send in the Marines. That's America's response. That's what we're
good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after
three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed -- without any
emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19 helicopters.
* But don't worry, the International Search and Rescue Team, fully
equipped and self-sufficient for up to seven days in the field, deployed
immediately with ten metric tons of tools and equipment, three tons of
water, tents, advanced communication equipment and water purifying
capability. They're from Iceland.
[Hillary Clinton said proudly on Saturday that there are now 30
teams in place. No one asked, why only 30?]
* Gates wouldn't send in food and water because, he said, there was
no "structure ... to provide security." For Gates, appointed by Bush and
allowed to hang around by Obama, it's security first. That was his
lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water.
* Previous US presidents have acted far more swiftly in getting
troops on the ground on that island. Haiti is the right half of the
island of Hispaniola. It's treated like the right testicle of Hell. The
Dominican Republic the left. In 1965, when Dominicans demanded the
return of Juan Bosch, their elected President, deposed by a junta,
Lyndon Johnson reacted to this crisis rapidly, landing 45,000 US Marines
on the beaches to prevent the return of the elected president. "
And Greg asks the question that our media heroes have yet to explore:
How did Haiti end up so economically weakened, with infrastructure,
from hospitals to water systems, busted or non-existent - there are two
fire stations in the entire nation - and infrastructure so frail that
the nation was simply waiting for "nature" to finish it off?
Good question. One of the many we should be asking. In the meantime, we
need the press to start asking tougher questions and exposing a
Katrina-like response that is still losing countless lives.
A country in pain deserves relief. Not more pain.
If you lived there, wouldn't you be pissed and ready to explode?
Danny Schechter writes the News Dissector blog for MediaChannel.org. His
latest book is PLUNDER: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books).
(c) 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/145226/
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5) Alleged police-torture victim freed
Man spent 23 years in prison for murder after he confessed to Chicago police detectives under direction of former Cmdr. Jon Burge
By Matthew Walberg
Tribune reporter
January 15, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-burge-murder-releasejan15,0,4953389.story
Freed Thursday after almost a quarter century behind bars, Michael Tillman said it "feels good," but he also had a grim prediction for the Chicago police detectives who allegedly tortured him into confessing.
"They'll get what they got coming," Tillman told reporters in the Cook County Criminal Courts Building. "The system will do to them what they did to me."
Tillman stood in borrowed clothes and nervously fidgeted with a black stocking cap as he addressed the news media moments after special prosecutors dropped charges against him for the 1986 slaying and rape of Betty Howard in an abandoned South Side apartment.
He is the latest longtime inmate to be freed because of allegations of torture by detectives under disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.
In court papers, special prosecutors brought in to handle the case said that if Tillman was retried, the state would be unable to disprove that the confession had been coerced. And there wasn't enough other reliable evidence to convict him of the murder, they said.
The special prosecutors went on to acknowledge evidence of "a pattern and practice of abuse" at what is now the Calumet Area police headquarters under Burge and his detectives -- which Tillman's lawyers heralded as a first for the state.
"In 35 years -- starting with Richard Daley, Richard Devine, Lisa Madigan -- no prosecutor in charge of these cases has ever conceded that a man was tortured or abused at Area 2," attorney Flint Taylor, who has handled numerous Burge-related cases, said outside court.
A Madigan spokeswoman defended her office's handling of some of the Burge-related prosecutions, noting that six inmates have been freed in recent years after careful analyses of their cases.
Howard, a single mother, had left for a birthday party for her 2-year-old son when they were abducted in their apartment building and taken to a vacant unit. The boy was locked in a nearby bathroom as his mother was tied to a radiator, sexually assaulted, stabbed and shot.
Tillman has long alleged he was tortured into confessing. He was sentenced to life in prison after his first conviction in 1986 in a bench trial before Circuit Judge Kenneth Gillis, now retired. He appealed on the grounds that his confession was coerced and should not have been used at trial. But in overturning his conviction and ordering a new trial in 1991, the Appellate Court found fault instead with the effectiveness of his lawyer. A jury found him guilty again in 1996.
In raising the alleged torture again last year, Tillman contended that over three days of questioning, Burge's detectives beat him with a phone book, staged a mock execution by holding a gun to his head and covered his head with a plastic bag. He also alleged that detectives poured 7UP into his nose after forcing his head back in what his lawyers called a crude form of waterboarding.
In their court papers, the special prosecutors noted that detectives under Burge had given conflicting explanations for blood found on the floor of the room where Tillman was interrogated.
The prosecutors also pointed out that evidence appeared much stronger against Clarence Trotter, who is also serving a life sentence for Howard's murder. He was found in possession of the murder weapon and personal property of the victim's, and his fingerprints were found on a pop can at the murder scene.
Burge, who was fired in 1993 for the abuse of a suspected cop killer, is scheduled to go to trial in federal court in May on charges he lied while testifying in a civil proceeding about the alleged torture under his watch. No detectives under his command have been charged with criminal wrongdoing.
During a 15-minute hearing Thursday, Assistant Special State's Attorney Myles O'Rourke asked that the murder and rape charges against Tillman be dropped because he was convicted with "coerced statements" and the state couldn't prove his guilt based on the remaining "unreliable evidence." Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan then dismissed the case, freeing Tillman after about 23 1/2 years in custody.
Moments later, as Tillman's handcuffs were being removed, O'Rourke approached Tillman's mother, Jean, as she wept in the front row of the courtroom gallery.
"Sorry this took as long as it took," O'Rourke said.
But Tillman's release devastated Howard's relatives, who still believe that he was responsible for her murder. "It's truly messed up that the police messed up this case, and because of that, Michael is getting let out," said the victim's daughter, Angelita.
After his morning release, Tillman celebrated with friends, family and his legal team over lunch at MacArthur's Restaurant, his first post-prison meal.
After so many years behind bars, Tillman was startled at the automatic hand-soap dispenser in the restroom of the West Side restaurant. He also wasn't sure how to hold a cell phone up to his ear and seemed perplexed by a flat-screen television that wasn't turned on. "What's that for?" he asked.
"I feel that it went great today, but I just didn't appreciate being locked up for 23 and a half years for something I did not do," he said over corn bread, fried chicken, barbecue ribs and collard greens. "It hasn't hit me yet. When I'm by myself and just thinking, then it will hit me. Right now I'm just happy."
Taylor said he hopes Tillman's release will help the more than 20 other inmates he estimates remain behind bars despite their allegations that their murder confessions were coerced by Burge and his detectives.
"It is incumbent that everyone who has a documented case of torture or abuse from Area 2 and Burge's people, that they have a new hearing and a new trial without that tortured confession," he said. "It doesn't mean that they are all innocent. It doesn't mean that they are all guilty. ... But, regardless, they are all entitled under the Constitution and the law not to be convicted in part or in total on tortured, coerced confessions."
Taylor said the next step in Tillman's case will be to obtain a certificate of innocence -- similar to a pardon -- that would entitle him to nearly $200,000 in compensation from the state for his years in prison.
Freelance reporter Jessica Pupovac contributed to this report.mwalberg@tribune.com
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6) Clash over Haiti aid flights
By Harvey Morris in New York
Published: January 17 2010
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/558f15be-038b-11df-a601-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Fuel shortages, poor communications and a logjam at the Port au Prince airport on Sunday continued to hinder a massive international aid effort to Haiti five days after a devastating earthquake in which more than 100,000 are now feared to have died.
The United Nations humanitarian agency, Ocha, warned at the weekend that humanitarian operations might be forced to shut down in the next few days if fuel supplies were not replenished.
As Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, headed for Haiti to see for himself the extent of the worst humanitarian disaster that the world body has had to cope with in decades, concern grew over delays in the airlift to the capital's airport, which is under US control.
Alain Joyandet, French co-operation minister, told reporters at the airport he had protested to Washington via the US ambassador about the US military's management of the airport where he said a French medical aid flight had been turned away.
In Paris, the foreign ministry tried to quash a looming diplomatic spat by insisting Franco-American co-operation was proceeding as well as possible in view of the extent of the disaster.
Mr Joyandet's complaint underlined the frustration of relief teams dependent on the single runway at the airport to ferry in supplies if they were to avoid 24-hour delays involved in bringing supplies in by road from the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
The French news agency AFP also quoted people trying to leave Haiti as complaining that the US was giving priority to its own citizens. The US military re-established operations at the airport after its control tower was damaged in the earthquake. Kenneth Merten, US ambassador, told AFP: "We're working in co-ordination with the United Nations and the Haitians. "Clearly it's necessary to prioritise the planes. It's clear that there's a problem."
With telephone communications disrupted by the earthquake after wireless network towers were damaged, Digicel, the Caribbean mobile company, said before the weekend it was pressing to ferry its technicians and equipment to the island state after four planes were turned back.
Digicel's chairman, Denis O'Brien, said: "We have been in contact with the United Nations and numerous NGOs who are telling us that restoring Haiti's communications network is a vital first step in this relief effort."
The UN, with US support, was taking the lead in guaranteeing law and order in Haiti where hundreds of thousands have yet to receive food. The UN had 3,000 members of a 9,000-strong peacekeeping force in Post au Prince when the earthquake struck and units have since been drafted to the capital.
Canada said on Sunday it was sending 1,000 troops to Haiti to double its military presence there.
Canada would have hundreds of vehicles, seven helicopters and two ships available for the Haitian operation once the reinforcements were in place, Peter MacKay, defence minister, said in Ottowa.
The UN confirmed that Hedi Annabi, its civilian head of mission, and Luiz Carlos da Costa, and Doug Coates, its Canadian acting police commissioner, were among those killed in the collapse of the UN headquarters.
The UN's World Food Programme said it planned to deliver emergency food rations to 40,000 people a day over the weekend as part of an emergency operation that would eventually reach 2m.
An aircraft carrying more than 20 tonnes of high-energy biscuits landed in the Dominican Republic from El Salvador and was heading to Port au Prince by road.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, former US presidents drafted in by incumbent Barack Obama to help with the aid effort, on Sunday appealed to Americans to donate to the relief efforts. Mr Clinton already serves as the UN's envoy to Haiti.
After Rush Limbaugh, the rightwing talk show host, suggested Mr Obama was using his response to the crisis to burnish his image, Mr Bush said it was no time for politics."There's a great sense of desperation. And so my attention is on trying to help people deal with the desperation."
The UN Security Council was meeting on Monday to discuss the situation, and European Union ministers, at an emergency meeting today, were to call for an international conference to help Haiti.
EU ministers will assess the cost of providing relief for which the UN has launched a $562m flash appeal.
"This will have to be co-ordinated with the UN and international financial organisations like the World Bank. The ministers will also examine how much more needs to be done to help Haiti," said Cristina Gallach, EU spokeswoman.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
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7) Mumia - Legal Update re US Supreme Court
From Atty Robert Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Dear All:
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court issued the long-awaited ruling in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, which we have been litigating for 15 months. The decision was as we expected. Mumia's case has been sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, for further proceedings consistent with the decision last week in another case:
"The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for further consideration in light of Smith v. Spisak, 558 U.S. ___ (2010)."
The decision is not bad and was unavoidable in view of the Spisak case ruling. Now we must resume litigating the issue of the death penalty in the lower federal court. It previous ruled that the trial judge misled the jury and thus Mumia was entitled to a new jury trial on the issue of death or life. That is still the issue.
What occurred in Mumia's case is different both procedurally and factually from the jury instructions in Spisak. The prosecution disagrees.
Soon I will be posting more information on our website: http://www.MumiaLegalDefense.org. That may be checked regularly for updated information.
Petition for President Barack Obama It is crucial for people to sign the petition for President Barack Obama regarding Mumia, which is in 10 languages ("Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"). Please circulate the petition as widely as possible and, of course, sign. The link is: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html.
Over 8,000 people, mostly from Germany, have signed in the few days since we launched the petition. These include: Günter Grass, Germany (Nobel Prize in Literature); Bishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa (Nobel Peace Prize); Danielle Mitterrand, Paris (former First Lady of France); Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan (writer); Noam Chomsky, MIT (philosopher & author); Ed Asner (actor; Mike Farrell (actor); and Michael Radford (director of the Oscar winning film Il Postino).
There is also a Facebook page for Mumia and our work to save him: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=407654295516&ref=mf
Tax-deductible Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense The only way to guarantee that donations in the U.S. go only to the legal defense, is to make checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (indicate Mumia on the bottom left), or contact my office ( MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com). The contributions are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
Conclusion Mumia remains on death row under a death judgment. He is in greater danger than at any time since his arrest over 28 years ago. The prosecution has said it will continue pursuing his execution. I win cases, and will not let them kill Mumia.
Yours very truly,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org
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8) Volunteer nurses stalled in Haiti earthquake relief
By Matt O'Brien
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 01/17/2010 09:07:28 PM PST
Updated: 01/18/2010 06:45:12 AM PST
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_14213791
OAKLAND-More than 10,000 nurses across the United States are signed up with an Oakland-based nurses union to help treat wounded Haitians, but after days negotiating with the U.S. Navy they have not yet found a way to get there, said Chuck Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association.
"A lot of people are frustrated because they're anxious to be deployed, they want to be helping," Idelson said on Sunday night.
From their downtown Oakland office, organizers have worked around the clock since just hours after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook Haiti on Tuesday coordinating a growing list of volunteers, including more than 2,800 from California, so they can be deployed to use their skills to help with international relief efforts.
"Without question, there's a need. There's a shortage of functioning medical facilities," Idelson said.
The group hit a temporary dead end over the weekend, however, when the U.S. military informed the nurses they would not be able to travel aboard a Navy hospital ship called the USNS Comfort, at least not anytime soon. That was after days the union spent scouring the nurses list and making sure volunteers fulfilled the military's extensive list of requirements, Idelson said.
He said the nurses are now actively seeking alternate routes to get into the country using partners who are scouring Port-au-Prince and neighboring towns for places where they can set up clinics.
The nurses culled volunteers through National Nurses United, an affiliate that was founded by the California Nurses Association. They said their list of volunteers includes several Haitian-American nurses who speak French and Kreyol.
Efforts by medical experts around the world to reach Port-au-Prince have been difficult since there is only one working runway at the city airport that has been crowded by international agencies bringing food, supplies, search teams and troops.
One well-known emergency health organization, Doctors Without Borders, had difficulty flying its teams into Haiti over the weekend, causing one French diplomat to criticize the United States, which oversees the airport's traffic, according to wire reports.
Some medical volunteers have traveled over land from the neighboring Dominican Republic, but the biggest challenge is making sure they have some kind of safe and secure medical infrastructure equipped with supplies once they reach Haiti, nurse organizers said.
A smaller, 7-person team of emergency physicians and nurses from Stanford Hospital was also struggling with how to get to Haiti late last week, and it was not known if they had arrived yet.
Once they get there, the team, which includes Stanford's chief of emergency medicine, was going to be stationed for about three weeks at a hospital near the Presidential Palace and a makeshift clinic in the hills above Port-au-Prince. Stanford said the physicians were working with the International Medical Corps group, which had four doctors in Haiti as of Friday and another 13 on the way.
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9) More Troops and Supplies Arrive in Haiti
By DAMIEN CAVE and DEBORAH SONTAG
January 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/world/americas/19haiti.html?hp
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - As new waves of American troops prepared to land in this battered nation on Monday, rescue workers and military teams already on the ground worked to quicken the delivery of aid to hundreds of thousands of Haitians growing increasingly desperate for food and clean water.
The United Nations World Food Program said it planned to distribute 200 tons of food aid on Monday to 95,000 people at eight locations and appealed anew for public donations to the relief effort. The calls for more help came even as aid workers, mobile clinics and other supplies continued to arrive at the airport and overland from the Dominican Republic.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, requested Monday that the Security Council immediately approve an additional 3,500 security officers for Haiti, both to maintain public order and to guard deliveries as the aid effort gathers steam.
Mr. Ban requested that the council dispatch an additional 1,500 police officers and 2,000 troops to Haiti for at least six months to augment the 9,000 already there. So far episodes of violence have been scattered, with the security situation overall fairly calm, but senior United Nations officials said it might boil over at any moment as the difficulties of living without water, food and shelter mount.
``We need to be very much careful and vigilant against any possibility," Mr. Ban said in an interview. "When their patience level becomes thinner - that is when we have to be concerned."
Former President Bill Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, was also expected to arrive later in the day.
More United Nations peacekeepers were visible on the streets of the capital on Monday morning after reports of a rash of lootings and shootings a day earlier. Buses packed with refugees continued to stream out of the city as people gambled that they had a better chance of finding food and shelter in the countryside.
As scavengers searched the rubble for scrap metal they might sell, rescue teams continued their search for survivors despite dwindling odds and rising estimates of the dead. Haitian officials have discussed tens of thousands of people killed, but there is no certainty on any numbers so far.
A top American commander in Haiti said Sunday that "we are going to have to be prepared for the worst."
In an interview with ABC's "This Week," the commander, Lt. Gen. P. K. Keen, was asked about estimates numbering the dead at 150,000 to 200,000. He called those figures a "start point," but said there were still no exact casualty counts.
On Sunday, the mood managed to stay mostly calm, as residents carried leather-bound Bibles to pray outside their ruined churches. There were fewer bodies in the streets, though in some places residents began burning corpses left behind.
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, arrived to offer a promise of improvement from his organization, which was itself badly hit by the quake but was still heavily criticized for the slow pace of the emergency response.
"I am here with a message of hope that help is on the way," Mr. Ban told a crowd of Haitians in front of the severely damaged National Palace.
On the fifth day after the earthquake, there were signs of improvement, possibly even hope that the worst was passing. Traffic at the airport continued to increase, and there were 27 rescue teams on the ground, with 1,500 people searching for survivors.
But the World Food Program said, "Aftershocks persist, which is a concern given the damaged infrastructure."
The best news came in the form of a small voice from deep in a pile of rubble at the Caribbean Supermarket in the Delmas neighborhood, heard overnight late Saturday or early Sunday. As the odds of finding more survivors fell steeply, American and Turkish rescue workers were stunned to discover a small Haitian girl, who proudly told them that she made it through with hope and leathery fruit snacks.
She was the first of five people to be pulled from the wreckage during a search spanning the weekend, some of whom sent desperate text messages to let loved ones know they were trapped. She was deeply shaken, having been trapped for days in a small space in a devastated market, with death in every aisle. But she had not been pinned down by debris and was not hurt, according to Capt. Joseph Zahralban of the South Florida search and rescue team.
"If you have to be trapped in a collapsed building, a stocked supermarket is probably the best place to be," Captain Zahralban said.
Among the rescuers at the store were members of a joint New York police and fire rescue team, who had arrived in Haiti on Saturday, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of New York said Sunday in a telephone interview. He said the team included 80 people and several rescue dogs.
There were several other reported rescues around the city, including a 2-month-old baby, CNN reported, and Jens Kristensen, a Danish civilian employee of the United Nations peacekeeping forces at the Christopher Hotel, the organization's headquarters here, where perhaps 100 of its workers remained buried.
At the airport, American military officials said that waiting times for landing had declined, while traffic had increased. Each day, there are 100 slots for incoming planes - well exceeding the 30 to 35 flights that the airport handled before the earthquake. But in a sign of both Haiti's needs and the response, even that is not close to handling the number of planes waiting to come in.
"There is certainly more demand than 100 a day," said Maj. Matthew Jones of the Air Force, operations officer of the joint task force running the airport. "However, no one has been denied a slot, but there may be a delay. Sometimes if it's not today, it's tomorrow."
The military has established a priority list for providing slots, Major Jones said. At the top are planes bringing in water. Next is equipment for distributing supplies, followed by food and then medical personnel and medicine.
In Port-au-Prince, the stepped-up effort appeared to be paying off and aid was finally reaching at least some of Haiti's desperate, with varying degrees of order.
On Sunday morning, a United Nations truck appeared in the park near the presidential palace, where hundreds of families have been squatting since the earthquake. They handed out bags of water to a crowd mostly appreciative, with only a little shoving.
The World Food Program also sent at least three convoys to different locations badly affected by the earthquake, with a goal of delivering enough nourishment to last 65,000 people five days.
But the scene at one delivery site suggested that the food - rations of fortified biscuits, each one about the size of a graham cracker - would hardly last the ravenous victims one night. And the agency's distribution methods nearly started a riot when throngs of people who had lost everything mobbed one of the trucks in the convoy.
"It's not their fault," said Guerrier Ernso, looking on at the mob. "They are hungry."
Mr. Ernso, a 25-year-old linguistics student, introduced himself to a World Food Program official and suggested that it might have been more effective if the agency had called ahead to advise community leaders that it was coming. Then he and four other brawny young men dived into the mob and began pulling people apart. Within five minutes the people had been arranged in three neat lines. "They have to create another way to deliver food," Mr. Ernso said of the World Food Program official, speaking in English. "The way they are doing it now, they will not help us out of our misery."
Meanwhile, Col. Cormi Bartal, a doctor in the Israeli Army's newly established field hospital here, pulled back the flap of a tent serving as the hospital's pediatric section and pointed to a woman, Guerlande Jean Michel, 24. She identified a sleeping newborn on her cot, one of the first born in the city after the earthquake, and spoke in a halting voice. "This is my child," said Ms. Jean Michel, a primary school teacher. "His name is Israel."
Colonel Bartal said the hospital had carried out amputations on 10 people, treated patients with burns on 70 percent of their bodies, and saved two people with gunshot wounds. "There are the injuries from the earthquake, but those are subsiding," he explained. "Now we're treating those affected by the aftermath, not from the earthquake."
Still, away from where aid trucks happened to appear - no one seemed to know where or when to expect them - pressure has been building, and with President René Préval still holed up in a police station, without having made a national address, frustration with the government was growing. He and his cabinet held a meeting on Sunday on plastic chairs outside the station.
Signs popping up across the city called for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former president who was ousted in 2004, and even for the Duvaliers, who ruled the country brutally from the 1950s to the 1980s.
In the main market downtown, prices had skyrocketed. A small bottle of water cost $6. And residents have grown more desperate. "We need water," said Joseph Jean René, a round man in a Hawaiian shirt standing near a scrum of money changers. "We are dying of thirst and hunger. Even the children are dying."
Violence and looting, unheard of just after the earthquake, also seemed to be spreading. Several reports of the police catching thieves and shooting them on the spot moved across the city, though at times, what happened and why were difficult to divine.
At the national cemetery, three new bodies appeared just after lunch, with wet blood on at least one of their faces. A fourth young man wearing Adidas high tops lay in a fetal position a few yards away on the sidewalk. Vomit and blood spread out from his chest.
Witnesses said they were thieves. "The police brought them here and shot them," said Andre Pierre, 25. He stood over the fourth man, with a growing crowd. "He tried to fight the police," said Maxime Nerestant, 22, a tae kwon do teacher with a shaved head and a beard. " 'Help me, help me,' he said, 'I'm innocent.' "
Suddenly, the man who was believed to be dead lifted his right arm. People asked him what happened, and where he was from. "La Lou," he said quietly. A truck from Doctors Without Borders drove by. The crowd of Haitians did not notice, nor did they try to help the young man in his final moments. "The police shouldn't kill innocent people, but with what's happening in Haiti right now, people shouldn't be stealing," Mr. Nerestant said.
The police at the local precinct in the market area said they knew nothing of the theft or the shooting, though it occurred less than a mile away. Twelve of the station's 29 officers were missing.
An earlier version of this story misstated the date of arrival in Haiti of a joint New York police and fire rescue team. It was Saturday, not Friday.
Reporting was contributed by Ginger Thompson, Ray Rivera, Simon Romero, Marc Lacey and Neil MacFarquhar from Port-au-Prince and the United Nations, Michael S. Schmidt from New York, and Alan Cowell from Paris.
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10) U.S. Mulls Role in Haiti After the Crisis
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
News Analysis
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/world/americas/18policy.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - President Obama's aggressive response to the deadly earthquake in Haiti has led to criticism from the far right that the United States is taking on too much, at a time when its foreign-policy plate is already full.
But the more relevant question, experts on the region say, is whether the United States will maintain a muscular role in the reconstruction of Haiti once the news cameras go home. The United States has a history of either political domination or neglect in its backyard, and administration officials acknowledge that for Mr. Obama, striking the right balance in Haiti will be crucial.
"The classic U.S. role in the whole hemisphere is either complete neglect, or we come in and run the show," said Sarah Stephens, executive director for the Center for Democracy in the Americas. But with Haiti, a mere 700 miles from Miami, "there is a great opportunity for the United States to do this in a new way," she said.
Mr. Obama has pledged that the United States is in Haiti for the long haul. On Sunday, he mobilized military reserves - particularly medical staff for hospital ships - signing an executive order that said it was necessary to back up active-duty troops "for the effective conduct of operational missions, including those involving humanitarian assistance, related to relief efforts in Haiti."
American troops have taken control of the airport at Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and are helping to provide security for the enormous international relief effort. A steady stream of administration officials have headed south, from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton - who cut short a trip to the South Pacific, rushed home, and then flew to Haiti on Saturday - to one of Mr. Obama's closest aides, Denis R. McDonough, the National Security Council's chief of staff.
"We will be here today, tomorrow, and for the time ahead," Mrs. Clinton said to Haitian journalists in Port-au-Prince, standing alongside President René Préval.
With so many others in the Haitian government missing or dead, the Obama administration is already facing questions of whether the United States is the only entity capable of bringing order to Port-au-Prince. Beyond that is the question of whether Mr. Obama can handle Haiti at a time when he is already grappling with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The short answer is yes," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois and a frequent visitor to Haiti. "As challenging as it is, there is no question about it straining our capacities at home. This is a tiny country. It's close, and it's not going to be our job alone to rebuild."
Mr. Obama has indicated that the amount the United States has pledged so far to Haiti, $100 million, is bound to go up significantly. Still, it is well below the $350 million that President Bush pledged in the early weeks of the Asian tsunami, which killed 226,000 people after it struck in December 2004.
And while Mr. Obama has increased the number of American troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 to just below 100,000, and promised ambitious efforts to stabilize Yemen and Pakistan, the number of American troops being sent to Haiti is of course smaller - some 10,000 Marines and soldiers by Monday, military officials said.
The bigger issue may be sustaining the effort. In 2009, much of the administration's energy was focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, with little time on this hemisphere. The administration's new point man for Latin America and the Caribbean - Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere - was confirmed only in November.
In the past, American interest in Haiti has waxed and waned. President Clinton sent 20,000 troops there in 1994 to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, an intervention still viewed today as producing, at best, mixed results.
If Haiti's only problem were poverty, American officials discovered at the time, the job of building its economy would have been one thing. But endemic government corruption and a history of post-colonial abandonment left Haiti in shambles 10 years later, when Mr. Aristide was finally driven from power in 2004.
In the years since 1994, Haiti has resurfaced in the American conscience only during times of crisis: the Aristide meltdown; and after four devastating storms in 2008 that wiped out most of the country's food crops and damaged irrigation systems, causing acute hunger for millions.
Some Haiti experts say that despite the criticism from conservative commentators - Glenn Beck complained that Mr. Obama spent more time reacting to the Haiti earthquake than he did to the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack - the heart-rending tragedy in Haiti may make it impossible for the United States to ignore it once the news media attention goes away.
Mr. McDonough, the national security aide, spoke to that in a call with reporters on Sunday, saying that the administration was determined to do everything it could to alleviate the suffering in Haiti. "The more we hear criticism, the more we are intent on trying to improve the lot of the Haitian people," he said.
What is more, the administration and the international community appear to be uniform in their belief that Mr. Préval, unlike Mr. Artistide, is someone with whom they can deal. They credit him with taking steps in recent years to develop the economy.
Mrs. Clinton said a major reason for her four-hour visit to Port-au-Prince was to buck up Mr. Préval. At one point on Saturday, the Haitian president walked through the makeshift American command center at the airport, appearing dazed by the clamor.
But he seemed comforted by the presence of Cheryl D. Mills, Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, who is in charge of the Haiti portfolio at the State Department and who has made multiple visits to Port-au-Prince over the last few months.
Administration officials say the White House can handle Haiti without neglecting its other concerns. They noted that Mr. Obama convened a National Security Council on meeting on Friday to discuss the implementation of his new Afghanistan policy.
"It's only a problem if the whole government isn't functioning properly," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to publicly discuss internal matters. "What you see here is a good example of the government functioning well."
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Mark Landler from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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11) Candidate Bans Worsen Iraq's Political Turmoil
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html?ref=world
BAGHDAD - Iraqi officials have done little to clarify who, exactly, has been disqualified from running for Parliament in March because of ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. They did, however, make clear on Sunday that, contrary to Iraqi television news, the government's own spokesman was not among those declared a Baathist and therefore unfit for office.
The fate of the country's defense minister was another matter. So was that of dozens of members of a political alliance led by one of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's top rivals, Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister since 2006.
More than a week after Iraq's Accountability and Justice Commission first announced that it had disqualified at least 15 parties to run for Parliament, it remained unclear how many candidates out of more than 6,000 who have registered would be excluded - and which ones had been..
On Thursday, Iraq's election commission announced that 499 were disqualified, but it postponed the publication of a list on Sunday, saying that still more names would be added Monday.
Far from dissipating, the political turmoil caused by the accountability commission - a little-known government agency headed by an official who until August was in an American prison on charges of orchestrating a 2008 bombing in Baghdad that killed two American embassy workers, two American soldiers and six Iraqis - only worsened over the weekend.
Maysoun al-Damlouji, a member of Parliament from Mr. Bolani's bloc, compared the swirl of events to watching a Bollywood movie from India - in Hindi, without subtitles.
"We don't know what's going on," Ms. Damlouji said.
The disqualification of so many candidates threatened to undermine a national election that has widely been cast as another test of Iraq's nascent democracy. According to many lawmakers and experts, Iraq appears to be failing, raising fears of violence rather than political reconciliation as American troops steadily withdraw, nearly seven years after the American-led invasion that toppled Mr. Hussein.
Among those known to be disqualified is Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni leader of a broad secular coalition that also includes a former Shiite prime minister, Ayad Allawi. The coalition, known in Arabic as Iraqiya, is widely seen as the most formidable challenger to Mr. Maliki's bloc and a second, largely Shiite alliance.
Mr. Mutlaq had been expected to do well among Sunni voters, who largely boycotted Iraq's first post-Hussein parliamentary elections in 2005, but his disqualification seemed to splinter, rather than unite, the coalition. "This can only serve to reignite sectarian war," Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group, a research organization, said of the disqualifications.
The opacity of the process only compounded the confusion and anger over the weekend. The government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, was reported by at least one Iraqi television channel to be among those disqualified because, he said in a telephone interview, his name was similar to someone else's on the list.
The commission announced Sunday that he and three others had not been disqualified, but declined to specify who had been. Falah Shanshal, a Shiite lawmaker who heads the parliamentary committee overseeing the Accountability and Justice Commission, denounced leaks of names to the news media - including presumably, Mr. Dabbagh's - as "all untrue," but he too declined to be specific.
Another member of the same committee, Rashid Azzawi, said Sunday that he had resigned in protest because of the way the disqualifications had been carried out.
The disqualification of Iraq's defense minister, Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, appeared most puzzling of all. He has run the ministry since 2006, by most accounts capably, and is running as a candidate on Mr. Maliki's coalition. A spokesman for the ministry, Brig. Gen. Ali Salih, declined to comment on Sunday, but said a response was expected Monday.
"Our political parties don't have real political and economic programs," said Hazim al-Nuaimi, the director of Middle Eastern studies at Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. "So instead of struggling over programs and candidates' capabilities, they are trying to exclude each other - even within the same party or alliance."
Some officials pleaded for calm and patience, suggesting some compromise was possible. Mr. Dabbagh said that while "politically it might be a disturbing issue," another panel in Parliament had the power to consider appeals by disqualified candidates.
Mr. Maliki, for his part, has said nothing to suggest he opposes the disqualifications, but he emphasized "the importance of not politicizing the process," according to a statement issued by his office on Saturday.
The accountability commission, a remnant of the original committee created to purge Iraq's government ministries of former leaders of the Baath Party after the American invasion in 2003, appeared to be digging in.
Its chairman, Ali Faisal al-Lami, stood by the disqualifications in spite of the furor, and the country's election commission has, so far, agreed. Mr. Lami previously headed the de-Baathification committee, as it was known, until his arrest in 2008. Once he was released in August, he returned to the new commission.
In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Lami's commission accused the United Nations of interfering in Iraq. The United Nations, with the United States, has lobbied against the disqualifications.
Reporting was contributed by Nada Bakri, Riyadh Mohammed, Duraid Adnan and Omar al-Jawoshy.
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12) Pakistan Says Drone Strike Kills 15
By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/world/asia/18pstan.html?ref=world
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Missiles fired from American aircraft killed as many as 15 people in western Pakistan on Sunday, Pakistani security officials said, part of an increased campaign by the United States to use drones to kill militants.
The target of the strike was a compound owned by a member of the Mehsud tribe, which leads the Pakistani Taliban, in the Shaktu area of South Waziristan. The area is near the border with Afghanistan where the Pakistani military has been conducting operations against the Taliban.
A similar attack on Thursday killed 12 militants in the same area, and according to Pakistani security officials, it wounded Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of Pakistani Taliban. His predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in an American drone strike in August.
The Shaktu area of South Waziristan borders North Waziristan, which American officials say is the main haven for militants from Al Qaeda and for the Afghan Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani.
The Pakistani military's operation in South Waziristan is believed to have forced militants to flee to North Waziristan, and the United States has been pressing Pakistan to conduct operations there.
Hakimullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that killed eight people at a C.I.A. base in Khost, Afghanistan, late last month. His appearance in a video with the bomber suggested strong links between the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda, as well as the Afghan Taliban.
Drone attacks are controversial in Pakistan, whose officials argue publicly that the attacks violate their sovereignty. But privately those officials do not oppose the strikes, which many United States officials believe have been effective in weakening the Taliban and Al Qaeda by killing many of their senior leaders.
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13) United States Attorney Plans Drug-Terrorism Unit
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
January 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/nyregion/18terror.html?ref=us
The United States attorney in Manhattan is merging the two units in his office that prosecute terrorism and international narcotics cases, saying that he wants to focus more on extremist Islamic groups whose members he believes are increasingly turning to the drug trade to finance their activities.
Some Western law enforcement and intelligence agencies have long pointed to what they say are the symbiotic relationships that sometimes exist between terrorist groups and narcotics traffickers, from Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Hezbollah in the Middle East to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
But the move by the United States attorney, Preet Bharara, comes as United States officials have suggested that some members of Islamic extremist groups, including Al Qaeda and some of its affiliates, are more frequently turning to the drug trade - as well as kidnapping and other criminal activities - to help finance their operations.
It is, they say, partly a response to increased pressure on other financial sources, like Islamic charities and private donors.
By merging the units, Terrorism and National Security and International Narcotics Trafficking, Mr. Bharara said he is combining two groups that have developed many of the same skills - working overseas, often using classified information, to build complex cases against sophisticated targets.
The new unit, he said, would be better able to bring drug charges to bear against some terrorists, as well as use a new law that gives federal drug agents the authority to pursue narcotics and terrorism crimes committed anywhere in the world if they can establish a link between a drug offense and a terrorist act or group.
Noting the debate over the appropriateness of bringing terrorists to trial in civilian courts, Mr. Bharara said that federal authorities were facing people who want to kill Americans and were branching out into narcotics distribution and transportation.
"We have these tools in the criminal justice system," he said, noting that in some cases, "you don't necessarily need just the N.S.A. or the C.I.A.; you have abilities to get at them and to infiltrate them and to stop them - it just adds to the arsenal of ways to go after these people."
He added, "It would be sort of law enforcement and national security malpractice not to also be going at it this way."
The new unit, Terrorism and International Narcotics, will employ 21 prosecutors, including three supervisors, drawn from the two components, Mr. Bharara said. It will be headed by Michael Farbiarz, 36, who had served as a deputy in the terrorism unit, and Anjan Sahni, 33, formerly the chief of International Narcotics; their deputy will be Jocelyn Strauber, 36, who was Mr. Sahni's No. 2 in the narcotics unit.
The move effectively doubles the number of prosecutors in the office handling terrorism cases as it prepares for the trial of the self-described mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and four other former Guantánamo Bay detainees. It is a major undertaking that will unquestionably prove to be a significant draw on the unit's resources.
In part because groups like Al Qaeda operate in a murky netherworld, determining with certainty the source of the money that fuels such networks - subsidizing training, travel, weapons, day-to-day life and actual operations - is extremely difficult.
And tracking the roles and activities of members and people associated with these secretive groups also can present a formidable challenge, one that at times results in divergent views among government agencies about the level of involvement in the drug trade by members of some groups, like Al Qaeda.
In fact, two government officials who track counterterrorism issues played down the notion of a recent increase in narcotics activity by Islamic extremists. One, a senior Obama administration official, said that most extremists were reluctant to get involved with people outside their group who do not share their ideology. But he noted that as the need for financing grows, such concerns recede.
But officials at the Drug Enforcement Administration, who have worked closely with the narcotics prosecutors in Mr. Bharara's office, say the growing use of Africa as a route to move hundreds of tons of cocaine from South America to Europe has underscored the problem.
One of the officials, Derek Maltz, who heads the D.E.A.'s Special Operations Division in Virginia, which works with more than a dozen other law enforcement and intelligence agencies to stymie major traffickers that operate across international boundaries, acknowledged that the increase was difficult to quantify.
But he added, "Every day, in my position I see more and more examples - real examples - either through credible informants or actually investigative activity, where you start to see different groups involved with drug traffickers."
The transportation route through West and North Africa - where swaths of desert are controlled by extremist groups tied to Al Qaeda and corruption and instability are widespread - has brought traffickers into closer proximity with various terror groups, several officials said.
Indeed, the officials, as well as Mr. Bharara, pointed to a case last month in which the D.E.A. arrested three African men in a sting based on drug and terrorism charges brought by the prosecutor's office. The men, who prosecutors say are tied to Al Qaeda, were accused of conspiring to move cocaine across the region with the assistance of Al Qaeda and another group, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. They were taken into custody in Ghana, expelled and flown to New York to face the charges.
The creation of the new unit - coupled with the new law that gives the D.E.A. more authority to investigate such cases - opens the door for greater involvement in terrorism cases by the anti-drug agency.
The original terrorism unit in the prosecutor's office was the first of its kind in the nation, and its lawyers were long the pre-eminent terrorism prosecutors in the nation, winning convictions in the first World Trade Center bombing case and the bombing case stemming from Al Qaeda's 1998 attacks on United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, among others.
The new unit comes into being at a time when the United States attorney's office in Brooklyn has brought a series of terrorism cases that some officials say have equaled or outpaced recent cases brought by its counterpart in Manhattan, something that would have seemed unimaginable in years past.
The Brooklyn office has obtained indictments against the Denver airport shuttle bus driver arrested this fall in a Qaeda bomb plot and against two of his associates. It has also won the cooperation of a Long Island man who spent months in Qaeda training camps in Pakistan and took part in two attacks against American troops, and has dismantled the United States fund-raising operations of the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan terror group.
Gretchen Peters, whose book "Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda" was published in May, said her research showed a long history of Qaeda involvement in the drug trade.
But she noted that the group's senior cadre served more as facilitators, setting up meetings between traffickers and other powerful figures in the region.
"It's wrong to think that you're going to find Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri driving a jingle truck full of dope down the Kandahar highway," she said.
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14) Blacks in Retreat
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
January 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/opinion/19herbert.html?hp
It has been easy for people to forget in the decades since we lost the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that he was a passionate fighter for economic justice as well as civil rights. The two goals were as closely linked as the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water.
The historic gathering in 1963 at which Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech was officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
And when Dr. King was murdered in Memphis in 1968, he had gone there to support sanitation workers who were striking for higher wages and better working conditions.
Jobs and freedom. In America, you can't have one without the other. Democrats are in deep trouble right now - just a year after their giddy celebration of Barack Obama's ascendance to the presidency - because so many millions of Americans are out of work, unable to find the gainful employment that would unlock the door to a stable future for themselves and their families.
The president and his party may be obsessed with health care, but unemployed and underemployed Americans want a job. Why this has been so hard for the Democrats to realize, I can't say.
As the nation continues to wallow in the trough of widespread unemployment, black Americans are bearing a disproportionate burden of the joblessness. The election of a black president may have been important to African-Americans for myriad reasons, but it hasn't done much for their bottom line, which continues to deteriorate.
For example, without a dramatic new intervention by the federal government, the poverty rate for African-American children could eventually approach a heart-stopping 50 percent, according to analysts at the Economic Policy Institute. Already more than a third of black children are living in poverty.
Present trends are not good. Communities of color are being crushed economically and the national news media have not fully focused on the carnage. The official unemployment rate for blacks is 16.2 percent and could well pass 17 percent before the year is out. The real jobless rate is far more ghastly. The Boston-based group United for a Fair Economy noted that even "college-educated black men are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as their white, college-educated counterparts."
In some poor neighborhoods, a man or woman with a traditional full-time job is the exception, not the rule. In five Midwestern states - Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Oklahoma - the jobless rate for blacks is at least three times as high as that for whites.
Some decades ago, you would have heard a sustained outcry against such dire conditions among blacks, and there would have been loud demands for policy changes designed to bring more black Americans into the economic mainstream. You don't hear much of that now. Too many so-called black leaders are much more interested in invitations to the White House and positive profiles in mainstream publications than in raising any kind of ruckus that might benefit people in real trouble.
What the politicians and today's civil rights types won't tell you is that we're looking ahead to many long decades of grief and strife in America's black communities because of our failure to respond effectively to the horrendous impact of the Great Recession and the policies that led up to it. Black Americans are going backward economically, and right now no one is stepping up to stop the retreat.
United for a Fair Economy, in its latest "State of the Dream" report, which is released annually around the time of Dr. King's birthday, is urging Congress and the president to identify communities with the highest unemployment rates and develop specific job-creation initiatives for them.
That kind of targeted effort is desperately needed, but don't hold your breath. There is precious little sentiment for programs that would provide real help to communities trapped in the nightmarish depths of this downturn, whether the residents are mostly black, mostly white, mostly Hispanic, or whatever.
Speaking about one of his many antipoverty initiatives, Dr. King told Look magazine in 1968: "We called our demonstration a campaign for jobs and income because we felt that the economic question was the most crucial that black people, and poor people generally, were confronting."
That was then. The loudest voices against poverty and economic injustice of all kinds have long since faded. The government, reclining comfortably on a vast cushion of campaign contributions, has allied itself with big business and the big banks against the interests of ordinary Americans. Millions upon millions of families are suffering, but mostly in silence.
We honor Dr. King with a national holiday, but his long campaign for economic justice has been all but forgotten.
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15) U.S. Troops Land With Aid at Presidential Site in Haiti
By RAY RIVERA and SIMON ROMERO
January 20, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/world/americas/20haiti.html?hp
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Helicopters carrying dozens of American troops landed on the lawn of Haiti's destroyed National Palace on Tuesday morning, a potent symbol of the United States' escalating military presence in Haiti since the earthquake that struck a week ago.
With hundreds of Haitians watching and cheering from outside the white-and-green palace gates, troops in combat fatigues bounded out of the helicopters, carrying food rations, bottled water and other gear across the grass, according to photographs and news reports from the scene.
The troops, who appeared to be establishing a position at the palace, were among the roughly 5,000 United States military personnel already in Haiti; thousands more are expected.
American troops took control of the airport in the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake, and have been distributing food and water and providing security for the relief effort. But they have, for the most part, not been a major presence on the streets.
Given the long history of American military intervention in Haiti - stretching back to a Marine landing in 1915 - commanders took pains on Tuesday to reassure Haitians that the United States was not invading.
Col. Gregory Kane of the United States Army told reporters at the Port-au-Prince airport - which has come to resemble an American military base, with helicopters coming and going continually - that the Haitian government remained in charge. He said that United States forces were only on the ground to assist in the relief efforts.
"There have been some reports and news stories out there that the U.S. is invading Haiti," Colonel Kane said. "We're not invading Haiti. That's ludicrous. This is humanitarian relief."
Many Haitians seemed to welcome the promise of help from American troops. In the capital's Nazon neighborhood, a hand-painted sign on a collapsed building read: "Welcome the US Marines. We need some help." An arrow on the it pointed into the building, warning, "Dead bodies inside."
At the police station near the airport that has become the Haitian government's de facto headquarters, President René Préval and ministers held meetings and discussed urgent needs and the latest information on the damage.
In an interview there, the first lady, Elisabeth Delatour Préval, said Mr. Préval was preparing to address the nation later in the day or on Wednesday, by radio, and answered criticism that he had not yet done so.
"Every single person who lives through that experience is under shock," she said. "That doesn't mean they can't assemble their thoughts and think reasonably. He's trying to focus on what the priorities are, and those priorities are changing every minute."
Mrs. Préval said that she and the president were about the enter their residence at the National Palace when the earthquake struck. They stepped back from the stately building, she said, and it collapsed before them. For hours, rumors circulated around the capital that she had been killed.
She said that Mr. Préval quickly jumped onto the back of a motorcycle taxi to tour hospitals and damaged areas, and that he had been in nonstop emergency meetings since. Government ministers, she added, initially held meetings in the yard of the collapsed palace to.
Other troops are also on the way. The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday unanimously approved sending an additional 3,500 police and peacekeeping troops for Haiti, both to maintain public order and to guard deliveries as the aid effort gathers steam. The forces will augment the 9,000 United Nations troops already here.
So far, violence has been scattered in Port-au-Prince. But senior United Nations officials said it might boil over at any moment as the difficulties of living without water, food and shelter mount.
"We need to be very much careful and vigilant against any possibility," the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said in an interview in New York. "When their patience level becomes thinner - that is when we have to be concerned."
Haiti's capital showed faint signs on Tuesday that life in its most basic form was slowly clawing back amid the chaos and destruction.
The streets of Port-au-Prince contained scenes of commerce and activity Tuesday morning, instead of just devastation and death. Merchants sold fruits and vegetables amid the rubble of destroyed businesses. More cars were winding through the debris-strewn streets.
Women walked with baskets on their heads filled with fruit, cookies an other sundries, functioning as mobile stores. At a homeless encampment at a golf course in the Bourdon neighborhood, impromptu markets have opened up, though prices were high. A woman frying chicken in a pot outside her tent sold each piece for 30 gourde, about $1 - half a day's wages here. Another woman offered scoops of rice from a large sack balanced on her head, about 30 gourde for a cup and a half, about double the cost before the earthquake.
"It is what I must pay," the woman, Luciana Delane, explained, saying she had the sack before the earthquake but would have to replace it at increased costs when it runs out. Helicopters buzzed overhead as foreign governments and aid groups tried to coordinate the piecemeal distribution of fresh water, food and medical help.
Meanwhile, people continued to stream out of the capital in an uncertain quest for shelter, fresh water and stability in the interior of the country.
There seemed to be no certainty on any front, not even on the death toll. Alain Le Roy, the United Nations peacekeeping chief, said Monday he could not confirm estimates of as many as 200,000 dead.
He said that as far as he knew, the toll had not surpassed 50,000 dead. "I don't think anybody knows, to be frank," he told reporters in New York.
For many residents, one clear thing appeared to be the need to leave. Bus after bus lined up at gas stations throughout the city, hoping to fill up with fuel before beginning the long trek out of the earthquake-ravaged zone around the capital. Some people lugged overstuffed suitcases; others carried little more than the clothes they were wearing and enough money to pay the new, higher fares.
At one gas station, the messages on some buses, painted in bright colors above their windshields, evoked something more than hope: Christ Est la Réponse (Christ Is the Answer) and Courage Mon Frère (Courage, My Brother).
"I don't know if I'm coming back," said Marcelaine Calixte, 20, a student whose house and college had collapsed, sitting on a crowded bus Monday afternoon headed to Les Cayes, a southern town.
Former President Bill Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, arrived in Haiti Monday afternoon and toured the city's general hospital. "It is astonishing what they're accomplishing," Mr. Clinton said afterward, adding that he had been told that the hospital was overwhelmed with patients. They filled its rooms and hallways, and even open areas in the yard outside. Mr. Clinton said he heard of vodka being used to sterilize and of operations performed without lights.
One of the patients outside, Vladamir Tanget, 24, lay on a mattress with a broken leg.
"The government is not doing anything," he complained. "We need outsiders to come."
Ginger Thompson and Marc Lacey contributed reporting from Port-au-Prince, James C. McKinley Jr. from Miami, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.
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16) US Security Company Offers to Perform "High Threat Terminations" and to Confront "Worker Unrest" in Haiti
Here we go: New Orleans 2.0
By Jeremy Scahill
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/179-natural-disaster-/775-us-qsecurityq-companies-eying-haiti
We saw this type of Iraq-style disaster profiteering in New Orleans and you can expect to see a lot more of this in Haiti over the coming days, weeks and months. Private security companies are seeing big dollar signs in Haiti thanks in no small part to the media hype about "looters." After Katrina, the number of private security companies registered (and unregistered) multiplied overnight. Banks, wealthy individuals, the US government all hired private security. I even encountered Israeli mercenaries operating an armed check-point outside of an elite gated community in New Orleans. They worked for a company called Instinctive Shooting International. (That is not a joke).
Now, it is kicking into full gear in Haiti. As we know, the member companies of the Orwellian-named mercenary trade association, the International Peace Operations Association, are offering their services in Haiti. But look for more stories like this one:
On January 15, a Florida based company called All Pro Legal Investigations registered the URL Haiti-Security.com. It is basically a copy of the company's existing US website but is now targeted for business in Haiti, claiming the "purpose of this site is to act as a clearinghouse for information seekers on the state of security in Haiti."
"All Protection and Security has made a commitment to the Haitian community and will provide professional security against any threat to prosperity in Haiti," the site proclaims. "Job sites and supply convoys will be protected against looters and vandals. Workers will be protected against gang violence and intimidation. The people of Haiti will recover, with the help of the good people from the world over."
The company boasts that it has run "Thousands of successful missions in Iraq & Afghanistan." As for its personnel, "Each and every member of our team is a former Law Enforcement Officer or former Military service member," the site claims. "If Operator experience, training and qualifications matter, choose All Protection & Security for your high-threat Haiti security needs."
Among the services offered are: "High Threat terminations," dealing with "worker unrest," armed guards and "Armed Cargo Escorts." Oh, and apparently they are currently hiring.
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17) Aid to Haiti Speeds Up, but Delays Plague Effort
By CHARLES FORELLE, JOSé DE CóRDOBA And JOE LAURIA
January 17, 2010
The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703626604575011611504785170.html
One week after an earthquake pulverized Haiti, emergency supplies of
water, food and medicine are beginning to reach large numbers of the
country's desperate survivors. The number of U.S. troops in Haiti is
expected to reach about 10,000 by midweek to help transport emergency
supplies, provide security and clear debris.
In the interim, however, residents have perished as distraught
relatives awaited rescue teams and equipment that didn't arrive in
time. Homeless people still camp on the streets, wondering why aid is
taking so long. "They say there's help, but it doesn't arrive," said
Henock Volmidor, an unemployed hotel worker, at a makeshift refugee
camp on Monday.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. After the Indian Ocean tsunami in
2004 that killed at least 230,000 people in 13 countries, the United
Nations and emergency-relief organizations vowed to avert the
disorganization that plagued that effort. More than 300 charities
showed up in Aceh, Indonesia, with little coordination between them.
WSJ reporter Mike Esterl talks about the challenging situation on the
ground in Haiti. Video courtesy of Fox News.
The U.N. established a rapid-response system to coordinate the work of
its agencies with nonprofit organizations, an online database to track
assistance and avoid duplication, and a special emergency-relief fund
that released $10 million within 24 hours of the Haitian quake. The
U.N. quickly sent to Haiti an assessment team whose tasks included
dispatching search-and-rescue squads that arrived from Iceland, China,
France and the U.S. Meanwhile, what was left of the Haitian government
put out an urgent request to the U.S. ambassador for help.
"The message, basically, was, 'Send everything you've got,'" says
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.
Relief experts working in Haiti say the new U.N. system has prevented
the kind of chaos evident in Aceh, although it remains imperfect. "Any
system you have will struggle in the first 24 to 48 hours, not to
organize itself, but to get stuff on the ground," says John Holmes,
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. Some
disorganization also has been evident.
During a visit to Haiti on Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
conceded that international search-and-rescue teams needed to be "more
balanced" in looking for victims of all nationalities and not just
their own. He also suggested too few teams had been sent-even though
on Friday, the U.N. had appealed to nations not to send any more
rescue squads.
On Monday, he asked the U.N. Security Council to authorize 2,000 more
peacekeepers and 1,500 more U.N. police for Haiti. "The heartbreaking
scenes I saw yesterday [in Haiti] compel us to act quickly," Mr. Ban
said. "I saw mass destruction and mass need."
It has been unclear at times who is in charge-the U.S. military, which
controls the main airport, or the U.N., which ostensibly oversees the
relief operation. Benoit Leduc, operations manager for Doctors Without
Borders in Haiti, on Monday said "hundreds of lives" were lost because
five of its planes carrying surgical teams and equipment weren't
allowed to land and were diverted to Santo Domingo.
"I don't really know who is in charge," he said. Several countries and
other aid groups also have complained that the U.S. military has
refused to let some of their supply planes land at Haiti's crippled
airport.
"It's a question of physics," says Capt. John Kirby, a U.S. military
spokesman in Haiti. "The airport is the only way in, it only has one
runway, and there are literally hundreds of flights trying to make it
in." Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that the U.N. and
its peacekeeping force is "in the lead" in Haiti.
The U.S. military is reluctant to move shipments out of the airport
without a security escort, sometimes causing added delays. "Twenty
containers go out, but you have to have about 100 heavily armed
soldiers," says Gilberto Castro, emergency response director of
transport company Deutsche Post DHL, which is handling hundreds of
tons of aid.
U.S. officials have blamed security concerns for holding up providing
relief. Yet a team of Cuban doctors were seen Monday treating hundreds
of patients without a gun or soldier in sight. The deputy chief of
mission at the American Embassy in Haiti, David Lindwall, said the
U.S. had done a lot, but that some teams and supplies "aren't getting
out as broadly as we'd like because of security" concerns.
Still, search and rescue teams from around the world have saved 71
people from the rubble of fallen buildings, said Tim Callaghan, chief
of the U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team in Haiti. He said 39 of
those were saved by U.S.-based teams.
U.S. Rescue teams continued search operations Tuesday despite what
they admit are ever-slimmer chances of finding survivors beneath the
rubble of collapsed buildings. "There might be a needle in the
haystack so don't give up," Rex Strickland, operations chief for a
search-and rescue team from Fairfax County, Va., told his 72-member
crew on Tuesday morning. Searchers from the U.S. Air Force have
shifted from missions based on specific reports of trapped people to
general sweeps of affected neighborhoods.
The odds of finding survivors fall after 7 or 8 days, according to
Mark Stone, spokesman for the Fairfax team. "The window is shutting
relatively quickly," said Mr. Stone. Rescuers from California,
however, found a woman alive monday. She had been buried in her bed,
according to U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Keith O'Grady.
On Monday, the U.S. began some air drops of food and water, a move
that U.S. and U.N. officials had said they would avoid because the
drops can invite violent scrambles among refugees.
Many relief experts say no global response plan could likely have
averted the delays seen during the initial days following the
earthquake, given the scale of the destruction and Haiti's poor
infrastructure. The earthquake knocked out the control tower at the
main airport, decimated the capital's port and crippled major roads
needed to ferry supplies. The U.N.'s top lieutenants in Haiti were
killed, as were many Haitian officials. The local government, which
normally would take charge of the relief effort, was paralyzed. And
there were widespread fuel shortages at a time when electricity was
out.
"Here you have a disaster of huge magnitude concentrated in the
capital of one of the most dysfunctional countries in the world," says
Andrew Natsios, who ran the U.S. Agency for International Development
under President George W. Bush and is a veteran of relief operations
going back to the 1980s. "No matter what, it takes five or six days to
get in place and to really open the spigot."
The roads of Port-au-Prince are in miserable condition in normal
times. Unpaved, uneven, twisty and steeply graded roads thwart trucks.
Port-au-Prince's Toussaint L'Ouverture airport, which normally handles
about a dozen flights a day, is now receiving close to 70 flights a
day, ranging from U.S. Air Force C-130s to small chartered jets.
The airport not only lacks warehouse space, but also machinery to
unload the international aid from as far away as China. The U.S.
military was forced to fly in giant forklifts. On Sunday, the Spanish
government shipped a high-tech water-purification system in a
Colombian airliner. But the airport didn't have a loader capable of
removing the heavy, sensitive equipment. Neither DHL nor U.S. soldiers
would risk damaging the plane by unloading it. So the plane sat for
hours, until a squad of Spanish firemen showed up to remove the water
gear.
The U.S. military is relatively new at spearheading massive relief
efforts; Washington has turned increasingly to the military for
disaster relief in part to boost the image of the U.S. diplomatically.
Although it had assisted during crises such as in Somalia and Bosnia
in the 1990s, the Pentagon's role in the tsunami effort, when it sent
huge numbers of U.S. ships, planes and military personnel, marked a
stepped-up role. Afterward, the military assisted the rescue and
feeding of tens of thousands of people following the 2005 earthquake
in Pakistan.
"People forget, but this extensive use of the U.S. military in
humanitarian relief work is relatively new," said John Simon, who
helped coordinate disaster assistance in the Bush White House.
The pace of military response has quickened. Prior to the tsunami,
requests for military assistance after a major hurricane or
earthquake-normally channeled first through the State Department-could
take days or even longer to review. But in 2007, the Defense
Department whittled the approval process down to a matter of hours.
Moving quickly, though, often hinges on luck. After the 2005 Pakistan
earthquake, the U.S. was able to commandeer more than 30 helicopters,
which already were in place in neighboring Afghanistan. "We could not
have done that work without them," says Mr. Simon.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to getting supplies into Haiti quickly is
the state of the country's chief cargo port. "The pier has collapsed
and the cargo cranes are in the water," says U.S. Coast Guard Captain
Jim McPherson.
He says ships which had been en route to Haiti are sitting offshore
unable to pick up or discharge cargo. "You've got to get the pipeline
bigger," he says. "It's essential to the country to get the port
going."
-Steve Stecklow, Neil King and Yochi J. Dreazen contributed to this article.
Write to Steve Stecklow at steve.stecklow@wsj.com, Charles Forelle at
charles.forelle@wsj.com and Joe Lauria at newseditor@wsj.com
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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16) The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.html?hp
The New York Times announced Wednesday that it intended to charge frequent readers for access to its Web site, a step being debated across the industry that nearly every major newspaper has so far feared to take.
Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the newspaper's print edition will receive full access to the site.
But executives of The New York Times Company said they could not yet answer fundamental questions about the plan, like how much it would cost or what the limit would be on free reading. They stressed that the amount of free access could change with time, in response to economic conditions and reader demand.
"This announcement allows us to begin the thought process that's going to answer so many of the questions that we all care about," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the company chairman and publisher of the newspaper, said in an interview. "We can't get this halfway right or three-quarters of the way right. We have to get this really, really right."
Any changes are sure to be closely watched by publishers and other purveyors of online content who scoffed at the notion of online charging until advertising began to plummet in 2007, battering visions of Internet businesses supported solely by ads. Few general-interest publications charge now, but many newspapers and magazines are studying whether to make the switch.
Still, publishers fear that income from digital subscriptions would not compensate for the resulting loss of audience and advertising revenue.
NYTimes.com is by far the most popular newspaper site in the country, with more than 17 million readers a month in the United States, according to Nielsen Online, and analysts say it is easily the leader in advertising revenue, as well. That may make it better positioned than other general-interest papers to charge - and also gives The Times more to lose if the move backfires.
The Times Company has been studying the matter for almost a year, searching for common ground between pro- and anti-pay camps - a debate mirrored in dozens of media-watching blogs - and the system will not go into effect until January 2011. Executives said they were not bothered by the prospect of absorbing barbs for moving cautiously.
"There's no prize for getting it quick," said Janet L. Robinson, the company's president and chief executive. "There's more of a prize for getting it right."
This would not be the first time the company has attempted an online pay model. In the 1990s it charged overseas readers, and from 2005 to 2007 the newspaper's TimesSelect service charged for access to editorials and columns. TimesSelect attracted about 210,000 subscribers who paid $49.95 a year but it was scrapped to take advantage of the boom in online advertising.
Company executives said the current decision was not a reaction to the ad recession but a long-term strategy to develop new revenue.
"This is a bet, to a certain degree, on where we think the Web is going," Mr. Sulzberger said. "This is not going to be something that is going to change the financial dynamics overnight."
Two specialized papers charge already: The Wall Street Journal, which makes certain articles accessible only to subscribers, and The Financial Times, which allows non-paying readers to see up to 10 articles a month, a system close to what is planned by The Times.
Most readers who go to the Times site, as with other news sites, are incidental visitors, arriving no more than once in a while through searches and links, and many of them would be unaffected by the new system. A much smaller number of committed readers account for the bulk of the site visits and page views, and the essential question is how many of them will pay to continue that habit.
Executives said the computerized subscription service must work smoothly and communicate seamlessly with the computer systems that handle the database of print subscribers. The Times will not use one of the pay systems being marketed by other companies, like Journalism Online, led by Steven Brill, or the News Corporation, instead choosing to create the system essentially from scratch.
"There's a lot of technical work that we need to do over the next year to get this right," said Martin A. Nisenholtz, the company's senior vice president for digital operations. "And I think if you were to benchmark this against other, similar implementations, you would find that a year is not excessive."
Bill Keller, the executive editor, embraced the plan.
"It underscores the value of what we do - trustworthy, aggressively reported professional journalism, which is an increasingly rare and precious thing," Mr. Keller said. "And it gives us a second way to sustain that hard, expensive work, in addition to our healthy advertising revenue.
Company executives would not release estimates of how many subscribers and how much revenue an online system would attract, how many visitors the site might lose because of it, or how much ad revenue would decline.
The Times Company looked at several approaches, including a straightforward pay wall similar to The Journal's; various "metered" systems, including the one they chose; a "membership" format similar to the one used in public broadcasting, with rewards for supporters but little or no limit on access to the site; and a hybrid among those options.
The approach the company took is "the one that after much research and study we determined has the most upside in both" subscriptions and advertising, Mr. Nisenholtz said. "We're trying to maximize revenue. We're not saying we want to put this revenue stream above that revenue stream. The goal is to maximize both revenue streams in combination."
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17) Statement of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Published Jan 20, 2010 8:48 PM
http://www.workers.org/2010/world/aristide_0128/
Former Haiti president Aristide ready to return
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhlaGjzaL7g
The following statement was issued by Dr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Jan. 15 from South Africa.
We thank all the true friends of Haiti, in particular the Government and the people of South Africa for their solidarity with the victims of Haiti.
The concrete action undertaken by Rescue South Africa and Gift of the Givers is a clear expression of ubuntu [an ethical concept of African origin emphasizing shared humanity and giving]. ... As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris waiting to be rescued. When we think of their suffering, we feel deeply and profoundly that we should be there, in Haiti, with them, trying our best to prevent death.
To symbolize this readiness we have decided to meet not just anywhere, but here, in the shadow of the Oliver Tambo International Airport. As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity. Friends from around the world have confirmed their willingness to organize an airplane carrying medical supplies, emergency needs and ourselves.
While we cannot wait to be with our sisters and brothers in Haiti, we share the anguish of all Haitians in the Diaspora who are desperate to reach family and loved ones.
Soufrans youn nan nou se soufrans nou tout. [If one of us is suffering, we all are.]
L'Union fait la force. Kouraj! Kenbe! Kenbe! [Unity makes us strong (slogan on Haiti's flag). Courage! Stand tall! Stand tall!]
Youn soutni lòt nan lespri Mèm Amou an. [Love one another as you love yourself.]
Our love to the nation now labeled the poorest of the Western Hemisphere. However, the spirit of ubuntu that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent Black nation in 1804; helped Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador attain liberty; and inspired our forefathers to shed their blood for the United States' independence, cannot die. Today this spirit of solidarity must and will empower all of us to rebuild Haiti.
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18) What's Missing From the Critiques of Obama
Class Clowns
By CARL FINAMORE
January 21, 2010
http://www.counterpunch.org/finamore01212010.html
It has been only a few days since the upset victory in Massachusetts of Republican Senator-elect Scott Brown and already some of America's most prominent liberal commentators have opined on its significance.
Most have been blistering criticisms of President Obama for abandoning his popular broad social vision and replacing it with ineffective, patchwork legislation resulting from insider maneuvering. This is most apparent in the health care debacle but appeasing conservatives also explains delaying labor reform, postponing goals of gay equality and shamefully interfering in a woman's personal right to decide when to start a family.
Then, there is the catastrophic diversion of billions of dollars to Wall St. instead of funding actual government-run infrastructure projects employing millions, a failure that can only be explained by Obama's persistent refusal to challenge corporate control of anything - employment, health care or banking.
Yes, there is plenty to fuel the outrage among left-leaning supporters of Obama. Progressives for Obama even dropped their namesake from their title, renaming themselves Progressive America Rising. For these liberal and radical wordsmiths, that qualifies as much a stinging rebuke as it gets.
Another recent example of an extremely disenchanted Obama supporter is Ariana Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post. Normally a keen analyst of beltway politics, she is so distraught in her January 18 article that she calls upon us to "build a movement" in the streets to gain the reform so lacking in Washington. Good for her!
After only one short year, Obama is hearing, if not feeling, the wrath of his spurned ardent defenders.
Cogent criticisms indeed, but something is missing from them all. They are all consciously avoiding that one forbidden word in American political lexicon, just as entertainers avoided George Carlin's notorious seven-banned words "you can never say on television."
I would like to suggest it as the missing eighth word. Ironically, my suggested eighth word is actually included, as a homonym, in the title of Carlin's 1972 classic album entitled the "Class Clown."
Since then, many of the banned words from the album have successfully made it to both the "small screen" and the "mainstream" save for the one I inferred - "Class."
No one in history is more associated with this word than Karl Marx who was neither the first to coin the phrase nor the first to define it. But Marx did something which no one before had yet done and that was to precisely assert that analyzing different class interests between the rich and the poor explains political outcomes better than anything else.
In modern terms, it means understanding that Obama has not betrayed his passionate supporters so much as he has faithfully represented rather well the class he supports, the same wealthy group of capitalists his party represents. Perhaps he may even believe the illusion, as many do, that there are shared basic interests between the rich and the poor.
This is where I, however, choose Marx's analysis. Others may deceive themselves into believing that there is equal opportunity in this country as if both rich and poor have the same chances to be homeless and jobless.
But, on the contrary, understanding class as the basic origin of social and economic conflicting interests is indispensable to understanding events. Our observations become less personal and more objective. One's appreciation of what is possible is not based on the false promises of a messianic individual but on a more precise analysis that recognizes the specific goals each class considers in their own best interests.
A class analysis means not focusing on shallow differences between vacillating Democrats and hard-nose Republicans. Instead, it means understanding that owners of the biggest stash of capital in world history are surely clever enough to establish and control a two-party monopoly that effectively funnels shifting public opinion into safe channels.
This more objective view also means giving advice to Obama individually, as so many liberals do, is understood to be a fruitless exercise. Instead, proposals should be aimed outward, to the people, and combined with a strategy to mobilize the overwhelming majority around their own clear social and economic interests.
As Huffington concedes, Presidents enacted most of this country's major reforms as a result of movements being organized independently of the two-party Congressional caucuses. She cites the example of Martin Luther King and writes that he "showed that no real change can be accomplished without a movement demanding it."
The powerful social movements in American history of trade unions, civil rights, women's rights and gay rights were people organizing around their real class interests even if not openly acknowledged as such. Certainly the record of reforms vindicates the correctness of Huffington's own personal awakening from her experience in the last twelve months: "the realization that our system is too broken to be fixed by politicians, however well intentioned -- that change is going to have to come from outside Washington."
In one compelling current example on the international scene, different class interests explains why the US-backed Haitian oligarchy could shamelessly shift $1 million a week to Wall St. bankers for debt interest while working-class and indigent families endured 60% unemployment. This analysis opens the door to figuring out solutions benefiting Haitians more so than the disingenuous and humiliating pity coming out of Washington.
But if all this is true, both domestically and internationally, why don't more people realize it? Well, Marx experienced the same denial in his time and explained that "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e. the class, which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force."
Of course, to be fair, most of the intelligentsia who think about class and the ideas of Karl Marx simply reject them after thoughtful consideration. But perhaps there are also not too few who consider their time in the national media would be lessened and perhaps their pocketbooks lightened. For others, the dominant culture is irresistible.
In any case, I am not destined to be appearing in the mainstream anytime soon, so I have nothing to lose by sticking to my guns and believing what has worked very well for me figuring out the world since I was out of high school - there is them that got it and then there is the rest of us! And those who are the best organized to achieve their goals usually have the best odds at winning.
Someday, when the majority of working people get politically organized as a class as consciously aware of their distinct interests as the capitalists are of theirs, there will be lots of hope renewed and many more social reforms achieved.
And as unlikely as it may seem today, once real change begins in this country, I don't anticipate anyone taking Karl Marx's name off the letterhead.
Carl Finamore grew up working class in Chicago and first heard a socialist Presidential candidate on the radio when he was 14 years old. Later, he was greatly influenced by veterans of the big labor battles of the 1930s, those who read widely, thought broadly and lived modestly. He retired as President, Air Transport Employees, Local Lodge 1781, IAMAW, AFL-CIO. He remains a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council.
Carl Finamore is former President (ret), Air Transport Employees, Local Lodge 1781, IAMAW. He attended the AFL-CIO convention with press credentials from his union. He can be reached in San Francisco at local1781@yahoo.com
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19) Indian Tribes Await Their Due
Editorial
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/opinion/21thur3.html?th&emc=th
After more than a century of obstruction and delays, still another deadline looms for a settlement that would compensate hundreds of thousands of American Indians for billions of dollars lost by a government that failed miserably to manage tribal lands that had been entrusted to it.
A law passed in 1887 conveyed the land in trust to the federal government. The government-controlled trust accounts were mishandled and lost, cheating the Indian owners out of fees from grazing livestock and gas and oil royalties.
Last month, after 13 years of court wrangling, both sides agreed to a historic settlement that would pay $3.4 billion to the Indians. The settlement would provide partial compensation of $1.4 billion to individual holders of the trusts, plus $2 billion more to fractional claimants.
By any measure, this was a bargain for the federal government and a small fraction of what is actually owed to the tribes, which agreed to the deal after watching the years roll by, and generations expire, without economic justice.
The settlement needs Congressional approval, but Congress - its agenda clogged with health care and myriad pressing issues - missed one deadline in December and now confronts another. Failure to approve the deal by the end of February risks throwing the dispute back into fresh rounds of negotiations.
The nation's honor demands that the settlement finally be approved. Surely this Congress does not wish to join the long line of administrations, lawmakers and paternalistic bureaucracies that have made a shell game of justice for American Indians.
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20) Haiti, Katrina, and Why I Won't Give To Haiti Through the Red Cross
By Bruce A. Dixon
Created 01/20/2010 - 12:20
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/haiti-katrina-and-why-i-wont-give-haiti-through-red-cross
At Katrina, the Red Cross used funds generously donated by millions of Americans to implement what many knew at the time was, and what has turned out to be the dispersal of much of black New Orleans to the four corners of the continental US. If the Red Cross didn't respect the persons, the families, the communities of black US citizens, do we really imagine it will respect Haitians.
Haiti, Katrina, and Why I Won't Give To Haiti Through the Red Cross
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
What's charitably given isn't always charitably distributed. In 21st century American and its empire, our corporate and military elite wield immense power, including the power. Corporate philanthropy serves corporate interests, not human interests, and corporate control over government, culture and media ensure that even funds donated by ordinary citizens can be directed and harvested for elite purposes too.
In the wake of the man-made disaster of Katrina, Americans freely gave tens of millions to the American Red Cross, which used a great deal of it to effectively disperse the population of black New Orleans to the four corners of the continental U.S. Millions more were diverted to their administrative overhead or other projects. But the local Louisiana elites who benefited from the exile of hundreds of thousands of black New Orleans residents were able to use Red Cross funds and personnel to work their will.
I know. I was there. In the days immediately after Katrina in 2005 I made it down to Baton Rouge, where thousands of the evacuees pulled out of the water and scooped off rooftops and overpasses were huddled in shelters at the city's convention center and Southern University. The shelters were hard to miss, because there was a mile long line of buses crawling toward each one. The busiest person in each shelter was the transportation coordinator.
If an evacuee had a high status job, proof of ID and checkable references, I saw them put plane tickets for the whole family in that person's hand, line up a job in Detroit or Los Angeles, and call them a cab to the airport. But for everybody else without a car, they had one solution. Get on the bus. There would be no way back, and no plans to help you go back. There's a bus for you, going to Dallas or Houston or somewhere.
Singly and in groups I interviewed just under a hundred evacuees in a day and a half, many still disoriented. They wanted to be reunited with their families. They wondered if they'd be able to go back, or if there would be anything to go back to. But all the Red Cross told them, I heard again and again, was that the shelter is closing in a couple of days, you can't stay here in Baton Rouge, you have to get on a bus to Houston, Dallas, Atlanta or somewhere. Now. Even those who had businesses before the flood --- I talked to the owner of a bakery and a car repair shop who stayed to protect their investment and to look after relatives --- even they were told there's nothing here for you but a bus going out of state.
I talked to some of the Red Cross people who ran the shelter too, especially at Southern University. I recall asking them how they knew people had nothing in New Orleans to go back to. They were white, of course and most of the sheltered evacuees were black. "Look at them," was the stock answer from several. "What could they possibly have worth going back to? They are better off starting new lives somewhere else," they rationalized. They also cited news stories in wide circulation about New Orleans residents firing on helicopters and boats that were rescuing people, reports that later were proven false. I told them they were likely to be untrue, but they wanted very badly to believe, and they did.
I recall pointing out that if they were dispersed far out of state many would have no way back, but with one or two impressions, this had little effect on their conclusion. One or two, I remember, seemed to struggle with what I told them, and said they hoped it was not true, but they were just doing their jobs.
My point here is that in a society controlled by an elite with often questionable motives, the charities this corporate elite and their media promote have to be questioned too. I won't give a nickel through the Red Cross because they are no more likely to recognize the viability and full humanity of Haitians and their communities than did on the Gulf Coast. The Red Cross isn't alone in this.
The US government, as Glen Ford points out, has thoroughly militarized US aid to Haiti, and the same US corporate media that painted New Orleans as a cesspool of violence and despair are bringing us images and impressions of Haiti that match their twisted vision. Food and water cannot be distributed until "order" is restored.
Corporate media manufactures "celebrities" all the time, people who are famous for being well known, and about whose lives we know more than we know about the public affairs in our own cities and towns and school boards. Haitian musician Wyclef Jean used his celebrity, and the earthquake, to raise millions for his own Haitian charity.
We make no judgment on the allegations that its bookkeeping may be irregular. But it's worth noting that Wyclef Jean has family ties to the group of gangsters and thugs that the Clinton-era CIA installed in office when it removed Haiti's elected president, Jean-Betrand Aristide from office in the 1990s. Wyclef Jean has repeated the contemptible lie all over black radio that Aristide skipped the country with $900 million stolen from Haitians. We understand where this comes from [1]. Wyclef's uncle was the Washington DC representative of the short-lived un-elected gangster governments of Haiti, and runs a right wing rag of a Haitian newspaper dedicated to spreading outrageous and self-serving falsehoods against Lavalas, the only Haitian party capable of winning free elections in that unhappy country.
If Wyclef will lie about that, we wonder what else he'd lie about, and why we should trust him with our money.
Wyclef's problems aside, one way to ensure your donations are deployed and used in a manner faithful to your intent, and respectful of the Haitian rights to community, humanity and agency, is to send them to efforts managed in whole or in part by responsible Haitians, and members of the Haitian diaspora.
Here are a few of the places to donate that we recommend, people whom we and those close to us can vouch for personally. Give generously, as we understand aftershocks are continuing to occur. There are many others. But not the Red Cross. Probably not anybody whose name you see on CNN. Or on BET. Our apologies to the great people we haven't mentioned. Use the comments to add more recommendations of authentic, grassroots, responsible places for people to donate. Our comments are moderated, of course.
Scattering Resouces - Online donations via PayPal [2]
Scattering Resources is working in cooperation with Fondation Avenir [3] in on-the-ground relief efforts in Haiti. Members of Scattering Resources help comprise a team that delivering supplies and assessing the situation in local communities inside Port-au-Prince and Jacmel.
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network [4]
HLLN is connected with networks of Haitian doctors and others abroad, and with care providers on the ground in Haiti.
And of course the National Nurses Organization [5] will let you volunteer (if you're an RN) to go yourself, or donate to sponsor an RN. Check them out at http://www.sendanurse.org [6]
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21) Journalist Kim Ives on How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti's Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation
January 20, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/20/journalist_kim_ives_on_how_decades
Shortly after Haiti was hit by a 6.1 aftershock earlier today, Amy Goodman and Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté report from the Port-au-Prince airport. Amy and Kim discuss how centuries of Western domination of Haiti has worsened the impact of the devastating earthquake, from the harsh reaction to Haiti's independence as a republic of free slaves in 1804 to the US-backed overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Ives says, "This quake was precipitated by a political earthquake-with an epicenter in Washington, DC."
ANJALI KAMAT: We're going to go back to Amy Goodman in Port-au-Prince. We reached her just before the broadcast. She was in an open field right next to the airport, where hundreds of relief and rescue workers have set up camp.
AMY GOODMAN: I'm standing here near the airport in Port-au-Prince. I can't exactly say my feet are firmly planted on the ground, because this morning, just about 6:00, here in Port-au-Prince, we were in our room and just getting ready to leave for this broadcast, and the earth started to tremble. The floor, the walls, you feel the shake. It is that moment of just extreme panic when everyone in the house, everyone, starts running for their lives out of the house, making their way through rooms, jumping over-holding whatever it was you were holding at that moment. Outside, people hold each other, they weep, or they just breathe a sigh of relief. Although, not really, because you never know when the next aftershock will happen.
And while our house still stood, what about others? Sometimes the earthquake, which destroyed so much of Haiti, can leave a house standing, but it only takes a lesser aftershock to take it down. So who got hurt this morning? Who was lost in the rubble? These are the questions we have every day.
And as we walk down the streets of Port-au-Prince, seeing the bodies, the smell, the stench of death everywhere. Yesterday the piece that we just brought you, the hospital, across the street, the main pharmacy, where patients, where doctors go to get their drugs, is pancaked, is total rubble. And it was many floors. People were standing by. The way you know perhaps where bodies are buried-a pharmacist, a doctor, a nurse, a patient who had come over, a customer-is you see the flies swarming over areas.
There was a man laying on the street just across from the General Hospital. And then when we looked carefully in the rubble, we could see another's head, and we could see the fingers that-curling over a board, as if the person was trying to get out. This is the face of Haiti.
But right now we're joined by Kim Ives. We've been traveling together. Kim writes for Haiti Liberté, and he has been working with us through this week. He has been living in Haiti for years, in and out, traveling in and out.
Kim, I can't say, "Welcome to Democracy Now!" since you've been with us all through this trip, but welcome to the broadcast of Democracy Now!
KIM IVES: Thanks, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's talk about this major catastrophe, this devastation. Now, of course, it's a natural catastrophe, but can you talk about how this catastrophe fits into Haiti? The level of destruction we're seeing today is not just about nature.
KIM IVES: No, not at all. In fact, this earthquake was preceded by a political and economic earthquake with an epicenter 2,000 miles north of here, in Washington, DC, over the past twenty-four years.
We can say, first of all, there was the case of the two coups d'états held in the space of thirteen years, in '91 and 2004, which were backed by the United States. They put in their own client regimes, which the Haitian people chased out of power. But these coups d'états and subsequent occupations, foreign military occupations, in a country whose constitution forbids that, were fundamentally destructive, not just to the national government and its national programs, but also to the local governments or the parliaments, the mayors' offices and also the local assemblies, which would elect a permanent electoral council. That permanent electoral council has never been made-it's a provisional-and hence Préval, and just before the earthquake, was running roughshod over popular democracy by putting his own electoral council in place, provisional, and they were bringing him and his party to domination of the political scene.
AMY GOODMAN: And just to be clear, when you talk about the two coups, the one in 1991, the one in 2004, both were of them were the-led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
KIM IVES: Correct.
AMY GOODMAN: And you talked about US involvement with those.
KIM IVES: Right. And Aristide, in both cases, was taken from Haiti, essentially by US forces, both times. The first time he ended up spending it in Washington, but now he's presently in South Africa, where he's been for these past six years.
But along with this political-these political earthquakes carried out by Washington were the economic earthquakes, the US policy that they wanted to see in place, because Aristide's government had a fundamentally nationalist orientation, which was looking to build the national self-sufficiency of the country, but Washington would have none of it. They wanted the nine principal state publicly owned industries privatized, to be sold to US and foreign investors.
So, about twelve years ago under the first administration of René Préval, they privatized the Minoterie d'Haiti and Ciment d'Haiti, the flour mill, the state flour mill, and the state cement company. Now, for flour, obviously, you have a hungry, needy population. You can imagine if the state had a robust flour mill where it could distribute flour to the people so they could have bread. That was sold to a company of which Henry Kissinger was a board member. And very quickly, that flour mill was closed. Haiti now has no flour mill, not private or public.
AMY GOODMAN: Where does it get its flour? This is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.
KIM IVES: It has to import it, and a lot of it is coming from the United States.
The other one is-and even more ironic, Amy-is the cement factory. Here is a country which is mostly made of limestone, geologically, and that is the foundation of cement. It is a country which absolutely should and could have a cement company, and did, but it was again privatized and immediately shut down. And they began using the docks of the cement company for importing cement. So when we drive around this country and we see the thousands of cement buildings which are pancaked or collapsed, this is a country which is going to need millions and millions of tons of cement, and it's going to have to now import all of that cement, rather than being able to produce it itself. It could be and should be an exporter of cement, not an importer.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté who also just put out another issue of Haiti Liberté here in the aftermath of the earthquake. You talked about the cement company, the flour company, privatization. You know, one of the most painful problems now, especially for the Haitian diaspora, and for people who have, overall, loved ones here in Haiti, is that they haven't been able to find out if they're alive. They haven't been able to communicate with them.
KIM IVES: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: And this goes to the telephone company.
KIM IVES: Exactly. Teleco was the crown jewel of the Haitian state industries. During the first coup d'état, from '91 to '94, it was in fact the revenues from Teleco that sustained the government-in-exile of President Aristide. And now we see today, one week before this earthquake, the telephone company Teleco was privatized. It was sold to a Vietnamese company, Viettel. And if we had in this country a robust, agile, nimble national telephone company, a lot of the problems of communication could have been avoided. Instead, all the communications today are practically in the hands of the three private cell companies, Digicel, Voila and Haitel.
AMY GOODMAN: But those-some people might say, well, if it was just sold a week before, then the fact that it was weak was due to the previous owner.
KIM IVES: No, it was-that's precisely the case. It was the Haitian government who was, in fact, with the leadership of René Préval and his prime ministers, who were undermining and sabotaging. We spoke over the years. I remember, thirteen years ago, we were doing a delegation here to talk to the unionists. That's how long this struggle against privatization has been going. We were speaking to the unionist at the telephone company, at Teleco, a certain Jean Mabou. And Jean Mabou, the union leader, took us to a room where it was filled with new, brand new, modern telecommunications equipments, boards, all sorts of things. He said, "We've got these, and they won't allow us to install them. They are deliberately undermining the state company so they can sell it." And this is the irony, is that you have the fox guarding the chicken coop. And the people are, in that way, undermined in their ownership of their own state companies.
AMY GOODMAN: Kim, you know, unfortunately, at times like these, in global catastrophes, that's when the world pays attention, and in this case, it's attention to Haiti. You started in 1991 with the two coups against Aristide. A very brief thumbnail history of Haiti, going back to 1804, if you will?
KIM IVES: OK, thumbnail-1804, the first and last slave revolution in history, the first black republic in the world, the first independent nation of Latin America, which became the touchstone of all the other revolutions. It wasn't until sixty years later that it was recognized by the government of Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War.
Then, in 1915, US Marines invaded the country and took control of the bank, took control of the government. They stayed there for nineteen years, 'til 1934. After that, they put in place an outfit called the Garde d'Haiti, the Guard of Haiti, which acted as a proxy force to maintain US interests in Haiti. And then that finally gave birth in 1957 to the dictatorship of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. He became president for life, passed on his title of president for life to his son Jean-Claude Duvalier when he died in 1971.
AMY GOODMAN: And the role of US in that?
KIM IVES: And the US was essentially supporting those governments all the time, for geopolitical reasons. Haiti was the principal bulwark against the eastward push of, quote-unquote, "Communism" coming from neighboring Cuba. And so, therefore, the Duvalier regimes, hugely unpopular, were propped up, given military support by and economic cooperation from the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: A kleptocracy, the dictators getting richer and the people getting poorer?
KIM IVES: Exactly. And then, in 1986, they started to see that this particular paradigm was creating too many Che Guevaras, too many revolutions in Latin America, and they switched over to these facade elections of putting supposedly democratic leaders in, but they were purchased elections.
Haiti was the first country in Latin America to foil this US-engineered election scenario by electing a poor parish priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to the presidency. And at the time of his inauguration on February 7, 1991, he declared the second independence of Haiti, because Haiti was going to become independent of the imperial domination of the United States and France. And they quickly responded with a coup d'état eight months later. He was sent into exile. And again, the earthquake centered in Washington and Paris of the past twenty-four years began.
AMY GOODMAN: So you have the first coup against Aristide. He's kept out for three years. The coup happened under George H.W. Bush, but continued through President Clinton. By the way, one of the major platforms of President Aristide when he first came to power was to increase the minimum wage.
The second time he was elected, in 2004, immediately pushed out, taken out by US military and security, this was a story Democracy Now! listeners and viewers might remember well, because I followed a delegation to the Central African Republic, where he and Mildred Aristide were dumped, were essentially being held. And Maxine Waters, Congress member from Los Angeles, Randall Robinson, founder of TransAfrica, I covered them going to the Central African Republic, and they brought back the Aristides to this hemisphere nearby Jamaica. Ultimately they ended up in South Africa, where they are today. They could not come back to this country. Tremendous pressure from the United States, the officials. It was Secretary of State Colin Powell at the time, Condoleezza Rice, saying he was not to return to this hemisphere.
Now, from exile in South Africa, President Aristide held a news conference. He issued a statement saying he wants to return. I've put this question to a number of people here in Haiti. In Washington, President Obama immediately appointed President Clinton and President George W. Bush to spearhead the fund-raising effort to help the people of Haiti-three presidents, a united front, saying this is not partisan. And so, here in Haiti, the question of Aristide's return now. I mean, the US controls the airport. Prime Minister Préval ceded the control of the airport to the United States. But Aristide has asked to return. What about that image of, not to mention the resources of Prime Minister Préval, prime minister-previous prime minister Aristide-both presidents, rather-standing together and saying, this is beyond politics, we have to rebuild our country?
KIM IVES: Well, that's exactly it. I was standing in front of the General Hospital yesterday after we went through and saw the horrors there, and I was speaking to a crowd of people outside on the corner. And that very question came up. Why can't President Aristide come back? He wants to. He has said so. The government hasn't given or renewed his diplomatic passport, which has expired. They haven't given him a laissez-passer to come to the country. That's all that's needed.
If the government of Barack Obama or any other government wanted to really provide support here, even maybe more than all the C-130s we see offloading not just food and medical supplies, but guns, and lots of them, this would be-to send a plane to South Africa and bring Aristide here, it would create such a tremendous groundswell, a counter earthquake, if you will, of popular hope and pride and victory, that it would go a long way to rebuilding the necessary moral balance needed to weather the storm.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Kim Ives, I want to thank you very much for being with us and ask one last question, and that's about popular organizations in this country. Who has the power here? How are people organizing? This whole issue of security that has been raised over and over again to explain why aid hasn't come from this area-we're in the area of the airport where there is so much aid that has been stockpiled-and gone out to communities, so why the UN has said, for example, Léogâne, epicenter of the earthquake, that they would only come there after they could guarantee security.
KIM IVES: Like you said, Amy, this is the nub of the question. Security is not the issue. We see throughout Haiti the population themselves organizing themselves into popular committees to clean up, to pull out the bodies from the rubble, to build refugee camps, to set up their security for the refugee camps. This is a population which is self-sufficient, and it has been self-sufficient for all these years.
It's not now that a bunch of Marines have to come in with big M-16s and start yelling at them. Watching the scene in front of the General Hospital yesterday said it all. Here were people who were going in and out of the hospital bringing food to their loved ones in there or needing to go to the hospital, and there were a bunch of Marine-of US 82nd Airborne soldiers in front yelling in English at this crowd. They didn't know what they were doing. They were creating more chaos rather than diminishing it. It was a comedy, if it weren't so tragic.
Here is-they had no business being there. Sure, if there's some way where you have an army of bandits, which we haven't seen, on any mass scale going and attacking, maybe you might bring in some guys like that. But right now, people don't need guns. They need gauze, as I think one doctor put it. And this is the essence of-it's just the same way they reacted after Katrina. It's the same way they acted-the victims are what's scary. They're the other. They're black people who, you know, had the only successful slave revolution in history. What could be more threatening?
AMY GOODMAN: And the community organizations in place here?
KIM IVES: Oh, and the community organizations, we saw it the other night up at Matthew 25, where we're staying, the community. A shipload-a truckload of food came in in the middle of the night unannounced. It could have been a melee. The local popular organization, Pity Drop [phon.], was contacted. They immediately mobilized their members. They came out. They set up a perimeter. They set up a cordon. They lined up about 600 people who were staying on the soccer field behind the house, which is also a hospital, and they distributed the food in an orderly, equitable fashion. They were totally sufficient. They didn't need Marines. They didn't need the UN. They didn't need any of these things, which we're being told also in the press and by Hillary Clinton and the foreign ministers that they need. These are things that people can do for themselves and are doing for themselves.
AMY GOODMAN: Kim Ives, thanks very much. Kim Ives writes for Haiti Liberté.
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22) Haiti: NGO's and Relief Groups Call for Immediate and Widespread Distribution of Water and Other Aid Supplies
Author: Center for Economic and Policy Research
Published on Jan 20, 2010 - 10:32:28 AM
http://yubanet.com/haiti/Haiti-NGO-s-and-Relief-Groups-Call-for-Immediate-and-Widespread-Distribution-of-Water-and-Other-Aid-Supplies.php
Washington, D.C. Jan. 20, 2010 - NGO's and policy groups today called for the U.S. government to prioritize aid delivery over military deployment to Haiti, as airdrops of water supplies only just began to get underway, and as the U.S. military continued to prevent planes carrying aid supplies from landing in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel, the largest two cities devastated by the earthquake. A USA Today report Tuesday stated that the U.S. had only airlifted 70,000 bottles of water into Port-au-Prince since the earthquake last Tuesday. Three million people are estimated to be in need of water and other aid.
"Right now the U.S. is blocking aid. There should be better coordination so that all actors - other governments, agencies and NGO's - ready to deliver aid are able to do so," said Melinda Miles, founder and Director of Konbit pou Ayiti, an aid and assistance organization based in Haiti.
Established aid groups who have a long history of working in Haiti have suddenly found themselves unable to deliver urgently needed medical, water, and food supplies because the U.S. military will not grant them access to ports and airports. Doctors Without Borders reported yesterday that one of its "plane[s] carrying 12 tons of medical equipment, including drugs, surgical supplies and two dialysis machines, was turned away three times from Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night." Groups ready to deliver aid to Jacmel - the fourth-largest city in Haiti - were told they would receive no clearance to land there from the U.S. military, even though they already had both aid supplies and the means for distributing them. This aid is only just now beginning to be delivered because of assistance from the Dominican Republic.
Aid groups also report that outside Port-au-Prince, there are places where quake survivors have fled where the infrastructure is capable of receiving airdropped aid. Many of these areas are not being utilized for airdrops, however.
Numerous media reports and statements from officials suggest that U.S. and UN relief teams have delayed aid distribution due to security concerns. Yet Lt. General P.K. Keen, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, reports that there is less violence in Haiti now than there was before the earthquake hit, and Doctor Evan Lyon of Partners in Health stated, "there's also no violence. There is no insecurity," and that the security concerns are being overstated due to "misinformation and rumorsâ€_ and racism."
"The U.S. military needs to prioritize getting clean water and other essential needs to the population," Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said. "The clock is running and the lack of clean water is a serious threat to public health. They have the ability to get water or, where it is useful, water treatment chemicals, to everyone in need - that should be a vastly higher priority than getting thousands of more troops and military equipment on the ground."
Sources who have participated in "cluster group" meetings held by the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) report in-fighting and confusion over aid distribution, as different teams point fingers and assign blame for who is responsible for aid delays. Some distribution missions that MINUSTAH had thought to have been completed have yet to occur, the sources say.
Relief teams and NGO workers on the ground in Haiti report that food and water is being directed at large scale camps, but not isolated areas where in some places groups of hundreds of people still await any assistance. Jacmel, near Haiti's Southern coast, has received much less attention from foreign governments, aid groups, or the media - due in part to U.S. denial of aid groups' access into Jacmel. The first team of foreign surgeons arrived in Jacmel yesterday, joining only "3 Haitian doctors and a few Cubans ones for over 2,000 patients" who "are still recovering the injured from the rubble."
About Konbit pou Aytiti (KONPAY): KONPAY was founded in November 2004 in Jacmel, Haiti by Melinda Miles, former co-director of the Quixote Center, and Haitian-American Joe Duplan. Miles and Duplan decided to move to Haiti work there when many were fleeing during the unrest following February 29, 2004, because they felt they could be more effective on the ground. With a grant from the Public Welfare Foundation, KONPAY began distributing emergency assistance to human rights and women's organizations, as well as establishing safe houses in Port-au-Prince.
(c) Copyright YubaNet.com
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23) Excerpt From: "The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11"
By the Congressional Research Service1
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf
Introduction
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has initiated three military operations:
• Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) covering Afghanistan and other Global War on Terror (GWOT) operations ranging from the Philippines to Djibouti that began immediately after the 9/11 attacks and continues;
•
• Operation Noble Eagle (ONE) providing enhanced security for U.S. military bases and other homeland security that was launched in response to the attacks and continues at a modest level; and
•
• Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) that began in the fall of 2002 with the buildup of troops for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and continues with counterinsurgency and stability operations.
•
As the ninth year of operations since the 9/11 attacks begins this October, and troops are being withdrawn in Iraq and increased in Afghanistan, the cost of war is a major concern including the total amount appropriated, the amount for each operation, average monthly spending rates, and the scope and duration of future costs. Information on costs is useful to Congress to assess Department of Defense (DOD) war costs in FY2010, conduct oversight of past war costs, and consider future alternatives for Afghanistan including potential additional increases in troop levels which could offset some of the savings from the ongoing withdrawal from Iraq. This report analyzes war funding for the Defense Department and tracks funding for USAID and VA Medical funding.
Total War Funding Enacted
On June 24, 2009, Congress passed the FY2009 Supplemental (H.R. 2346/P.L. 111-32). On May 5, 2009, the Administration submitted its budget requests for FY2010 which includes $138.6 billion for DOD war costs, State/USAID foreign and diplomatic operations and VA medical care. While the House passed all three appropriation bills in July 2009 before the summer recess-the DOD (H.R. 3326), Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (H.R. 3082), and Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (H.R. 3081), the Senate has not yet acted on its versions. The DOD appropriations bill is expected to be considered in the Senate in late September. In the meantime, the House passed a continuing resolution covering funding for the government through October 31,2009 (H.R. 2918) and the Senate is expected to act this week to give Congress time to complete action on individual appropriation bills.
At the end of June 2009, Congress passed the FY2009 Supplemental (H.R. 2346/P.L. 111-32) which together with the FY2009 bridge fund passed last year (H.R. 2642/P.L. 110-252) provided war funding for the current fiscal year.
Based on DOD estimates and budget submissions, the cumulative total for funds appropriated from the 9/11 attacks through FY2009, total funding enacted to date for DOD, State/USAID and VA for medical costs for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and enhanced security is $944 billion including:
• $683 billion for Iraq; The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11 Congressional Research Service 2
•
• $227 billion for Afghanistan;
•
• $29 billion for enhanced security; and
•
• $5 billion unallocated.
•
Of this total, 72 percent is for Iraq, 24 percent for Afghanistan, 3 percent for enhanced security and 1 percent unallocated. Almost all of the funding for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) is for Afghanistan.
Some 94 percent of this funding goes to the Department of Defense to cover primarily incremental war related costs, that is, costs that are in addition to normal peacetime activities. These costs include funds to deploy troops and their equipment to Iraq and Afghanistan, to conduct military operations, to provide in-country support at bases, to provide special pay for deployed personnel, and to repair, replace, and upgrade war-worn equipment.
These amounts are in addition to DOD's funding in its baseline or regular budget which covers the costs of regular pay for all military personnel, training activities, running and building facilities on U.S. installations, buying new military equipment, and conducting research to enhance future military capabilities.
Of total war costs, another 5 percent is for foreign and diplomatic activities and less than 1 percent for VA medical for OEF and OIF veterans (see Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3).
Total War Costs if FY2010 Request is Approved
If the Administration's request for $139 billion in war costs is enacted, cumulative appropriations for the Afghan and Iraq wars would reach $1.08 trillion dollars. As the number of troops in Afghanistan rises and those in Iraq falls, reflecting President Obama's decisions in March 2009, the share of overall costs begins to shift to Afghanistan. The $1.08 trillion total includes:
• $706 billion for Iraq (69 percent);
•
• $300 billion for Afghanistan (28 percent);
•
• $29 billion for enhanced security (3 percent); and
•
• $5 billion unallocated DOD costs (1 percent).
•
In FY2010, annual war costs decline by 8 percent as the total number of deployed troops falls from the peaks reached in FY2008 and FY2009. The peak of 188,000 in-country in Afghanistan and Iraq in FY2008 is about the same troop level as in FY2009 as additional troops for Afghanistan offset initial withdrawals in Iraq.
The $73 billion in war costs for Afghanistan in FY2010 represents a $30 billion or 70 percent increase over FY2008, two years earlier (see Table 1). With that increase, the balance between the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan would shift-with Afghan war costs exceeding that of Iraq for the first time. In FY2008, the cost of Iraq was 75 percent and that of Afghanistan 25 percent. Two years later, Iraq would make up 47 percent and Afghanistan 53 percent of the total.
For later years, the Administration included initial planning estimates of $50 billion for war costs in FY2011- FY2012 in its first budget document.2
Pending FY2010 Request
The Obama Administration's request for $130 billion to cover the cost of DOD operations in Iraq and Afghanistan reflects a review of U.S. strategy for both wars completed in March 2009. As a result of those reviews, the Administration adopted a withdrawal plan for Iraq under which the number of troops in-country would be reduced from about 140,000 in February 2009 to between 35,000 and 50,000 by August 31, 2010, with all U.S. troops slated to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, to comply with the U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement that went into effect on January 1, 2009.
At the same time, the President decided to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by 21,000 above the total already approved by former President Bush. With this increase, the number of troops in Afghanistan is expected to reach 68,000 by the end of September 2009 representing a 68 percent increase above the previous year.3 In addition to U.S. troops, NATO nations contribute another 35,000 troops, bringing the total foreign troop level in Afghanistan now to about 102,000.4
President Obama's decisions about troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan were reflected in both the FY2009 Spring Supplemental Appropriations Bill for Overseas Contingencies (H.R. 2346/P.L. 111-32) enacted on June 24, 2009 and in the DOD request for $130 billion to cover FY2010 war costs, which was submitted to Congress with the FY2010 base budget request on May 7, 2009. The FY2010 war request is included in the FY2010 defense authorization and appropriations bills currently before Congress (H.R. 2647/S. 1390 and H.R. 3326).
The number of troops slated for deployment to Afghanistan would not be affected by a budget amendment that President Obama submitted to Congress on August 13, 2009, which proposes to re-allocate $1 billion of DOD's FY2010 war funding request to pay for temporarily adding 22,000 military personnel to the Army over two years. According to the Administration, the adding these troops is intended to reduce stress on the current force by increasing "the number of troops available to deploy while also helping the Army to end the practice of retaining soldiers beyond their period of obligated service," a practice often referred to as "stop-loss."5
1 The complete PDF can be downloaded at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf
2 OMB, A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise, 2-26-09, Table S-7; http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy10/pdf/fy10-newera.pdf
3 See CRS Report R40682, Troop Levels in the Afghan and Iraq Wars, FY2001-FY2012: Cost and Other Potential Issues, by Amy Belasco.
4 International Security Assistance Force, "Facts and Figures," July 23, 2009; http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/epub/pdf/placemat.pdf.
5 The White House, "Letter Transmitting Department of Defense Budget Amendment," August 13, 2009; http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Letter-from-the-President-to-the-Speaker-of-the-House/. Under the Administration's proposal, the cost of these additional Army personnel would be offset by reducing by a total of $1 billion the amounts requested for procurement of certain items including High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, or HMMWVs, Hellfire missiles, and Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, the requirements for which are being reassessed. See DOD, Budget Amendment to the FY2010 President's Budget Request for Overseas Cntingency Operations (OCO), Summary and Explanation of Changes, Exhibits for FY2010, Amended Justification Material, August 2009, p. 3-5; http://www.defenselink.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2010/fy2010_oco.pdf.
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24) Nightmare in Haiti: Untreated Illness and Injury
"Another grievance among some health professionals was that the American military was not giving enough of a priority to humanitarian aid. Doctors Without Borders has complained that more than one of its planes carrying vital medical equipment has been kept from landing at the airport here, costing lives...
"We are sending them out with basic instructions," he said. "First, listen to people, let them verbalize their feelings. Second, don't promise them any material aid, because you can't deliver."
By MARC LACEY
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/world/americas/21haiti.html?ref=world
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A strong aftershock rattled Haiti once again on Wednesday, causing even more physical damage and further traumatizing the jittery population. But the authorities said the biggest dangers now facing survivors of last week's major earthquake were untreated wounds and rising disease, not falling debris.
Because of untreated injuries, infectious diseases and dismal sanitary conditions, health workers said that the natural disaster that struck Haiti more than a week ago remained a major medical crisis and that, unless quickly controlled, it would continue to take large numbers of lives in the days and weeks ahead.
"There are still thousands of patients with major fractures, major wounds, that have not been treated yet," said Dr. Eduardo de Marchena, a University of Miami cardiologist who oversaw a tent hospital near the airport where hundreds of severely injured people were being tended. "There are people, many people, who are going to die unless they're treated."
For the seriously ill, the chances of surviving may depend on leaving Haiti entirely. On Wednesday morning, a paramedic rushed up to Dr. de Marchena with news of a newborn who had arrived at another clinic in dire condition. After hearing that the baby could barely breathe, Dr. de Marchena said, "Should I get him airlifted to the United States?"
The paramedic hesitated for a moment, and the doctor said, "Do it." The baby was soon boarded for medical care in Miami.
In the squatter camps now scattered across this capital, there are still people writhing in pain, their injuries bound up by relatives but not yet seen by a doctor eight days after the quake struck. On top of that, the many bodies still in the wreckage increase the risk of diseases spreading, especially, experts say, if there is rain.
Getting food and water to displaced people is also crucial to staving off more deaths, relief workers said. As of Wednesday, the World Food Program reported that it had distributed food to more than 200,000 people, but it acknowledged that it could take as long as a month for relief food to get to the two million or more people in need.
At some of the hospitals and clinics now treating survivors, the conditions are as basic as can be, with vodka to sterilize instruments and health workers going to the market to buy hacksaws for amputations.
At General Hospital in here Port-au-Prince, the water and power are both out, medical supplies are running low and fuel for generators is hard to come by, doctors reported. Other hospitals are even worse off, though, with patients moved outside into the open air.
Still, health experts were arriving in Haiti from Israel, Cuba, Portugal and other countries, many with stocks of medicine and supplies as well as extensive experience in disaster conditions.
And the United States Navy hospital ship Comfort pulled up off the Haitian coast to handle the worst-off patients. A helicopter landing pad was cleared near General Hospital to evacuate the critically injured there.
But integrating all the health professionals into a coherent system will take time. "Nobody knows how many doctors, how many nurses have come to Haiti," said Dr. Henriette Chamouillet, head of the World Health Organization in Haiti. "No one is providing the government with the data it needs."
Another grievance among some health professionals was that the American military was not giving enough of a priority to humanitarian aid. Doctors Without Borders has complained that more than one of its planes carrying vital medical equipment has been kept from landing at the airport here, costing lives.
Despite all the incoming help, Partners in Health, an organization that has been providing health care in Haiti for two decades, estimated that 20,000 Haitians were dying daily from lack of surgery. But that figure was not backed up by other aid organizations in Haiti and appeared to be much higher than other estimates of the continuing death toll from injuries. The W.H.O. said it was just beginning to gather epidemiological data to assess how much the quake's toll, which is still uncertain, might rise.
One of the keys to bolstering the response, said Dr. Paul Farmer, a co-founder of Partners in Health and deputy United Nations envoy to Haiti, was to unify the disparate aid efforts. "Everyone's doing their own thing, and we need to bring them together," he said in an interview.
The continued tremors were not helping the situation. The latest aftershock, which had a magnitude of 6.1, came around 6 a.m. on Wednesday and was centered on Gressier, a village west of Port-au-Prince. The most powerful tremor to hit Haiti since the initial earthquake on Jan. 12, it caused some additional damage to the ravaged capital and surrounding areas, although the United Nations said it was still assessing how much.
At the tented hospital run by Miami doctors, patients were shrieking and trying to squirm out of their cots when the aftershock came. The situation was still more dire at University Hospital, where patients and staff members evacuated the building and many traumatized Haitians feared going back in.
Squatting on the sidewalk in central Port-au-Prince, her thigh bandaged from an injury suffered during the main quake, Ange Toussaint, 55, smiled broadly. "I'm here," she said. "It happened again, and I'm still here. Wow!"
There were some early efforts to address the psychological toll of the earthquake.
At the University of Haiti, which hardly showed any damage, Jean Robert Cheri, a professor of psychology, sent a team of student trauma counselors into the streets.
"We are sending them out with basic instructions," he said. "First, listen to people, let them verbalize their feelings. Second, don't promise them any material aid, because you can't deliver."
Mr. Cheri said that the students' studies had been interrupted for the foreseeable future and that putting their lessons to work would help both them and the country.
"Look, it's not going to be easy because they're traumatized themselves," he said of his students. "I myself am a psychologist who needs therapy. When I go to sleep, I dream of houses falling down."
Deborah Sontag contributed reporting.
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25) China on Path to Become Second-Largest Economy
By EDWARD WONG
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/global/21chinaecon.html?ref=world
BEIJING - China said on Thursday that its economy rose by 10.7 percent in fourth quarter compared with a year ago, as the country continued to surge forward even as many other nations are still trying to punch through the global recession. That was up from a revised growth rate of 9.1 percent in the third quarter.
Over the whole year, the Chinese gross domestic product grew 8.7 percent, surpassing the 8 percent growth-rate benchmark that Chinese leaders assert is necessary to maintain social stability. If China keeps up that growth rate, it will very likely replace Japan as the world's second-largest economy by the end of this year.
The National Bureau of Statistics also announced on Thursday that industrial production in December increased by 18.5 percent and retail sales rose by 17.5 percent. The December consumer price index grew by 1.9 percent and producer price index by 1.7 percent.
The numbers were generally in line with earlier predictions.
Chinese officials are clearly worried about inflation and bubbles, especially in real estate, but the latest economic statistics will no doubt drive the triumphant tone of recent official pronouncements on the Chinese economy.
Much of that commentary has emphasized the contrast between China's relatively successful weathering of the global recession and the severe downturn that still afflicts Western economies, including the United States.
A front-page signed editorial on Jan. 5 in the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, praised the party for its far-sighted economic policies and lauded the Chinese economic model.
"When the financial crisis forced the neoliberal economic system into a dead end, the shortcomings of the capitalist system were exposed for all to see," the editorial said. "But a China that was pushed to a crossroads proved its 'national capabilities' in taking on a crisis by answering with the advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics."
Economic numbers released on Thursday also showed China's export industry was still responsible for much of its growth. Some Chinese economists have said China must restructure its economy so that it begins to rely more on domestic consumption and less on exports, which are greatly affected by the overall health of the world economy.
Chinese officials remain concerned about inflation, excessive bank lending and loan defaults. In recent weeks, they have acted on several fronts to address those issues.
On Jan. 7, the central bank raised a key interest rate, the first time it had done so in nearly five months. Five days later, regulators ordered state-owned banks to set aside a larger share of their deposits as reserves against failed loans. Investors and analysts had not expected such a move until the second quarter of this year.
On Wednesday, Bank of China ordered its credit officials to halt any new renminbi loans in an attempt to curb overheated fast lending growth in the first few weeks of this month.
Economists said China would move to further tighten bank lending to confront inflationary fears and swelling asset bubbles.
"The first half of 2010 is likely to be characterized by gradual policy tightening, chiefly through administrative measures," Jing Ulrich, director of the China equities and commodities division of J. P. Morgan in Hong Kong, wrote in a report on Thursday. "Concerns about capital inflows and the health of the export sector will limit the scope for interest rate tightening, but we do expect to see a moderation in new bank loans and the use of reserve requirements to manage the volume of money supply."
Other countries, especially the United States, have also said the artificially low value of the renminbi gives China an unfair advantage in exports, and governments will most likely press China much harder this year to strengthen its currency.
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26) U.S. Envisions a Continuing Civilian Presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan
By MARK LANDLER
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/world/asia/21diplo.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration's ambitious civilian push in Pakistan and Afghanistan will keep thousands of Americans in those countries for years - rebuilding Afghan agriculture, rooting out corruption and using the local media to counter anti-American sentiment.
The steps, laid out in a 30-page policy paper to be released Thursday by the State Department, are the most detailed blueprint yet for the civilian part of the administration's strategy in the region.
But the report - much like President Obama's initial proposal for increased numbers of troops in Afghanistan - leaves important questions unanswered, including whether Congress will approve the financing to support such a high level of engagement over the long term, and what role the United States will play in Afghan efforts to draw people away from the Taliban.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is preparing to announce a package of incentives to lure Taliban supporters back into Afghan society. But American officials are skeptical of the Afghan government's talk of trying to reconcile with the Taliban's leaders, especially Mullah Muhammad Omar.
The formal introduction of a civilian strategy reflects the State Department's frustration that this side of policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been largely eclipsed by the Pentagon's enlarged military operation.
"Everyone pays lip service to the fact that the civilian strategy is important, but then no one pays attention to it," said Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who is scheduled to testify on Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In the report, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "Our civilian engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan will endure long after our combat troops come home."
The United States has already tripled the number of civilians in Afghanistan, from 320 early last year to nearly 1,000 now. It plans to add 200 to 300 this year, putting many of those people outside Kabul, the capital, in agricultural projects or in government ministries, where they will serve as advisers.
Persuading farmers to turn away from poppy cultivation has emerged as the top American civilian priority in Afghanistan. The administration wants to reconstitute an agricultural credit bank in Kabul that could make loans to farmers to encourage them to plant fruit, nuts and other alternatives to poppies.
Setting up an agricultural bank would require about $500 million, administration officials said, with $50 million likely to come from the United States and $450 million from other countries.
There are nearly 100 American agricultural experts in Afghanistan, mostly in the south and east. They are helping to build new irrigation systems, picking up on work that Americans performed there in the 1960s.
Still, the big challenges in Afghanistan this year are more legal and political. The United States and Britain are helping the Afghan government set up a major-crimes task force in the Interior Ministry, which is intended to be the government's main agency to crack down on corruption.
The administration also plans to combat anti-American messages carried by Taliban-controlled radio stations. It is hiring David Ensor, a former correspondent for CNN and ABC, to devise what it calls a communications and counterpropaganda campaign. The goal is to substantially reduce "enemy propaganda" by July 2011, when American troops are set to begin withdrawing.
Congress has approved $400 million to pay for the deployment of additional civilians in Afghanistan. But the American ambassador in Kabul, Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired Army lieutenant general, is asking for more, according to officials. General Eikenberry's frustration with budgetary constraints spilled into the open last fall, when cables he sent to the State Department were leaked.
The sketchiest part of the report concerns the reintegration of Taliban followers into Afghan society. This Afghan-led effort will cost $100 million a year over several years, the report says, with the money likely to come from the United States, Britain, Japan and other countries.
But the State Department must obtain approval from the Treasury Department, because the Taliban are classified as a terrorist organization, meaning it cannot be linked to American financial support. Mr. Karzai is still weighing whether to ask the United Nations to remove Mullah Omar's name from a blacklist. Mr. Holbrooke said that the United States opposed that idea.
Mr. Holbrooke was speaking on the way home from a trip to the region. As the administration begins carrying out its policy, he is emerging as the salesman for the strategy, traveling to Europe and the Middle East to drum up support from NATO allies and Persian Gulf states.
Mr. Holbrooke said he was now most concerned about Pakistan, which he thinks is not getting adequate international support. He said he planned to tell lawmakers that he hoped Congress would set aside even more money, beyond the current $7.5 billion in nonmilitary assistance.
"The Europeans are not giving enough aid to Pakistan," he said.
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27) Gates Warns of Militant Threat in South Asia
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/world/asia/21gates.html?ref=world
NEW DELHI - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned on Wednesday that the interconnected extremist groups on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border were working to destabilize the entire region and that "a victory for one was a victory for all."
Speaking in New Delhi at a news conference after meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India and the country's defense and external affairs ministers, Mr. Gates said Taliban groups and other militant organizations operating under the umbrella of Al Qaeda intended to destabilize not only Afghanistan and Pakistan but also India.
Mr. Gates, who was in the middle of a two-day visit to New Delhi, India's capital, said that the groups could provoke conflict between India and Pakistan, and that focusing on only one extremist group for elimination was not the solution.
"It's dangerous to single out any one of these groups and say, 'If we could beat that group that would solve the problem,' because they are in effect a syndicate of terrorist operators," Mr. Gates said. In short, he said, "the success of any one of these groups leads to new capabilities and a new reputation for all."
Mr. Gates said he welcomed India's support in the war in Afghanistan - perhaps including a small role in training Afghan security forces - but implicitly rejected the deployment of any Indian troops in the country because of the reaction of Pakistan.
The two countries, violently carved apart in 1947 at the end of British rule, have fought several wars and harbor deep suspicions of each other. India maintains a large force along its border with Pakistan; militant groups once nurtured by Pakistan's intelligence service have struck at Indian targets, including Mumbai in 2008 and India's embassy in Kabul last year. There is also a festering rivalry over which country controls Kashmir.
India has steadily poured aid and investment into Afghanistan since the toppling of the Taliban in 2001, spending more than $1 billion so far on infrastructure, schools and hospitals. India is working on a new building for the Afghan Parliament as well as a crucial 124-mile road across Nimruz Province that will link Afghanistan, a landlocked country, to an Iranian port.
Some of these projects have been uncontroversial, but Pakistan suspects India of using Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan's western border and resents any threat to its influence in the country.
"Let's be honest with one another here," Mr. Gates said. "There are real suspicions in both India and Pakistan about what the other is doing in Afghanistan. And so I think that focusing each country, focusing its efforts on development, on humanitarian assistance, perhaps in some limited areas of training, but with full transparency toward each other in what they're doing, would help allay these suspicions."
Mr. Gates repeated previous praise for India for its "statesmanship" in response to the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, which American and Indian officials have attributed to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group. But Mr. Gates said that India might not show such restraint again.
"I think it is not unreasonable to assume Indian patience would be limited were there to be further attacks," Mr. Gates said.
The defense secretary said that he would talk to Pakistani officials "so they can focus on what has become a real existential threat to Pakistan, these different terrorist groups operating in its territory."
Despite pledges from Pakistan to dismantle militant groups operating on its soil, and the arrest of a handful of operatives, intelligence officials say Lashkar has persisted, even flourished, since the Mumbai attacks, in which 10 Pakistanis killed more than 160 people.
Later Wednesday, Mr. Gates traveled to Agra to tour the Taj Mahal, then returned to New Delhi for a dinner with Indian military officials.
Lydia Polgreen contributed reporting.
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28) Jail Protest by Immigrant Detainees Is Broken Up by Agents
By NINA BERNSTEIN
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/nyregion/21jail.html?ref=us
Agents in riot gear from Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to break up a hunger strike by detainees at the Varick Federal Detention Center in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, three detainees at the center said Wednesday in telephone interviews.
Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, denied that there was "a sustained hunger strike" at Varick, but said immigration agents entered and searched a jail dormitory when detainees complaining about conditions refused to leave it.
A Jamaican detainee in one dorm said "all hell broke loose" after about 100 inmates refused to go to the mess hall on Tuesday morning and gave guards a flier declaring they were on a hunger strike to protest detention policies and practices.
The detainee, who asked that his name not be published for fear of retaliation, said a SWAT team used pepper spray and "beat up" some detainees, took many to segregation cells as punishment and transferred about 17 to immigration jails in other states. The 20 detainees remaining in his dorm were threatened with similar treatment if they continued the hunger strike, he said.
But Mr. Chandler, in a written statement, said, "No pepper spray was used at any time during this search, and any allegations of threat or intimidation are simply untrue."
Two detainees in another dorm said they had seen eight immigration agents in riot gear dragging two detainees from the far side of the jail, while at least eight other detainees were escorted toward the segregation unit.
"After we started the hunger strike yesterday the SWAT team came into the other side," Chao Chen, 36, a chef who is fighting deportation to China, said as his immigration lawyer, Chunyu Jean Wang, translated. "On our side a gentleman from immigration came and told them not to strike."
The third detainee, an architect who said he had been a legal resident for 30 years, gave a similar account, but he would not give his name.
"I don't want to be singled out," he said. "A lot of things are happening in the night - people are being moved secretly."
Last week, the government announced that it would close the Varick jail and transfer all detainees to the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, N.J., by Feb. 28. The three detainees said that they opposed the transfer, but that the hunger strike was part of a broader protest over detention.
According to the flier, the idea for the hunger strike originated at the Bergen County Jail, one of several in New Jersey where the federal government holds noncitizens while it tries to deport them.
"We are seeking answers from President Obama's administration in immigration reform that he promised," the one-page flier says, asking that detention and deportation be suspended for people with family members who are citizens or legal residents.
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29) Annual Poll of Freshmen Shows Effect of Recession
By KATE ZERNIKE
January 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/education/21college.html?ref=education
The recession hit this year's college freshmen hard, affecting how they chose a school as well as their ability to pay for it, according to an annual nationwide survey released Thursday.
Over all, students were more likely than previous freshmen to have a parent who was unemployed and less likely to have found a job that might help pay for college.
About two-thirds of incoming students said they had "some" or "major" concern about their ability to pay for their education. The percentage of those with "some" concern - 55.4 - was at its highest level since 1971.
The number of students taking out loans was at its highest in nine years, at 53.3 percent.
"We expected that, given what we were seeing last year in the economy, we would see some significant changes in how finances were impacting people's ability to pay," said John H. Pryor, director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, which conducts the survey.
"What was more surprising," he said, "was that it goes beyond just that into other areas. Everywhere we turned, whether it was how you chose your college or what do you think you are going to do in college, everywhere the finances piece popped out."
The survey, which has been conducted for 44 years, asked about 220,000 incoming students at 297 campuses questions on everything from beer drinking habits and religious and political preferences to anticipated major and life goals. The answers were weighted to represent the 1.4 million full-time first-year students who entered 1,555 colleges and universities nationwide in the fall of 2009. (Each percentage point in the survey reflects the experience of roughly 14,000 students.)
When the survey was done in 2008, as the recession was deepening, researchers were somewhat surprised that the percentage of students taking out loans had not shifted appreciably. That changed this year, with the percentage climbing 3.9 points.
Students reported fewer resources to draw on. The number whose fathers were unemployed - 4.5 percent - was the highest in the history of the survey. The number of students whose mothers were unemployed was higher - 7.9 percent - and at its highest since 1979.
Fewer students reported working as high school seniors - 62.8 percent reported having a job, down from 66.4 percent in 2008 and 69.3 percent in 2007. "What all this points to is that they are going to be graduating with a larger debt burden than students in the past," Mr. Pryor said.
Students were more likely than ever before to weigh financial factors in choosing a college: 41.6 percent of students reported that the cost of their school was a "very important" reason for choosing it, the highest number since the survey asked the question. And 44.7 percent said that an offer of financial aid from the school had been a very important reason for attending, up from 39.4 percent in 2007.
About 9 percent of students said they chose their college because their first choice did not offer them financial aid - the highest since that question was asked in 1984.
And students seemed acutely aware of value when choosing a college. The factor most often cited for choosing a school was that its graduates got good jobs - 56.5 percent said this was "very important," the highest rate since the question was asked in 1985.
However, their ideas on where the good jobs are may be changing: the number of students saying they expected a career in business had dropped to 12.1 percent, the lowest since 1976.
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