Friday, December 03, 2010
[StopFBI-National] More subpoenas today - make these calls NOW!
For more information on the case: www.stopfbi.net
StopFBI mailing list
StopFBI@organizerweb.com
http://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/stopfbi
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and condemn the use of the grand jury to repress the anti-war and solidarity movements! Call Patrick J. Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 NOW!
2. Call US Attorney General Eric Holder - 202-353-1555 with the same demand.
3. And call President Obama: 202-456-1111
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE PRESENTS:
PALESTINIAN CRAFT SALE
Holiday Bazaar Featuring Palestinian Crafts- Berkeley, CA:
Sunday, December 5, 10:00am - 4:00pm
Live Oak Park Recreation Center
1301 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
(At Berryman Street between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street -- Northeast Berkeley)
The Holiday Bazaar is this Sunday, December 5th... We want to ask that you spread the word, bring your friends, and forward this email- this once a year event is not to be missed!
Details about the bazaar are below, but we wanted to share with you the story of one family during the recent olive harvest. There are numerous families in Palestine that are aided by the sale of Palestinian items at the Holiday Bazaar, which is why we are asking for your support. See you Sunday!
Sincerely,
MECA Staff
Olives - A Palestinian Family Affair
By Nour Odeh
Olives and olive oil are a Palestinian must.... This product is part of the Palestinians' identity and history; an element in their collective memory, despite their reality of exile....
But this important commodity is one of the most battered sectors of the economy.
In the past 10 years alone, Israel has uprooted approximately 1.2 million fruit-bearing trees, most of them olives. Israel has also confiscated tens of thousands of hectares of Palestinian land as part of its illegal settlement expansion practice and wall building. This means that thousands of Palestinian farmers have been barred or severely restricted from accessing their olive groves.
READ THE ARTICLE:
http://www.mecaforpeace.org/news/olives-palestinian-family-affair
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fifth Annual Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Summit
FIVE YEARS LATER:
THE LEGACY OF STANLEY TOOKIE WILLIAMS
Looking back at Stan's life, his work,
and the impact of his legacy on the struggles for peace and justice
Sunday, December 12th, 2010
4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Merritt College
Huey P. Newton/Bobby Seale Student Lounge
12500 Campus Drive, Oakland
F E AT U R I N G
AUDIO RECORDINGS of Stanley Tookie Williams
MESSAGES from prisoners on the subject of Stan's life and legacy
READINGS from Stan's children's books and other writings
BARBARA BECNEL, co-author and friend of Stanley Tookie Williams
MINISTER CHRISTOPHER MUHAMMAD, Nation of Islam
DR. SIRI BROWN, Chair, African American studies department, Merrit College
FRED JACKSON, friend of Stan and community organizer
CEPHUS JOHNSON, Oscar Grant's uncle
JACK BRYSON, father of two of Oscar Grant's friends
CRYSTAL BYBEE, anti-death penalty activist
SPONSORS
African American Studies at Merritt College
Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
For directions, go to www.merritt.edu
For more information, call 510-333-7966
This event is free and open to the public
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
41st Native American Day Of Mourning: Thanksgiving Day- Nov. 25, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYmKess4hrc
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Road To Hope Convoy Reaches Gaza - Special Report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_2sO-T_AjY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A little holiday levity:
Check this out. It's for Willie Nelson (he's actually in it). It's a video from the Colbert Report and make sure to watch the very end:
http://rutube.ru/tracks/1248708.html
I have no money in my coffer,
No gold or silver do I bring,
Nor have I precious jewels to offer,
To celebrate the newborn king.
Yet do not spurn my gift completely,
O ye three wise men please demur,
Behold a plant that smokes more sweetly,
Than neither frankincense or myrrh.
And like a child born in this manger,
This herb is mild yet it is strong,
And it brings peace to friend and stranger,
Goodwill to men lies in this bong.
And now my wonder weed is flaring, - "Are you high?"
Lit like that special star above, - "Can it be?"
Pass it around in endless sharing, - "On christmas day"
And let not mankind bogart love. - "You'd smoke my tree!"
And the wise men started toking,
And yea, the bud was kind,
It was salvation they were smoking,
And his forgiveness blew their mind.
And still that wonder weed is flaring, - "Are you high?"
Lit like that special star above, - "You're so high!"
Pass it around in endless sharing, - "Dude, man, dude"
And let not mankind bogart love. - "You're really high, I'm gonna tell your savior"
And let not mankind bogart love.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
20 November 2010 Afghanistan: Time to Go
On 20 November 2010, as the Nato leaders met in Lisbon to discuss war strategy thousands of anti-war protesters marched through London calling for all British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan now.
The march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square was led by military families who have lost loved ones in the war, or who have relatives serving there now, and by Joe Glenton, the soldier who was jailed and court martialled for refusing to fight a war that he believed to be unjustified.
These videos capture the spirit of the day on which the cry was Afghanistan: Time to Go and Cut War Not Welfare.
Watch the great video's of this demonstration at this site:
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2170/246/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The New Normal Recovery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z87XBKNto4Q&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Don't Touch My Junk (the TSA Hustle) song + video by Michael Adams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhEMRSp7vaY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bird's Eye View: You've Got To See This
Blog - BPs Oil Drilling Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
Wednesday, 24 November 2010 11:22
http://healthygulf.org/201011241558/blog/bps-oil-drilling-disaster-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/birds-eye-view-you-ve-got-to-see-this
Yesterday's monitoring trip took me down to an isolated area on the eastern edge of Bay Ronquille on Louisiana's coast. Bay Ronquille is to the southeast of Barataria Bay. I went to this area after being informed by a source that there are stretches of beach near Ronquille that are "completely covered in oil "and "untouched "by any clean-up crew.
Our journey began in Myrtle Grove, LA aboard a boat with Captain Zach Mouton. On board this day was Jo Billups, GRN sponsor and member of the band Sassafrass, Randy Perez, a videographer from New Orleans, and my brother Jason Henderson, a Geography Professor visiting from San Francisco.
My source was correct in that there are miles long stretches of beach that are caked with huge mats of oil. There are enormous mats of tar that stretch from the shore to the water. In some spots, the tide covers the mats as it washes in only to reveal them as it washes back out. In other areas, the mats are so huge that they stretch from the sea bed all the way to the beach. It's impossible to tell how far out underwater they stretch. There are areas where you think you are standing on sand or mud only to realize that you are standing on huge blankets of weathered oil. There are tidal pools in the middle of the island that are filled with oil. The smell of oil is everywhere. Skulls and bones from dead birds and fish litter the sand and coyote tracks are all around. What a pity.
Whether BP has sent anyone to attempt to clean this area anytime in that last few months was hard to discern just by looking at the sand and soil. There were no usual tell-tell signs like tire tracks from four wheelers or left behind plastic bags., water bottles, and gloves. BP is aware of the area because as soon as we got onto the beach, a boat carrying BP workers saw us and sent someone to chase after us. Having been through this song and dance so many times with BP "supervisors", I decided to let my brother run interference while I foraged ahead to document the disaster. According to Jason, the BP contractor was cordial but did ask a lot of questions about who we were and what we were doing. The man explained that BP will be cleaning this area starting Monday, complete with heavy equipment and all. I am planning another trip next week to see if his claim is accurate. I've heard it all before.
By the way, on the way down to Bay Ronquille, we made a pass through Bay Jimmy. While the marsh is still covered in oil, there was not one clean up worker to be found anywhere in the Bay. That's funny considering I know of thousands of struggling out of work Gulf coast residents that would love a job cleaning up BP's mess.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Quantitative Easing Explained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k&feature=player_embedded#
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Report: "Tar balls and black oily plumes" wash up in Apalachicola Bay, FL - 70 miles EAST of Panama City (VIDEO)
November 12th, 2010 at 09:02 AM Email Post
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Seattle Cop: 'I'll Beat the F--ing Mexican Piss Out of You Homey'
http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/05/seattle_cop_ill_beat_the_f---ing_mexican_piss_out_of_you_homey.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Burning Desperation
Self-immolation has become a common form of suicide for Afghan women. Photographer Lynsey Addario speaks with women who survived their suicide attempts.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/11/07/world/1248069290784/burning-desperation.html?ref=world
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anonymous BP cleanup worker: The oil "really hasn't even been touched"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vegVKrg84HI&feature=player_embedded
http://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2010/11/09/22476630.aspx
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Tag-Team Wrestling
"We have Learned who is For Real and who is Frontin'."
Glen Ford speaks in West Haven, CT just before the Oct. 2010 "One Nation Working Together" DC demo. See his scathing comments about the speakers from the main stage at the actual demo at blackagendareport.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIuTM3cK9I
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Video of massive French protest -- inspiring!
http://www.dailymotion.com/Talenceagauchevraiment
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UAW Workers Picket The UAW Over Two-Tier
http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/uaw-workers-picket-the-uaw/
Rally To End Two-Tier & Stand in Solidarity with GM Lake Orion | UAW HQ, Detroit MI (1 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bST5aTYZa00&feature=player_embedded
Rally To End Two-Tier & Stand in Solidarity with GM Lake Orion | UAW HQ, Detroit MI (2 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHLb-KMXD9c&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
BP Contract Worker "Trenches Dug To Bury Oil On Beaches"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0qop9xbGv4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
RETHINK Afghanistan: The 10th Year: Afghanistan Veterans Speak Out
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Firefighters Watch As Home Burns:
Gene Cranick's House Destroyed In Tennessee Over $75 Fee
By Adam J. Rose
The Huffington Post -- videos
10- 5-10 12:12 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/04/firefighters-watch-as-hom_n_750272.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Soldier Describes Murder of Afghan for Sport in Leaked Tape
By ROBERT MACKEY
September 27, 2010, 6:43 pm
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/soldier-describes-murder-of-afghan-for-sport-in-leaked-tape/?ref=world
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Stephen Colbert's statement before Congress
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39343087#39343087
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
AN ATTACK AGAINST ONE IS AN ATTACK AGAINST ALL! WE ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS OUR WEAKEST LINK! UNITY AND SOLIDARITY AGAINST THESE ATTACKS IS OUR MOST POWERFUL DEFENSE!
THIS JUST IN: NEW GRAND JURY INVESTIGATIONS; AND ATTACK AGAINST JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE ACTIVISTS:
FBI Raid Victims Get New Grand Jury Subpoenas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIlMwbkIo2E
APNewsBreak: Activists called back to grand jury
By AMY FORLITI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:10 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705560.html
MINNEAPOLIS -- Three Minnesota anti-war activists who refused to testify before a federal grand jury in Chicago after their homes were raided in a terrorism investigation have been told they'll be called again, an attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
In late September, authorities searched seven homes and an office in Minneapolis and Chicago in what the FBI said was an investigation into material support of terrorism. Fourteen activists in the two states were summoned to testify, but they refused and their subpoenas were postponed.
None of the activists have been charged. Warrants suggest agents were looking for connections between them and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East.
Bruce Nestor, an attorney who represents some of the activists, said Wednesday that three of them have been told they'll be called back to the grand jury, but it's not clear when. Individual attorneys for those activists are working out details with prosecutors, Nestor said.
"They don't have a specific date, but they are being told that basically they will be called back in front of the grand jury," Nestor said. "They all have individual counsel, and those individual counsel are in the process of discussing with the U.S. attorney the details as to how proceed."
Randall Samborn, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, declined to comment about the case, saying he could neither confirm nor deny anything involving a federal grand jury because such proceedings are confidential.
Nestor said activists Anh Pham, Sarah Martin and Tracy Molm - whose homes were raided in September - have been told they'll be called again before the grand jury.
"These three are being called back, and within a matter of weeks will be facing the decision of testifying or facing contempt," Nestor said.
Pham said Wednesday she knew little about the situation and declined comment until she had a chance to talk to her attorney. Messages left for Martin were not immediately returned, and a phone number for Molm was not immediately available.
The activists said previously that they wouldn't appear before a grand jury because they felt grand juries had historically been used to harass activists and that testifying in secret would stifle free speech.
The government has not revealed the target of its investigation, but the activists have said they felt singled out because of their work in the anti-war movement.
"The government is not saying much, and they kind of hold all the cards at the moment," Nestor said.
###
NOTE TO READERS:
The BAUAW Newsletter stands squarely opposed to the Grand Jury investigation of antiwar and social justice activists. An injury to one is an injury to all. We are all under attack now! We must stand united in defense of our fellow activists!
We have a right to fight injustice wherever it occurs in the world! Justice is an inalienable human right for everyone!
We are also alarmed and outraged about the recent pepper-spray attack against Jewish Voice for Peace activists at their own meeting carried out by Zionist thugs:
Right-wing Israel advocacy group San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs
Member Pepper Sprays Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) members
at Bay Area JVP Chapter Meeting. Wraps self in Israeli flag.
Group well known in Bay Area for harassing and intimidating peace activists
Contact: Jesse AT Jvp.org
[Oakland, CA November 15, 2010]
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/right-wing-israel-advocacy-group-pepper-sprays-jewish-voice-peace-jvp-members
Sunday night, November 14, 2010, up to a dozen members of San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs, a right-wing Israeli advocacy group with a documented track record of aggressively taunting and intimidating grassroots peace activists, attended a Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace community meeting at a South Berkeley Senior Center.
Jewish Voice for Peace is the largest U.S. Jewish peace group dedicated to a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on democracy and full equality --- the Bay Area chapter is the founding chapter of the organization. Approximately 50 to 60 people were at the meeting, and numerous witnesses are available to corroborate the events.
Watch video of some of the disruptions and the victims and perpetrator of attacks here:
StandWithUs/SF Voice for Israel Pepper-sprays peace activists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLO2xKcYDwc
Eyewitness testimonies are here:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/eyewitness-testimony-jvp-member-about-stand-us-swu-attacks
and here:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/eyewitness-report-stand-us-attacks-jvp-meeting
Article by a Berkeley Daily Planet reporter here:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/eyewitness-testimony-berekeley-daily-planet-reporter-about-swu-attacks
Americans for Peace Now condemned the attack here:
http://peacenow.org/entries/post_25
and Meretz USA called it not a legitimate part of Jewish communal discourse here.
http://meretzusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/meretz-usa-violence-not-legitimate-part.html
Wrapped in an Israeli flag, San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs (SFVI/SWU) member Robin Dubner, an Oakland based attorney, pepper-sprayed two JVP members in the eyes and face after they attempted to nonviolently block her ability to aggressively videotape the faces of JVP meeting attendees against their will. The members, Alexei Folger and Glen Hauer, were careful to make no physical contact with her or her camera prior to the attack.
Folger said, "I did not see it coming and all of a sudden there was gooey stuff all over my head and hand. I have never been pepper-sprayed before, my whole head felt like it was on fire."
JVP had earlier this year filed a police report about a June SFVI/SWU protest at which JVP and (peace group) Women in Black members were intimidatingly videotaped and threatened by a StandWithUs supporter after being taunted with chants like "Nazi, Nazi, Nazi" or "Kapo,Kapo,Kapo".
Caught on a widely seen videotape was a SFVI/SWU supporter pointing his camera to the faces of silent peace vigil participants while saying "You're all being identified, every last one of you...we will find out where you live. We're going to make your lives difficult. We will disrupt your families..."
For that reason, JVP members were particularly concerned about protecting the safety of meeting attendees and preventing the videotaping.
Hauer, a retired attorney and member of San Francisco's Congregation Sha'har Zahav who was treated for pepper spray explained, "When one of the intruders [Dubner] continued standing and filming people despite the facilitator and facility manager repeatedly telling her that she could not, I first asked her politely to please put away the video camera, then several times told her to put away the camera, and then tried nonviolently to stay in front of the camera with my body, even when she shoved me. I could have taken the camera but decided instead to talk to the woman and to try to be the only person she photographed."
Hauer, who also leads groups on healing from WWII & the Holocaust, and speaks to churches about anti-Semitism as it relates to the movement for peace in the Middle East, went on:
"In my mind was the history of targeting of Jewish peace activists by the right wing of the Jewish community--the posting of our photos on internet hate sites, for example, followed by acts of vandalism at our homes and places of work. There were many in the room for whom I care deeply. I could also see that many at the meeting were new to the work we were doing, and I did not want them to be scared away."
Dubner was accompanied by up to a dozen other StandWithUs members--including Dan Spitzer, Susan Meyers, Mike Harris, Bea Lieberman, Faith Meltzer, and Ross Meltzer--who repeatedly disrupted and aggressively videotaped the JVP meeting and JVP members against their will, wielding the cameras in an intimidating and belligerent manner. Despite repeated requests from the JVP meeting facilitator and other JVP activists to desist from recording and put away their videocameras, the SFVI/SWU activists - who had spread themselves throughout the room - continued to record and launch lengthy monologues while the presenters attempted to speak.
They were explicitly invited by the JVP facilitator to stay in the meeting and participate without videotaping but they refused. They also refused offers for floor time by the presenters. The manager of the facility asked the SFVI/SWU members to abide by JVP's rules or face the police, and when SFVI/SWU refused to comply with JVP's protocol, the police were called.
At one point, JVP members and presenters worked to restore calm and de-escalate by singing the Hebrew peace song, Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu (Peace will come to us) while waiting for the police to arrive. Most meeting attendees did not know until later that 2 people had been attacked with pepper spray.
When police arrived, Dubner was temporarily placed in handcuffs while other members of San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs remained inside the meeting blowing loud whistles, using videocameras to intimidate meeting attendees.
Dubner refused repeated requests by JVP members or the police to identify the substance she sprayed. A police officer later identified it as pepper spray and paramedics were called to help treat the victims of the attack. One of them, Alexei Folger, looked visibly red and swollen, as though she had been burned on more than half her face.
Immediately following the attack, Ms. Folger, not knowing the nature of the substance on her face, rubbed some of it on Ms. Dubner's shirtsleeve at which point Ms.Dubner, who is a large woman, started physically shoving the petite Ms. Folger. A Jewish Voice for Peace staff member stood between them to prevent further escalation or physical contact between Ms Dubner and the shocked and injured Ms. Folger.
This deliberate confrontation is part of a pattern of escalating intimidation and attacks against peace activists in the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the home of Tikkun Magazine editor Michael Lerner was covered in threatening posters. In addition to the videotaped harassment of Women in Black and JVP members, several months ago someone placed threatening graffiti outside of the JVP offices.
###
These actions cannot be tolerated by the peace and justice movement--anywhere! We have a right to meet and protest injustice without being harassed, videotaped, pepper-sprayed, disrupted or summoned by the FBI for Grand Jury questioning!
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter. bauaw.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS
http://mije.org/node/1343
freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Courage to Resist needs your support
By Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist.
It's been quite a ride the last four months since we took up the defense of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning. Since then, we helped form the Bradley Manning Support Network, established a defense fund, and have already paid over half of Bradley's total $100,000 in estimated legal expenses.
Now, I'm asking for your support of Courage to Resist so that we can continue to support not only Bradley, but the scores of other troops who are coming into conflict with military authorities due to reasons of conscience.
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Iraq War over? Afghanistan occupation winding down? Not from what we see. Please take a look at, "Soldier Jeff Hanks refuses deployment, seeks PTSD help" in our December newsletter. Jeff's situation is not isolated. Actually, his story is only unique in that he has chosen to share it with us in the hopes that it may result in some change. Jeff's case also illustrates the importance of Iraq Veterans Against the War's new "Operation Recovery" campaign which calls for an end to the deployment of traumatized troops.
Most of the folks who call us for help continue to be effected by Stoploss, a program that involuntarily extends enlistments (despite Army promises of its demise), or the Individual Ready Reserve which recalls thousands of former Soldiers and Marines quarterly from civilian life.
Another example of our efforts is Kyle Wesolowski. After returning from Iraq, Kyle submitted an application for a conscientious objector discharge based on his Buddhist faith. Kyle explains, "My experience of physical threats, religious persecution, and general abuse seems to speak of a system that appears to be broken.... It appears that I have no other recourse but to now refuse all duties that prepare myself for war or aid in any way shape or form to other soldiers in conditioning them to go to war." We believe he shouldn't have to walk this path alone.
Sincerely,
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
San Francisco Labor Council Resolution Adopted unanimously on Nov. 8, 2010
Resolution Condemning Police Attack on Free Speech & Assembly following Oscar Grant Rally
Whereas, on Friday November 5, former BART cop Johannes Mehserle was given a jail sentence of 2 years for the 'involuntary manslaughter' of Oscar Grant. Subtracting time served and 'good behavior', Mehserle may be back on the streets in as little as 7 months; and
Whereas, the organizers of a November 5th Rally and Gathering in Frank Ogawa Plaza to honor Oscar Grant and Respond to the sentencing of Johannes Mehserle, were refused a permit for an organized march after the rally to an indoor gathering at DeFremery Park; and
Whereas, after the rally many hundreds of community members spontaneously started marching toward Fruitvale BART, the site of Oscar Grant's murder, and after the cops sealed off an entire city block, police did not allow people to disperse, called it a 'crime scene', and arrested 152 people, including San Francisco Labor Council Delegate Dave Welsh, resulting in more arrests than at any other Oscar Grant-related protest; and
Whereas, most arrestees have been cited on misdemeanor charges, held for 24 hours and have mass arraignments in the first week of December at Wiley Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington Street in Oakland.
Therefore be It Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council condemns this assault on freedom of speech and assembly and demands that all these misdemeanor assembly charges be dropped.
Presented by Marcus Holder, delegate from ILWU Local 10, and adopted unanimously at the regular delegates meeting of the San Francisco Labor Council held Nov. 8, 2010 in San Francisco, California.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Add your name! We stand with Bradley Manning.
"We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad... We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning."
Dear All,
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist are launching a new campaign, and we wanted to give you a chance to be among the first to add your name to this international effort. If you sign the letter online, we'll print out and mail two letters to Army officials on your behalf. With your permission, we may also use your name on the online petition and in upcoming media ads.
Read the complete public letter and add your name at:
http://standwithbrad.org/
Courage to Resist (http://couragetoresist.org)
on behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network (http://bradleymanning.org)
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Dear Friend,
On Friday, September 24th, the FBI raided homes in Chicago and Minneapolis, and turned the Anti-War Committee office upside down. We were shocked. Our response was strong however and we jumped into action holding emergency protests. When the FBI seized activists' personal computers, cell phones, and papers claiming they were investigating "material support for terrorism", they had no idea there would be such an outpouring of support from the anti-war movement across this country! Over 61 cities protested, with crowds of 500 in Minneapolis and Chicago. Activists distributed 12,000 leaflets at the One Nation Rally in Washington D.C. Supporters made thousands of calls to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Solidarity statements from community organizations, unions, and other groups come in every day. By organizing against the attacks, the movement grows stronger.
At the same time, trusted lawyers stepped up to form a legal team and mount a defense. All fourteen activists signed letters refusing to testify. So Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox withdrew the subpoenas, but this is far from over. In fact, the repression is just starting. The FBI continues to question activists at their homes and work places. The U.S. government is trying to put people in jail for anti-war and international solidarity activism and there is no indication they are backing off. The U.S. Attorney has many options and a lot of power-he may re-issue subpoenas, attempt to force people to testify under threat of imprisonment, or make arrests.
To be successful in pushing back this attack, we need your donation. We need you to make substantial contributions like $1000, $500, and $200. We understand many of you are like us, and can only afford $50, $20, or $10, but we ask you to dig deep. The legal bills can easily run into the hundreds of thousands. We are all united to defend a movement for peace and justice that seeks friendship with people in other countries. These fourteen anti-war activists have done nothing wrong, yet their freedom is at stake.
It is essential that we defend our sisters and brothers who are facing FBI repression and the Grand Jury process. With each of your contributions, the movement grows stronger.
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Deafening Silence, Chuck Africa (MOVE 9)
Check out other art and poetry by prisoners at:
Shujaas!: Prisoners Resisting Through Art
...we banging hard, yes, very hard, on this system...
http://shujaas.wordpress.com/
Peace People,
This poem is from Chuck Africa, one of the MOVE 9, who is currently serving 30-100 years on trump up charges of killing a police officer. After 32 years in prison, the MOVE 9 are repeatly denied parole, after serving their minimum sentence. Chuck wanted me to share this with the people, so that we can see how our silence in demanding the MOVE 9's freedom is inherently an invitation to their death behind prison walls.
Deafening Silence
Don't ya'll hear cries of anguish?
In the climate of pain come joining voices?
But voices become unheard and strained by inactions
Of dead brains
How long will thou Philly soul remain in the pit of agonizing apathy?
Indifference seems to greet you like the morning mirror
Look closely in the mirror and realize it's a period of mourning....
My Sistas, mothers, daughters, wives and warriors
Languish in prisons obscurity like a distant star in the galaxies as does their brothers
We need to be free....
How loud can you stay silence?
Have the courage to stand up and have a say,
Choose resistance and let go of your fears.
The history of injustice to MOVE; we all know so well
But your deafening silence could be my DEATH KNELL.
Chuck Africa
Please share, inform people and get involve in demanding the MOVE 9's freedom! www.MOVE9parole.blogspot.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Say No to Islamophobia!
Defend Mosques and Community Centers!
The Fight for Peace and Social Justice Requires Defense of All Under Attack!
http://www.petitiononline.com/nophobia/petition.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Kevin Keith Update: Good News! Death sentence commuted!
Ohio may execute an innocent man unless you take action.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-kevin-keith
Ohio's Governor Spares Life of a Death Row Inmate Kevin Keith
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/us/03ohio.html?ref=us
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Please sign the petition to release Bradley Manning
http://www.petitiononline.com/manning1/petition.html (Click to sign here)
To: US Department of Defense; US Department of Justice
We, the Undersigned, call for justice for US Army PFC Bradley Manning, incarcerated without charge (as of 18 June 2010) at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Media accounts state that Mr. Manning was arrested in late May for leaking the video of US Apache helicopter pilots killing innocent people and seriously wounding two children in Baghdad, including those who arrived to help the wounded, as well as potentially other material. The video was released by WikiLeaks under the name "Collateral Murder".
If these allegations are untrue, we call upon the US Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.
If these allegations ARE true, we ALSO call upon the US Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.
Simultaneously, we express our support for Mr. Manning in any case, and our admiration for his courage if he is, in fact, the person who disclosed the video. Like in the cases of Daniel Ellsberg, W. Mark Felt, Frank Serpico and countless other whistleblowers before, government demands for secrecy must yield to public knowledge and justice when government crime and corruption are being kept hidden.
Justice for Bradley Manning!
Sincerely,
The Undersigned:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?manning1
--
Zaineb Alani
http://www.thewordsthatcomeout.blogspot.com
http://www.tigresssmiles.blogspot.com
"Yesterday I lost a country. / I was in a hurry, / and didn't notice when it fell from me / like a broken branch from a forgetful tree. / Please, if anyone passes by / and stumbles across it, / perhaps in a suitcase / open to the sky, / or engraved on a rock / like a gaping wound, / ... / If anyone stumbles across it, / return it to me please. / Please return it, sir. / Please return it, madam. / It is my country . . . / I was in a hurry / when I lost it yesterday." -Dunya Mikhail, Iraqi poet
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Please forward widely...
HELP LYNNE STEWART -- SUPPORT THESE BILLS
These two bills are now in Congress and need your support. Either or both bills would drastically decrease Lynne's and other federal sentences substantially.
H.R. 1475 "Federal Prison Work Incentive Act Amended 2009," Congressman Danny Davis, Democrat, Illinois
This bill will restore and amend the former federal B.O.P. good time allowances. It will let all federal prisoners, except lifers, earn significant reductions to their sentences. Second, earn monthly good time days by working prison jobs. Third, allowances for performing outstanding services or duties in connection with institutional operations. In addition, part of this bill is to bring back parole to federal long term prisoners.
Go to: www.FedCURE.org and www.FAMM.org
At this time, federal prisoners only earn 47 days per year good time. If H.R. 1475 passes, Lynne Stewart would earn 120-180 days per year good time!
H.R. 61 "45 And Older," Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (18th Congressional District, Texas)
This bill provides early release from federal prison after serving half of a violent crime or violent conduct in prison.
Please write, call, email your Representatives and Senators. Demand their votes!
This information is brought to you by Diane E. Schindelwig, a federal prisoner #36582-177 and friend and supporter of Lynne Stewart.
Write to Lynne at:
Lynne Stewart 53504-054
MCC-NY 2-S
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
For further information call Lynne's husband, Ralph Poynter, leader of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Send contributions payable to:
Lynne Stewart Organization
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York, 11216
---
Listen to Lynne Stewart event, that took place July 8, 2010 at Judson Memorial Church
Excerpts include: Mumia Abu Jamal, Ralph Poynter, Ramsey Clark, Juanita
Young, Fred Hampton Jr., Raging Grannies, Ralph Schoenman
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
And check out this article (link) too!
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2010/062210Lendman.shtml
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL GRAVELY CONCERNED THAT RULING PUTS TROY DAVIS ON TRACK FOR EXECUTION; CITES PERSISTING DOUBTS ABOUT HIS GUILT
"Judge William T. Moore, Jr. ruled that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Davis didn't meet the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence."
Amnesty International Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Contact: Wende Gozan Brown at 212-633-4247, wgozan@aiusa.org.
(Washington, D.C.) - Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today expressed deep concern that a federal district court decision puts Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis back on track for execution, despite doubts about his guilt that were raised during a June evidentiary hearing. Judge William T. Moore, Jr. ruled that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Davis didn't meet the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence.
"Nobody walking out of that hearing could view this as an open-and-shut case," said Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA. "The testimony that came to light demonstrates that doubt still exists, but the legal bar for proving innocence was set so high it was virtually insurmountable. It would be utterly unconscionable to proceed with this execution, plain and simple."
Amnesty International representatives, including Cox, attended the hearing in Savannah, Ga. The organization noted that evidence continues to cast doubt over the case:
· Four witnesses admitted in court that they lied at trial when they implicated Troy Davis and that they did not know who shot Officer Mark MacPhail.
· Four witnesses implicated another man as the one who killed the officer - including a man who says he saw the shooting and could clearly identify the alternative suspect, who is a family member.
· Three original state witnesses described police coercion during questioning, including one man who was 16 years old at the time of the murder and was questioned by several police officers without his parents or other adults present.
"The Troy Davis case is emblematic of everything that is wrong with capital punishment," said Laura Moye, director of AIUSA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. "In a system rife with error, mistakes can be made. There are no do-overs when it comes to death. Lawmakers across the country should scrutinize this case carefully, not only because of its unprecedented nature, but because it clearly indicates the need to abolish the death penalty in the United States."
Since the launch of its February 2007 report, Where Is the Justice for Me? The Case of Troy Davis, Facing Execution in Georgia, Amnesty International has campaigned intensively for a new evidentiary hearing or trial and clemency for Davis, collecting hundreds of thousands of clemency petition signatures and letters from across the United States and around the world. To date, internationally known figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have all joined the call for clemency, as well as lawmakers from within and outside of Georgia.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers who campaign for universal human rights from more than 150 countries. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
# # #
For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis.
Wende Gozan Brown
Media Relations Director
Amnesty International USA
212/633-4247 (o)
347/526-5520 (c)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
(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).]
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act
By Ellen Nakashima and Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 30, 2010; 12:13 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112905973.html
2) Workers hopscotch across USA for temp checks
By Jere Downs, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
November 30, 2010
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-26-amazon-temporary-workers_N.htm
3) Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant
contact Tiah Starr 562.276.3193
11.29.10
for immediate release
VIA Email
4) U.S. Facing Global Diplomatic Crisis Following Massive WikiLeaks Release of Secret Diplomatic Cables
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/
5) Broken Beyond Repair
By BOB HERBERT
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/opinion/30herbert.html?hp
6) British Police Issue Warning Before Protests
By REUTERS
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/world/europe/30britain.html?ref=world
7) In U.S. Sting Operations, Questions of Entrapment
By ERIC SCHMITT and CHARLIE SAVAGE
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/politics/30fbi.html?ref=us
8) The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook
By SUSAN DOMINUS
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30bigcity.html?ref=nyregion
9) Unemployment Rises in Europe
By DAVID JOLLY
November 30, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/business/global/01euro.html?ref=business
10) For Immediate Release
12/2/2010
For more information: Joe Lombardo, 518-281-1968,
UNACpeace@gmail.org, NationalPeaceConference.org
11) Here Come Homeland Security Internet Police, and They're Already Shutting Down Web Sites They Don't Like
By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, AlterNet
Posted on December 3, 2010, Printed on December 3, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/149059/
12) N.Y.C. Misdemeanor Defendants Lack Bail Money
By MOSI SECRET
December 2, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03bail.html?_r=1&hp
13) Mehersle Bail Hearing/Oscar Grant Protesters in Court!
by Sis Marpessa on Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:58am
From: Justice for Oscar Grant via Email
* * * Please distribute widely & post as Event / apologies for duplicates * * *
14) Disappointing Job Growth in U.S. as Jobless Rate Hits 9.8%
By MOTOKO RICH
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/business/economy/04jobs.html?hp
15) Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients
By MARC LACEY
December 2, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/us/03transplant.html?ref=us
16) WikiLeaks Founder Says Guards Against Death Threats
By REUTERS
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/12/03/technology/tech-us-wikileaks-assange.html?src=busln
17) When it comes to Assange rape case, the Swedes are making it up as they go along
By Melbourne barrister James D. Catlin, who acted for Julian Assange in London in October.
December 2, 2010
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/02/when-it-comes-to-assange-r-pe-case-the-swedes-are-making-it-up-as-they-go-along/
18) FBI Delivers Subpoenas to More Anti-War, Solidarity Activists
Friday, December 03, 2010
[StopFBI-National] More subpoenas today - make these calls NOW!
For more information on the case: www.stopfbi.net
StopFBI mailing list
StopFBI@organizerweb.com
http://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/stopfbi
19) Millions Bracing for Cutoff of Unemployment Aid
By MICHAEL LUO, KIM SEVERSON, DAVID HERSZENHORN and ROBBIE BROWN
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/us/04unemployed.html?hp
20) Spain Air Travel Disrupted by Strike
By RAPHAEL MINDER
December 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/world/europe/05spain.html?hp
21) Counts in Haiti of Cholera Cases and Victims Could Be Doubled
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/world/americas/04briefs-Haiti.html?ref=world
22) Lebanon: Hezbollah Reports Finding Israeli Device Spying on Network
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/world/middleeast/04briefs-Lebanon.html?ref=world
23) BP Is Planning to Challenge Estimates of Oil Spill
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/science/earth/04bp.html?ref=us
24) Nigeria: Village Raid Shows Dangers in Oil Delta
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/04/business/AP-AF-Nigeria-Oil-Unrest.html?src=busln
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act
By Ellen Nakashima and Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 30, 2010; 12:13 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112905973.html
Federal authorities are investigating whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange violated criminal laws in the group's release of government documents, including possible charges under the Espionage Act, sources familiar with the inquiry said Monday.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department and Pentagon are conducting "an active, ongoing criminal investigation.'' Others familiar with the probe said the FBI is examining everyone who came into possession of the documents, including those who gave the materials to WikiLeaks and also the organization itself. No charges are imminent, the sources said, and it is unclear whether any will be brought.
Former prosecutors cautioned that prosecutions involving leaked classified information are difficult because the Espionage Act is a 1917 statute that preceded Supreme Court cases that expanded First Amendment protections. The government also would have to persuade another country to turn over Assange, who is outside the United States.
But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is rapidly unfolding, said charges could be filed under the act. The U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria - which in 2005 brought Espionage Act charges, now dropped, against two former pro-Israel lobbyists - is involved in the effort, the sources said.
The Pentagon is leading the investigation and it remains unclear whether any additional charges would be brought in the military or civilian justice systems. Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst suspected of being the source of the WikiLeaks documents, was arrested by the military this year.
Holder was asked Monday how the United States could prosecute Assange, who is an Australian citizen. "Let me be very clear," he replied. "It is not saber rattling.
"To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Holder continued, "we will move to close those gaps, which is not to say . . . that anybody at this point, because of their citizenship or their residence, is not a target or a subject of an investigation that's ongoing." He did not indicate that Assange is being investigated for possible violations of the Espionage Act.
Although the Justice Department has taken the position that media organizations could be prosecuted for printing leaked classified information under the legislation, that prospect is unlikely because of official aversion to running afoul of the First Amendment, experts said. Indeed, the Justice Department has never brought such a case, they said.
"Whenever you're talking about a media organization, the department is going to look very closely to ensure that any prosecution doesn't undermine the valid First Amendment functioning of the press," said Kenneth Wainstein, former assistant attorney general in the national security division.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Justice Department and Pentagon are conducting "an active, ongoing criminal investigation.'' Others familiar with the probe said the FBI is examining everyone who came into possession of the documents, including those who gave the materials to WikiLeaks and also the organization itself. No charges are imminent, the sources said, and it is unclear whether any will be brought.
Former prosecutors cautioned that prosecutions involving leaked classified information are difficult because the Espionage Act is a 1917 statute that preceded Supreme Court cases that expanded First Amendment protections. The government also would have to persuade another country to turn over Assange, who is outside the United States.
But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is rapidly unfolding, said charges could be filed under the act. The U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria - which in 2005 brought Espionage Act charges, now dropped, against two former pro-Israel lobbyists - is involved in the effort, the sources said.
The Pentagon is leading the investigation and it remains unclear whether any additional charges would be brought in the military or civilian justice systems. Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst suspected of being the source of the WikiLeaks documents, was arrested by the military this year.
Holder was asked Monday how the United States could prosecute Assange, who is an Australian citizen. "Let me be very clear," he replied. "It is not saber rattling.
"To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Holder continued, "we will move to close those gaps, which is not to say . . . that anybody at this point, because of their citizenship or their residence, is not a target or a subject of an investigation that's ongoing." He did not indicate that Assange is being investigated for possible violations of the Espionage Act.
Although the Justice Department has taken the position that media organizations could be prosecuted for printing leaked classified information under the legislation, that prospect is unlikely because of official aversion to running afoul of the First Amendment, experts said. Indeed, the Justice Department has never brought such a case, they said.
"Whenever you're talking about a media organization, the department is going to look very closely to ensure that any prosecution doesn't undermine the valid First Amendment functioning of the press," said Kenneth Wainstein, former assistant attorney general in the national security division.
But, said former federal prosecutor Baruch Weiss, that statute raises difficulties of its own. "How do you prove that a particular cable about secret negotiations with Russia was dangerous to national security? You have to disclose more classified information to explain to the jury the damage brought about by the disclosure," he said.
Perhaps the most significant issue is the Constitution's protection of people's right to speak freely and to exchange ideas.
"If the government were to prosecute the person who received and disseminated the classified information - as opposed to the individual who leaked it from within the government - mainstream media would express the concern that they could face prosecution for reporting information they routinely receive from government insiders," Wainstein said.
Fundamentally, Weiss said, the WikiLeaks case "is not about the disclosure of troop movements to al-Qaeda or giving the recipe for the plutonium bomb to North Korea. This is the widespread publication of information that is important in determining the future policy of the United States, that could be very important for people in assessing how well our government is doing its job. It's a good example of the problems created by the First Amendment clashing with criminal law, the law protecting national defense information."
All the experts agreed that it may be difficult for the United States to gain access to Assange, who apparently has avoided traveling to the country. Most nations' extradition treaties exempt crimes viewed as political. "I can imagine a lot of Western allies would view this not as a criminal act, but as a political act," said Weiss, who was on the legal team that defended the two former pro-Israel lobbyists.
Assange's legal pursuers are not confined to the United States. The International Criminal Police Organization issued an arrest warrant this month for Assange, who is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of rape and sexual harassment. Interpol, which is based in Lyon, France, said it had received the warrant from Swedish police, according to wire service and newspaper reports.
Assange has proclaimed his innocence and suggested the accusations are part of a U.S.-orchestrated smear campaign to undercut WikiLeaks' prestige.
In addition to vowing to hold WikiLeaks to account, the administration also instituted new measures to try to prevent leaks.
Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob J. Lew instructed government departments and agencies to ensure that users of classified information networks do not have broader access than is necessary to do their jobs, and to restrict the use of removable media such as CDs or flash drives on such networks.
OMB, the federal Information Security Oversight Office and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will evaluate aid the agencies in their efforts to strengthen classified information security, Lew said.
The White House move in turn comes a day after the Pentagon announced similar steps to bolster network security following a review ordered by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in August.
"Protecting information critical to our nation's security is the responsibility of each individual who is granted access to classified information," Lew said in his memo. "Any unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a violation of our law and compromises our national security."
But lawmakers and national security experts have chided the administration for not moving long ago to shore up network security. The U.S. military has been investigating Manning for months because of suspicions that he passed large amounts of classified material to WikiLeaks.
"There's been a great deal of attention paid to this issue for a long time and a lot of work has been done," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. "It's an ongoing process."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Workers hopscotch across USA for temp checks
By Jere Downs, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
November 30, 2010
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-26-amazon-temporary-workers_N.htm
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Amazon.com has what many migrant workers want for the holidays: a job.
Hard-up retirees and unemployed workers with children have converged on this rural town in RVs and campers to spend a few months earning $10 an hour filling orders at an Amazon warehouse.
Amazon offers a free place to park and plug in. When work ends Christmas Eve, the campers pull out.
Many have lost their homes and live on the road, home schooling their children along the way. Others are retirees who had planned to see the country but now work along the way to supplement depleted investments. Those not old enough for Medicare typically lack insurance.
"We are among the economic refugees. We are lucky to earn enough to get our laundry done and eat macaroni and cheese," said April McFail, 52. "I think it says America needs something different. This is supposed to be freedom and a good life. Now it is a sad note."
McFail's husband, Terry, lost his job last year at Dow Chemical earning $18 hourly in southern Michigan. They lost their home to foreclosure in May. Pooling $8,000 in savings, they purchased a 1987 Winnebago and hit the road. They worked as campground hosts in South Dakota for the summer, arriving in September to begin work at Amazon.
A short time later, April McFail's diabetes forced her to quit the Amazon job. She could not manage 10-hour shifts four days a week lifting packages up to 30 pounds each. Health care benefits left over from her husband's job at Dow expire Tuesday.
'Amazon Gypsies'
Lunchboxes in hand, "Amazon Gypsies" walk down the hill to work from the company camp built on a gravel parking lot next to an auto junkyard. A nearby state park extended its hours through Christmas at Amazon's request.
Amazon pays campsite rental, water, sewer and electric. Some campers choose to save their propane and rely on electric blankets and heaters to stay warm at night.
Blankets cover the windows of the Wicklane family's 1997 Fleetwood camper. An electric space heater whirrs on the worn linoleum floor. After losing an electrician's job and a house in Florida last year, Kurt Wicklane found work unloading Amazon trucks in Kentucky to feed two daughters, ages 3 and 9, and a son, 5.
"My grandmother keeps calling me and asking me when are going to come back home" to Tampa, Heather Wicklane, 27, said while her children played outside their trailer at Green River Lake State Park. "I tell her we are home."
Around the clock, an estimated 500 "work campers" from Florida, Texas, Michigan and elsewhere supplement 3,000 temporary Amazon staff covering three shifts sorting, wrapping, stacking and packing holiday orders. Year-round, Amazon employs 1,200 full time in Campbellsville, a 90-minute drive south of Louisville.
The world's largest online retailer has long struggled to fill thousands of seasonal jobs in this town of just 11,000, said Ron McMahan, executive director of the Campbellsville Taylor County Economic Development Authority.
The state park would typically close Oct. 30. But it was upgraded with frost-proof utilities to accommodate the Amazonians, as the company calls its workers, with $48,000 in state funds, McMahan said. Amazon pays the state park $18 per night for each site occupied by workers, said Gil Lawson, spokesman for the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, which oversees state parks.
With the help of local landowners willing to open more new campgrounds, Amazon may expand its work camper ranks to 1,600 slots next year, McMahan added.
"We will need more people who are willing to do whatever it takes to pay the bills," McMahan said of the work camper phenomenon. "This is economic development for us."
Idea isn't new
Nationwide, up to 500,000 people work while living in their RVs, said Steve Anderson, editor of Workamper News, a journal based in Heber Springs, Ark. The recession has added to their ranks, he said.
Meanwhile, baby boomers are retiring and taking to the road.
"Amazon realized this was something they need to pursue," Anderson said. The company places ads in his journal for work camper jobs at warehouses in rural Nevada and Kansas, in addition to Kentucky.
Work campers have long worked as campground hosts - greeting guests and cleaning up for a free campsite and utilities - in state and national parks. As the recession has deepened, these migrant campers have becoming increasingly crucial.
In Idaho last summer, work campers kept the state's 30 park campgrounds operational after budget cuts resulted in the layoff of 27 full-time state park employees, said Kathryn Hampton, volunteer services coordinator for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.
Work campers said they also rely on amusement parks, Christmas tree lots and pumpkin patches for seasonal work. Near the Las Vegas strip, the Clark County Shooting Park is seeking 30 work campers who can park free in exchange for guiding police and tourists at the gun range.
"Less than half of all work campers consider themselves retired, with the median age being 53," Anderson estimates.
Lifeboat on wheels
The RV that Joshua Lindsey, 35, his wife and three children call home is "their lifeboat," said the former stockbroker and real estate investor. Before losing everything in St. Petersburg, Fla., in the market crash of 2008, Lindsey said he earned more than six figures annually.
Now, working the graveyard shift at Amazon for three months "will provide my kids Christmas this year and food for the table and a means to get through to the spring, when there are a lot more jobs available."
More common among work campers are people like Bill and Dorothy Judge, longtime retirees and RVers working now because their investment incomes have declined.
They live in a $275,000 Winnebago Vectra, a gleaming, top-of-the-line, spacious RV that logs 7 miles to the gallon. Still, Bill Judge, 72, said he took a graveyard shift at Amazon in hopes of earning up to $9,000 in four months. That will buy new tires for the RV at $600 apiece and finance upcoming trips.
The Seattle-based couple has lived the RV lifestyle since 1994, living on pensions acquired from union jobs at Boeing and service in the U.S. Air Force. To cope with less investment income, the couple said they often stay for free overnight in Wal-Mart parking lots.
"I did not imagine I would be working in a warehouse job in my retirement. I have not worked since 1994," Judge said.
Come Christmas Eve, demand online will wither for books, DVDs, kitchenware, toys, apparel, sporting goods, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items. That is the last day work campers say they expect to have jobs at Amazon.
The Wicklanes, camped beside Green River Lake, don't know where the next job will be. They plan to hunker down for Christmas.
"It would take a day to drive anywhere," Kurt Wicklane said of family far away in Florida. "We may as well sit tight."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant
contact Tiah Starr 562.276.3193
11.29.10
for immediate release
VIA Email
Press Conference:
2pm, Tuesday, 11/30, at the Justice Department L.A. headquarters at 312 north Spring St., the Los Angeles Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant joins the family of Oscar Grant and the Oakland community in condemning the cynical bail request and appeal by convicted killer ex-cop Johannes Mehserle after being found guilty by a L.A. jury of killing unarmed Oscar Grant, and sentenced to less than the minimum 2 years by racist judge Robert Perry. The bail hearing is 8:30am Friday at L.A. Criminal Court 210 w. Temple st.
We insist that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder immediately file federal charges against Mehserle, his cohorts and protectors, for the vivid and vicious violation of the civil and human rights of Oscar Grant and his friends New Year's Day following the Obama election. Judge Perry can not be permitted to release Mehserle, who himself maintains the L.A. jury was "wrong" to convict him at all. Perry should be removed from the court for his openly and historically biased and admittedly erroneous judication.
We demand that L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley file criminal perjury charges against Mehserle for fabricating the twisted "Taser" alibi, which our jury clearly rejected in assigning the gun enhancement, which Perry arbitrarily dismissed. We further demand Cooley file criminal murder charges against recent LAPD killer cops Hernandez and Castaneda for killing unarmed Manuel Jamines Xum and James Davis III. We condemn the vendetta killing of unarmed Derrick Jones by Oakland Police, hours after the Mehserle sentenced greenlighted police retribution. Finally we demand an end to the steady police harrasment and all charges dropped agsinst the L.A. Black Riders and Oakland activists for peacefully demonstrating for Justice for Oscar Grant.
The Justice Department must take immediate action to break this systemic assault on workers and oppressed peoples, or be held itself accountable for every measure of peoples' self-defense. An injury to one is an injury to all!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) U.S. Facing Global Diplomatic Crisis Following Massive WikiLeaks Release of Secret Diplomatic Cables
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
http://www.democracynow.org/
The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun releasing a giant trove of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that is sending shockwaves through the global diplomatic establishment. Among the findings: Arab leaders are urging the United States to attack Iran; Washington and Yemen agreed to cover up the use of U.S. warplanes to bomb Yemen; the United States is using its embassies around the world as part of a global spy network and asking diplomats to gather intelligence; and much more. We host a roundtable discussion with Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg; Greg Mitchell, who writes the Media Fix blog at The Nation; Carne Ross, a British diplomat for 15 years who resigned before the Iraq war; and As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus.
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower.
Carne Ross, a British diplomat for 15 years who resigned before the Iraq war. He is the founder and head of a non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat
Greg Mitchell, writes the Media Fix blog for The Nation. He was the longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine and is the author of 10 books including The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics.
As'ad Abu Khalil, professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC, Berkeley. He's the author of "The Battle for Saudi Arabia" and runs the Angry Arab News Service blog.
AMY GOODMAN: The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun releasing a giant trove of confidential American diplomatic cables that's sending shockwaves through the global diplomatic establishment. The more than a quarter million classified cables were sent by U.S. embassies around the world, most of them in the past three years. WikiLeaks provided the documents to five newspapers in advance: the New York Times, the London Guardian, Germany's Der Spiegel, France's La Monde and Spain's El Paiz. The revelations in the cables are extensive and varied.
Among the findings, Arab leaders are privately urging the United States to conduct air strikes on Iran; in particular, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly called on U.S. to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program, reportedly calling on American officials to "cut off the head of the snake". Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, also said they support a U.S. attack. The cables also highlight Israel's anxiety to preserve its regional nuclear monopoly; it's readiness to 'go it alone' against Iran, and its attempts to influence American policy. The cables also name Saudi donors as the biggest financiers of Sunni militant groups like Al-Qaeda. The cables also provide a detailed account of an agreement between Washington and Yemen to cover up the use of U.S. warplanes to bomb targets in Yemen. One cable records that during a meeting in January with General David Petraeus, the Yemeni president Abdallah Saleh said, "We will continue saying these are our bombs, not yours."
Among the biggest revelations is how the U.S. uses its embassies around the world as part of a global spy network. U.S. diplomats are asked to obtain information from the foreign dignitaries they meet including frequent flier numbers, credit card details, and even DNA material. The United Nations is also a target of the espionage with one cable listing the information-gathering priorities to American staff at the UN headquarters in New York. The roughly half a dozen cables from 2008 and 2009 detailing the more aggressive intelligence collection were signed by Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. The New York Times says the directives, quote: "Appear to blur the traditional boundaries between statesmen and spies." The cables also reveal that U.S. officials sharply warned Germany in 2007 not to enforce arrest warrants for CIA officers involved in an operation in which an innocent German citizen with the same name as a suspected militant was abducted and held for months in Afghanistan. The cables also document suspicion of corruption in the Afghan government. One cable alleges that Afghan vice president Zia Massoud was carrying fifty two million dollars in cash when stopped during a visit to the United Arab Emirates. Only 220 cables were published by WikiLeaks on it's website on Sunday with hundreds of thousands more to come. The Obama administration has been warning allies about the expected leaks since last week. A statement from the White House on Sunday said, "We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information." It also said the disclosure of the cables could, "deeply impact not only U.S. foreign policy interests, but those of our allies and friends around the world."
For more, I'm joined for this hour by four guests Carne Ross is with us, he is a British diplomat for fifteen years who resigned before the Iraq war. He's the founder and head of a non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat. He is joining me here in New York in our studios along with Greg Mitchell who writes the Media Fix blog for the Nation. And before that was the longtime editor of Editor and Publisher Magazine. Joining me via Democracy Now! Video Stream is Daniel Ellsberg, perhaps the countries most famous whistleblower, he leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. We are also joined by As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor of political science at California State University Stanislaus, and visiting professor at UC Berkeley. He is author of The Battle for Saudi Arabia and runs the Angry Arab News Server blog. Daniel Ellsberg, we're going to begin with you. We were talking to you on October 20 at Democracy Now! when you were headed to London to participate in the WikiLeaks news conference on the release of close to 400,000 documents. What are your thoughts today?
DANIEL ELLSBERG: Well, this is totally a process and this stage of the process has just begun. It's going to go on day after day. We have seen one out of one thousand so far of the cables that WikiLeaks is prepared to release. So it's very early to judge, really, the value or the dangers, if any, of releasing that. Back in October when we were releasing or when he was releasing I think it was the Afghan documents at that point, they were still new to the process, and I think they made some mistakes in terms of releasing some names that they shouldn't have released at that time and were properly criticized for that. As a result, it appears that the last batch before this one was redacted fairly heavily by Assange- by WikiLeaks- with the result that when the Pentagon said that there were 300 names that were endangered by that release, they said right away, based on their own files and their own knowledge of the cables, it turned out within a couple of days that WikiLeaks had released none of those names, that none of those had been redacted. They were not endangered. The upshot right now appears to be that as of now, with the hundreds of thousands of documents that WikiLeaks has put out, the Pentagon has had to acknowledge that not one single informant or soldier has been endangered. In fact, they have not even felt the need to protect one or inform one that he or she was in danger. So that risk, which we're hearing again, now, right now has obviously been very largely overblown and is a lot of blather.
AMY GOODMAN: Greg Mitchell, you've been tweeting this since it came out yesterday- 1:30 in the afternoon on Sunday Eastern Standard Time- the beginning of the release of the documents. First of all, talk about their significance, what they are; what are the different places they are from?
GREG MITCHELL: Well there from 79 different embassies from around the world, so it really is quite unprecedented. And as Dan said, the way this is different from the previous WikiLeaks, when they came out on the Iraq war and on Afghanistan those were basically one-day stories. There were gigantic document dumps, got massive media coverage for a day or so and then it was pretty much over. This is gonna be emerging over the next nine days, for example in the New York Times, and WikiLeaks on their own site has said it's gonna on for months. So it is a little early to say exactly what the effects are gonna be what the down side might be and the revelations are already quite significant. We already see in some of the outlets are summarizing some of the revelations yet to come. So when you read, even some of the things you read at the top of the hour, they're actually not cables that have been released yet, but some of the media outlets are kind of previewing what's coming.
AMY GOODMAN: Interestingly, there is a file on BitTorrent- in case the full release doesn't go forward for some reason. The files are encrypted, but all that is needed to decrypt it is a pass phrase, which will be released in the worst-case scenario.
GREG MITCHELL: What is also different about this release is that even the previous leaks, WikiLeaks worked closely with news organizations. But here they gave the news organizations these files very early on and news organizations, at least the _New York Times, have gone to the administration, it's run names pass the State Department and has redacted many of the documents, which then WikiLeaks has then taken redacted documents and these are among the over 200 they've already posted. So, in a sense, WikiLeaks is letting the news media help them in making sure these documents are safe. So, I would imagine that as they emerge, there is going to be even fewer worries about what might be in them and that might have been in the past.
[music break]
AMY GOODMAN: Admiral Mike Mullen, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has previously accused WikiLeaks of having blood on its hands was on CNN's GPS on Sunday. This was his response when host Fareed Zakaria asked him if WikiLeaks latest document release endangers American troops.
MIKE MULLEN: So it's not just American troops, but it also endangers the lives of other individuals that we have engaged in our, uh, in our overall efforts, whether they be in Afghanistan or other countries. So I think is a very, very dangerous precedent. What I don't think those who are in charge of WikiLeaks understand is we live in a world where just a little bitty piece of information can be added to a network of information and really open up, uh, an understanding that just wasn't there before. So it continues to be extremely dangerous and I would hope that those who are responsible for this would at some point in time think about the responsibility they have four lives, that they're exposing, uh, and the potential there, and stop leaking this information.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Admiral Mike Mullen. Dan Ellsberg, your response?
DANIEL ELLSBERG: First of all, we have Admiral Mullen there who is the interesting position of sending American troops- men and women- into harm's way. So when it comes to blood on hands, he's really has got a lot to answer for. From another point of view, he's quite an expert on that. At the same time, you have to realize that he has almost unlimited resources on his side to minimize that damage by assigning people to find out who is in danger in these documents. He has had months and months to look at them and how to protect them. His command in Kabul has reported they have not felt it necessary to protect or inform any individual, nor has any individual been harmed. And you can believe that if their plumber's operation- to the tune of more than 100 men working on this- had been able to find one mutilated body, that one would be on the cover of Newsweek by now. So we've had a pretty good test of how well the process of sanitizing these documents by the newspapers- and by WikiLeaks- has operated and the answer is, the proof is in the pudding: No harm has been done; Admiral Mullen's fears are groundless.
AMY GOODMAN: Carne Ross, you were a British diplomat for fifteen years, you resigned before the Iraq War, you now have founded and are head of a non-profit diplomatic advisory group called Independent Diplomat. These are diplomatic cables. Talk about the significance of what they are and the fact they have been exposed and what you found the most interesting.
CARNE ROSS: I think this is an extraordinary and colossal event that will have a profound affect on the discourse- the practice- of diplomacy. I don't think it's at all clear that one can say they've not caused harm or have caused harm. This will have effects. There will probably be good affects and there will probably be bad affects when this amount of information is dumped into the public sphere- information that was hitherto confidential. This will have political and perhaps security effects as well.
What this means is I think it will be very difficult for American diplomats henceforward to practice diplomacy. I think the fact these cables have come out will mean other diplomats will find it harder to share confidences with American diplomats. It also, I suspect, will mean that American diplomats will forebear from putting the most sensitive and juicy material into telegrams, or at least those telegrams will be given a much narrower distribution than they have hitherto. That will have, of course, negative effects for the operational effectiveness of the U.S. government, and perhaps also for the WikiLeaks and historians of the future who want to find out what the U.S. government and its diplomats were actually doing or thinking. So I think this will be very, very significant in the long term. It will ramify in all sorts of different ways.
AMY GOODMAN: In the United States, the mainstream media is basically just talking about the ways this will damage the United States, yet you- a British diplomat- are saying this could be beneficial. Why?
CARNE ROSS: Well, I resigned from the Foreign Office over the Iraq War. People were not told the truth about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. I was our Iraq expert at the UN Security Council for many years. I personally think that far too much in diplomacy is kept secret. There is this kind of-
AMY GOODMAN: And you testified.
CARNE ROSS: I did. I've testified twice at two official inquiries. Uh-
AMY GOODMAN: And presented information about weapons of mass destruction.
CARNE ROSS: Yes. And when I first presented it, I was attacked by my government. Now what I said is more or less accepted as, you know, the understood truth of what happened- you know, the government did not tell the truth about WMD, they ignored all available alternatives to war. The trouble with all of this is we tend to place government in this sort of superior, elite position; that they know things we do not know; that governments are entitled to know things that the public do not know. I think the balance is way too far in the government's favor. Far more information should be released and made transparent. I'm not sure, however, that the way WikiLeaks has done this is the right way. This is a very random, blunt instrument to attack the problem of a lack of transparency of government. This should ideally be done through the mechanisms of democratic accountability. Of course, it's not been done that way so far. Hence, WikiLeaks.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about Yemen. The revelations around Yemen.
CARNE ROSS: [unintelligible] there will be very, very many unhappy people in the government right now. The telegram recording General Petraeus's conversation with President Saleh is hugely damaging to the government of Yemen and it makes clear that U.S. aircraft and UAV's are carrying out strikes inside Yemen against Al-Qaeda- or militants perhaps, we don't know who they are. But the Yemeni government is claiming these strikes as its own. The fact the U.S. is doing this, and that this has now been confirmed- many people speculated that this was the case, because Yemen itself didn't have this capability- but the fact that this is now confirmed in writing is enormously damaging to the Yemen government.
AMY GOODMAN: And have the Yemeni vice-president saying that he then lied to his parliament about this as well.
CARNE ROSS: Yes. Yemen is not exactly a perfect democracy, to say the least, so whether the fact that he lied to his parliament is a major revelation or not, I leave to others to judge. But the fact that U.S. air strikes are confirmed inside the country will enormously increase the pressure on the Yemeni government. That is one of the many, many ways that these telegrams- the release of these telegrams- will ramify, frankly in unpredictable ways.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's talk about- since he worked at the UN Security Council- let's talk about the cables. From Condoleezza Rice, previous Secretary of State, to Hillary Clinton- basically ordering diplomats around the world-
CARNE ROSS: From Clinton to Rice, actually. From Secretary of State Clinton to Ambassador Rice at the UN.
AMY GOODMAN: Ah, continue.
CARNE ROSS: This is a standard instruction telegrams from Washington to the USG- all of these telegrams are signed off "Clinton". This shouldn't be seen as a sort of personal message by Hillary Clinton- all instruction telegrams from Washington will be signed off with the name of the secretary of state, so that's not a very big deal. What this telegram sets out is a long list of intelligence requirements for the U.S. at the UN which is, frankly, an extremely exhaustive list- right down to the activities of NGO's in preventing AIDS or affecting the policies of the UN. So it's a very, very comprehensive list.
The fact the U.S. is trying to gather intelligence information at the UN, frankly, is not a very big revelation. I mean, everybody is spying on everybody else at the UN, including on Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The British Development Secretary Claire Short, who also resigned over the Iraq War, has said publicly that the UK authorities were bugging the phones of Kofi Annan when he was Secretary General. So I don't think that this will come as a great revelation to people at the UN. It will, however, be rather embarrassing for the U.S. diplomats currently practicing at the UN.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's really talk specifically- for people who are waking up this morning and have not heard anything about this- the kind of spying they're talking about. I'm looking at The Guardian, one of the participants in the WikiLeaks release, "Washington running a secret intelligence campaign targeted at the leadership of the United Nations, including Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the permanent Security Council representatives from China, Russia, France, and the U.K. The classified directive which appears to blur the lines between diplomacy and spying was issued to U.S. diplomats under Hillary Clinton's name in July 2009, demanding forensic technical details about the communication systems used by top UN officials including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications. It called for detailed biometric information on key UN officials to include undersecretaries, heads of specialized agencies and their chief advisers, top SIG- that's Secretary General Aides- heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders, as well as intelligence on Ban's management and decision making style and his influence on the secretariat. A parallel intelligence directive sent to diplomats sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and biometric data including DNA, fingerprints and iris scans."
CARNE ROSS: Yes, such is the nature of modern intelligence gathering. But the fact that the U.S. has this list of intelligence requirements of the UN I don't think would be any great surprise. The fact that The Guardian claims this is an enormous revelation seems to me rather a pretense- we are not babes in the woods. States spy on each other. They're going to spy on the UN. What the Secretary General and his senior officials say is of interest to states, so they're going to do that.
AMY GOODMAN: This does include cables from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, from Hillary Clinton, Republicans and Democrats alike. So a diplomat in another country who invites an ambassador, a president to the U.S. Embassy for tea, then that president is wondering if when they drink the tea their DNA is going to be taken.
CARNE ROSS: Well that's a new twist on the intelligence. I agree, it is rather extraordinary. I can't quite myself see how your saliva on a coffee cup is going help you learn the intentions of the UN or the government of country xyz. It's a rather extraordinary thing and I would be interested to find out how, in fact, that process works. But the fact that the U.S. is collecting this data, I do not think we should all be surprised about this.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, you are a diplomat, I think people in the public would be rather surprised. Greg Mitchell, what is your take on this?
GREG MITCHELL: It's interesting how the different news outlets have handled it. As you mentioned, in The Guardian it's one of their featured articles, and it went into great detail about the UN angle. Whereas The New York Times had a much, much less detailed, softer, gentler version of that. Maybe The New York Times is trying say that they are not babes in the woods, and that they know this is going on. It's hard for me to believe-
AMY GOODMAN: The just stuck with the iris scans, didn't mention the fingerprints and the biometrics.
GREG MITCHELL: Right, it's hard for me to believe that the long list of this is not something that is new- the full extent of it. And as someone pointed out, even if it's not that shocking, it must be exhausting asking these diplomats around the world to do this work instead of the important work they're supposed to be doing. They have a long checklist to go through of what they're supposed to do to contribute to this intelligence gathering.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring in As'ad AbuKhalil into this conversation. Professor of political science at California State Stanislaus, visiting professor at UC Berkeley, he is the author of the book The Battle for Saudi Arabia which is what I want to go to that right now. The diplomatic cables around Saudi Arabia calling for the attacking of Iran. Can you summarize what the cables said, and then your response?
AS'AD ABUKHALIL: Much of the cables about Saudi Arabia shows a very high degree of control by the U.S. government over the policy decisions made in Saudi Arabia. At one point, there is an American specific request, issuing what reads like a command, asking the Saudi government to go to China and to undertake a certain mission on behalf of the United States vis-à-vis the situation in Iran. I think the extent to which the Saudi government- and all Arab governments in the Gulf- are embarrassed by these leaks, is evidenced by the clampdown that is being exhibited throughout the Saudi-controlled Arab media. And even the so-called "independent" Al Jazeera- which is, contrary to it's reputation here in the West, is the most serious news organization in Yemeni- is also trying to cover up the embarrassing revelations about the way Arab governments operate vis-à-vis the United States. You have to take into consideration much of the discussions and the utterances and the statements that are made by Arab leaders at the highest levels of these documents are in direct contradiction with their publicly declared policies, which are made in Arabic to their people`.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask, As'ad AbuKhalil, if you could go a little closer to your computer so we can hear you more clearly. As'ad AbuKhalil, again is a professor of visiting at UC Berkeley, he is the author of The Battle for Saudi Arabia, and he runs the Angry Arab News Service blog. If you could now continue with exactly what was said by Saudi Arabia in conversation with who in the U.S.?
AS'AD ABUKHALIL: There is more than one conversation revealed in those documents. I've read all those pertaining to the Middle East, and for example, there's one discussion conducted between the king of Saudi Arabia- who rarely has these kinds of discussions even with his counterparts in the region. But he is willing to meet with the relatively lower ranking official, say, of the Department of Homeland Security. And the discussion goes on about a variety of issues related to what is of interest to American government.
What is very striking to me, for example: take the issue of human rights. I read what was released yesterday, and I am not struck, really. The U.S. government does not bring up human rights except in one meeting between American congressional delegation and the Syrian president. At one point, the Syrian president told them what amounts to, "What about Saudi Arabia?" Because in a meeting between an American official from Homeland Security and the Saudi King, not only does that American official not bring up the human rights violations in the most oppressive governments, bar none, in the entire region- and that is Saudi Arabia- but he even goes on, on behalf of the U.S. government, to praise the King for the human rights improvement and reform- ostensibly reforms- that has been going on in the kingdom. You also see, for example, in the same meeting, the Saudi King brings up the issue and the various restrictions on travelers from Saudi Arabia into the United States. And the King tells him that it is very embarrassing for him- before friends and foes alike- because it gives the impression the United States and Saudi Arabia are not that close as allies. And of course the American official goes on to underline the extent to which the two countries are very close to each other.
What is very striking about all these documents on the Middle East is that the Arab people are not going to be surprised that much. They all along have known that they are ruled by a bunch of liars and deceivers who go to extra lengths to appease and please the United States. What is going to be particularly revealing are the details that show the lengths to which these rulers go in order to please the United States. And we find that they are not capable of making independent decisions. Whatever the instincts of the United States are, those rulers go along with them and, in fact, they seem to compete with one another. For example, in showing how much they are hostile towards Iran. You see, for example, the second person in the United Arab Emirates- a guy who is very influential there- goes on to encourage the United States not only to attack Iran in a variety of sites, but to prepare for a land invasion.
I should also say, what is revealing in the documents also is the utter stupidity of those rulers who, in many of these conversations, seem to think that the United States government really listens to their advice, that they really consult with them on a regular basis, as if they are waiting for the opinion of the Egyptian President or the Saudi King before they reach their decision. And I think they seem to want to flatter themselves, because the kind of relation between these protectorates- and I call them protectorates because that's what they were, say, in the era of the British Empire- it seems they have not advanced that much in approaching a level of sovereignty that has characterized membership in the United Nations.
On the question of Israel, what people are going to notice is the extent to which there is a close correlation between the Israeli government and the American government on all issues pertaining to the Middle East- including Pakistan- and the extent to which that kind of coordination is absent in these discussions between the American officials and the Israelis. I should also say that we have seen documents in which the opinions of the Head of the Mossad Dagan were detailed in an American cable. It is also striking, the extent to which the head of the Mossad- a highly touted organization- does not seem to have that many insights or information or analysis that is insightful about what is happening in the Middle East. Certainly, the location of Israel is extremely high in the esteem of the United States, but the low esteem to which the Arab governments are held by U.S. officials is quite apparent in these documents.
AMY GOODMAN: In particular, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly calling on the U.S. to attack Iran, to destroy its nuclear program, and reportedly calling on American officials to, "Cut off the head of the snake." Now the King is actually in New York, is that right, for back surgery?
AS'AD ABUKHALIL: Right. He is going to be there for a few weeks and I think he will be able to see what his media is not showing- the extent to which these revelations are dominating international media. I should also add, the extent to which they're dominating the underground media, or the new media of the Middle East- Twitter and Facebook- all of them are discussing from the Arab world what is happening, and many are commenting about the irony. Yesterday, the main Saudi news organization, Arabia, kept promising viewers the leak of the document was imminent: "Ten minutes from now, we're going to see all these documents!" And then once the documents were out, there was complete silence in that news organization. They figured that all these documentations are, in fact, an utter embarrassment to the image of their ruler the they try so hard to prop up in the eyes of the public. I think the Arab public today woke up wiser than before, more cynical than before, and certainly more critical of the government. You see all these governments competing, trying to bring up the issue of Iranian nuclear weapons. Not a single Arab leader in those discussions brought up the issue of the massive Israeli WMD program that has been going on for decades. They don't dare bring it up.
AMY GOODMAN: As'ad AbuKhalil, teaches at University of California Berkeley. We are talking about this massive WikiLeaks leak, up to 250,000 documents being released over the next few weeks. We're going to break and then come back to this discussion.
[music break]
AMY GOODMAN: We continue on this historic release, unprecedented release, of diplomatic cables that is happening over the next weeks or months, the total believed to be over 250,000. It has been released by WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website. My guests for the hour are Dan Ellsberg who is the premier whistleblower in the United States, released the Pentagon Papers 39 years ago or 40 years ago. He worked as a high-level official in the Pentagon. He had top security clearance which is how he got the documents and also worked for the Rand Corporation. We're also joined by As'ad AbuKhalil, a professor from University of California system. Greg Mitchell is with us from The Nation magazine and we are also joined by Carne Ross. Carne Ross is a former British diplomat who quit over the Iraq war.
Daniel Ellsberg, I wanted to go back to you to get you to comment on Democratic Senator John Kerry's comments on WikiLeaks- the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. He called the release reckless and said "This is not an academic exercise about freedom of information and it is not akin to the release of the Pentagon Papers, which involved an analysis aimed at saving American lives and exposing government deception. Instead, these sensitive cables contain candid assessments and analysis of ongoing matters and they should remain confidential to protect the ability of the government to conduct lawful business with a private candor that is vital to effective diplomacy." Dan Ellsberg, your response?
DANIEL ELLSBERG: Oh, blah. Senator Kerry is still reeling, I'm afraid, from the battering he got from the Swiftboat liars who were said to have said at the time, "When we get through with John Kerry, people won't know which side he fought on in Vietnam." They took a war hero and made him into a hoax basically and he has been trying to establish his macho credentials ever since. It is not his finest hour to say silly things such as the quote you just described.
Let me put, though, these papers in some perspective. Most of your people, except for Carne Ross and to some extent John Kerry, are really not familiar with the levels of classification here and a lot of silly things have been said about them ignorantly. The fact is that these are quite low level documents. They are equivalent to the fields level documents on the civilian side that we saw in the Afghan and Iraq documents that Wikileaks earlier released. So they're not the Pentagon Papers in terms of top secret, high level decision making papers. When the Times hypes its documents, or the other papers, as being prepared for high level policy makers, that is just false. Probably no high level policy maker even saw one of these "secret" documents.
I will give you one piece of background on that. When I worked for an assistant secretary of defense in 1964-65, on Vietnam alone I wanted to inform him as to what he ought to look at in the course of his day in the way of these very same cables just from Vietnam alone and I asked for the whole set of cables of all kinds from that area. So I came into my office in the morning and I find as high as my head, five and one-half feet high, I was just a couple of inches higher than that, two piles of paper for me to look at. I couldn't even whip through it into the burn bag without reading most of that stuff. So I had to give the directive, "Cut out the secret documents, leave me only those that are no dis, ex dis, or slime dis-that's limited distribution or eyes only, and top secret or higher. And that cut me down to two piles each two and a half feet high or five feet of paper instead of eleven feet of paper. In short, what I am reading in this, and it's very familiar to me from my days in Vietnam when I wrote this sort of cable and sent it out from Vietnam back to Washington, what we are reading is the sort of thing that I in Washington didn't have time to read. It just wasn't important. So I think you can say that probably no assistant secretary or Hilary Clinton ever laid eyes on any of these cables. They are not, for example, the Eikenberry cable which was genuinely very revealing which was given to the New YorkTimes from our general in Kabul that revealed his opinion that General McChrystal's program which Obama actually followed was hopeless and counterproductive and would have no way improved the situation. Now that cable was only secret, but it was no dis and it had a code word. That meant it was very carefully closed and is the sort of thing I would have seen if I had been in the Pentagon, a no dis cable. In short, we are not seeing high level decision making paper.
For what it's worth, we are finding that the big problem with our awful, miserable, incompetent foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan is not the fault of foolish, stupid or lying mid-level staffers down below. They are speaking fairly honestly, not with a lot of local knowledge often, but fairly shrewdly in many cases, doing their best job to their superiors. The lying- as in Vietnam- is being enforced by the upper levels. What we need to see, really, is someone following Bradley Manning, or whoever the source is, following his example. He gave what he could- at his twenty-two year old level, corporal's level, or whatever was available to him- to inform the public. We need somebody with higher access, the kind that I had at that time, and unfortunately didn't use then, I'm sorry to say, I apologize. But somebody should put out the higher level papers that reveal the high level dealing and stupid formulations, theories, 'mad man' theories and others that are informing our policy so that the American people can begin to get some grip on our incoherent policy and enforce a more humane and productive thrust to it.
AMY GOODMAN: Former British diplomat in studio here. Carne Ross is shaking his head.
CARNE ROSS: I have to disagree with Daniel Ellsberg. I mean, the telegrams that I've seen, including the secret classified stuff, is the meat and drink of diplomacy. My foreign secretary read this stuff every day, a thick folder of it, as I did in the foreign office. I don't know how things work in the U.S. government, but my experience working on Iraq is that the top secret stuff, the intelligence based stuff, is the least accurate form of reporting that you get. What foreign leaders are saying to American diplomats or British diplomats in confidential discussions is enormously important. Records of what King Abdullah said or President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said would be of great interest to senior officials in the State Department or indeed the NSC or the White House, so I will have disagree with Daniel Ellsberg's analysis. This stuff is very, very revealing of the every day meat and drink of American diplomacy.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to talk about what the mainstream press in America is mainly focusing, the documents describing French President Nicolas Sarkozy as touchy, authoritarian, as "an emperor without clothes". They say German Chancellor Angela Merkel is someone who avoids risk. They call her "The Teflon Leader". Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is incapable. They also describe Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as an "alpha dog" while Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is "pale and hesitant" and "plays Robin to Putin's Batman" and much has been written about the cable that reports Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi never travels without his trusted Ukrainian nurse, a "voluptuous blonde."
Greg Mitchell, the significance of other leaks that have come out in this trove of documents. How the hacker attacks which forced Google to quit China in January were orchestrated by a senior member of the Politburo who typed his own name into the global version of the search engine and found articles criticizing him personally, but what China did with Google's information.
GREG MITCHELL: Well, there is a whole list of those that are going to be coming out in further detail. We don't know a lot about that yet because all the cables have not been released. But, as you say, the American media has often focused on what others call gossip and that really is the one day material that is going to be reported. What is more important is what is going to come out. It is interesting that looking at if from a media aspect is the calls that we are starting to hear now, the one bipartisan thing we are seeing out of Washington, is Democrat and Republican senators calling for prosecution of WikiLeaks for stopping the documents, somehow preventing the documents from being released.
AMY GOODMAN: Lindsey Graham and others calling for.....
GREG MITCHELL: Joe Lieberman just is the most recent one, quite a detailed call saying this is a national security threat. Peter King said it was the same thing as a military attack, liking it to an attack on the U.S. But so far that hasn't gotten anywhere and there hasn't been a serious move to prevent the further dissemination or to stop, as we saw with the Pentagon papers, the actual newspapers printing documents. So we haven't seen that yet, but we have seen some elegant defenses of publishing the documents, particularly in The Guardian - Simon Jenkins there and in the New York Times note on why the published the documents and they emphasize that it is not the press' role to keep the government from suffering embarrassment and they also, as he mentioned earlier, the importance of using the example of the false information that was spread about Iraqi WMD's, that if material like this had come out at that time it would have had a tremendous impact on perhaps halting what became the invasion of Iraq.
AMY GOODMAN: Of course, there is the Swedish warrant out for Julian Assange's arrest which has been very long and complicated. First they issued one and then they didn't and then they did, and...
GREG MITCHELL: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to talk about Bradley Manning for a minute. The US military believes the leak can be traced to Private First Class Bradley Manning who has been held in solitary confinement for the last seven months and is facing a court martial next year. In an on-line conversation with computer hacker, Adrian Lamo, who would later turn him in. Manning said, "Hilary Clinton and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available in a searchable format to the public. Everywhere there is a U.S. post there is a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed. It is open diplomacy, worldwide anarchy in CSV format. It's Climategate with a global scope and breathtaking depth. It is beautiful and horrifying." Those are the words of Bradley Manning, 22 years old, low level, in Iraq, coming in with this Lady Gaga CD, saying it was Lady Gaga, and downloading all this information. Is this possible? Daniel Ellsberg, I want to put that question to you. You have been raising money for his defense.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: Clearly what's possible to 22 year old Manning who was, by the way, seven years younger I think, probably 20 or so when he actually started this process. What is available to him is probably available to five or six hundred thousand people- available to SIPRNet- and notice that the thing that first struck him was his realization that he was involved in the arrest process of people who he later discovered were doing nothing other than writing what he calls, "scholarly critiques of the current administration" for which they were being tortured by the Iraqis to whom we were turning them over with the knowledge of Americans. All of this being blatantly illegal, both for the Iraqis and for the Americans who turned them over to torture. When he reported this to his superior, his superior told him to forget it and get back to work arresting people. The effect that had on Bradley Manning was that he was being asked to participate in a blatantly illegal process and he chose to say no to it, to expose it, to resist it, to do what he actually should have done. One person out of hundreds of thousands who did that. The material that he revealed in the Iraq Logs, which were just revealed recently- some 400,000 logs- revealed hundreds if not thousands of cases of Americans who reported that they understood they were turning people over to be tortured, clearly against U.S. and international law, and they were then being ordered not to pursue the investigation further or take any measure to stop this illegal process. Now that order was blatantly illegal so it will be interesting to take a look at those thousands of cases and just see which one led to a refusal to carry out that blatantly illegal order as the USMJ requires them to do. Bradley Manning seems to have been the one who did that, the one who lived up to his oath of office and the one who acted patriotically here to stop this illegal process. For that he will pay very heavily. And yet, he may yet inspire some other people to do the same - to save lives, stop processes of torture and to reveal, by the way, the absolute lack of progress that is revealed throughout all of these documents. The 260,000 documents, none so far-
AMY GOODMAN: Dan, we only have five seconds. Do you think it's possible he is alone in releasing this information?
DANIEL ELLSBERG: In terms of access to the information, he is certainly not alone. In terms of ability to download it, not alone. Although they have tightened up the procedures as a result of what they found out about him and how he has revealed how he did it so they will have to give him a medal for improving their security.
AMY GOODMAN: We are going to have to leave it there. I want to thank you all for being with us. Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon papers whistleblower; Carne Ross, former British diplomat, Greg Mitchell of the The Nation and As'ad AbuKhalil, California professor. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Broken Beyond Repair
By BOB HERBERT
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/opinion/30herbert.html?hp
You can only hope that you will be as sharp and intellectually focused as former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens when you're 90 years old.
In a provocative essay in The New York Review of Books, the former justice, who once supported the death penalty, offers some welcome insight into why he now opposes this ultimate criminal sanction and believes it to be unconstitutional.
As Adam Liptak noted in The Times on Sunday, Justice Stevens had once thought the death penalty could be administered rationally and fairly but has come to the conclusion "that personnel changes on the court, coupled with 'regrettable judicial activism,' had created a system of capital punishment that is shot through with racism, skewed toward conviction, infected with politics and tinged with hysteria."
The egregious problems identified by Justice Stevens (and other prominent Americans who have changed their minds in recent years about capital punishment) have always been the case. The awful evidence has always been right there for all to see, but mostly it has been ignored. The death penalty in the United States has never been anything but an abomination - a grotesque, uncivilized, overwhelmingly racist affront to the very idea of justice.
Police and prosecutorial misconduct have been rampant, with evidence of innocence deliberately withheld from defendants being prominent among the abuses. Juries have systematically been shaped - rigged - to heighten the chances of conviction, and thus imposition of the ultimate punishment.
Prosecutors and judges in death penalty cases have been overwhelmingly white and male and their behavior has often - not always, but shockingly often - been unfair, bigoted and cruel. The Death Penalty Information Center has reams of meticulously documented horror stories.
Innocents have undoubtedly been executed. Executions have been upheld in cases in which defense lawyers slept through crucial proceedings. Alcoholic, drug-addicted and incompetent lawyers - as well as lawyers who had been suspended or otherwise disciplined for misconduct - have been assigned to indigent defendants. And it has always been the case that the death penalty machinery is fired up far more often when the victims are white.
I remember reporting on a study several years ago by the Texas Defender Service, which represented indigent death row inmates. It mentioned a Dallas defense lawyer, who, reminiscing in 2000, said: "At one point, with a black-on-black murder, you could get it dismissed if the defendant would pay funeral expenses." A judge, looking back on his days as a prosecutor in the 1950s, recalled being told by an angry boss: "If you ever put another nigger on a jury, you're fired."
Prosecutors cleaned up their language somewhat over the years, but the discrimination has persisted, along with the pernicious idea that white lives are inherently more valuable than black ones. Patricia Lemay, a white juror in a Georgia death penalty case that resulted in an execution, told me in an interview in 2002 that she had been nauseated by the vile racial comments made by other jurors during the deliberations.
Justice Harry Blackmun was 85 years old and near the end of his tenure on the Supreme Court when he declared in 1994 that he could no longer support the imposition of the death penalty. "The problem," he said, "is that the inevitability of factual, legal and moral error gives us a system that we know must wrongly kill some defendants, a system that fails to deliver the fair, consistent and reliable sentences of death required by the Constitution."
Justice Blackmun vowed that he would no longer participate in a system "fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice and mistake."
In 1990, Justice Thurgood Marshall asserted: "When in Gregg v. Georgia the Supreme Court gave its seal of approval to capital punishment, this endorsement was premised on the promise that capital punishment would be administered with fairness and justice. Instead, the promise has become a cruel and empty mockery."
Justices Blackmun and Marshall are gone, but the death penalty is still with us. It is still an abomination. Illinois has tried mightily to deal with a system of capital punishment that had, as The Chicago Tribune described it, "one of the worst records of wrongful capital convictions in the country."
The sentences of 167 condemned inmates were commuted in 2003. Four others were pardoned and a moratorium on the death penalty has been in effect since 2000. But prosecutors continue mindlessly to seek the death penalty. And the system for trying murder cases remains a mess. As The Tribune wrote in an editorial just last week:
"Lawmakers still haven't taken adequate steps to ensure that the death penalty is applied evenly across the state, or to guard against wrongful convictions based on errant identifications of witnesses or mistakes at forensic labs. False confessions and prosecutorial missteps are still alarmingly common."
In the paper's view, "Illinois must abolish the death penalty."
And so must the United States.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) British Police Issue Warning Before Protests
By REUTERS
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/world/europe/30britain.html?ref=world
LONDON (Reuters) - The British police have warned students not to use violence in demonstrations on Tuesday against a planned increase in tuition fees, after clashes during two previous days of protests.
Organizers are calling for university and secondary school students to take to the streets in what they are calling a "national day of action" against plans by the Conservative-led coalition government to almost triple tuition, up to $14,500 a year.
"November 30 will see even more students come out on protest across the country," the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts said in a statement. The organizers said that about 24,000 had promised to participate.
Protesters smashed windows and started fires at the building housing the Conservative Party's headquarters in London during a march this month, and scuffles and vandalism took place in London during protests last week.
The police were criticized on both occasions, first for failing to anticipate the potential for trouble during the first day of demonstrations and then for tactics that some people said were heavy-handed during the second day of protests around the country.
The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Paul Stephenson, has since warned that "the game has changed" in trying to restrain the protests and he said he expected more disorder.
The student demonstrations were the first protests directly linked to the government's spending cuts. Labor unions are warning of strikes and other action as anger rises over job cuts and loss of some public services.
Student protesters have said they felt betrayed by the coalition government, in particular by the coalition's junior partner, the Liberal Democrats, which had promised before the general election in May to oppose higher tuition.
In addition to the demonstrations, student groups have occupied university buildings as part of their campaign against the government's tuition plans, part of austerity measures intended to produce about $126 billion in spending cuts over four years.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) In U.S. Sting Operations, Questions of Entrapment
By ERIC SCHMITT and CHARLIE SAVAGE
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/politics/30fbi.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - The arrest on Friday of a Somali-born teenager who is accused of trying to detonate a car bomb at a crowded Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., has again thrown a spotlight on the government's use of sting operations to capture terrorism suspects.
Some defense lawyers and civil rights advocates said the government's tactics, particularly since the Sept. 11 attacks, have raised questions about the possible entrapment of people who pose no real danger but are enticed into pretend plots at the government's urging.
But law enforcement officials said on Monday that agents and prosecutors had carefully planned the tactics used in the undercover operation that led to the arrest of the Somali-born teenager, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a naturalized United States citizen. They said that Mr. Mohamud was given several opportunities to vent his anger in ways that would not be deadly, but that he refused each time.
"I am confident that there is no entrapment here, and no entrapment claim will be found to be successful," Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Monday. "There were, as I said, a number of opportunities that the subject in this matter, the defendant in this matter, was given to retreat, to take a different path. He chose at every step to continue."
Mr. Holder called the sting operation, in which Mr. Mohamud was under the scrutiny of federal agents for nearly six months, "part of a forward-leaning way in which the Justice Department, the F.B.I., our law enforcement partners at the state and local level are trying to find people who are bound and determined to harm Americans and American interests around the world."
A study this year by the Center on Law and Security at New York University, which tracks terrorism cases, found that of 156 prosecutions in what it identified as the most significant 50 cases since 2001, informers were relied on in 97 of them, or 62 percent. The entrapment defense has often been raised, but as of September, it had never been successful in producing an acquittal in a post-Sept. 11 terrorism trial, the study found.
The Portland case resembles several others in which American residents, inspired by militant Web sites, have tried to carry out attacks in the name of the militant Islamic movement only to be captured in a sting operation, with undercover F.B.I. agents or informers playing the role of terrorists and, as in this case, supplying a fake bomb.
In September 2009, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year old Jordanian citizen, was arrested and charged with placing a fake bomb at a Dallas skyscraper. In October, Farooque Ahmed, a 34-year-old naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan, was arrested and charged with plotting to bomb the Washington Metro after meeting with undercover agents and discussing his plans and surveillance activities, the authorities said.
Some Muslim leaders in Oregon questioned how the sting operation there was carried out.
Imtiaz Khan, the president of the Islamic Center of Portland and Masjed As-Saber, a mosque where Mr. Mohamud worshiped, said several people at the mosque had questioned why law enforcement helped orchestrate such an elaborate plan for a terrorist act.
"They're saying, 'Why allow it to get to this public stunt? To put the community on edge?' " Mr. Khan said.
Mr. Khan said he and other Muslim leaders met regularly with the F.B.I. and other federal officials. In May, he was among a group of Muslim leaders in the Portland area who issued a statement condemning an attempted bombing in Times Square and thanking law enforcement for its "outstanding work" in the case.
Jesse Day, a spokesman for the mosque and Islamic center, said the circumstances of Mr. Mohamud's arrest had stirred "some distrust, a little bit, in the tactics" of law enforcement.
The government's 36-page affidavit filed in the Oregon case lays out a crucial conversation between Mr. Mohamud and an F.B.I. informer at their first meeting, on July 30, 2010. According to the affidavit, the informer suggested five ways that Mr. Mohamud could help the cause of Islam, some of which were peaceful, like proselytizing, and some of which were violent and illegal.
Mr. Mohamud, the affidavit said, immediately picked a violent crime: becoming "operational," by which he said he meant putting together a car bomb. The informer then offered to put Mr. Mohamud in touch with an explosives expert, setting off the chain of events that led to his eventual arrest.
Defense lawyers may have an opportunity to challenge the government's account of that conversation. According to the affidavit, while most of the conversations between the informer and Mr. Mohamud were recorded, that one was not "due to technical problems."
Still, in subsequent recorded conversations, the affidavit said, Mr. Mohamud picked the target, said he had wanted to commit such an attack for several years, and repeatedly demurred when told he could walk away if he did not have it "in his heart" to go through with it.
The question of how far the police may go in inducing the subject of an investigation to commit a crime turns on whether the facts show that the defendant was already predisposed to carry out a crime should the occasion arise.
Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia University professor of criminal law and former federal prosecutor, said it was largely up to juries to decide whether to accept a defense of entrapment, which in practice is often hard to win. "These are jury questions that by and large go against the defendant, although every case is different," Mr. Richman said.
The Justice Department also has rules on how far investigators may go in facilitating a subject's criminal activity. The F.B.I.'s domestic operations guide, which was overhauled in 2008, notes that courts have found it to be "legally objectionable" when government agents lead a political or religious group "into criminal activity that otherwise probably would not have occurred."
The guide also has a long section of rules on what undercover agents and confidential informers can and cannot do, but it is almost entirely redacted from a publicly released version of the document.
F.B.I. officials have said the bureau requires legal reviews and higher-level approval of activities involving undercover agents and confidential informers to avoid putting convictions at risk with entrapment accusations. But they have made clear that once someone voices an intent to commit a violent act, undercover agents and informers are allowed to respond by offering to help the subject of the investigation obtain weapons.
"It doesn't matter whether it's a would-be terrorist who has expressed his desire to launch an attack, or a would-be drug dealer who has indicated an interest in moving a kilo of crack cocaine," said Kenneth L. Wainstein, a former assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's national security division. "So long as that person has expressed an interest in committing a crime, it's appropriate for the government to respond by providing the purported means of carrying out that crime so as to make a criminal case against him."
William Yardley contributed reporting from Portland, Ore., and Scott Shane from Washington.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) The Mystery of the Red Bees of Red Hook
By SUSAN DOMINUS
November 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30bigcity.html?ref=nyregion
Cerise Mayo expected better of her bees. She had raised them right, given them all the best opportunities - acres of urban farmland strewn with fruits and vegetables, a bounty of natural nectar and pollen. Blinded by devotion, she assumed they shared her values: a fidelity to the land, to food sources free of high-fructose corn syrup and artificial food coloring.
And then this. Her bees, the ones she had been raising in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and on Governors Island since May, started coming home to their hives looking suspicious. Of course, it was the foragers - the adventurers, the wild waggle dancers, the social networkers incessantly buzzing about their business - who were showing up with mysterious stripes of color. Where there should have been a touch of gentle amber showing through the membrane of their honey stomachs was instead a garish bright red. The honeycombs, too, were an alarming shade of Robitussin.
"I thought maybe it was coming from some kind of weird tree, maybe a sumac," said Ms. Mayo, who tends seven hives for Added Value, an education nonprofit in Red Hook. "We were at a loss."
An acquaintance, only joking, suggested the unthinkable: Maybe the bees were hitting the juice - maraschino cherry juice, that sweet, sticky stuff sloshing around vats at Dell's Maraschino Cherries Company over on Dikeman Street in Red Hook.
"I didn't want to believe it," said Ms. Mayo, a soft-spoken young woman who has long been active in the slow-food movement. She found it particularly hard to believe that the bees would travel all the way from Governors Island to gorge themselves on junk food. "Why would they go to the cherry factory," she said, "when there's a lot for them to forage right there on the farm?"
It seems natural, by now, for humans to prefer the unnatural, as if we ourselves had been genetically modified to choose artificially flavored strawberry candy over strawberries, or crunchy orange "cheese" puffs over a piece of actual cheese. But when bees make the same choice, it feels like a betrayal to our sense of how nature should work. Shouldn't they know better? Or, perhaps, not know enough to know better?
A fellow beekeeper sent samples of the red substance that the bees were producing to an apiculturalist who works for New York State, and that expert, acting as a kind of forensic foodie, found the samples riddled with Red Dye No. 40, the same dye used in the maraschino cherry juice.
No one knows for sure where the bees might have consumed the dye, but neighbors of the Dell's factory, Ms. Mayo said, reported that bees in unusually high numbers were gathering nearby.
And she learned that Arthur Mondella, the owner of the factory, had hired Andrew Coté, the leader of the New York City Beekeepers Association, to help find a solution.
Mr. Mondella did not return phone calls seeking comment, but in an interview, Mr. Coté said that the bees were as great a nuisance to the factory as Red Dye No. 40 was to the beekeepers. (No, Ms. Mayo was not alone: David Selig, another Red Hook beekeeper, also had bees showing red.)
"Bees will forage from any sweet liquid in their flight path for up to three miles," Mr. Coté said. While he has not yet visited the factory, he said that the bees might be drinking from its runoff, and that solving the problem "could be as easy as putting up some screens, or providing a closer source of sweet nectar."
Could the tastiest nectar, even close by the hives, compete with the charms of a liquid so abundant, so vibrant and so cloyingly sweet? Perhaps the conundrum raises another disturbing question: If the bees cannot resist those three qualities, what hope do the rest of us have?
A story of the perils of urban farming, this is also a story of the careful two-step of gentrification. Red Hook embodies so much of Brooklyn culture - an infatuation with the borough's old ways, just so long as those do not actually impinge on the modish design and values.
The maraschino cherries that emerge from the Dell's factory have probably graced thousands of retro-chic cocktails and sundaes in Red Hook itself, or at least in Williamsburg. Finding some solution to the maraschino juice bee crisis - to all urban clashes of culture - is part of the project of New York, a wildly creative endeavor in and of itself.
All summer long, friends of Ms. Mayo were forever pointing out the funny coincidence that her first name means "cherry" in French; as a slow-food advocate with the last name Mayo, she was already accustomed to such observations.
Mr. Selig, who owns the restaurant chain Rice and raises the bees as a hobby, was disappointed that an entire season that should have been devoted to honey yielded instead a red concoction that tasted metallic and then overly sweet.
He and Ms. Mayo also fear that the bees' feasting on the stuff could have unforeseeable health effects on the hives.
But Mr. Selig said there was something extraordinary, too, about those corn-syrup-happy bees that came flying back this summer.
"When the sun is a bit down, they glow red in the evenings," he said. "They were slightly fluorescent. And it was beautiful."
E-mail: susan.dominus@nytimes.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Unemployment Rises in Europe
By DAVID JOLLY
November 30, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/business/global/01euro.html?ref=business
PARIS - Unemployment in the euro zone rose in October to its highest level in more than 12 years, an official report showed Tuesday, underlining the pressure on governments as they try to reduce spending and bring deficits under control.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 10.1 percent in October, up from 10 percent in September, Eurostat, the statistics agency of the European Union, reported. For the full Union, unemployment was unchanged in October at 9.6 percent, it said, equivalent to about 23.1 million men and women.
Julia Urhausen, a Eurostat spokeswoman, said joblessness in the 16 nations that make up the euro zone was at its highest since July 1998, when the rate also stood at 10.1 percent.
The jobless figures nonetheless conceal wide differences among countries. For example, the Netherlands' rate - at 4.4 percent - was the lowest in the euro zone. It was dwarfed by that of Spain, which at 20.7 percent was the highest.
The rising joblessness threatens to defeat efforts to turn around stagnant economies at a time of tight budgets, especially in the "peripheral" countries of Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Greece, which will need strong growth to make their way out of financial problems. The unemployed spend less, pay fewer taxes and receive government assistance, dragging down demand and pressuring budgets.
On Tuesday, Portugal's central bank warned that the country's banks faced mounting risks unless the government managed to bring its public spending under control, according to Reuters.
"The risk will become intolerable if we do not see the implementation of measures that consolidate public finances in a credible and sustainable way," the Bank of Portugal said in a report.
A separate, preliminary report from Eurostat showed annual inflation in the euro zone at 1.9 percent in November, unchanged from October.
The unemployment news comes as the single currency continues to be under pressure, two days after the announcement of a rescue for Ireland led by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
In midafternoon, the euro was trading just below $1.30, down from $1.3125 late Monday in New York. That took the euro down to a level last seen in mid-September, and gave it a decline of more than 8 percent since its most recent peak, on Nov. 4.
Euro-zone government bonds were mixed after sharp falls Monday. Those perceived as safer, for example from Germany and France, rose, while riskier debt, like Spanish bonds, declined. European stocks were lower after a sell-off Monday. Stocks on Wall Street started the trading day slightly weaker. Stocks fell Tuesday across most of Asia.
Matthew Saltmarsh contributed reporting.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) For Immediate Release
12/2/2010
For more information: Joe Lombardo, 518-281-1968,
UNACpeace@gmail.org, NationalPeaceConference.org
Antiwar movement supports Wikileaks and calls for and independent, international investigation of the crimes that have been exposed. We call for the release of Bradley Manning and the end to the harassment of Julian Assange.
The United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC) calls for the release of Bradley Manning who is awaiting trial accused of leaking the material to Wikileaks that has been released over the past several months. We also call for an end to the harassment of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks and we call for an independent, international investigation of the illegal activity exposed through the material released by Wikileaks.
Before sending the material to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning tried to get his superiors in the military to do something about what he understood to be clear violations of international law. His superiors told him to keep quiet so Manning did the right thing; he exposed the illegal activity to the world.
The Afghan material leaked earlier shows military higher-ups telling soldiers to kill enemy combatants who were trying to surrender. The Iraq Wikileaks video from 2007 shows the US military killing civilians and news reporters from a helicopter while laughing about it. The widespread corruption among U.S. allies has been exposed by the most recent leaks of diplomatic cables. Yet, instead of calling for change in these policies, we hear only a call to suppress further leaks.
At the national antiwar conference held in Albany in July, 2010, at which UNAC was founded, we heard from Ethan McCord, one of the soldiers on the ground during the helicopter attack on the civilians in Iraq exposed by Wikileaks (see: http://www.mediasanctuary.org/movie/1810 ). He talked about removing wounded children from a civilian vehicle that the US military had shot up. It affected him so powerfully that he and another soldier who witnessed the massacre wrote a letter of apology to the families of the civilians who were killed.
We ask why this material was classified in the first place. There were no state secrets in the material, only evidence of illegal and immoral activity by the US military, the US government and its allies. To try to cover this up by classifying the material is a violation of our right to know the truth about these wars. In this respect, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange should be held up as heroes, not hounded for exposing the truth.
UNAC calls for an end to the illegal and immoral policies exposed by Wikileaks and an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to threats against Iran and North Korea.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Here Come Homeland Security Internet Police, and They're Already Shutting Down Web Sites They Don't Like
By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, AlterNet
Posted on December 3, 2010, Printed on December 3, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/149059/
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security seized 82 domain names for allegedly hawking counterfeit goods ranging from knockoff Coach handbags to bootleg DVDs. Enacted under the auspices of its Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arm, the sites were wiped out and replaced with an ominous message from the DHS that laid out the stakes, including the warning, "Intentionally and knowingly trafficking in counterfeit goods is a federal crime that carries penalties for first-time offenders of up to 10 years in federal prison, a $2,000,000 fine, forfeiture and restitution."
Most of the seized Web sites had names like thelouisvuittonoutlet.com and getdvdset.com, and sold reproductions of designer goods and hard copies of jacked movies. A few sites on the list, though, stuck out: Onsmash.com, rapgodfathers.com and dajaz1.com are popular music blogs that were generally involved in the promotion of artists, rather than outright piracy. Well-known among rap fans for posting the latest videos, singles and remixes (always hosted from third-party download sites), their seizure was shocking, not just to the hip-hop blogosphere, but to music sites everywhere. Their inclusion on a list of sites that profit from manufacturing hard goods seemed arbitrary and ignorant. Furthermore, these sites were directly involved with artists, widely viewed as outlets that could help artists build buzz and promote their upcoming albums.
And in what ICE termed its "Cyber Monday" crackdown, a statement on the official DHS site made it clear that this was only the beginning:
The coordinated federal law enforcement operation targeted online retailers of a diverse array of counterfeit goods, including sports equipment, shoes, handbags, athletic apparel and sunglasses as well as illegal copies of copyrighted DVD boxed sets, music and software.
But these rap blogs weren't selling any music. They weren't selling DVDs. In fact, the only thing you could accuse them of selling was ads -- hardly big income, definitely not enough to turn a profit. They aren't even close to the biggest music downloading sites out there. So why were they targeted?
The DHS seems to be tiptoeing in the music pool, testing its boundaries and seeing what it can get away with. ICE began seizing domain names mere days after Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, blocked the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), a bill that would effectively allow the government to censor any Web site it sees fit, and one that is widely viewed as an attack on our free speech.
When you type an address into a browser, the browser doesn't just know where to take you. For that it counts on the globally distributed DNS system, which takes you to the specific IP address where the site is hosted. The DNS system is built on a basic foundation of trust -- a DNS provider can't manipulate the results to stop you from going where you want to go on the Web.
COICA would subject DNS operators to government and industry pressure to intercept and block traffic to sites they don't like, and gives the Department of Justice the power to sue DNS operators to effectively disappear a site from one-click access on the Internet. There are some sites out there that are devoted primarily to posting copyrighted material, like torrent-tracking Web sites, but serious concerns have been raised the dragnet could be extended to file-storage utilities like Dropbox or to services like Facebook where large amounts of copyrighted material are easily stored and posted by users. Moreover, DNS blocking inherently targets entire Web sites, not just specific offending content, raising the troubling possibility that legal content and protected political speech on those websites would be censored in the United States.
Normally, when a music site unwittingly posts a song that is not cleared for release, it will receive a standard, cease-and-desist form letter from the Recording Industry Association of America. If the site then removes the link or song, which most do, it will generally have no subsequent trouble. This most recent action, though, is an example of RIAA's ever-expanding involvement in legislation, and reflects its consistently paranoid, regressive conception of the Internet. COIAA is, of course, backed by the music industry. A November 18 statement by RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol regarding the bill:
"We are proud to lend our voice to the chorus of supporters of this important bipartisan legislation. In a world where hackers and copyright thieves are able to take down websites, rip off American consumers and rake in huge profits operating rogue businesses built on the backs of the American creative community, the committee has taken a strong step toward fostering a more safe and secure online experience for consumers.
Bainwol's language not only reeks of McCarthyist scare tactics, it's simply misleading. While "hackers" may be able to "take down websites," there have been no instances of a "copyright thief" -- or, in more direct terms, music blogger -- doing this. By offering free music, it's unclear why he believes American consumers are getting ripped off. And as established, the types of blogs shut down by ICE last week do not rake in huge profits... most rake in barely enough to pay for their Web domain names.
Simply put, RIAA is vehemently against music blogs (and, it sometimes seems, the Internet as a whole) because it does not understand the music industry it purports to represent. This was established back in 2003, when RIAA made aggressive efforts to sue 261 individuals -- including, notoriously, a 12-year-old honors student from the projects -- accused of downloading music from the Internet on P2P services. But that was seven years ago, and it's astonishing that since then, RIAA has apparently made no effort to understand how the Internet works, and how blogs such as OnSmash ultimately help their artists' buzz, posting videos based on their personal tastes and those that reflect their vast audience of potential hip-hop consumers. Or, perhaps, labels just really miss the days when they had to pour cash into the proffers of radio stations to get any airplay.
RIAA's continued support of Internet censorship is a clear and desperate attempt to justify its existence in an ever-altering information society. You could call it an effort to stop time. Often, though, marketers and others employed by major labels will send out mp3s to blogs under the radar, knowing that ultimately having the music available will help their artists' buzz and contribute to their bottom line, as income comes decreasingly from album sales and relies more on cross-promotion, marketing deals, tours and merchandise. That's because RIAA doesn't support artists -- it supports corporations. It's transparent about this; its mission statement explicitly states that it "supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies."
Casey Rae-Hunter, a communications director and policy strategist for the artist advocacy group Future of Music Coalition (FMC), illustrates why an open Internet is, ultimately, much better for musicians in the long run:
"The two things that are most important to today's musicians and creative entrepreneurs are innovation and access... For a decade, Future of Music Coalition has called for a straightforward Internet framework that lets artists compete in a legitimate digital music marketplace alongside the biggest companies. Open access to the Internet has led to tremendous innovations in the marketplace and inspired countless examples of creative enterprise."
Of course, with COIAA, the music industry -- and the takedown of relatively small sites like OnSmash and Rap Godfathers -- is just the tip of the iceberg. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties group, widely used hosting sites could end up in the government's crosshairs as well; an act that would not only affect our ability to disseminate information, but would target our very outlets for free speech on the Internet.
If this bill passes, the list of targets could conceivably include hosting Web sites such as Dropbox, MediaFire and Rapidshare; MP3 blogs and mashup/remix music sites like SoundCloud, MashupTown and Hype Machine; and sites that discuss and make the controversial political and intellectual case for piracy, like pirate-party.us, p2pnet, InfoAnarchy, Slyck and ZeroPaid. Indeed, had this bill been passed five or 10 years ago, YouTube might not exist today. In other words, the collateral damage from this legislation would be enormous. (Why would all these sites be targets?)
With the recent firestorm surrounding Wikileaks, and the chorus of voices calling for its elimination (not to mention Julian Assange's head) the state of COIAA is increasingly urgent. Wyden may have stalled it for now, but if it's reintroduced next year with the conservative new Congress, it's likely to pass. However, free-speech advocates do have an ally in FCC Chairman Julian Genachowski. On December 1, he announced an agenda for a meeting later this month that would include conversations about an Open Internet Policy, preserving the infrastructure and freedom that keeps the American Web from mirroring that of China. Clearly, net neutrality and blocking COIAA go hand in hand. Genachowski observed:
The Internet has been an unprecedented platform for speech and democratic engagement, and a place where the American spirit of innovation has flourished. We've seen new media tools like Twitter and YouTube used by democratic movements around the world.
Not only is the Internet becoming a central part of the daily lives of Americans, the Internet has been a strong engine of job creation and economic growth.
Internet companies have begun as small start-ups, some of them famously in dorm rooms and garages with little more than a computer and access to the open Internet. Many have become large businesses, providing high-paying, high-tech jobs in communities across our country. It's the American dream at work....
Why has the Internet proved to be such a powerful engine for innovation, creativity, and economic growth? A big part of the answer traces back to one key decision by the Internet's original architects: to make the Internet an open platform.
It is the Internet's openness and freedom -- the ability to speak, innovate, and engage in commerce without having to ask anyone's permission -- that has enabled the Internet's unparalleled success.
Very important words. Let's hope his colleagues and Congress hear them.
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd is an associate editor at AlterNet and a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and editor. Formerly the executive editor of The FADER, her work has appeared in VIBE, SPIN, New York Times and various other magazines and websites.
(c) 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/149059/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) N.Y.C. Misdemeanor Defendants Lack Bail Money
By MOSI SECRET
December 2, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03bail.html?_r=1&hp
Thousands of people arrested on low-level crimes in New York City spend days languishing in jail, not because they have been found guilty but because they are too poor to post bail, according to a report to be released on Friday.
The report, which examines the bail conditions for people charged with nonfelonies like smoking marijuana in public, jumping a subway turnstile or shoplifting, found that the overwhelming majority of defendants in cases in which bail was set at $1,000 or less were unable to pay and were sent to jail, where they remained, on average, for more than two weeks.
The report comes as the number of arrests for low-level misdemeanors, often referred to as quality-of-life crimes, is rising.
Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group that most often focuses on abuses abroad, obtained data on nonfelony defendants arrested in the city in 2008. In more than three-quarters of the 117,064 cases, defendants were released on their own recognizance.
In 19,137 cases from that year, bail was set at $1,000 or less. The report found that 87 percent of the defendants in those cases did not post bail and went to jail to await trial. They remained for an average of 15.7 days.
"Here we are locking people up for want of a couple of hundred dollars," said Jamie Fellner, senior counsel with the domestic program of the advocacy group.
"Pretrial liberty should not be conditioned on the size of your bank account," Ms. Fellner said.
The report raised the possibility that many of the poorer defendants pleaded guilty at arraignment for sentences with no jail time, simply to avoid being behind bars while awaiting trial.
"The client is placed with a choice of staying out of jail and being on Rikers Island and fighting their case," said Robin Steinberg, the director of the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit group that provides legal representation to Bronx residents charged with crimes. "Almost anybody would plead guilty. It creates a pressure on poor people in the criminal justice system for them to plead guilty without regard to whether they were guilty or not guilty."
Arraignments in New York are a speedy affair, with prosecutors, defense lawyers, other advocates and judges working to ensure that defendants get their day in court - or just a few moments, really - within 24 hours of arrest, as state law requires.
Someone from the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, a nonprofit organization, interviews those arrested in the booking cells, gathering criminal histories and basic biographical and employment history to present to the prosecutor, defense lawyer and judge. The prosecutor requests a bail amount, and the judge makes a determination.
Some of those involved in the process take issue with the findings of the report.
Jerome E. McElroy, the executive director of the Criminal Justice Agency, which provided some of the data for the report, said there were complicating factors that the study had not taken into account.
"In many instances," Mr. McElroy said, "there may be another open case, and that may be why the person is not released on their own recognizance."
He also said that gathering information about a defendant's financial situation in a five-minute jail interview was a tall order.
"It is not really possible for us to get reliable information on a person's financial condition before the arraignment," Mr. McElroy said. "At the present time, we don't do that. If we did, by virtue of simply asking the defendant, and the court wanted some further verification of the reliability of the answer given by the defendant, I don't know how we could do that."
Melissa C. Jackson, the supervising judge for Manhattan in New York City Criminal Court, said state law already required that judges take into account a defendant's financial situation when determining bail, and she disagreed with the assertion that judges would set high bail as a form of pretrial sentencing.
"It's really counterintuitive because those judges are going to be handling the cases all the way through," she said. "Why would they want a heavier caseload? That to me is a purely political take on what is really a complicated judicial decision."
Judge Jackson said the main reason judges set high bails was that in the past, defendants had failed to appear in court.
Prosecutors also disputed the contention that they requested high bail amounts to pressure destitute defendants into pleading guilty.
"Pressure to get a defendant to plea is not a factor in setting bail in Staten Island," said Daniel M. Donovan, that county's district attorney.
"We have an assistant prosecutor who in about 30 seconds has to come up with a dollar figure that that young person believes is adequate," Mr. Donovan said.
"We don't get to interview the defendant; we have to make a determination without substantiating any of the information before us," he said.
The district attorney of Brooklyn, Charles J. Hynes, said the report dealt with an important issue.
"My office is committed to request bail only when it will ensure a defendant's return to court to face criminal charges, and never solely on the basis of the defendant's inability to pay," he said in a statement.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) Mehersle Bail Hearing/Oscar Grant Protesters in Court!
by Sis Marpessa on Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:58am
From: Justice for Oscar Grant via Email
* * * Please distribute widely & post as Event / apologies for duplicates * * *
Mehserle Walks While Protesters Face Jail?
December Call to Action from the Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant
On December 3rd, LA Judge Perry will decide whether or not to release Johannes Mehserle on bail, pending his appeal. During the same week,over 150 people illegally arrested while protesting Mehserle's 2 year sentence will be arraigned in Oakland.
We will not accept Oscar Grant's murderer walking out of jail while protesters maybe on their way in.
We cannot predict the outcome of Mehserle's bail hearing, but we know the entire situation is unacceptable. When Judge Perry overrode the jury and tossed out the gun enhancement, police officers everywhere got a green light to kill more unarmed people of color. Oakland police proved this three days later when they murdered Derrick Jones, another unarmed Black man. It is our community responsibility to come together in support of those who stand for justice and to condemn Mehserle's unjust verdict and sentencing.
Mehserle Bail Hearing:
Noon friday,
Criminal Court Bldg, 210 W. Temple St., between Broadway & Spring
Mehserle is requesting bail release pending appeal.
Show & demand: no bail, federal charges of civil rights violations!
December Days of Action:
Thursday, Dec. 2, Noon, Press Conference, Fruitvale BART Station.Community statement regarding Mehserle's case and demanding that charges be dropped against all Oscar Grant protesters.
Friday, Dec. 3, Response to Bail Hearing. Details To Be Announced:Be prepared to respond if Mehserle is released on bail (in an organized action to protest police murder and demand accountability to the community).
Support November 5th Protesters in Court:
Thursday, Dec. 2 @ 9am, Wiley Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington St., Dept. 107
Friday, Dec. 3 @ 9am, Wiley Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington St., Dept. 107
Monday, Dec. 6 @ 9am, Wiley Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington St., Dept. 107
Please support arrestees by donating money toward legal support: http://supporttheoakland100.wordpress.com/supportdonate/.
Sponsored by The Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant (including Oscar's family & friends, the General Assembly, New Years Movement for Justice, ONYX, Oakland 100 Support Committee and the National Lawyers' Guild).
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) Disappointing Job Growth in U.S. as Jobless Rate Hits 9.8%
By MOTOKO RICH
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/business/economy/04jobs.html?hp
In a jolting surprise to the economic recovery and market expectations, the United States economy added just 39,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, according to the Department of Labor.
November's numbers were far below the consensus forecast of close to 150,000 jobs added and an unchanged unemployment rate of 9.6 percent.
More than 15 million people remained out of work last month, and 6.3 million of them have been unemployed for six months or longer.
Private companies, which have been hiring since the beginning of the year, added 50,000 jobs in November. Most of those increases came in the form of temporary help, where 40,000 jobs were added, and in health care, with an additional 19,000 jobs.
Retail jobs declined by 28,000 in November, while manufacturing, which had showed some strength earlier in the year, lost 13,000 jobs. Government jobs dropped by 11,000 in the month.
Included in the latest report were revisions from previous months. The agency now says that the economy added 172,000 jobs in October, instead of the 151,000 jobs previously reported. September was revised to a loss of 24,000 jobs from a loss of 41,000.
The anemic net gain in jobs came as economists had been gradually showing more optimism. Weekly initial unemployment claims have recently been trending lower, pending home sales in October topped forecasts and November retail sales jumped by one of their highest increases in years.
"Obviously this is a disappointing report, to say the least," said James O'Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global. But he said he did not believe the recovery was actually derailed. "Certainly the weight of evidence is that the economy is improving, and labor data can be unreliable."
Many risks remain for the economy. The latest numbers included 14,000 local government job losses, which could accelerate if legislatures and city councils are forced to prune further to deal with shrinking budgets and larger deficits. With President Obama's deficit commission examining long-term spending cuts, unemployment benefits expiring and a Congressional fight over taxes looming, consumer spending, which has recently shown signs of life, could come under pressure. That, in turn, could cause businesses to reconsider hiring plans.
Advocates for the unemployed were shocked by the number.
"I'm still trying to get my jaw off the floor," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. "What it does is it kills the story that maybe I thought we could start telling, which was steady improvement. If we had four months in a row of improving jobs numbers, we would still need a lot of work to get back to full employment, but now it's not even moving in the right direction."
Analysts generally estimate that the economy needs to add at least 100,000 to 125,000 jobs a month simply to keep up with new entrants to the labor force. So if employers keep hiring at the current pace, it will not help reduce the unemployment rate for some time.
For those who have been searching for work for more than six months, this is a discouraging prospect. "I have looked high and low," said Melissa Barone, who was laid off from a job in technical support 14 months ago. "I have a college degree and a ton of technical skills, but I can't find a job." Ms. Barone, 42, lives in St. Clair Shores, Mich., near Detroit, a particularly hard hit area. She has applied for hundreds of jobs but has yet to receive an offer.
If the economy is improving, that is news to Ms. Barone. "It doesn't seem that way here," she said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients
By MARC LACEY
December 2, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/us/03transplant.html?ref=us
PHOENIX - Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona: Death by budget cut.
Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state's version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them.
"The most difficult discussions are those that involve patients who had been on the donor list for a year or more and now we have to tell them they're not on the list anymore," said Dr. Rainer Gruessner, a transplant specialist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. "The frustration is tremendous. It's more than frustration."
Organ transplants are already the subject of a web of regulations, which do not guarantee that everyone in need of a life-saving organ will receive one. But Arizona's transplant specialists are alarmed that patients who were in line to receive transplants one day were, after the state's budget cuts to its Medicaid program, ruled ineligible the next - unless they raised the money themselves.
Francisco Felix, 32, a father of four who has hepatitis C and is in need of a liver, received news a few weeks ago that a family friend was dying and wanted to donate her liver to him. But the budget cuts meant he no longer qualified for a state-financed transplant.
He was prepared anyway at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center as his relatives scrambled to raise the needed $200,000. When the money did not come through, the liver went to someone else on the transplant list.
"I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can't cut human lives," said Mr. Felix's wife, Flor. "You just can't do that."
Such high drama is unfolding regularly here as more and more of the roughly 100 people affected by the cuts are becoming known: the father of six who died before receiving a bone marrow transplant, the plumber in need of a new heart and the high school basketball coach who struggles to breathe during games at high altitudes as she awaits a lung transplant.
"I appreciate the need for budget restraints," said Dr. Andrew M. Yeager, a University of Arizona professor who is director of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at the Arizona Cancer Center. "But when one looks at a potentially lifesaving treatment, admittedly expensive, and we have data to support efficacy, cuts like this are shortsighted and sad."
State Medicaid officials said they recommended discontinuing some transplants only after assessing the success rates for previous patients. Among the discontinued procedures are lung transplants, liver transplants for hepatitis C patients and some bone marrow and pancreas transplants, which altogether would save the state about $4.5 million a year.
"As an agency, we understand there have been difficult cuts and there will have to be more difficult cuts looking forward," said Jennifer Carusetta, chief legislative liaison at the state Medicaid agency.
The issue has led to a fierce political battle, with Democrats condemning the reductions as "Brewercare," after Gov. Jan Brewer.
"We made it very clear at the time of the vote that this was a death sentence," said State Senator Leah Landrum Taylor, a Democrat. "This is not a luxury item. We're not talking about cosmetic surgery."
The Republican governor has in turn blamed "Obamacare," meaning the federal health care overhaul, for the transplant cuts even though the Arizona vote came in March, before President Obama signed that bill into law.
But a top Republican, State Representative John Kavanagh, has already pledged to reconsider at least some of the state's cuts for transplants when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Mr. Kavanagh, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he does not believe lawmakers had the full picture of the effect of the cuts on patients when they voted.
"It's difficult to be linked to a situation where people's lives are jeopardized and turned upside down," he said in an interview. "Thankfully no one has died as a result of this, and I believe we have time to rectify this."
Across the country, states have restricted benefits to their Medicaid programs, according to a 50-state survey published in September by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. But none have gone as far as Arizona in eliminating some transplants, which are considered optional services under federal law.
Before the Legislature acted, Arizona's Medicaid agency had provided an analysis to lawmakers of the transplants that were cut, which many health experts now say was seriously flawed. For instance, the state said that 13 of 14 patients under the state's health system who received bone marrow transplants from nonrelatives over a two-year period died within six months.
But outside specialists said the success rates were considerably higher, particularly for leukemia patients in their first remission.
"Something needs to be done," said Dr. Emmanuel Katsanis, a bone marrow transplant expert at the University of Arizona. "There's no doubt that people aren't going to make it because of this decision. What do you tell someone? You need a transplant but you have to raise the money?"
Just before the Oct. 1 deadline, Mark Price, a father of six who was fighting leukemia, learned he needed a bone marrow transplant. But his doctor, Jeffrey R. Schriber, found donor matches for his transplant the very day the new rules went into effect, and Mr. Price no longer qualified for coverage by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the formal name for the state's Medicaid program.
What happened next was at once inspirational and heart-rending.
Out of the blue, an anonymous financial donor quickly stepped forward and agreed to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed for Mr. Price's surgery. But Mr. Price died last weekend, after his cancer returned before the operation could be done. He was buried on Thursday, next to his grandfather.
"It's not correct to say that he died as a result of the cuts," said Dr. Schriber, who is active in lobbying for the financing to be restored. "Did it prey on his mind? Did it make his last days more difficult? No doubt."
Elsewhere, the fund-raising is already under way.
Mr. Felix and others are now trying to raise enough for new organs through NTAF, a nonprofit organization based in Pennsylvania formerly known as the National Transplant Assistance Fund that helps transplant patients pay for their medical costs. National coverage of their plight has already led to more than $100,000 in donations for some of the patients affected by the budget cuts. The Felix family is also planning a yard sale this weekend so he does not lose the chance to get another liver.
There has been a flurry of lobbying to persuade the state to reverse the decision. Dr. Gruessner said he and others met with state health officials recently to propose other cuts associated with transplants, like eliminating tests typically conducted before surgery.
If the Legislature does decide to reconsider the cuts, one of the affected people, a plumber and father of three named Randy Shepherd, 36, who has an ailing heart and needs a transplant, plans to attend the debate.
"I'm trying not to take it personally," he said of being cut out of the program. "None of the politicians had heard of me when they made their decision. They didn't say, 'Let's kill this guy.' "
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
16) WikiLeaks Founder Says Guards Against Death Threats
By REUTERS
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/12/03/technology/tech-us-wikileaks-assange.html?src=busln
Filed at 12:43 p.m. ET
LONDON/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Friday he and colleagues were taking steps to protect themselves after death threats following the publication of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables on their website.
Assange's lawyer said he would also fight any attempt to extradite his client to face questions over alleged sexual misconduct, adding that he believed foreign powers were influencing Sweden in the matter.
Washington is furious about the leak of hundreds of confidential diplomatic cables that have given unvarnished and sometimes embarrassing insights into the foreign policy of the United States and its allies.
Answering questions online from an undisclosed location, the 39-year-old Australian said anyone making threats against his life should be charged with incitement to murder.
"The threats against our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a superpower," Assange was quoted as saying on the Guardian website.
Britain's Guardian is one of a number of newspapers around the world with early access to diplomatic cables seen by WikiLeaks.
Assange, who is reported to be somewhere in southern England, has his own legal woes.
Swedish authorities said information missing from a European arrest warrant they had issued against Assange for alleged sex crimes had been handed to British authorities.
"We sent it. They asked for complementary information and now they have it," Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said.
"CONSTANT CONTACT"
Bjorn Hurtig, a lawyer representing Assange, told Reuters he would not say where Assange was right now nor when he last spoke to him, though they were in "constant contact."
But he said an attempt to extradite him from another country, for example from Britain, would be resisted in court.
"If it is in a country where they speak English, I know that my co-counsel Mark Stephens will help me in fighting this extradition order and he will do so vigorously," he said in a telephone interview.
WikiLeaks founder Assange in the past has spent much of his time in Sweden, and earlier this year was accused of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers.
This led Swedish prosecutors to open, then drop, then re-open an investigation into the allegations. The crime he is suspected of is the least severe of three categories of rape, carrying a maximum of four years in jail.
Assange has not been formally charged with any crime in Sweden and denies any wrongdoing.
Hurtig said the measures taken by both Swedish and international authorities in the case made him suspicious, though he said he did not suspect foul play from a foreign power in regards to the accusations against Assange.
"I have seen the documents, and I can't say that I think it is a set-up by the CIA or something," he said.
"But I suspect that there is someone else who is pushing Sweden to (take) these most unproportional measures that they are doing right now, and are pushing Sweden to push Interpol to make this arrest warrant public."
"I think somebody has an interest in getting Julian (Assange) to Sweden and maybe asking for him to be extradited to another country."
Assange, who set up WikiLeaks in 2006, was asked whether it would have been better had the website remained a faceless and anonymous organization.
"In the end, someone must be responsible to the public and only a leadership that is willing to be publicly courageous can genuinely suggest that sources take risks for the greater good," he said.
WikiLeaks directed readers to a web address in Switzerland on Friday after two U.S. Internet providers ditched it in the space of two days, and Paris tried to ban French servers from hosting its trove of leaked data.
The Internet publisher directed users to www.wikileaks.ch after the wikileaks.org site on which it had published classified U.S. government information vanished from view for about six hours. A Dutch and a German-based site, www.wikileaks.nl and www.wikileaks.de, were also working.
Sweden said it had no plans to stop WikiLeaks from being published on its servers and Assange said efforts to suppress the diplomatic cables would ultimately fail.
"The Cable Gate archive has been spread, along with significant material from the US and other countries to over 100,000 people in encrypted form."
"If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically. Further, the Cable Gate archives is in the hands of multiple news organizations. History will win."
(Additional reporting by Niklas Pollard in Stockholm and Georgina Prodhan in Paris; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
17) When it comes to Assange rape case, the Swedes are making it up as they go along
By Melbourne barrister James D. Catlin, who acted for Julian Assange in London in October.
December 2, 2010
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/02/when-it-comes-to-assange-r-pe-case-the-swedes-are-making-it-up-as-they-go-along/
Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity.
Sweden's Public Prosecutor's Office was embarrassed in August this year when it leaked to the media that it was seeking to arrest Assange for rape, then on the same day withdrew the arrest warrant because in its own words there was "no evidence". The damage to Assange's reputation is incalculable. More than three quarters of internet references to his name refer to rape. Now, three months on and three prosecutors later, the Swedes seem to be clear on their basis to proceed. Consensual sex that started out with a condom ended up without one, ergo, the sex was not consensual.
For three months Assange had been waiting in vain to hear whether media statements by and for the two female "victims" that there was no fear or violence were going to be embellished so the charges might be carried forward due to greater seriousness. Such statements would stop a rape charge in any Western country dead in its tracks. Rape is a crime of violence, duress or deception. You can rape someone by deluding them into thinking you are someone else or by drugging them or by reason of their young age but essentially it's a crime of violence.
The women here are near to and over 30 and have international experience, some of it working in Swedish government embassies. There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for.
That further evidence hasn't been confected to make the charges less absurd does Sweden no credit because it has no choice in the matter. The phenomena of social networking through the internet and mobile phones constrains Swedish authorities from augmenting the evidence against Assange because it would look even less credible in the face of tweets by Anna Ardin and SMS texts by Sofia Wilén boasting of their respective conquests after the "crimes".
In the case of Ardin it is clear that she has thrown a party in Assange's honour at her flat after the "crime" and tweeted to her followers that she is with the "the world's coolest smartest people, it's amazing!". Go on the internet and see for yourself. That Ardin has sought unsuccessfully to delete these exculpatory tweets from the public record should be a matter of grave concern. That she has published on the internet a guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends ever graver. The exact content of Wilén's mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Niether Wilén's nor Ardin's texts complain of rape.
But then neither Arden nor Wilén complained to the police but rather "sought advice", a technique in Sweden enabling citizens to avoid just punishment for making false complaints. They sought advice together, having collaborated and irrevocably tainted each other's evidence beforehand. Their SMS texts to each other show a plan to contact the Swedish newspaper Expressen beforehand in order to maximise the damage to Assange. They belong to the same political group and attended a public lecture given by Assange and organised by them. You can see Wilén on the YouTube video of the event even now.
Of course, their celebrity lawyer Claes Borgström was questioned as to how the women themselves could be essentially contradicting the legal characterisation of Swedish prosecutors; a crime of non-consent by consent. Borgström's answer is emblematic of how divorced from reality this matter is. "They (the women) are not jurists". You need a law degree to know whether you have been r-ped or not in Sweden. In the context of such double think, the question of how the Swedish authorities propose to deal with victims who neither saw themselves as such nor acted as such is easily answered: You're not a Swedish lawyer so you wouldn't understand anyway. The consent of both women to sex with Assange has been confirmed by prosecutors.
Proposed reforms of Swedish rape laws would introduce a test of whether the unequal power relations between the parties might void the sincerely expressed consent of one party. In this case, presumably, the politically active Ardin, with experience fielding gender equity complaints as a gender equity officer at Uppsala University, had her will suborned by Assange's celebrity. The prosecutor coming as she does from a prosecution "Development Unit" could achieve this broadening of the law during Assange's trial so he can be convicted of a crime that didn't exist at the time he allegedly committed it. She would need to. There is no precedent for it. The Swedes are making it up as they go along.
A great deal more damning evidence is yet to be revealed about what passes for legal process in Sweden, such as Assange's lawyers having not received a single official document until November 18, 2010 (and then in Swedish language contrary to European Law) and having to learn about the status of investigations through prosecution media announcements but make no mistake: it is not Julian Assange that is on trial here but Sweden and its reputation as a modern and model country with rules of law.
*James D. Catlin is a Melbourne barrister who acted for Julian Assange in London during October.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
18) FBI Delivers Subpoenas to More Anti-War, Solidarity Activists
Friday, December 03, 2010
[StopFBI-National] More subpoenas today - make these calls NOW!
For more information on the case: www.stopfbi.net
StopFBI mailing list
StopFBI@organizerweb.com
http://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/stopfbi
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and condemn the use of the grand jury to repress the anti-war and solidarity movements! Call Patrick J. Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 NOW!
2. Call US Attorney General Eric Holder - 202-353-1555 with the same demand.
3. And call President Obama: 202-456-1111
FBI Delivers Subpoenas to More Anti-War, Solidarity Activists
Friday, December 03, 2010
The FBI has informed a lawyer from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) that at least three subpoenas to appear before a Grand Jury have been delivered in the Chicago area.
Attorney Jim Fennerty confirmed that FBI agent Robert Parker informed him just before 1:00 pm today that the subpoenas were being delivered at that moment.
This is a continuation of the assault on the anti-war movement that began on September 24th. This case began with 14 subpoenas delivered to anti-war, labor and solidarity activists in coordinated raids that swept the Midwest, involving scores of federal agents. "The FBI is continuing their campaign to intimidate the movement," stated Joe Iosbaker of the national Committee to Stop FBI Repression. Iosbaker was one of those raided and subpoenaed in September.
Fennerty is one of the lead NLG attorneys from the legal team for the activists. According to Fennerty, "The new subpoenas are summoning people for grand jury dates. At least one of the three has been told to appear before the grand jury Tuesday, January 25th, in the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago."
Three of the original 14 are awaiting new grand jury court dates as well. Iosbaker explained, "If the three women who have been called back - Sara Martin, Tracy Molm and Anh Pham - refuse to take part in the fishing expedition carried on by the U.S. Attorney, they can expect to be cited for contempt and jailed for the life of the grand jury."
The Committee to Stop FBI Repression urges supporters to contact U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and condemn the use of the grand jury to repress the anti-war and solidarity movements. Call Patrick J. Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
19) Millions Bracing for Cutoff of Unemployment Aid
By MICHAEL LUO, KIM SEVERSON, DAVID HERSZENHORN and ROBBIE BROWN
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/us/04unemployed.html?hp
More than two million jobless Americans are entering the holiday season seized with varying levels of foreboding, worry or even panic over what lies ahead as they cope with the expected cutoff of their unemployment benefits.
Their economic fates are now connected on a taut string to skirmishing between Democrats and Republicans in Washington over whether to extend federal financing for unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.
Tuesday marked the expiration of a pair of federal programs that had extended unemployment benefits anywhere from 34 to 73 weeks on top of the 26 weeks already provided by the states.
The federal extensions have been customary in past recessions and their aftermath, but they have become ensnared lately in political jousting over the soaring budget deficit.
Some recipients have already received their final checks. If the impasse remains unresolved, others will see their payments lapse in the coming days or weeks, depending on how long they have been receiving benefits.
By the end of December, more than two million are set to lose their extended benefits, according to estimates by the National Employment Law Project, and about a million more by the end of January.
While benefits have lapsed twice before in this downturn because of Congressional bickering - the last time, in June and July, payments were interrupted for 51 days- advocates for the unemployed are worried that if the issue is not resolved by the current lame-duck session of Congress, prospects in the next, with Republicans ascendant, are even slimmer.
That would mean a new reality facing legions of people across the country: a cutoff after six months of benefits for anyone out of work.
MICHAEL LUO
In Washington, Partisan Gridlock
WASHINGTON - With jobless benefits starting to run out for up two million of the long-term unemployed, Senate Democrats this week repeatedly tried to bring up a bill that would prolong aid for a year, only to hear Republicans object and block the legislation. Democrats, in turn, rejected Republican counterproposals.
In both the Senate and House, Democrats are pressing the case for jobless aid on two fronts, arguing that it is both the moral and humanitarian thing to do - especially during the holiday season - and that it is also an effective policy mechanism to help stimulate the economy.
"Unemployment insurance, the economists tell us, returns $2 for every dollar that is put out there," the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a floor speech on Thursday. "People need the money. They spend it immediately for necessities. It injects demand into the economy. It helps reduce the deficit."
Republicans said they would be willing to extend benefits provided that Democrats agree to cut spending elsewhere to cover the cost, sparking indignation among Democrats who noted that the Republicans never insist on offsetting the revenue lost through tax cuts.
A deal to extend the aid is likely, but only as part of a wider agreement on the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, and it is unclear how long that will take.
One exchange on the Senate floor, between Senators Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, and Scott P. Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, was emblematic of the debate.
"In my state of Rhode Island, people are in a very serious situation," Mr. Reed said. "They are struggling to stay in their homes, to educate their children, to deal with the challenges of everyday life. They have worked hard and long all their lives, and now they are finding it difficult to get a job."
Mr. Reed noted that Congress has always extended jobless benefits in times of high unemployment.
"We have always done it on an emergency basis because it truly is an emergency," he said. "We have always determined that it was necessary to get the money to the people who could use it, who needed it desperately, and we should do that again."
Moments later, when Mr. Reed asked for the Senate's unanimous agreement to consider his bill, Mr. Brown was waiting. "I object," Mr. Brown said. "And I have a pay-for alternative on which I would like to speak."
Mr. Brown proposed that money previously appropriated but not yet spent be redirected for the jobless aid. "The recent job numbers in Massachusetts reflect over 280,000 people unemployed in my state alone - over 8 percent of the Massachusetts work force. As the senator from Rhode Island mentioned - and I know Rhode Island well; I eat in Federal Hill regularly - the unemployment is much higher there."
Mr. Brown noted that within just six and a half hours benefits would start to run out. "I don't want this to happen," he said. "If we fail to act today, 60,000 Bay Staters will see their unemployment checks evaporate at the end of the week."
Mr. Brown then asked unanimous consent for the Senate to take up his proposal. Mr. Reed, however, was waiting. "I object," he said.
DAVID HERSZENHORN
Lessons in Making Do With Less and Less
ORLANDO, Fla. - People used to living on little learn a lot of tricks to get by.
How long to ignore the notices before the power really gets shut off, for example. Or how many days past the freshness date stamped on a package of bologna is one day too many.
But the people walking into the Community Food and Outreach Center here have often run out of options. And now they may soon have to learn to be even poorer.
It is the responsibility of the center's staff to try to help them deal with this new level of doing without.
"We already turn off the AC and pretty much eat those dollar noodles with the seasoning packet," said Jacynth Allen, who at 47 finds herself for the first time among the long-term unemployed.
Workers here are preparing to increase by about 30 percent the amount of food they have available, just one example of preparations occurring across the country as social service providers brace for what they expect to be a surge of people in need.
With the memory of the onslaught that occurred when unemployment benefits lapsed over the summer, the center is planning one of its most aggressive food drives ever, along with a campaign to drum up donations and volunteers, said Andrae Bailey, the executive director.
The organization is also planning to invite governmental agencies and other nonprofits to set up on campus to offer assistance.
"These families don't know how to navigate through an economic crisis," he said. "Their support system is already depleted. They have nothing left to sell and no one left to ask. And now they are going to lose the $250 they use for housing and food."
It is among the center's aisles of free bread and deeply discounted packaged food that the simple daily challenge of being newly poor shows itself. Trying to put together a meal when even a dime makes a difference is bewildering for someone who used to stroll down the aisle at the grocery store with only a casual interest in coupons.
How do you plan a menu around a random collection that might include a tube of anchovy paste, a can of mandarin orange slices and a slightly crushed box of Ritz crackers?
The relative value of the little things a household takes for granted - plastic garbage bags, toothpaste - must be weighed against an extra box of cereal or a package of off-brand cookies that might soften the situation, if only for a few bites.
Troy O'Dell, 42, rejected a dented family-size can of tomato soup the food bank had marked at $1.29. He knew he could get it at a grocery outlet for 89 cents.
Mr. O'Dell resents having to even think about the price of a can of soup. He's a dry waller who was never out of work until a couple of years ago. He figures he has one unemployment check left.
He says he will have to get even smarter about stretching his food bank supplies to feed him and his 14-year-old daughter.
The deer he shot a few days ago will help. With his last unemployment check, he plans to buy an $8 seasoning packet so he can make 40 pounds of venison jerky.
"That way, it'll last longer," he said.
KIM SEVERSON
Mounting Bills And Pessimism
FAIRBURN, Ga. - Frank Sanders can visualize how his tidy, green-shuttered mobile home will deteriorate if he does not regain unemployment benefits.
His living room furniture? It is scheduled to be repossessed. The kitchen? He is already stockpiling canned food donated by churches. The mobile home itself? By next month, he will have spent his last rent money, and then Mr. Sanders, a 64-year-old Vietnam veteran who lost his job as a welder last year, is bracing for the possibility of homelessness.
"We're running low on time," said Mr. Sanders, a bulky former Air Force parachutist who lives with his disabled wife, Ruth, in this small Atlanta suburb. Their monthly income of $948 in Social Security benefits does not cover her medical expenses, let alone their car, phone, rent, food or electrical costs, he said. "The bills just keep piling up."
Add to that grim outlook a new concern: This week is the first since Mr. Sanders lost his job in May 2009 that they will not receive $323 in government unemployment benefits. Unless Congress approves a measure extending federal assistance for the long-term unemployed, they will be among more than two million jobless Americans who will lose their benefits by the end of this month. So there is a special urgency to Mr. Sanders's daily trips around town in his Chevy Trailblazer, applying for jobs at fast-food restaurants, construction sites and retail stores. An artist by hobby, he also paints landscapes on common items - milk jugs, vinyl records, buzz saws - and sells them for $15.
Such hardship is humbling. Raised in a working-class family and employed all of his life until last year, Mr. Sanders went to a food bank for a donated Thanksgiving turkey. "I'm supposed to be the provider, I'm supposed to be taking care of the situation," he said. "There I am begging for food."
He lost his job at a factory that welds equipment for bulldozers in Lafayette, Ind., amid a companywide downsizing. His wife's daughter lives in Georgia, so they moved here this year, hoping he could find work as a carpenter or construction worker, but so far he has not received any offers. For "good luck," he recently placed a large golden Buddha statue in his living room. But he admits that he is pessimistic. The state unemployment rate is 10 percent. Every evening, he watches C-Span, hoping for news that Congress has passed the extensions, and ends up yelling at the television.
"I'm wondering where the next dollar is going to come from, or the next meal," he said. "When I'm not looking for work, my day is filled with a lot of pacing back and forth."
ROBBIE BROWN
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
20) Spain Air Travel Disrupted by Strike
By RAPHAEL MINDER
December 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/world/europe/05spain.html?hp
MADRID - Spain declared a "state of alarm" on Saturday for the first time since returning to democracy in response to a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers that had closed air traffic at the start of one of the year's biggest holiday weekends. The controllers began returning to work for their afternoon shifts, but air travel in and out of Spain was likely to be disrupted for the next one or two days.
The controllers have been in a yearlong dispute with the authorities over their work conditions, but the conflict escalated Friday when the government approved new regulations and an austerity package that will result in the partial privatization of Spain's airport management. The strike started about 5 p.m. on Friday, just hours after the government approved its latest austerity package, aimed at reassuring financial markets that the country would meet its deficit-cutting targets. Controllers failed to show up for their shifts just as hundreds of thousands of Spaniards prepared to travel for a long weekend.
"We won't accept this blackmail," said Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Spain's deputy prime minister, in a televised news conference at noon on Saturday that followed a crisis cabinet meeting. "Almost all our airports are paralyzed, and so we are declaring a state of alarm in line with what has been established in our Constitution."
After the government's emergency intervention, the state-controlled airport management company, Aena, said Saturday afternoon that some controllers had returned for their afternoon shifts and that flights were starting to land again in Madrid. Earlier, Aena had predicted that traffic would not be restored before Sunday at 6 a.m.
Even if controllers resume their work, however, José Blanco, Spain's transport and public works minister, predicted that it would take as long as 48 hours to reschedule canceled flights and return air traffic to complete normality.
The Spanish military had taken over air control towers and begun advising civilian controllers that they were likely to face prosecution for disobedience if they failed to resume work. Mr. Rubalcaba said the state of alarm could be maintained for as long as 15 days, although "it is clear the government hopes it doesn't last that long."
The government's latest measures include a plan to privatize as much as 49 percent of Aena, thereby placing under private management the country's two biggest airports, in Madrid and Barcelona - a divestment opposed by labor unions. The government also on Friday approved new rules dictating the working hours air traffic controllers, as well as a law allowing the army to take over airspace in times of alarm.
Air traffic controllers and the government have been at loggerheads for the past year, resulting in disruptions last summer, because of proposed changes to their work structure.
On Saturday, Mr. Rubalcaba said, "It is obvious that we are facing a group of workers who know themselves to be unique given the nature of their jobs and are defending unacceptable privileges."
Madrid and other airports have experienced chaotic scenes since Friday afternoon, as stranded passengers awaited to hear how long the disruption might last or frantically sought reimbursement for their flights and other travel expenses. Interviewed on Spanish television, many voiced outrage against traffic controllers whose salaries are relatively high and working hours limited as Spain struggles with a unemployment rate of 20 percent - twice the average in the European Union.
Still, some also blamed the government for escalating the conflict just ahead of a major vacation period. Monday and Wednesday are both public holidays in Spain, and many families had planned on taking a five-day break.
The right to call a state of alarm, the lowest of three emergency levels, allowing the government to maintain order under extraordinary circumstances, had never been used. Included in Spain's Constitution after the country's return to democracy after the death in 1975 of the dictator Franco, it was designed primarily to respond to natural disasters, but also to exceptional circumstances like a complete breakdown of public transport.
Since Greece's near-collapse last spring, the Spanish government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has imposed billions of euros in public spending cuts and introduced a raft of other austerity measures to help convince investors that it could cut Spain's budget deficit to 6 percent of gross domestic product next year, from 11.1 percent last year. Popular response to such cuts had however been more subdued than in countries like Greece or France.
This weekend's wildcat strike, however, is expected to generate huge losses for a tourism sector that accounts for 11 percent of the country's G.D.P. It also comes only days after Iberia, the national carrier, finalized its merger with British Airways.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
21) Counts in Haiti of Cholera Cases and Victims Could Be Doubled
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/world/americas/04briefs-Haiti.html?ref=world
United Nations teams in Haiti believe that the cholera epidemic's official numbers of 1,800 deaths and nearly 81,000 people infected could be double that because of difficulties in reporting, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly on Friday. Mr. Ban also said there was an urgent need for more cholera treatment centers, and an additional 350 doctors, 2,000 nurses and 2,200 support staff members to run them. He called on countries to contribute more to the organization's appeal for $164 million to contain the outbreak, saying it was still only 20 percent financed.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
22) Lebanon: Hezbollah Reports Finding Israeli Device Spying on Network
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/world/middleeast/04briefs-Lebanon.html?ref=world
Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, said Friday that it had discovered an Israeli device spying on its private telecommunications network. The device exploded, apparently detonated remotely by the Israelis, when it was found near the village of Majdel Silim, about five miles from the border with Israel, Hezbollah said in a statement. A spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon had no comment, and Israeli officials could not immediately be reached. Also on Friday, Lebanese judicial officials said a military court convicted a man, Ziad Homsi, of spying for Israel and sentenced him to 15 years in prison and hard labor.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
23) BP Is Planning to Challenge Estimates of Oil Spill
By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF
December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/science/earth/04bp.html?ref=us
BP intends to challenge official government estimates of how much oil leaked from its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico, a move that could reduce its legal liability by billions of dollars, according to documents the company filed with the presidential commission investigating the spill.
In August, federal scientists estimated that 4.9 million barrels of oil had leaked from the well before it was capped on July 15, a figure that BP now argues is 20 to 50 percent too high. Under the Clean Water Act, BP faces fines of up to $21 billion, or $4,300 per barrel, if courts determine that it acted with gross negligence before the accident.
BP has not offered its own estimates of how much oil spilled, but in the documents filed with the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, it questioned the accuracy of the government's figures, Priya Aiyar, the panel's deputy chief counsel, said at its final hearing on Friday.
In a letter to the commission in October, BP argued that official estimates by the United States Geological Survey and the Energy Department were "flawed."
"They rely on incomplete or inaccurate information, rest in large part on assumptions that have not been validated, and are subject to far greater uncertainties than have been acknowledged," the company wrote.
In a statement on Friday, the Energy Department said it stood by its estimates.
"The government's estimates about the flow rate were based on the best available data and rigorous analysis by world-leading scientists from inside and outside of government and the full resources of our national laboratories," said Stephanie Mueller, an agency spokeswoman.
Representative Edward J. Markey, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, said it was no surprise that BP would argue that the spill estimates were too high. In hearings, subcommittee members questioned early estimates made by BP and federal officials that were later shown to vastly underestimate the flow rate of oil from the well.
"During the disaster, BP did whatever it could to avoid revealing the true flow rate of the spill," Mr. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement.
Preliminary estimates by BP and federal officials put the flow of oil from the well at 1,000 to 5,000 barrels a day, but detailed analysis by government and independent scientists later determined it had probably reached as high as 60,000 barrels a day.
In a statement on Friday, BP called the later estimates "highly unreliable." Mr. Markey officially asked BP to turn over all documents related to its efforts to calculate the flow from the well.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
24) Nigeria: Village Raid Shows Dangers in Oil Delta
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/04/business/AP-AF-Nigeria-Oil-Unrest.html?src=busln
Filed at 11:51 a.m. EST
OKWAGBE, Nigeria (AP) - As the heavily armed Nigerian soldiers slipped closer to a suspected militant camp in the country's oil-rich southern delta, they were ready for a fight after suffering casualties only days earlier.
They launched a massive attack including aerial bombings that was aimed at finding a wanted militant. Civilians caught in the middle tried to escape with their lives, human rights activists say.
As many as 150 people died in the fighting Wednesday and subsequent raids around Ayakoromor, a village lacking mobile phone reception and only accessible via the Niger Delta's maze of winding creeks, activists say. However, the military says it fired only after being fired upon.
Still, the violence represents yet another example of how those toiling in poverty in a region that makes billions for Nigeria find themselves caught between a military seeking revenge and power-hungry militants.
"In this country, we have only two classes of being," said Casely Omon-Irabor, a lawyer representing the hunted militant John Togo. "The oppressed and the oppressor."
The attack around Ayakoromor, a small village in Delta state, included heavy machine gun blasts from Navy vessels and bombing runs by military aircraft. However, the region's main military commander in the fight against militants denied Saturday that any civilian died in the recent assaults, while acknowledging soldiers opened fire on the shoreline of the civilian village after reportedly being shot at.
"We were taken aback by the volume of fire that was brought to bear on the troops when we approached Ayakoromor on the way to John Togo's camp," Gen. Charles Omoregie told journalists at a news conference. "Soldiers had to fight their way into the camp."
Omoregie said homes in the village burned after ricocheting rifle rounds exploded gasoline and kerosene canisters.
Those with family in the village, like engineer Yeigagha Henry, offered a different account. Residents able to escape the village told him his 76-year-old father died at the hands of the soldiers.
"They set the house ablaze," Henry calmly recounted Saturday in the nearby city of Okwagbe. "He died inside."
A list compiled by Oghebejabor Ikim, national coordinator for the Warri-based Forum of Justice and Human Rights Defense, identified 18 of the dead. Ikim said residents told him that soldiers burned down the local customary court and a maternity ward, as well as many homes in the area.
Access to Ayakoromor remained tightly controlled by the military Saturday. Officials with the Nigerian Red Cross made it inside, but a military commander blocked two journalists working for The Associated Press from entering the village, citing a security risk.
Violence in the area also may be continuing. Soldiers manning a boat landing in Okwagbe speaking in the Hausa language said someone suffered injuries Saturday. A commander ordered guards to avoid bringing the injured person past waiting journalists.
Militant and military attacks are nothing new to the Niger Delta, a region of creeks and mangroves about the size of South Carolina. The attacks from an insurgency that began in 2006 cut drastically into crude production in Nigeria, an OPEC-member nation that is one of the top suppliers of crude oil to the U.S.
Production has risen back to 2.2 million barrels of oil a day, in part because many militant leaders and fighters accepted a government-sponsored amnesty deal last year.
But as militants over the years profit from kidnapping and oil theft, the military has launched several reprisal massacres against villages. Often, civilians find themselves caught in the middle of a war over oil they never profit from.
Instead, they eek out a living in petty trading, fishing and subsidence farming as their children attend classes in rundown schools with rusting corrugated roofs and clinic cabinets remain barren of needed anti-malaria drugs.
"What they get as the dividends of democracy, what they get as part of oil revenue is human slaughter," said Anyakwee Nsirimovu, the executive director of the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Port Harcourt. "It's unacceptable and I think children and young people who watch their parents die and their houses get burned down will find a way of fighting back."
Meanwhile, both militants and the military find it lucrative for violence to continue - especially when it comes to the large-scale oil theft that plagues the foreign oil firms working in the region. That stolen crude, easily refined, fetches top dollar on the black market. But in order for the oil to leave the country, security agencies patrolling the delta must let it container ships slip away unstopped.
Between oil theft, amnesty program cash payouts and additional combat pay offered to soldiers in the region, Nsirimovu said only the civilians get left out - until the violence comes.
"People who profit from the violence in the Niger Delta would not want that violence to end," he said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
