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Saturday, March 19, 2011: Resist the War Machine!
8th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq
In San Francisco, people will gather at 12 noon for a rally at UN Plaza (7th & Market Sts.) followed by a march to Lo. 2 boycotted hotels. The theme of the March 19 march and rally will be "No to War & Colonial Occupation - Fund Jobs, Healthcare & Education - Solidarity with SF Hotel Workers!" 12,000 SF hotel workers, members of UNITE-HERE Local 2, have been fighting for a new contract that protects their healthcare, wages and working conditions.
http://www.answercoalition.org/sf/index.html
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RALLY AGAINST THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE AT HOME AND ABROAD! BACK TO THE STREETS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2011
ASSEMBLE AT DOLORES PARK AT 11:00 A.M.
NOON RALLY
MARCH AT 1:30 P.M.
THEY are the government, corporate, and financial powers that wage war, ravage the environment and the economy and trample on our democratic rights and liberties.
WE are the vast majority of humanity who want peace, a healty planet and a society that prioritizes human needs, democracy and civil liberties for all.
WE DEMAND Bring U.S. Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza! End support of dictators in North Africa!
WE DEMAND an end to FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and international solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders.
WE DEMAND the immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings and death squads.
WE DEMAND trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for ail, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad.
Sponsored by the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC)
www.unacpeace.org
unacnortherncalifornia@gmail.com
415-49-NO-WAR
Facebook.com/EndTheWars
Twitter.com/UNACPeace
TRADUCCION:
Marcha en contra de las guerras: en casa y en el exterior
Ellos son el gobierno y las corporaciones que financian las guerras, destruyen el medio ambiente, la economía y pisotean nuestras libertades y derechos democráticos.
Nosotros, somos la gran mayoría de la humanidad y queremos paz. Un planeta saludable y una sociedad que priorice en las necesidades humanas, la democracia y las libertades civiles para todos.
Nosotros, demandamos que las tropas militares, los mercenarios y los contratistas de guerra que enviaron a Irak, Afganistán, y Paquistán sean traídas de regreso a los Estados Unidos ¡Ahora! Que paren con las sanciones y las amenazas de guerra en contra de los pueblos de Irán, Corea del Norte y Yemen; y que los Estados Unidos deje de colaborar con Israel en la invasión y acoso a Palestina y Gaza. No al saqueo de los pueblos de América Latina, el Caribe y África; que paren la persecución racista que amenaza las comunidades musulmanas y que paren el terror policiaco en contra de las comunidades negras y latinas; derechos totales y legalización para los emigrantes.
Nosotros, demandamos que el FBI pare de inmediato la persecución a los luchadores por la justicia social y la solidaridad internacional; como también pongan un alto a todos los esfuerzos que reprimen y castigan a los contribuidores y fundadores de Wikileaks.
Nosotros, demandamos trillones de dólares para trabajos, educación y servicios sociales; que cesen todos los embargos de viviendas y desalojos; un programa de salud gratuito y de calidad para todos; un programa energético de conversión masiva que salve al planeta y buen el sistema de transporte público. Y reparaciones para las víctimas del terror de estados unidos aquí en casa y en el exterior.
VICTORY IN EGYPT!
U.S. Hands off the Ongoing Egyptian Revolution!
End US Military Aid to Egypt and Israel!
A Statement by the United National Antiwar Committee
On Friday, February 11th, the heroic Egyptian people won a historic victory with the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Now they are proceeding to secure this victory by moving on to eliminate the rest of this hated regime, and to win the freedom, jobs, equality and dignity which has motivated their revolution from the start.
The announcement of Mubarak's resignation was coupled with news that the officers of the Armed Forces are now running the country. This comes as more and more rank and file soldiers and lower-level officers were joining the protests, and as others stood by as protesters blockaded the state TV, parliament and other government facilities.
We can be sure that the military hierarchy in alliance with what's left of the old regime will do everything in their power to stop the blossoming revolution in its tracks, to tell the protesters they must go home now and wait for gifts from on high.
AND THE DANGER IS REAL THAT WHEN THE MASSES SAY NO THAT THE MILITARY WILL DO WHAT IT DOES BEST.
We can be equally sure that Washington will give its full blessing and backing to these efforts of the remnants of the old regime and the military. Obama has made clear that he is solidly committed to the new face of the Egyptian regime, Omar Suleiman, who has proven over the years that he will collaborate with Washington in its torture and rendition policies. Meanwhile Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quoted in the New York Times saying that Washington would help organize political parties for future elections in Egypt - a typical maneuver used to subvert revolutions.
The United National Antiwar Committee has repeatedly urged supporters to mobilize for demonstrations called by Egyptian organizations in the US in solidarity with the revolution in Egypt and against US military and diplomatic intervention. UNAC hails the call for today's march in Washington, DC by Egyptian groups, and takes this opportunity to point out the special obligations of antiwar activists in the US given Washington's multifaceted efforts to obstruct the wishes of the majority of the Egyptian people.
The $1.3 billion a year in military aid which the US gives to Egypt must be cut off immediately. All US soldiers serving in Egypt, such as those in the Multinational Force in the Sinai, must be immediately withdrawn. And the US warships headed for Egypt must be immediately turned around.
UNAC has from its founding opposed all US aid to Israel. That position takes on particular importance given the real danger that as the Egyptian revolution advances, Israel will intervene to derail it - or launch new attacks against Lebanon, Gaza, or elsewhere, as a diversionary tactic.
Amidst the euphoria in Cairo, Al Jazeera interviewed a young woman in the crowd, who said:
"Its not just about Mubarak stepping down. It is about the process of bringing the people to power... The issue of women, the issue of Palestine, now everything seems possible."
WE MUST ENSURE THOSE POSSIBILITIES STAY ALIVE! UNAC ENCOURAGES ALL ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS AND ORGANIZATIONS TO STEP UP SUPPORT FOR RALLIES PLANNED BY THE EGYPTIAN COMMUNITY, AND TO INITIATE THEM WHERE NONE ARE PLANNED.
Finally, we urge all supporters of the Egyptian people to redouble efforts to build the national antiwar marches called by UNAC for April 9th in New York and April 10th in San Francisco. These marches, called to demand an end to US wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, an end to support for Israeli occupation, and in favor of social justice and jobs, take on ever more importance with the revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere throughout the Arab world and Washington's attempts to crush or derail them.
SUPPORT THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY AND AGAINST EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION THROUGHOUT THE ARAB WORLD!
BUILD THE NATIONAL ANTIWAR MARCHES ON APRIL 9TH AND 10TH!
For more information: In SF: UNACNorthernCalifornia@gmail.com; (415) 49 NO War; www.unacpeace.org, unacpeace@gmail.com. For NYC information: unac-nyc@juno.com
San Franciscans/Northern California: Next UNAC Organizing Meeting: Sunday March 13, at 1 PM, Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street, (between 15th and 16th Streets second floor in the rear) SF
SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, APRIL 10, Mass antiwar/social justice march and rally, Assemble: 11 AM Dolores Park, 19th and Dolores; Rally Noon; March at 1:30 pm.
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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
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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MEDIA RELEASE from Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU)
A Benefit Evening to Support Bradley Manning
Thursday, Feb 24, 2011 7 - 9 pm
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
Fellowship Hall address: 1924 Cedar Street , Berkeley CA 94709
Sponsored by: Courage To Resist, Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists & Code Pink Golden Gate
Wheelchair Accessible. Suggested Donation is $5 - 10. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Dr. Caroline Knowles of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists will give the welcoming remarks.
Daniel Ellsberg will speak. As the "Pentagon Papers" whistle-blower of the Vietnam War era, he is in a unique position to put the the current issues into historical context.
http://www.ellsberg.net
Senator Mike Gravel has been referencing the damage to a democratic society that excessive secrecy and media manipulation has had on the ability of citizens to exercise informed judgment. All the while the government has passed more repressive laws since the 9/11 attacks that intrude on citizen privacy and rights.
http://www.mikegravel.us
Jeff Patterson of "Courage To Resist" will provide an overview of the issues and the history of Bradley Manning's case.
http://www.couragetoresist.org
Cynthia Papermaster of Code Pink Golden Gate chapter will MC. She will offer views on the treatment of Bradley Manning and will report on her recent experience at the demonstration on MLK DAY at Fort Quantico Prison where Bradley Manning is being held in solitary confinement.
http://www.codepinkgoldengate.org
Details of the event can be found at BFUU Upcoming Events Webpage.
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
Fellowship Hall address: 1924 Cedar Street , Berkeley CA 94709
Phone: 510-841-4824
www.bfuu.org
office@bfuu.org
Submitted by
Shirley Adams
404-245-7977 (cell)
BFUU Membership Team
The only gift is a portion of thyself.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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BIG thanks to CodePink, now the Bay Area has its very own day of rage!
JOIN US THIS FRIDAY, February 25 for the Bay Area Day of Rage in Solidarity with Iraq and Palestine, and in support of people's movements in Libya, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Iran and Wisconsin....and please WEAR RED!!!!
From the Mid West to the Mid East, people are taking to the streets to demand their rights! Will the US be on the right side of history in these struggles to bring about true democracy? Join CODEPINK and Bay Area activists in support of peoples movements worldwide, outside San Francisco's historical Ferry building as we stand in solidarity with the people in their struggle against corrupt governments.
Friday February 25, 2011 2:30pm
Ferry Building, The Embarcadero & Market St
San Francisco, CA 94111
On Feb 25th, "preparations are underway for a "Revolution of Iraqi Rage" rally in the capital, Baghdad. This highlights growing mass opposition to the atrocious social conditions created by the occupation regime set up by Washington after the US invasion in 2003. These include lack of electricity and clean water, mass joblessness, and surging increases in the price of food-as well as the dictatorial conduct of the new rulers placed in power by Washington. For more on the January 25 day of rage see: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/iraq-f18.shtml
On Feb 25th, Palestinians are planning their "Day of Rage" to protest the American veto on a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements, Ma'an News Agency reported a top Fatah official as saying on Saturday. For more on the Palestinian day of rage see: http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=109229
NO MORE US FUNDING FOR WAR, OCCUPATION AND DICTATORS ABROAD!! FUND OUR SCHOOLS, HEALTHCARE AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES!!
End the US occupation of Iraq! End US Veto of UN Security Council Resolution condemning settlement construction! Bring all of our troops, military contractors and war $$ home. End US Aid to Israel, Hold the War Criminals Accountable!
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!!!
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Jobs with Justice
https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4023/c/33/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=1153
For the past week we have seen students, workers, faith and community come together and prevent attacks to the public sector across the country. These attacks are threatening the basic structures of our society, including the right to an education and the right to full and fair employment. It is time to take action and demand a stop to the cuts!
Student Labor Action Project, a project between United States Student Association and Jobs with Justice, is calling a national day of action on March 2nd to defend the public sector.
State budget cuts to higher education are being made in states across the country and workers face cuts to pay, healthcare and pensions. Many of the workers on college campuses are caught in the crisis of both attacks to the public sector.
Join us on March 2nd to demand that the attacks on the public sector are stopped immediately. It’s time to:
Protect the vital public services our community needs, and the jobs of the people who deliver those services; Ensure that higher education remains affordable and accessible to all; Call for our elected leaders to recognize the emergency and take bold action to create new jobs that will put people back to work, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and invest in higher education; and Support workers seeking a job with justice, a living wage, the right to organize a union, a fair contract and a voice at work.
Never before has USSA, SLAP, and Jobs with Justice all come together for a single call to action. The vital importance of fighting the pandemic attacks on public education and workers required each to unite with one voice in action.
Sign up to organize with us on March 2nd we continue building a movement that prioritizes public need over corporate greed.
In solidarity,
Sarita Gupta
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To mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day
Mothers March and Rally
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 SF w All welcome
End Poverty, Criminalization, War and Occupation
Gather: 4:30pm,16th & Mission (nr BART)
Stops at Welfare Dept, Chase Bank, Federal Building
Invest in caring not killing!
WOMEN, MEN, YOUNG, OLD, BRING YOUR CHILDREN, FRIENDS, DRUMS, DEMANDS!
We march because:
· Mothers produce/care for the world's people, while war & profit destroy us.
· Most women do caring work - mothers, grandmothers, daughters, partners. Unrecognized, unpaid or low paid we
care for children, older people, people
with disabilities, Vets, each other....
· In Haiti & Palestine, wherever there is an occupation, women do the survival work without which resistance would be impossible.
· Resources go to weapons & banks, not
to caregivers, healthy food, accessible affordable housing, breast-feeding support, health care, education, living wages, pay equity, care of Mother Earth.
· Budget cuts increase hunger & threaten those of us on lowest incomes, starting with communities of color.
· Poverty, uncaring social services & immigration laws tear children from us.
· Sex workers & homeless people are jailed not supported. As in Oscar Grant shooting, police use our children as target practice. LGBTQ denied civil rights.
· We're robbed of benefits, services & wages that our unwaged & low waged labor & taxes have paid for. We face eviction & foreclosures.
Everywhere people are risking their lives to bring change - from Palestine to Egypt,
from Haiti to Colombia, from the Philippines to Kenya & Nigeria ...
Mothers Marches in CA, Philly, Haiti, Guyana, India, Peru, UK
Planning Group Bay Area: Haiti Action Committee; Legal Action for Women; Ruckus Society; US PROStitutes Collective; Wages Due Lesbians; Women of Color/GWS and individuals from the Bay Area and Santa Cruz.
www.globalwomenstrike.net sf@globalwomenstrike.net 415-626-4114
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Saturday, March 19, 2011: Resist the War Machine!
8th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq
In San Francisco, people will gather at 12 noon for a rally at UN Plaza (7th & Market Sts.) followed by a march to Lo. 2 boycotted hotels. The theme of the March 19 march and rally will be "No to War & Colonial Occupation - Fund Jobs, Healthcare & Education - Solidarity with SF Hotel Workers!" 12,000 SF hotel workers, members of UNITE-HERE Local 2, have been fighting for a new contract that protects their healthcare, wages and working conditions.
Come to Washington, D.C., on March 19 for veterans-led civil resistance at the White House
March 19 is the 8th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Iraq today remains occupied by nearly 50,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of foreign mercenaries.
Saturday, March 19, 2011, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, will be an international day of action against the war machine.
The war in Afghanistan is raging. The U.S. is invading and bombing Pakistan. The U.S. is financing endless atrocities against the people of Palestine, relentlessly threatening Iran and bringing Korea to the brink of a new war.
While the United States will spend $1 trillion for war, occupation and weapons in 2011, 30 million people in the United States remain unemployed or severely underemployed, and cuts in education, housing and healthcare are imposing a huge toll on the people.
Actions of civil resistance are spreading.
Last Dec. 16, a veterans-led civil resistance at the White House played an important role in bringing the anti-war movement from protest to resistance. Enduring hours of heavy snow, 131 veterans and other anti-war activists lined the White House fence and were arrested.
In Washington, D.C., on March 19 there will be an even larger veterans-led civil resistance at the White House initiated by Veterans for Peace. People from all over the country are joining together for a Noon Rally at Lafayette Park, followed by a march on the White House where the veterans-led civil resistance will take place.
Many people coming to Washington, D.C., will be also participating in the Sunday, March 20 demonstration at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia to support PFC Bradley Manning. Quantico is one hour from D.C. Manning is suspected of leaking Iraq and Afghan war logs to Wikileaks. For the last eight months, he has been held in solitary confinement, pre-trial punishment, rather than pre-trial detention.
The ANSWER Coalition is fully mobilizing its east coast and near mid-west chapters and activist networks to be at the White House.
In Los Angeles, the March 19 rally and march will gather at 12 noon at Hollywood and Vine.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/
info@AnswerCoalition.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
Boston: 857-334-5084 | New York City: 212-694-8720 | Chicago: 773-463-0311
San Francisco: 415-821-6545| Los Angeles: 213-251-1025 | Albuquerque: 505-268-2488
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Are you joining us on April 8 at the Pentagon in a climate chaos protest codenamed "Operation Disarmageddon?" It has been decided that affinity groups will engage in nonviolent autonomous actions. Do you have an affinity group? Do you have an idea for an action?
So far these are some of the suggested actions:
Send a letter to Sec. of War Robert Gates demanding a meeting to disclose the Pentagon's role in destroying the planet. He will ignore the letter, so a delegation would then go to the Metro Entrance to demand a meeting.
Use crime tape around some area of the Pentagon. The idea of crime/danger taping off the building could be done just outside the main Pentagon reservation entrance (intersection of Army/Navy) making the Alexandria PD the arresting authority (if needed) and where there is no ban on photography. Hazmat suits, a 'converted' truck (or other vehicle) could be part of the street theater. The area where I am thinking is also almost directly below I-95 and there is a bridge over the intersection - making a banner drop possible. Perhaps with the hazmat/street closure at ground level with a banner from above. If possible a coordinated action could be done at other Pentagon entrances and / or other war making institutions.
A procession onto the Pentagon reservation, without reservations, and set up a camp on one of the lawns surrounding The Pentagon. This contingent would reclaim the space in the name of peace and Mother Earth. This contingent would plan to stay there until The Pentagon is turned into a 100% green building using sustainable energy employing people who work for peace and the abolishment of war and life-affirming endeavors.
Bring a potted tree to be placed on the Pentagon's property to symbolize the need to radically reduce its environmental destructiveness.
Since the Pentagon is failing to return to the taxpayers the money it has misappropriated, "Foreclose on the Pentagon."
Banner hanging from a bridge.
Hand out copies of David Swanson's book WAR IS A LIE. Try to deliver a copy to Secretary of War Robert Gates.
Have short speeches in park between Pentagon and river; nice photo with Pentagon in background.
Die-in and chalk or paint outlines of victim's bodies everywhere that remain after the arrest to point to where real crimes are really being committed.
Establish command center, Peacecom? Paxcom? Put several people in white shirts and ties plus a few generals directing their armies for "Operation Disarmageddon."
Make the linkage between the tax dollars going to the Pentagon and war tax resistance. Use the WRL pie chart and carry banners "foreclose on war" and "money for green jobs not war jobs."
Hold a rally with representative speakers before going to the Pentagon Reservation. This would be an opportunity to speak out against warmongering and the Pentagon's role in destroying the environment.
As part of "Operation Disarmageddon," we will take a tree and plant it on the reservation. Our sign reads, "Plant trees not landmines."
Use crime tape on Army/Navy Drive to declare the Pentagon a crime scene. Do street theater there as well. Other affinity groups could go to selected entrances.
Establish a Peace Command Center at the Pentagon. Hold solidarity actions at federal buildings and corporate offices.
What groups have you contacted to suggest joining us at the Pentagon? See below for those who plan to be at the Pentagon on April 8 and for what groups have been contacted.
Kagiso,
Max
April 8, 2011 participants
Beth Adams
Ellen Barfield
Tim Chadwick
Joy First
Jeffrey Halperin
Malachy Kilbride
Max Obuszewski
David Swanson
April 8 Outreach
Beth Adams -- Earth First, Puppet Underground, Emma's Revolution, Joe Gerson-AFSC Cambridge, Code Pink(national via Lisa Savage in Maine), Vets for Peace, FOR, UCC Justice & Witness Ministries, Traprock, Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order, (National-INt'l) Vets for Peace and WILPF, Pace e Bene, Christian Peace Witness & UCC Justice & Witness (Cleveland).
Tim Chadwick -- Brandywine, Lepoco, Witness against Torture, Vets for Peace (Thomas Paine Chapter Lehigh Valley PA), and Witness for Peace DC.
Jeffrey Halperin -- peace groups in Saratoga Spring, NY
Jack Lombardo - UNAC will add April 8 2011 to the Future Actions page on our blog, and make note in upcoming E-bulletins, but would appreciate a bit of descriptive text from the organizers and contact point to include when we do - so please advise ASAP! Also, we'll want to have such an announcement for our next print newsletter, which will be coming out in mid-December.
Max Obuszewski - Jonah House & Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore
Bonnie Urfer notified 351 individuals and groups on the Nukewatch list
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RALLY AGAINST THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE AT HOME AND ABROAD! BACK TO THE STREETS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2011
ASSEMBLE AT DOLORES PARK AT 11:00 A.M.
NOON RALLY
MARCH AT 1:30 P.M.
THEY are the government, corporate, and financial powers that wage war, ravage the environment and the economy and trample on our democratic rights and liberties.
WE are the vast majority of humanity who want peace, a healty planet and a society that prioritizes human needs, democracy and civil liberties for all.
WE DEMAND Bring U.S. Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza! End support of dictators in North Africa!
WE DEMAND an end to FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and international solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders.
WE DEMAND the immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings and death squads.
WE DEMAND trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for ail, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad.
Next organizing meeting Sunday, February 20, 1:00 P.M., Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets, San Francisco)
Sponsored by the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC)
www.unacpeace.org
unacnortherncalifornia@gmail.com
415-49-NO-WAR
Facebook.com/EndTheWars
Twitter.com/UNACPeace
TRADUCCION:
Marcha en contra de las guerras: en casa y en el exterior
Ellos son el gobierno y las corporaciones que financian las guerras, destruyen el medio ambiente, la economía y pisotean nuestras libertades y derechos democráticos.
Nosotros, somos la gran mayoría de la humanidad y queremos paz. Un planeta saludable y una sociedad que priorice en las necesidades humanas, la democracia y las libertades civiles para todos.
Nosotros, demandamos que las tropas militares, los mercenarios y los contratistas de guerra que enviaron a Irak, Afganistán, y Paquistán sean traídas de regreso a los Estados Unidos ¡Ahora! Que paren con las sanciones y las amenazas de guerra en contra de los pueblos de Irán, Corea del Norte y Yemen; y que los Estados Unidos deje de colaborar con Israel en la invasión y acoso a Palestina y Gaza. No al saqueo de los pueblos de América Latina, el Caribe y África; que paren la persecución racista que amenaza las comunidades musulmanas y que paren el terror policiaco en contra de las comunidades negras y latinas; derechos totales y legalización para los emigrantes.
Nosotros, demandamos que el FBI pare de inmediato la persecución a los luchadores por la justicia social y la solidaridad internacional; como también pongan un alto a todos los esfuerzos que reprimen y castigan a los contribuidores y fundadores de Wikileaks.
Nosotros, demandamos trillones de dólares para trabajos, educación y servicios sociales; que cesen todos los embargos de viviendas y desalojos; un programa de salud gratuito y de calidad para todos; un programa energético de conversión masiva que salve al planeta y buen el sistema de transporte público. Y reparaciones para las víctimas del terror de estados unidos aquí en casa y en el exterior.
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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Wisconsin "Budget Repair Bill" Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmSNPpzkWc
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solidarity
'We Stand With You as You Stood With Us': Statement to Workers of Wisconsin by Kamal Abbas of Egypt's Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services
February 20th, 2011 3:45 PM
About Kamal Abbas and the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services:
Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the CTUWS, an umbrella advocacy organization for independent unions in Egypt. The CTUWS, which was awarded the 1999 French Republic's Human Rights Prize, suffered repeated harassment and attack by the Mubarak regime, and played a leading role in its overthrow. Abbas, who witnessed friends killed by the regime during the 1989 Helwan steel strike and was himself arrested and threatened numerous times, has received extensive international recognition for his union and civil society leadership.
KAMAL ABBAS: I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, "Liberation Square", which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place were many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights.
From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us.
I want you to know that no power can challenge the will of the people when they believe in their rights. When they raise their voices loud and clear and struggle against exploitation.
No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people. When the working class of Egypt joined the revolution on 9 and 10 February, the dictatorship was doomed and the victory of the people became inevitable.
We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don't waiver. Don't give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights.
We and all the people of the world stand on your side and give you our full support.
As our just struggle for freedom, democracy and justice succeeded, your struggle will succeed. Victory belongs to you when you stand firm and remain steadfast in demanding your just rights.
We support you. we support the struggle of the peoples of Libya, Bahrain and Algeria, who are fighting for their just rights and falling martyrs in the face of the autocratic regimes. The peoples are determined to succeed no matter the sacrifices and they will be victorious.
Today is the day of the American workers. We salute you American workers! You will be victorious. Victory belongs to all the people of the world, who are fighting against exploitation, and for their just rights.
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Stop LAPD Stealing of Immigrant's Cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lf4kENkxo
On Februrary 19, 2011 Members of the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC) organized and engaged in direct action to defend the people of Los Angeles, CA from the racist LAPD "Sobriety" Checkpoints that are a poorly disguised trap to legally steal the cars from working class people in general and undocumented people in particular. Please disseminate this link widely.
Venceremos,
SCIC
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Protesters weather major snowstorm in Wausau, Wisconsin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7enVDAr1IY&feature=player_embedded
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[For subtitles, press the little red cc at the bottom, right of the screen.]
Sout Al Horeya Amir Eid - Hany Adel - Hawary On Guitar & Sherif On Keyboards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgw_zfLLvh8
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Hymn of Egyptian revolution on Youtube with EN subtitels "Saut al Hurria" (Voice of the revolution)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ5CqhL5X4o
First Responders
Wednesday, February 16th, in the State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin, well over ten thousand citizens representing many others (teachers and students, nurses, custodial workers, firefighters, parents, families, community members and staunch union supporters) gathered to say NO! to Governor Scott Walker's so-called "Repair Bill"
The message was unequivocal and clear: no rolling back workers collective bargaining rights and to NEGOTIATE not LEGISLATE our way toward a better future.
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WikiLeaks Mirrors
Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.
Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html
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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
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Oil Spill Commission Final Report: Catfish Responds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ZRdsccMsM
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New music video by tommi avicolli mecca of the song "stick and stones," which is about bullying in high school, is finished and up on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of_twpu3-Nw
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New antiwar song that's bound to be a classic:
box
http://www.youtube.com/user/avimecca
by tommi avicolli mecca
(c) 2009
Credits are:
Tommi Avicolli Mecca, guitar/vocals
John Radogno, lead guitar
Diana Hartman, vocals, kazoo
Chris Weir, upright bass
Produced and recorded by Khalil Sullivan
I'm the recruiter and if truth be told/ I can lure the young and old
what I do you won't see/ til your kid's in JROTC
CHO ooh, put them in a box drape it with a flag and send them off to mom and dad
send them with a card from good ol' uncle sam, gee it's really just so sad
I'm the general and what I do/ is to teach them to be true
to god and country flag and oil/ by shedding their blood on foreign soil
CHO
I'm the corporate boss and well I know/ war is lots of dough dough dough
you won't find me over there/ they just ship the money right back here
CHO
last of all it's me the holy priest/ my part is not the least
I assure them it's god's will/ to go on out and kill kill kill
CHO
it's really just so sad
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Free Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eNzokgRIw&feature=player_embedded
Song for Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_eood7DUwI
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Supermax Prison Cell Extraction - Maine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jUfK5i_lQs&feature=player_embedded
Warning, this is an extremely brutal video. What do you think? Is this torture?
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Did You Know?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY
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These videos refer to what happened at the G-20 Summit in Toronto June 26-27 of this year. The importance of this is that police were caught on tape and later confirmed that they sent police into the demonstration dressed as "rioting" protesters. One cop was caught with a large rock in his hand. Clearly, this is proof of police acting as agent provocatours. And we should expect this to continue and escalate. That's why everyone should be aware of these facts...bw
police accused of attempting to incite violence at G20 summ
Protestors at Montebello are accusing police of trying to incite violence. Video on YouTube shows union officials confronting three men that were police officers dressing up as demonstrators. The union is demanding to know if the Prime Minister's Office was involved in trying to discredit the demonstrators.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbgnyUCC7M
quebec police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=related
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Published on Thursday, December 16, 2010 by Countdown With Keith Olbermann
Quantico, the New Gitmo
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/12/16-0
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Domestic Espionage Alert - Houston PD to use surveillance drone in America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpstrc15Ogg
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15 year old Tells Establishment to Stick-it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U_gHUiL4P8&feature=player_embedded#
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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
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LOWKEY - TERRORIST? (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU
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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
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Video of massive French protest -- inspiring!
http://www.dailymotion.com/Talenceagauchevraiment
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"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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MECA Middle East Children's Alliance
Howard & Roslyn Zinn Presente! Honor Their Legacy By Providing Clean Water for Children in Gaza
http://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=13
Howard Zinn supported the work of the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) from the beginning. Over the years, he lent his name and his time countless times to support our work. Howard and Roz were both personal friends of mine and Howard helped MECA raise funds for our projects for children in Palestine by coming to the Bay Area and doing events for us.
On the first anniversary of Howard's passing, I hope you will join MECA in celebrating these two extraordinary individuals.
- Barbara Lubin, Executive Director
YES! I want to help MECA build a water purification and desalination unit at the Khan Younis Co-ed Elementary School for 1,400 students in Gaza in honor of Howard & Roslyn Zinn.
http://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=13
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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE
An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......
At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:
HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.
Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.
Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
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Email received from Lynne Stewart:
12/19/10; 12:03pm
Dear Folks:
Some nuts and bolts and trivia,
1. New Address
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
2. Visiting is very liberal but first I have to get people on my visiting list Wait til I or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
3. One hour time difference
4. Commissary Money is always welcome It is how I pay for the phone and for email. Also need it for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing , ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons , 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated ? Of course, it's the BOP !)
5. Food is vastly improved. Just had Sunday Brunch real scrambled eggs, PORK sausage, Baked or home fried potatoes, Butter(sweet whipped M'God !!) Grapefruit juice Toast , orange. I will probably regain the weight I lost at MCC! Weighing against that is the fact that to eat we need to walk to another building (about at far as from my house to the F Train) Also included is 3 flights of stairs up and down. May try to get an elevator pass and try NOT to use it.
6. In a room with 4 bunks(small) about two tiers of rooms with same with "atrium" in middle with tv sets and tables and chairs. Estimate about 500 on Unit 2N and there are 4 units. Population Black, Mexicano and other spanish speaking (all of whom iron their underwear, Marta), White, Native Americans (few), no orientals or foreign speaking caucasians--lots are doing long bits, victims of drugs (meth etc) and boyfriends. We wear army style (khaki) pants with pockets tee shirts and dress shirts long sleeved and short sleeved. When one of the women heard that I hadn't ironed in 40 years, they offered to do the shirts for me. (This is typical of the help I get--escorted to meals and every other protection, explanations, supplies, etc. Mostly from white women.) One drawback is not having a bathroom in the room---have to go about 75 yards at all hours of the day and night --clean though.
7. Final Note--the sunsets and sunrises are gorgeous, the place is very open and outdoors there are pecan trees and birds galore (I need books for trees and birds (west) The full moon last night gladdened my heart as I realized it was shining on all of you I hold dear.
Love Struggle
Lynne
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
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Help end the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning!
Bradley Manning Support Network. December 22, 2010
The Marine Brig at Quantico, Virginia is using "injury prevention" as a vehicle to inflict extreme pre-trial punishment on accused Wikileaks whistleblower Army PFC Bradley Manning (photo right). These "maximum conditions" are not unheard-of during an inmate's first week at a military confinement facility, but when applied continuously for months and with no end in sight they amount to a form of torture. Bradley, who just turned 23-years-old last week, has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest in late May. We're now turning to Bradley's supporters worldwide to directly protest, and help bring a halt to, the extremely punitive conditions of Bradley's pre-trial detention.
We need your help in pressing the following demands:
End the inhumane, degrading conditions of pre-trial confinement and respect Bradley's human rights. Specifically, lift the "Prevention of Injury (POI) watch order". This would allow Bradley meaningful physical exercise, uninterrupted sleep during the night, and a release from isolation. We are not asking for "special treatment". In fact, we are demanding an immediate end to the special treatment.
Quantico Base Commander
Colonel Daniel Choike
3250 Catlin Ave, Quantico VA 22134
+1-703-784-2707 (phone)
Quantico Brig Commanding Officer
CWO4 James Averhart
3247 Elrod Ave, Quantico VA 22134
+1-703-784-4242 (fax)
Background
In the wake of an investigative report last week by Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com giving evidence that Bradley Manning was subject to "detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries", Bradley's attorney, David Coombs, published an article at his website on Saturday entitled "A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning". Mr. Coombs details the maximum custody conditions that Bradley is subject to at the Quantico Confinement Facility and highlights an additional set of restrictions imposed upon him under a Prevention of Injury (POI) watch order.
Usually enforced only through a detainee's first week at a confinement facility, or in cases of violent and/or suicidal inmates, the standing POI order has severely limited Manning's access to exercise, daylight and human contact for the past five months. The military's own psychologists assigned to Quantico have recommended that the POI order and the extra restrictions imposed on Bradley be lifted.
Despite not having been convicted of any crime or even yet formally indicted, the confinement regime Bradley lives under includes pronounced social isolation and a complete lack of opportunities for meaningful exercise. Additionally, Bradley's sleep is regularly interrupted. Coombs writes: "The guards are required to check on Manning every five minutes [...] At night, if the guards cannot see PFC Manning clearly, because he has a blanket over his head or is curled up towards the wall, they will wake him in order to ensure he is okay."
Denver Nicks writes in The Daily Beast that "[Bradley Manning's] attorney [...] says the extended isolation - now more than seven months of solitary confinement - is weighing on his client's psyche. [...] Both Coombs and Manning's psychologist, Coombs says, are sure Manning is mentally healthy, that there is no evidence he's a threat to himself, and shouldn't be held in such severe conditions under the artifice of his own protection."
In an article to be published at Firedoglake.com later today, David House, a friend of Bradley's who visits him regularly at Quantico, says that Bradley "has not been outside or into the brig yard for either recreation or exercise in four full weeks. He related that visits to the outdoors have been infrequent and sporadic for the past several months."
In an average military court martial situation, a defense attorney would be able to bring these issues of pre-trial punishment to the military judge assigned to the case (known as an Article 13 hearing). However, the military is unlikely to assign a judge to Bradley's case until the pre-trial Article 32 hearing is held (similar to an arraignment in civilian court), and that is not expected until February, March, or later-followed by the actual court martial trial months after that. In short, you are Bradley's best and most immediate hope.
What can you do?
Contact the Marine Corps officers above and respectfully, but firmly, ask that they lift the extreme pre-trial confinement conditions against Army PFC Bradley Manning.
Forward this urgent appeal for action widely.
Sign the "Stand with Brad" public petition and letter campaign at www.standwithbrad.org - Sign online, and we'll mail out two letters on your behalf to Army officials.
Donate to Bradley's defense fund at www.couragetoresist.org/bradley
References:
"The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention", by Glenn Greenwald for Salon.com, 15 December 2010
"A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning", by attorney David E. Coombs, 18 December 2010
"Bradley Manning's Life Behind Bars", by Denver Nicks for the Daily Beast, 17 December 2010
Bradley Manning Support Network
Courage To Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
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KOREA: Emergency Response Actions Needed
The United National Antiwar Committee urges the antiwar movement to begin to plan now for Emergency 5pm Day-of or Day-after demonstrations, should fighting break out on the Korean Peninsula or its surrounding waters.
As in past war crisis and U.S. attacks we propose:
NYC -- Times Square, Washington, D.C. -- the White House
In Many Cities - Federal Buildings
Many tens of thousands of U.S., Japanese and South Korean troops are mobilized on land and on hundreds of warships and aircraft carriers. The danger of a general war in Asia is acute.
China and Russia have made it clear that the scheduled military maneuvers and live-fire war "exercises" from an island right off the coast of north Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) by South Korea are very dangerous. The DPRK has made it clear that they consider these live-fire war exercises to be an act of war and they will again respond if they are again fired on.
The U.S. deployment of thousands of troops, ships, and aircraft in the area while South Korea is firing thousands of rounds of live ammunition and missiles is an enormously dangerous provocation, not only to the DPRK but to China. The Yellow Sea also borders China. The island and the waters where the war maneuvers are taking place are north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone and only eight miles from the coast of the DPRK.
On Sunday, December 19 in a day-long emergency session, the U.S. blocked in the UN Security Council any actions to resolve the crisis.
UNAC action program passed in Albany at the United National Antiwar Conference, July 2010 of over 800 antiwar, social justice and community organizations included the following Resolution on Korea:
15. In solidarity with the antiwar movements of Japan and Korea, each calling for U.S. Troops to Get Out Now, and given the great increase in U.S. military preparations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, National Peace Conference participants will organize immediate protests following any attack by the U.S. on Korea. U.S. war preparations include stockpiling hundreds of bunker-busters and conducting major war games near the territorial waters of China and Korea. In keeping with our stand for the right of self-determination and our demand of Out Now, the National Peace Conference calls for Bringing All U.S. Troops Home Now!
UNAC urges the whole antiwar movement to begin to circulate messages alerts now in preparation. Together let's join together and demand: Bring all U.S. Troops Home Now! Stop the Wars and the Threats of War.
The United National Antiwar Committee, www.UNACpeace.org
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In earnest support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
http://readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition
rsn:Petition
We here undersigned express our support for the work and integrity of Julian Assange. We express concern that the charges against the WikiLeaks founder appear too convenient both in terms of timing and the novelty of their nature.
We call for this modern media innovator, and fighter for human rights extraordinaire, to be afforded the same rights to defend himself before Swedish justice that all others similarly charged might expect, and that his liberty not be compromised as a courtesy to those governments whose truths he has revealed have embarrassed.
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GAP Inc: End Your Relationship with Supplier that Allows Workers to be Burned Alive
http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/workers_burned_alive_making_clothes_for_the_gap
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
Kevin Cooper, who has been on death row in California for 25 years, is asking the outgoing state governor to commute his death sentence before leaving office on 2 January 2011. Kevin Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence of the four murders for which he was sentenced to death. Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt.
On the night of 4 June 1983, Douglas and Peggy Ryen were hacked and stabbed to death in their home in Chino Hills, California, along with their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and 11-year-old houseguest Christopher Hughes. The couple's eight-year-old son, Joshua Ryen, was seriously wounded, but survived. He told investigators that the attackers were three or four white men. In hospital, he saw a picture of Kevin Cooper on television and said that Cooper, who is black, was not the attacker. However, the boy's later testimony - that he only saw one attacker - was introduced at the 1985 trial. The case has many other troubling aspects which call into question the reliability of the state's case and its conduct in obtaining this conviction (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/013/2004/en).
Kevin Cooper was less than eight hours from execution in 2004 when the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted a stay and sent the case back to the District Court for testing on blood and hair evidence, including to establish if the police had planted evidence. The District Court ruled in 2005 that the testing had not proved Kevin Cooper's innocence - his lawyers (and five Ninth Circuit judges) maintain that it did not do the testing as ordered. Nevertheless, in 2007, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court's ruling. One of the judges described the result as "wholly discomforting" because of evidence tampering and destruction, but noted that she was constrained by US law, which places substantial obstacles in the way of successful appeals.
In 2009, the Ninth Circuit refused to have the whole court rehear the case. Eleven of its judges dissented. One of the dissenting opinions, running to more than 80 pages and signed by five judges, warned that "the State of California may be about to execute an innocent man". On the question of the evidence testing, they said: "There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing and...imposed unreasonable conditions on the testing" ordered by the Ninth Circuit. They pointed to a test result that, if valid, indicated that evidence had been planted, and they asserted that the district court had blocked further scrutiny of this issue.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had already denied clemency in 2004 when the Ninth Circuit issued its stay. At the time, he had said that the "courts have reviewed this case for more than eighteen years. Evidence establishing his guilt is overwhelming". Clearly, a notable number of federal judges disagree. The five judges in the Ninth Circuit's lengthy dissent in 2009 stated that the evidence of Kevin Cooper's guilt at his trial was "quite weak" and concluded that he "is probably innocent of the crimes for which the State of California is about to execute him".
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On 2 June 1983, two days before the Chino Hills murders, Kevin Cooper had escaped from a minimum security prison, where he was serving a four-year term for burglary, and had hidden in an empty house near the Ryen home for two nights. After his arrest, he became the focus of public hatred. Outside the venue of his preliminary hearing, for example, people hung an effigy of a monkey in a noose with a sign reading "Hang the Nigger!!" At the time of the trial, jurors were confronted by graffiti declaring "Die Kevin Cooper" and "Kevin Cooper Must Be Hanged". Kevin Cooper pleaded not guilty - the jury deliberated for seven days before convicting him - and he has maintained his innocence since then. Since Governor Schwarzenegger denied clemency in 2004, more evidence supporting Kevin Cooper's claim of innocence has emerged, including for example, testimony from three witnesses who say they saw three white men near the crime scene on the night of the murders with blood on them.
In 2007, Judge Margaret McKeown was the member of the Ninth Circuit's three-judge panel who indicated that she was upholding the District Court's 2005 ruling despite her serious concerns. She wrote: "Significant evidence bearing on Cooper's guilt has been lost, destroyed or left unpursued, including, for example, blood-covered coveralls belonging to a potential suspect who was a convicted murderer, and a bloody t-shirt, discovered alongside the road near the crime scene. The managing criminologist in charge of the evidence used to establish Cooper's guilt at trial was, as it turns out, a heroin addict, and was fired for stealing drugs seized by the police. Countless other alleged problems with the handling and disclosure of evidence and the integrity of the forensic testing and investigation undermine confidence in the evidence". She continued that "despite the presence of serious questions as to the integrity of the investigation and evidence supporting the conviction, we are constrained by the requirements of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA)". Judge McKeown wrote that "the habeas process does not account for lingering doubt or new evidence that cannot leap the clear and convincing hurdle of AEDPA. Instead, we are left with a situation in which confidence in the blood sample is murky at best, and lost, destroyed or tampered evidence cannot be factored into the final analysis of doubt. The result is wholly discomforting, but one that the law demands".
Even if it is correct that the AEDPA demands this result, the power of executive clemency is not so confined. Last September, for example, the governor of Ohio commuted Kevin Keith's death sentence because of doubts about his guilt even though his death sentence had been upheld on appeal (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/079/2010/en). Governor Ted Strickland said that despite circumstantial evidence linking the condemned man to the crime, "many legitimate questions have been raised regarding the evidence in support of the conviction and the investigation which led to it. In particular, Mr Keith's conviction relied upon the linking of certain eyewitness testimony with certain forensic evidence about which important questions have been raised. I also find the absence of a full investigation of other credible suspects troubling." The same could be said in the case of Kevin Cooper, whose lawyer is asking Governor Schwarzenegger to commute the death sentence before he leaves office on 2 January 2011. While Kevin Cooper does not yet have an execution date, it is likely that one will be set, perhaps early in 2011.
More than 130 people have been released from death rows on grounds of innocence in the USA since 1976. At the original trial in each case, the defendant had been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It is clear beyond any dispute that the USA's criminal justice system is capable of making mistakes. International safeguards require that the death penalty not be imposed if guilt is not "based upon clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts". Amnesty International opposes all executions regardless of the seriousness of the crime or the guilt or innocence of the condemned.
California has the largest death row in the USA, with more than 700 prisoners under sentence of death out of a national total of some 3,200. California accounts for 13 of the 1,234 executions in the USA since judicial killing resumed there in 1977. There have been 46 executions in the USA this year. The last execution in California was in January 2006.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime for which Kevin Cooper was sentenced to death;
- Urging Governor Schwarzenegger to take account of the continuing doubts about Kevin Cooper's guilt, including as expressed by more than 10 federal judges since 2004, when executive clemency was last requested;
- Urging the Governor to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence.
APPEALS TO:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814, USA
Fax: 1 916-558-3160
Email: governor@governor.ca.gov or via http://gov.ca.gov/interact#contact
Salutation : Dear Governor
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 2 January 2011.
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible to the date a case is issued.
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.509.8193
Fax: 202.675.8566
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Free the Children of Palestine!
Sign Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
Published by Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition on Dec 16, 2010
Category: Children's Rights
Region: GLOBAL
Target: President Obama
Web site: http://www.al-awda.org
Background (Preamble):
According to Israeli police, 1200 Palestinian children have been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in the occupied city of Jerusalem alone this year. The youngest of these children was seven-years old.
Children and teen-agers were often dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night, taken in handcuffs for questioning, threatened, humiliated and many were subjected to physical violence while under arrest as part of an ongoing campaign against the children of Palestine. Since the year 2000, more than 8000 have been arrested by Israel, and reports of mistreatment are commonplace.
Further, based on sworn affidavits collected in 2009 from 100 of these children, lawyers working in the occupied West Bank with Defense Children International, a Geneva-based non governmental organization, found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
Minors were often asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children by the state of Israel is a violation international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is supposedly a signatory.
Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
We, the undersigned call on US President Obama to direct Israel to
1. Stop all the night raids and arrests of Palestinian Children forthwith.
2. Immediately release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers.
3. End all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse against all Palestinian children.
4. Implement the full restoration of Palestinian children's rights in accordance with international law including, but not limited to, their right to return to their homes of origin, to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and expression.
The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws and international conventions to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.
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"Secret diplomacy is a necessary tool for a propertied minority, which is compelled to deceive the majority in order to subject it to its interests."..."Publishing State Secrets" By Leon Trotsky
Documents on Soviet Policy, Trotsky, iii, 2 p. 64
November 22, 1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/1917/November/22.htm
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING! STOP THE FBI RAIDS NOW!
MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
To understand how much a trillion dollars is, consider looking at it in terms of time:
A million seconds would be about eleven-and-one-half days; a billion seconds would be 31 years; and a trillion seconds would be 31,000 years!
From the novel "A Dark Tide," by Andrew Gross
Now think of it in terms of U.S. war dollars and bankster bailouts!
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MIDDLE EAST CHILDREN'S ALLIANCE
Your Year-End Gift for the Children
Double your impact with this matching gift opportunity!
Dear Friend of the Children,
You may have recently received a letter from me via regular mail with a review of the important things you helped MECA accomplish for the children in 2010, along with a special Maia Project decal.
My letter to you also included an announcement of MECA's first ever matching gift offer. One of our most generous supporters will match all gifts received by December 31. 2010 to a total of $35,000.
So, whether you are a long time supporter, or giving for the first-time... Whether you can give $10 or $1,000... This is a unique opportunity to double the impact of your year-end gift!
Your contribution will be matched dollar for dollar, making it go twice as far so that MECA can:
* Install twenty more permanent drinking water units in Gaza schools though our Maia Project
* Continue our work with Playgrounds for Palestine to complete a community park in the besieged East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, where violent Israeli settlers attack children and adults, Israeli police arrest the victims, and the city conducts "administrative demolitions" of Palestinian homes.
* Send a large medical aid shipment to Gaza.
* Renew support for "Let the Children Play and Heal," a program in Gaza to help children cope with trauma and grief through arts programs, referrals to therapists, educational materials for families and training for mothers.
Your support for the Middle East Children's Alliance's delivers real, often life-saving, help. And it does more than that. It sends a message of hope and solidarity to Palestine-showing the people that we are standing beside them as they struggle to bring about a better life for their children.
With warm regards,
Barbara Lubin
Founder and Director
P.S. Please give as much as you possible can, and please make your contribution now, so it will be doubled. Thank you so much.
P.S.S. If you didn't receive a MAIA Project decal in the mail or if you would like another one, please send an email message to meca@mecaforpeace.org with "MAIA Project decal" in the subject line when you make your contribution.
To make a gift by mail send to:
MECA, 1101 8th Street, Berkley, CA 94710
To make a gift by phone, please call MECA's off at: 510-548-0542
To "GO PAPERLESS" and receive all your MECA communications by email, send a message to meca@mecaforpeace.org with "Paperless" in the subject line.
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For Immediate Release
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.
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.
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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
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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
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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
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Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(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
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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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/
18) A Tunisian-Egyptian Link That Shook Arab History
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and DAVID E. SANGER
February 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/world/middleeast/14egypt-tunisia-protests.html?hp
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) At Grave Risk
By BOB HERBERT
February 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/opinion/22herbert.html?hp
2) Thousands Gather to Protest Bill in Ohio
"Public employees say they have sacrificed with one union leader, Eddie Parks of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, noting that state employees have taken five pay cuts in nine years. 'Are they going to be standing on our doorstep to help with foreclosure?' said Monty Blanton, a 50-year-old retired employee who worked for 31 years in a facility for the mentally retarded as a food service worker and an electrician. 'We're barely making a living wage.' Mr. Blanton, of Gallipolis in southern Ohio, who was among a handful of protestors who had gathered at the state capitol building early Tuesday morning, said he made a gross salary of $44,000 before retirement. His pension, he said, stood at $19,500, barely enough to live on."
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/us/23ohio.html?hp
3) In Bahrain, Shiites Turn Out to Protest
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NADIM AUDI
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/middleeast/23bahrain.html?hp
4) United National Antiwar Committee Calls for Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace@gmail.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
www.nationalpeaceconference.org
5) Fighting Nears Tripoli, Where Qaddafi Keeps Grip on Power
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
February 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/africa/24libya.html?hp
6) Cuomo Adviser Takes Pay From Health Industry
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23cuomo.html?hp
7) WikiLeaks Cables Detail Qaddafi Family's Exploits
"Though the Qaddafi children are described as jockeying for position as their father ages - three sons fought to profit from a new Coca-Cola franchise - they have been well taken care of, cables say. "All of the Qaddafi children and favorites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil service subsidiaries," one cable from 2006 says."
By SCOTT SHANE
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/africa/23cables.html?ref=world
8) Clashes Over Yemen's Government Leave 2 Protesters Dead
By LAURA KASINOF
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/middleeast/23yemen.html?ref=world
9) Protests in Bahrain Become Test of Wills
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NADIM AUDI
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/middleeast/23bahrain.html?ref=world
10) Business Group Tied to U.S. Wades Into Nicaragua's Politics
"The chamber's activities over the past two years - detailed in interviews with Nicaraguan officials and business executives and in State Department cables obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks - illuminate the remarkable role the foreign affiliates of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sometimes play in the politics of their host nations. Occasionally they are at odds with United States policy. But often, the chamber groups are so aligned with it that they appear to act as unofficial instruments to advance the American government's goals."
By ERIC LIPTON
February 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/americas/24chamber.html?ref=world
11) Midshipman, Then Pacifist: Rare Victory to Leave Navy
By PAUL VITELLO
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23objector.html?ref=us
12) Mississippi: Dolphin Deaths Under Investigation
By REUTERS
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/us/23brfs-DOLPHINDEATH_BRF.html?ref=us
13) Judge Orders City to Release Reports on Shots Fired by Police at Civilians Since 1997
By AL BAKER
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23shootings.html?ref=nyregion
14) Street Stops by the Police Hit a New High
"According to data provided by the police, officers made 600,601 street stops in 2010, about a 3.5 percent increase from the more than 580,000 stops the department logged in 2009, the previous recorded high. Seven percent of the stops last year led to an arrest, compared with 6 percent a year earlier."
By AL BAKER
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23stop.html?ref=nyregion
15) Lifting the Veil on the Practice of Billing Patients Who Sue
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
February 22, 2011, 12:28 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/lifting-the-veil-on-the-practice-of-billing-patients-who-sue/?ref=nyregion
16) Bank Closings Tilt Toward Poor Areas
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/business/23banks.html?ref=business
17) Statement from Veterans For Peace In Support of Wisconsin Workers
February 23, 2011
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/news_detail.php?idx=44
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1) At Grave Risk
By BOB HERBERT
February 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/opinion/22herbert.html?hp
Buried deep beneath the stories about executive bonuses, the stock market surge and the economy's agonizingly slow road to recovery is the all-but-silent suffering of the many millions of Americans who, economically, are going down for the count.
A 46-year-old teacher in Charlotte, Vt., who has been unable to find a full-time job and is weighed down with debt, wrote to his U.S. senator, Bernie Sanders:
"I am financially ruined. I find myself depressed and demoralized and my confidence is shattered. Worst of all, as I hear more and more talk about deficit reduction and further layoffs, I have the agonizing feeling that the worst may not be behind us."
Similar stories of hardship and desolation can be found throughout Vermont and the rest of the nation. The true extent of the economic devastation, and the enormous size of that portion of the population that is being left behind, has not yet been properly acknowledged. What is being allowed to happen to those being pushed out or left out of the American mainstream is the most important and potentially most dangerous issue facing the country.
Senator Sanders is a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats. He asked his constituents to write to him about their experiences coping with the recession and its aftermath. Hundreds responded, including several from outside Vermont. A 69-year-old woman from northeastern Vermont wrote plaintively:
"We are the first generation to leave our kids worse off than we were. How did this happen? Why is there such a wide distance between the rich and the middle class and the poor? What happened to the middle class? We did not buy boats or fancy cars or diamonds. Why was it possible to change the economy from one that was based on what we made and grew and serviced to a paper economy that disappeared?"
A woman with two teenagers told the senator about her husband, a building contractor for many years, who has been unable to find work in the downturn:
"I see my husband, capable and experienced, now really struggling with depression and trying to reinvent his profession at age 51. I feel this recession is leaving us, once perhaps a middle-class couple, now suddenly thrust into the lower-middle-class world without loads of options except to try and find more and more smaller jobs to fill in some of the financial gaps we feel day to day.
"All we want to do is work hard and pay our bills. We're just not sure even that part of the American Dream is still possible anymore."
One of the things I noticed reading through the letters was the pervasive sense of loss, not just of employment, but of faith in the soundness and possibilities of America. For centuries, Americans have been nothing if not optimistic. But now there is a terrible sense that so much that was taken for granted during the past six or seven decades is being dismantled or destroyed.
A 26-year-old man who emerged from college with big dreams wrote: "I had hoped to be able to support not just myself by this point, but to be able to think about settling down and starting a family. My family always told me that an education was the ticket to success, but all my education seems to have done in this landscape is make it impossible to pull myself out of debt and begin a successful career."
How bad have things become? According to the National Employment Law Project, a trend is growing among employers to not even consider the applications of the unemployed for jobs that become available. Among examples offered by the project were a phone manufacturer that posted a job announcement with the message: "No Unemployed Candidate Will Be Considered At All," and a Texas electronics company that announced online that it would "not consider/review anyone NOT currently employed regardless of the reason."
This is the environment that is giving rise to the worker protests in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere. The ferment is not just about public employees and their unions. Researchers at Rutgers University found last year that more than 70 percent of respondents to a national survey had either lost a job, or had a relative or close friend who had lost a job. That is beyond ominous. The great promise of the United States, its primary offering to its citizens and the world, is at grave risk.
A couple facing foreclosure in Barre, Mass., wrote to Senator Sanders: "We are now at our wits end and in dire straits. Our parents have since left this world and with no place to go, what are we to do and where are we to go?" They pray to God, they said, that they will not end up living in their car in the cold.
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2) Thousands Gather to Protest Bill in Ohio
"Public employees say they have sacrificed with one union leader, Eddie Parks of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, noting that state employees have taken five pay cuts in nine years. 'Are they going to be standing on our doorstep to help with foreclosure?' said Monty Blanton, a 50-year-old retired employee who worked for 31 years in a facility for the mentally retarded as a food service worker and an electrician. 'We're barely making a living wage.' Mr. Blanton, of Gallipolis in southern Ohio, who was among a handful of protestors who had gathered at the state capitol building early Tuesday morning, said he made a gross salary of $44,000 before retirement. His pension, he said, stood at $19,500, barely enough to live on."
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/us/23ohio.html?hp
COLUMBUS - Protestors packed into Ohio's State Capitol building and several thousand more gathered outside on Tuesday, as its legislature planned new hearings on a bill that would effectively end collective bargaining for state workers and dramatically reduce its power for local workers, like police officers and firefighters.
The bill, known as Senate Bill 5, was introduced on Feb. 8 by a Republican state senator, Shannon Jones, who said it was designed to give state and local governments more control over their finances during troubled economic times. It outraged unions who saw it as a direct attack on their workers, and as in Wisconsin, where a similar bill has drawn protestors for more than a week, union members came to the State Capitol to demonstrate.
Last week, protests swelled from a few hundred to about 4,000 on Thursday, buoyed in part by demonstrations in Wisconsin, which have made national news. But while Democratic senators in Wisconsin shut down the senate by fleeing the state, Republicans in Ohio's senate hold a large enough majority to convene with no Democrats present.
"Let me be clear: I am not doing this to punish employees who serve this state day after day," said Ms. Jones during testimony on Feb. 8. "I am doing this because I want to give the government flexibility and control over its work force."
Ohio is facing an $8 billion budget deficit, about 11 percent of its budget, far less than states like California, Illinois and New Jersey, but still significant, and the state's governor, John Kasich, says drastic steps are required to plug the gap.
Democrats say the bill is about politics, calling it a direct political attack on the unions, which have long been reliable Democratic supporters.
"State employees are not the cause of the economic problems we're having, and for Senator Jones and other Republicans to point to them as the problem is absolutely unfair and untrue," said Senator Joe Schiavoni, the ranking Democrat on the committee considering the bill. Its passage would save no money or create a single job, he said, in the upcoming two-year budget.
Public employees say they have sacrificed with one union leader, Eddie Parks of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, noting that state employees have taken five pay cuts in nine years.
"Are they going to be standing on our doorstep to help with foreclosure?" said Monty Blanton, a 50-year-old retired employee who worked for 31 years in a facility for the mentally retarded as a food service worker and an electrician. "We're barely making a living wage."
Mr. Blanton, of Gallipolis in southern Ohio, who was among a handful of protestors who had gathered at the state capitol building early Tuesday morning, said he made a gross salary of $44,000 before retirement. His pension, he said, stood at $19,500, barely enough to live on.
"I don't think they understand how hard it is in southeastern Ohio," he said. On Tuesday, the Democratic party sent an e-mail to supporters saying that eight Republican senators were wavering, though the bill's eventual passage still seemed relatively certain. Republicans have a 23 to 10 majority in the Senate, and the bill needs 17 votes to pass.
At its heart, the Ohio bill would do away with the legal protections governing collective bargaining for state workers that were passed in 1983, including prohibitions on hiring alternate workers during a strike. Bargaining power would be weakened for local workers, doing away with binding arbitration, an option favored by police and firemen, who are not allowed to strike.
It would also slice into public worker benefits by taking health insurance off the bargaining table, and requiring government workers to pay at least 20 percent of the cost. It would strip automatic pay increases and mandatory sick days for teachers from state law.
The bill is controversial and could have political repercussions for Ohio Republicans, who draw some of their votes from among union members.
"A lot of people rallying here put these senators in place," Mr. Blanton said.
But Republicans could also gain from the push, political analysts said, taking a position against unions that has become part of the mantra for far-right Republican-allied organizations, like Tea Party groups.
"This will empower Democrats, as they are the allies of last resort," said Gene Beaupre, a political science professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati. "But it also strengthens Republicans. There is a strong sentiment against pension benefits and all that has accrued over the years as a result of organized public labor."
John Russo, a professor at Youngstown State University, whose contract would be affected by the bill, called the situation a "perfect political storm," with a Republican legislature emboldened by a redistricting process they will control and backed by a Republican governor, Mr. Kasich, who agrees with their approach.
"The G.O.P. believes that the combination of controlling the reapportionment process and rendering the opposition penniless will make them invulnerable - and the state's political history shows they just may be correct," Mr. Russo said.
Public workers in Ohio earn more than private-sector workers by nearly a third, largely because their ranks tend to be more skilled and better educated than the average in the much larger mass of private sector employees. Women are the majority of local and state workers, numbering about 350,000 in Ohio, compared with about 250,000 men, according to 2009 figures from the Census Bureau.
In all, public sector workers make up about 13 percent of Ohio's work force, down from 15 percent in 1980, according to the Census figures.
Ted Strickland, a Democrat who lost the governorship to Mr. Kasich in November, has been urging Ohioans to rally against the bill.
"There is an awakening within the general population that this is not what they voted for, and I think there is increasing concern among people who have no direct connection to organized labor about what's being proposed," he said.
Robert Gebeloff contributed reporting from New York and Bob Driehaus from Cincinnati
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3) In Bahrain, Shiites Turn Out to Protest
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NADIM AUDI
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/middleeast/23bahrain.html?hp
MANAMA, Bahrain - More than 100,000 demonstrators packed the central Pearl Square here on Tuesday in what organizers called the largest pro-democracy demonstration this tiny Gulf nation has ever seen, as the monarchy struggled to hold onto its monopoly on power.
In a nation of only 500,000 citizens, the sheer size of the gathering was astonishing. Tens of thousands of men, women and children, mostly members of the Shiite majority, formed a ribbon of protest for several miles along the Sheik Khalifa Bin Salman Highway as they headed for the square, calling for the downfall of the government in a march that was intended to show national unity.
"This is the first time in the history of Bahrain that the majority of people, of Bahraini people, get together with one message: This regime must fall," said Muhammad Abdullah, 43, who was almost shaking with emotion as he watched the swelling crowd.
But for all the talk of political harmony, the past week's events have left Bahrain as badly divided as it has ever been. Its economy is threatened and its reputation damaged. Standard and Poor's lowered its credit rating this week, authorities cancelled next month's Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix - a source of pride for the royal family - many businesses remain closed and tourism is down.
On one side of the divide is a Sunni minority that largely supports King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa as the protector of its interests. On the other is a Shiite majority that knows the changes it seeks will inevitably bring power to its side. The king began releasing some political prisoners on Tuesday night and the crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, has called for a national dialogue to try to bridge differences, preserve the monarchy and unite the nation.
But so far there is no substantive dialogue between the sides. There is a test of wills, as the Sunnis fight to hold onto what they have and the Shiites grapple for their fair share after years of being marginalized by an absolute monarchy that has ruled the nation for two centuries.
"I'm really excited, but I don't know what is going to happen," said Fatima Amroum, a 25-year-old woman in a black abaya who was quietly texting as she watched the procession on Tuesday. "I'm a little scared of uncertainty; we might get what we demand, but freedom will be chaotic at the beginning."
The days of protest and repression have mostly been about the Shiites speaking up and the Sunnis cracking down. But on Monday night, in the wealthy neighborhood of Juffeir, tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators poured into Al Fateh Grand Mosque to express their support for the embattled king.
The pro-government crowd borrowed some of the opposition's slogans, including "no Sunni, no Shia, only Bahraini." But that was where the call for unity started and ended.
This was an affluent crowd, far different than the mostly low-income Shiites who have taken to the streets to demand a constitutional monarchy, an elected government and a representative parliament. The air was scented with perfume and people drove expensive cars. In a visceral demonstration of the distance between Sunni and Shiite, the crowd cheered a police helicopter that swooped low, a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics that have been used to intimidate the Shiites.
"We love King Hamad and we hate chaos," said Hannan Al Abdallah, 22, as she joined the pro-government rally. "This is our country and we're looking after it."
Ali Al Yaffi, 29, drove to the pro-government demonstration with friends in his shiny white S.U.V. He was angry and distrustful. "The democracy they have been asking for is already here," he said. "But the Shias, they have their ayatollahs, and whatever they say they will run and do it. If they tell them to burn a house, they will. I think they have a clear intention to disrupt this country."
On that point there is agreement: the Shiite opposition does want to disrupt, but with peaceful protests aimed at achieving its demands. The public here has learned the lessons of Egypt's popular uprising and the power of peaceful opposition.
"I feel freedom like I never felt it in my life, but I'm also a little worried," said Hussein Al Haddad, 32, as he marched with the Shiite protesters on Tuesday. "What is going to happen next?"
Last Monday, Shiites tried to hold a "day of rage," modeled on the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that forced out autocratic presidents. The police gave no ground, firing on crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets and leaving one man dead, shot in the back. The next day, at the funeral, another man was killed the same way.
The protesters marched into Pearl Square, the symbolic center of the city, and set up camp. In the early morning hours, the police raided the camp, killing three men. Then on Friday, a group of unarmed protesters tried to march into the square. The Army opened fire, and one young man, Abdul Redha Mohammed Hassan, was left with a bullet in his head. He died on Monday and was buried on Tuesday.
The Army's attack on unarmed civilians shocked even the government's supporters and the military was withdrawn. The demonstrators poured back in, setting up a camp and a speaker's podium and making clear they would not leave until their demands were met. The first demand, now, is the dissolution of the government and an agreement to create a constitutional monarchy.
"They are the ones who made the demands grow bigger," said Mohammed Al Shakhouri, 51, as he watched a procession of thousands follow the coffin of Mr. Hassan to the cemetery for burial.
The government seems to have accepted that violence will not silence the opposition and has shifted its strategy. It has set up a press center to get its message out and is working with a public relations firm.
The opposition has stuck with its tactic of peaceful protest. On Tuesday, the Shiite political parties, chief among them Al Wefaq, called for the demonstration to start at the Bahrain mall and march into Pearl Square. Even the organizers were surprised as turnout swelled, packing the eastbound side of the highway from the mall to the square.
"It is a revolution," said Hussein Mohammed, 37, a bookstore owner and volunteer for Al Wefaq. "It is a big revolution. It is unbelievable."
Michael Slackman reported from Manama and J. David Goodman from New York.
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4) United National Antiwar Committee Calls for Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace@gmail.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947 www.nationalpeaceconference.org
From Cairo to Madison, we must raise high the old union slogan:
"AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!"
UNAC salutes the heroic workers of Wisconsin and calls on all who stand for social justice to initiate or join local actions in support of this historic struggle. By doing so, we will send a message to our own state (and federal) governments that similar union-busting attacks will be met with more mass upsurges, inspired both by the workers of Wisconsin and the courageous peoples of Northern Africa and the Middle East.
The historic labor upsurge in Wisconsin is sending shock waves through the political establishment, as tens of thousands of union members and their supporters stage a people's rebellion against the country's most aggressive anti-union attack by a state government. Using the pretext of a budget deficit, Gov. Scott Walker and his right-wing allies in the state legislature are attempting to strip public worker unions of their right to collectively bargain over wages, benefits and pensions. This isn't "fiscal reform" - it's a naked attempt at mass union-busting.
Wisconsin workers show the way!
Rather than fight this attack only through the legislature, Wisconsin's teachers, firefighters, university employees and local public workers have taken a page from the ongoing people's rebellions in Northern Africa and the Middle East, massing in Madison's own version of Cairo's Liberation Square and occupying the State Capital itself. High school students have staged walk-outs in support of their teachers. Thousands of workers, organized and unorganized, as well as university students have responded to a call by the statewide teachers union for all Wisconsin residents to come to the Capitol. In this way, the workers of Wisconsin are showing the rest of the country how to beat back these reactionary attacks: first organize the mass actions, which then make the legislative victories possible.
Every working person has a stake in this struggle. Gov. Walker's attempt at mass union-busting was meant to set off a chain reaction in other states, first on public workers, now the majority of the unionized workforce, and then, inevitably, on private-sector unions. Similar attacks in other states will fall disproportionately on workers of color, who nationally make up a high percentage of public workers.
But this attempt to ignite a national wave of union-busting is backfiring. Walker assumed the ongoing economic crisis and high unemployment would make workers afraid to fight back. But the immediate and fierce mass reaction by Wisconsin's unions has inspired workers in other states. Mass protests have broken out against similar attacks in Ohio and Michigan, while across the country solidarity actions are being organized by union, community and anti-war forces.
"Money for Jobs, not for War!"
A $3.9 billion budget deficit in Wisconsin was cited as the reason for attacking the public worker unions. That claim is phony. What Walker did not say was that Wisconsin taxpayers have been forced to pay billions to fund U.S.-led wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, send drones to Pakistan, support dictators and maintain more than 800 military bases worldwide (costofwar.com). In addition, more billions have been given to the wealthy and powerful in massive bailouts and tax breaks. Truly, the demand "Money for Jobs, not for War!" has never been more appropriate or timely.
The United National Anti-War Committee is a coalition of organizations and prominent individuals that grew out of a mass anti-war conference held last July in Albany, New York. On April 9 and 10, UNAC will sponsor national protests in New York City and San Francisco to demand an end to the wars overseas and a redirecting of war funding to domestic needs.
From its beginning, UNAC has promoted unity between the anti-war and labor movements, recognizing that it is working people who pay for these unjust, endless wars with our blood and tax dollars. Our fight is here - for decent jobs at union wages; an end to evictions and foreclosures; universal access to health care and higher education; a society free from racism, sexism and homophobia; and the right of every worker to join or organize a union so together we can defend our rights.
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5) Fighting Nears Tripoli, Where Qaddafi Keeps Grip on Power
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
February 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/africa/24libya.html?hp
TOBRUK, Libya - Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya kept his grip on the capital, Tripoli, on Wednesday, but large areas of the east remained out of his control as the uprising against his 40-year rule spread to more cities.
Libyans fleeing across the country's western border into Tunisia reported fighting over the past two nights between rebel and pro-government forces in the town of Sabratha, home of an important Roman archeological site 50 miles west of Tripoli. Thousands of Libyan forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi have deployed there, according to Reuters.
"The revolutionary committees are trying to kill everyone who is against Qaddafi," said a doctor from Sabratha who had just left the country, but who declined to give his name because he wanted to return.
There were also reports of fighting in Misurata, a provincial center 130 miles east of the capital. A witness said that messages being broadcast from the loudspeakers of local mosques were urging people to attack government opponents, following Colonel Qaddafi's defiant television address Tuesday night calling for ordinary citizens to assist in eliminating opponents, promising that the "cockroaches" would be tracked and killed "house by house."
A local radio station that had been broadcasting opposition messages was reported to have been attacked. In the southern city of Sabha, considered a Qaddafi stronghold, large protests were also reported.
No certain figures for the toll of the unrest have emerged, but the foreign minister of Italy, which has long and close ties with Libya, said it was likely more than 1,000. The minister, Franco Frattini, also said he worried that the violence could incite Islamic extremism.
In Tripoli, the streets were relatively quiet Wednesday morning, a resident said, but armed mercenaries were around. A bloody crackdown drove protesters from the streets on Tuesday, and residents had described a state of terror.
"All the government buildings in Tripoli are burned down," one resident said. "But the mercenaries, they have weapons. The Libyans don't have weapons, they will kill you."
High-level defections from Colonel Qaddafi's government continued. The country's long-serving interior minister, Abdel Fattah Younes al-Abidi, announced his defection to the opposition Tuesday night, urging the Libyan Army to join the people and their "legitimate demands." State media, however, claimed he had been kidnapped by "gangs."
Mr. Abidi said Wednesday that he had decided to resign after the people of Benghazi were shot down with machine guns. In an interview with CNN, he said he had argued with Colonel Qaddafi's intention to use airplanes to bomb that city, the nation's second largest, warning that it would kill thousands.
After the televised speech by Colonel Qaddafi, thousands of his supporters had converged in the city's central Green Square on Tuesday night, wearing green bandannas and brandishing large machetes.
Many loaded into trucks headed for the outlying areas of the city, where they occupied traffic intersections and appeared to be massing for neighborhood-to-neighborhood searches.
"It looks like they have been given a green light to kill these people," one witness said.
Human Rights Watch said it had confirmed 62 deaths in two hospitals after a rampage on Monday night, when witnesses said groups of heavily armed militiamen and mercenaries from other African countries cruised the streets in pickups, spraying crowds with machine-gun fire.
The death toll was probably higher; one witness said militia forces appeared to be using vans to cart away bodies.
But as they clamped down on the capital, Colonel Qaddafi's security forces did not appear to make any effort to take back the growing number of towns in the east that had in effect declared their independence and set up informal opposition governments. For now, there is little indication of what will replace the vacuum left by Colonel Qaddafi's authority in broad parts of the country other than simmering anarchy.
Only around the town of Ajdabiya, south of the revolt's center in Benghazi, were Colonel Qaddafi's security forces and militia still clashing with protesters along the road to the colonel's hometown, Surt.
The widening gap between the capital and the eastern countryside underscored the radically different trajectory of the Libyan revolt from the others that recently toppled Arab autocrats on Libya's western and eastern borders, in Tunisia and Egypt.
Though the Libyan revolt began with a relatively organized core of longtime government critics in Benghazi, its spread to the capital was swift and spontaneous, outracing any efforts to coordinate the protests.
Colonel Qaddafi has lashed out with a level of violence unseen in either of the other uprisings, partly by importing foreigners without ties to the Libyan people. His four decades of idiosyncratic one-man rule have left the country without any national institutions - not even a unified or disciplined military - that could tame his retribution or provide the framework for a transitional government.
Condemnations of his brutal crackdown have mounted, from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the United Nations Security Council to the Arab League, which suspended Libya as a member. High-profile aides and diplomats continued to defect, among them a senior aide to the president's son, Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, and the country's ambassadors to the United States, India and Bangladesh.
In his television address on Tuesday - his second in two days - Colonel Qaddafi vowed to die as a martyr for his country. "I will fight on to the last drop of my blood," he said.
Wearing a beige robe and turban and reading at times from his manifesto, the Green Book, Colonel Qaddafi attributed the unrest shaking Libya to foreigners, a small group of people distributing pills, brainwashing and young people's naïve desire to imitate the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
He urged citizens to take to the streets and beat back the protesters, and he described himself in sweeping, megalomaniacal terms. "Muammar Qaddafi is history, resistance, liberty, glory, revolution," he declared.
In Tobruk, an eastern city that joined the uprising almost as soon as it began, a resident watching the speech in the main square reacted by throwing a rock at Colonel Qaddafi's face as it was broadcast on a large television. And in a cafe not far from Tobruk, Fawzi Labada, a bus driver, looked incredulously at the screen. "He is weak now," he said. "He's a liar, a big liar. He will hang."
In Tripoli, however, the reaction was more chastened. One resident reported the sound of gunfire during the speech - presumably in celebration, he said, but also in warning. "He is saying, 'If you go to protest, all the shots will be in your chest,' " he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
"We are unarmed and his warning is very clear," he added. "The people are terrified now."
The gap between Colonel Qaddafi's stronghold in Tripoli and the insurrection in the east recalled Libya's pre-1931 past as three different countries - Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica - and underscored the challenge facing its insurrection.
Many analysts have suggested that Colonel Qaddafi seemed to fear the development of any national institutions or networks that might check his power, and he has kept even his military divided into battalions, each loyal mainly to its own officers.
That has set the stage for heavy defections during the revolt - rebels in the east said some government forces had simply abandoned their uniforms to join the cause. But it also means that Libya's military is unlikely to play the stabilizing role its Tunisian or Egyptian counterparts did.
Foreign companies and Libyan factions focused intensely on the fate of the country's substantial oil reserves. The Italian oil company Eni confirmed that it had suspended use of a pipeline from Libya to Sicily that provides 10 percent of Italy's natural gas.
Opponents of Colonel Qaddafi tightened their control of their area around Ajdabiya, an important site in the oil fields of central Libya, said Tawfiq al-Shahbi, a protest organizer in Tobruk.
Tripoli remained under an information blackout, with no Internet access and limited and intermittent phone service. Colonel Qaddafi's government has sought to block all foreign journalists from entering the country or reporting on the revolt.
But the uprising in the east cracked open the country on Tuesday. As the Libyan military retreated from the eastern border with Egypt, foreign journalists poured through. The road from the border to Tobruk appeared to be completely under the control of Colonel Qaddafi's opponents, and small, ragtag bands of men in worn fatigues ran easygoing checkpoints and flashed victory signs at visitors.
Except for those guards, there was little to suggest an uprising was under way. Shops were open along the road, which was full of traffic, mostly heading out of Libya.
Tobruk residents said neighboring cities - including Dernah, Al Qubaa, Bayda and El Marij - were also quiet, and effectively ruled by the opposition.
The government lost control of Tobruk almost immediately, said Gamal Shallouf, a marine biologist who has become an informal press officer in the city.
Soldiers took off their uniforms on Friday and Saturday, taking the side of protesters, who burned the police station and another government building, smashing a large stone monument of Colonel Qaddafi's Green Book. Four people were killed during clashes here, residents said.
Salah Algheriani, who works for the state-owned Gulf Oil company, talked about the sea change in Tobruk, where everyone was suddenly full of loud opinions and hope, including the hope that young people might stop leaving the country for Europe.
"The taste of freedom is very delicious," he said.
The protests began with a relatively organized network of families in Benghazi who had all lost relatives in a 1996 prison riot. Many were represented by the same lawyer, a prominent Qaddafi critic in the region, and his arrest last week set off their uprising.
But the revolt in Tripoli appears far more genuinely spontaneous and unorganized than the Benghazi uprising or, for that matter, the revolutions that toppled the leaders of Tunisia or Egypt. The lack of organization now raises questions about the ability of the mostly young rebels in the capital to regroup after the Qaddafi government's retaliation.
Kareem Fahim reported from Tobruk, Libya, and David D. Kirkpatrick from the Tunisian border with Libya. Reporting was contributed by Sharon Otterman, Mona El-Naggar, Neil MacFarquhar and Liam Stack from Cairo.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 23, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated the location of Misurata. The city is roughly 130 miles east, of the capital, not west.
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6) Cuomo Adviser Takes Pay From Health Industry
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23cuomo.html?hp
When Andrew M. Cuomo married Kerry Kennedy in 1990, Jeffrey A. Sachs served as an usher. When Mr. Cuomo's daughter Michaela was born, he asked Mr. Sachs to be her godfather. When his marriage fell apart years later, Mr. Cuomo stayed in Mr. Sachs's triplex near the United Nations.
Since Mr. Cuomo's election as governor last fall, Mr. Sachs, 58, has taken on a powerful role among his health care advisers as the administration confronts crucial decisions, including how to overhaul New York's $53 billion Medicaid program.
But at the same time, Mr. Sachs, known to many in Albany as "Andrew's best friend," is working as a paid consultant to some of the biggest players in the New York health care industry, including Mount Sinai Medical Center, NYU Langone Medical Center and the state's largest association of nursing homes, all of which have financial interests at stake in the coming Medicaid changes.
Mr. Sachs, whose firm is named Sachs Consulting, has never registered as a lobbyist, which would require him to divulge his clients and fees to the state ethics commission.
Through a spokesman, Mr. Sachs said that none of his contacts with state officials constituted lobbying under state law, which broadly excludes anyone who advises clients on how to influence public policy, among other exceptions.
After inquiries from The New York Times, a spokesman for Mr. Sachs released a statement late Tuesday saying that Mr. Sachs had "frozen all contact on behalf of clients with state officials for the duration of the Cuomo administration."
Mr. Sachs will remain a health care adviser to the governor, and the spokesman, Jesse Derris, did not rule out Mr. Sachs's participating, if asked, in general discussions of health care policy.
Mr. Cuomo's spokesman, Josh Vlasto, issued a statement soon after Mr. Derris, saying, "Nobody in the administration knows his clients, nor could it possibly matter, since Mr. Sachs has said he won't represent anyone before the state, so the innuendo of the story is totally irrelevant."
The influence Mr. Sachs has been wielding since Mr. Cuomo's election on Nov. 2 has startled some in the state's tight-knit health care world.
In December, according to correspondence obtained by The Times, the director of a state-run psychiatry institute said that he was fired after Mr. Sachs, unhappy that the director had clashed with one of his clients, pressured a top state official to dismiss him.
And, as Mr. Sachs advised Mr. Cuomo on his transition and health care policies, state officials have made decisions that surprised many in the health care industry but were favorable to Mr. Sachs's clients. After inquiries from The Times, the administration abruptly rescinded one of the decisions.
In addition to helping Mr. Cuomo recruit senior staff, Mr. Sachs has quickly emerged as a leader on the governor's 27-person Medicaid redesign team, the group that is drawing up the governor's plan to pare billions in spending from the program.
"His membership on the Medicaid team is worrisome to us because he has clients that are not disclosed," said Judy Wessler, director of the Commission on the Public's Health System, a nonprofit group that opposes Mr. Cuomo's proposed cuts.
The Cuomo administration appears sensitive about the governor's relationship with Mr. Sachs. When Mr. Cuomo announced the members of the Medicaid redesign team, Mr. Sachs was identified only as "chairman of the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute for Work Education," a nonprofit development organization, omitting his work at Sachs Consulting.
Mr. Sachs, a nonpracticing dentist who earned his degrees at the State University at Stony Brook, is known as much for his cultivation of the powerful and famous - he was a friend of the late John F. Kennedy Jr. and a board member of the Leonardo DiCaprio Environmental Foundation - as for his shrewd understanding of health care systems.
His influence began to build late last year, as the Albany establishment, especially officials in the Paterson administration who wished to remain in state government, prepared for Mr. Cuomo's arrival.
Though he was never formally named to Mr. Cuomo's transition team, Mr. Sachs played a major role, participating in interviews of candidates for top health care jobs and running some of the interviews, according to people involved in the process.
Mr. Sachs was also an early advocate of the "Wisconsin model" of Medicaid, under which the governor would set a target for spending reductions and then appoint a task force of industry stakeholders to apportion the cuts. The approach has political appeal for the governor, in that it entices would-be opponents of spending reductions to participate in the plan rather than protest it. But it also endows the unelected team members with immense power.
Mr. Sachs made recommendations to Mr. Cuomo and his aides about whom to appoint to the Medicaid team, which Mr. Cuomo formed through an executive order in January. During the transition, Mr. Sachs also helped assemble a four-person policy team to begin meeting with state agencies about the best approach to reducing Medicaid spending. The team included James Introne, an executive at ArchCare, the Roman Catholic hospital network, and Bruce E. Feig, an executive deputy commissioner at the state's Office of Mental Health.
Mr. Sachs knew them both well: Mr. Introne was his former boss and mentor and Mr. Feig his assistant in the Carey administration. Mr. Feig later worked for Sachs Consulting before taking his current job in 2007.
On the recommendation of Mr. Sachs and others, Mr. Cuomo later appointed Mr. Introne, a veteran of state government and large health care organizations, as deputy secretary for health, the top health care policy job in the administration. Mr. Cuomo has also kept Mr. Feig in his job as the No. 2 official at the Office of Mental Health.
While he was helping Mr. Cuomo assemble his health care staff, Mr. Sachs's name arose in an unusual personnel matter, one that held great interest for one of his clients, NYU Langone Medical Center.
For at least a year, NYU Langone had had strained relations with Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, a well-known psychiatrist who founded the hospital's child psychiatry center but left in 2009 to start a competing research and clinical center.
Relations worsened because Dr. Koplewicz, who also served as director of the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, a state-run psychiatric center in Rockland County that also has a research affiliation with NYU, refused to allow NYU to screen those he hired at the institute, among other issues.
During an October meeting between Mr. Sachs and Dr. Koplewicz, Mr. Sachs suggested the doctor resign from the Kline Institute, people briefed on the meeting said. Should he lobby too aggressively to keep his job, Mr. Sachs warned, Mr. Cuomo, then widely expected to win election, might choose to close down the institute.
In a later meeting in December, Michael F. Hogan, state commissioner of mental health, told Dr. Koplewicz that he had been warned by Mr. Sachs that his reappointment by Mr. Cuomo would be jeopardized if Dr. Koplewicz did not resign, according to the people briefed.
Afterward, Dr. Koplewicz wrote Dr. Hogan a letter detailing his accomplishments as director of the institute and complaining of the pressure being exerted by Mr. Sachs.
"As you explained - and I appreciate your candor - you have been pressured by NYU through Jeff Sachs to have me resign as a condition for your reappointment as commissioner of mental health," Dr. Koplewicz wrote in the letter.
In a response sent the following day, Dr. Hogan did not dispute Dr. Koplewicz's account but suggested that he had been insufficiently cooperative with NYU and the Office of Mental Health.
"Accordingly, your service as director, Psychiatric Research Institute, will end effective Jan. 13, 2011," Dr. Hogan wrote.
Dr. Koplewicz and Dr. Hogan both declined to comment, though neither disputed the authenticity of the letters. One day after Dr. Koplewicz was fired, Mr. Cuomo announced Dr. Hogan's reappointment as commissioner of mental health.
Mr. Vlasto, the Cuomo spokesman, said Dr. Koplewicz's firing was unrelated to Dr. Hogan's bid for reappointment.
"Dr. Koplewicz was dismissed after a yearlong saga," Mr. Vlasto said. "His dismissal had absolutely nothing to do with the reappointment of Commissioner Hogan."
Mr. Derris, in a separate statement on Tuesday night, said: "Dr. Koplewicz had issues for over a year with his job performance, and lost his position because of it. The implication that Jeff Sachs had anything to do with his dismissal is pure fiction."
Dr. Koplewicz's departure shocked some local officials in Rockland County, who had admired his work and pressed administration officials fruitlessly for an explanation.
"I made several phone calls advocating for his continuing in that position, and did not get any kind of response," Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, a Democrat of Rockland, said.
Even as Mr. Sachs was helping shape the incoming administration's health care team, he was promoting his clients' private interests.
In December, the Department of Health issued a so-called emergency rule change granting Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, a Sachs Consulting client for the last eight years, additional Medicaid reimbursements worth millions of dollars.
The hospital had been seeking the rate change for at least five years, officials there said, and it was not clear why it was finally issued during the waning days of the Paterson administration.
But two people with knowledge of the decision said that Mr. Sachs personally phoned state officials, including Lawrence S. Schwartz, the top aide to then-Gov. David A. Paterson, to discuss the hospital money. At that time, Mr. Schwartz was under consideration by Mr. Cuomo for a job in the new administration. Mr. Schwartz now works for Mr. Cuomo as a senior adviser.
Separately, two weeks ago, Mr. Introne ordered the freeze of undisbursed grants under a program intended to encourage efficiencies in New York's health care system. They included a $62 million disbursement, approved after a two-year review, that would underwrite the planned merger of SUNY Downstate Medical Center and Long Island College Hospital, a struggling institution in Brooklyn.
The delay startled officials at both hospitals, in part because Mr. Cuomo's budget, released earlier in the month, had already authorized other financing related to the merger. The decision threatened to imperil the merger, without which LICH would be forced to close. But the delay had one potential beneficiary: Brooklyn Hospital Center, a Sachs client, which stood to absorb most of LICH's patients should that hospital close down.
The following day, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said that the administration had decided to hold up all the grants as part of a review likely to take two to three weeks. After local officials protested the decision and after inquiries from The Times, the administration announced three days later that the LICH grant would proceed.
Both Mr. Introne and Mr. Sachs declined through spokesmen to say whether they had ever discussed the grants.
But Mr. Sachs's position on the grant was well known: He had been telling others in the industry for months that the grant to LICH was a mistake and that the state needed a more comprehensive approach to address hospital financing in Brooklyn and Queens.
"What Jeff said is, 'This is crazy,' " said Stephen Berger, who sits with Mr. Sachs on the Medicaid redesign team. " 'You're dealing with one hospital. We have four or five there. Why are you dealing with one hospital when the others are falling like dominos?' "
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7) WikiLeaks Cables Detail Qaddafi Family's Exploits
"Though the Qaddafi children are described as jockeying for position as their father ages - three sons fought to profit from a new Coca-Cola franchise - they have been well taken care of, cables say. "All of the Qaddafi children and favorites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil service subsidiaries," one cable from 2006 says."
By SCOTT SHANE
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/africa/23cables.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - After New Year's Day 2009, Western media reported that Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, had paid Mariah Carey $1 million to sing just four songs at a bash on the Caribbean island of St. Barts.
In the newspaper he controlled, Seif indignantly denied the report - the big spender, he said, was his brother, Muatassim, Libya's national security adviser, according to an American diplomatic cable from the capital, Tripoli.
It was Muatassim, too, the cable said, who had demanded $1.2 billion in 2008 from the chairman of Libya's national oil corporation, reportedly to establish his own militia. That would let him keep up with yet another brother, Khamis, commander of a special-forces group that "effectively serves as a regime protection unit."
As the Qaddafi clan conducts a bloody struggle to hold onto power in Libya, cables obtained by WikiLeaks offer a vivid account of the lavish spending, rampant nepotism and bitter rivalries that have defined what a 2006 cable called "Qadhafi Incorporated," using the State Department's preference from the multiple spellings for Libya's troubled first family.
The glimpses of the clan's antics in recent years that have reached Libyans despite Col. Qaddafi's tight control of the media have added to the public anger now boiling over. And the tensions between siblings could emerge as a factor in the chaos in the oil-rich African country.
Though the Qaddafi children are described as jockeying for position as their father ages - three sons fought to profit from a new Coca-Cola franchise - they have been well taken care of, cables say. "All of the Qaddafi children and favorites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil service subsidiaries," one cable from 2006 says.
A year ago, a cable reported that proliferating scandals had sent the clan into a "tailspin" and "provided local observers with enough dirt for a Libyan soap opera." Muatassim had repeated his St. Barts New Year's fest, this time hiring the pop singers Beyoncé and Usher. An unnamed "local political observer" in Tripoli told American diplomats that Muatassim's "carousing and extravagance angered some locals, who viewed his activities as impious and embarrassing to the nation."
Another brother, Hannibal, meanwhile, had fled London after being accused of physically abusing his wife, Aline, and after the intervention of a Qaddafi daughter, Ayesha, who traveled to London despite being "many months pregnant," the cable reported. Ayesha, along with Col. Qaddafi's second wife, Safiya, the mother of six of his eight children, "advised Aline to report to the police that she had been hurt in an 'accident,' and not to mention anything about abuse," the cable said.
Amid his siblings' shenanigans, Seif, the president's second-eldest son, had been "opportunely disengaged from local affairs," spending the holidays hunting in New Zealand. His philanthropy, the Qaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, had sent hundreds of tons of aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and he was seen as a reasonable prospect to succeed his father.
The same 2010 cable said young Libyan contacts had reported that Seif al-Islam is the 'hope' of 'Libya al-Ghad' (Libya of tomorrow), with men in their twenties saying that they aspire to be like Seif and think he is the right person to run the country. They describe him as educated, cultured, and someone who wants a better future for Libya," by contrast with his brothers, the cable said.
That was then. Today the young protesters on the streets are demanding the ouster of the entire family, and it was Seif el-Qaddafi who declared on television at 1 a.m. Monday that Libya faced civil war and "rivers of blood" if the people did not rally around his father.
As for the 68-year-old Colonel Qaddafi, the cables provide an arresting portrait, describing him as a hypochondriac who fears flying over water and often fasts on Mondays and Thursdays. The cables said he was an avid fan of horse racing and flamenco dancing who once added "King of Culture" to the long list of titles he had awarded himself. The memos also said he was accompanied everywhere by a "voluptuous blonde," the senior member of his posse of Ukrainian nurses.
After Colonel Qaddafi abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in 2003, many American officials praised his cooperation. Visiting with a congressional delegation in 2009, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut told the leader and his party-loving national security adviser, Muatassim, that Libya was "an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting that common enemies sometimes make better friends."
Before Condoleezza Rice visited Libya in 2008 - the first secretary of state to do so since 1953 - the embassy in Tripoli sought to accentuate the positive. True, Colonel Qaddafi was "notoriously mercurial" and "avoids making eye contact," the cable warned Ms. Rice, and "there may be long, uncomfortable periods of silence." But he was "a voracious consumer of news," the cable added, who had such distinctive ideas as resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a single new state called "Isratine."
"A self-styled intellectual and philosopher," the cable told Ms. Rice, "he has been eagerly anticipating for several years the opportunity to share with you his views on global affairs."
Andrew W. Lehren contributed reporting from New York.
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8) Clashes Over Yemen's Government Leave 2 Protesters Dead
By LAURA KASINOF
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/middleeast/23yemen.html?ref=world
SANA, Yemen - Two young men were shot dead by government supporters on Tuesday night during a protest in front of Sana University, medical workers said. They are the first deaths in clashes between pro- and antigovernment demonstrators in Sana in the nearly two weeks since students began calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Eight other people were wounded, the medical workers said, when government supporters in plain clothes opened fire on the protesters, who have been staging a sit-in in front of Sana University since Sunday morning.
A makeshift medical clinic treated the wounded while they waited for ambulances to arrive. Protesters surrounding the clinic chanted, "There is no God but God."
About 2,000 protesters remained on Tuesday night after the shooting. They have vowed to stay until Mr. Saleh steps down.
According to witnesses, the clashes between the pro- and antigovernment demonstrators started when the two sides began hurling rocks back and forth over the heads of about 10 members of the security forces.
The security forces began to shoot live ammunition in the air in an attempt to stop the rock-throwing, but then the pro-government demonstrators started to run toward the students, shooting automatic weapons and pistols. When the gunmen started shooting, the police ran away, according to multiple witnesses.
According to one government official, who was not authorized to speak to the news media, the antigovernment protesters also fired live ammunition at the pro-government demonstrators, killing one and wounding more than a dozen.
Some foreign journalists at the scene said they did not see any attack by antigovernment protesters, who have largely been peaceful. But the government official said: "Witnesses noted a surge of armed individuals in the vicinity of the opposition camp. Later on, clashes erupted between the pro- and antigovernment camps. The riot police attempted to separate the crowds. Soon thereafter, a barrage of bullets hit the pro-government demonstrators."
Both sides have clashed before, but some Yemenis said that the escalation of violence would now draw more people into the streets.
"The number of people coming to the protest will increase after they see innocent people dying," said Mohamed al-Ghasary, 23 and unemployed, who was sitting on a wall beside a group of about 50 men. A large crowd of pro-government demonstrators waited about five blocks away.
The antigovernment protesters occasionally taunted the government supporters, calling them "baltegeya," or thugs. Piles of rocks lay behind them from a battle only about an hour before.
"The one who is killed is a martyr and will enter heaven; this is why we aren't scared of the bullets," said Yasser Abdullah, who came to Sana from Amran to join the protests two days ago.
His left cheek was stuffed full of qat, the stimulant wildly popular in Yemen, and he wore a jambiya, or Yemeni-style dagger, on his belt. Mr. Abdullah is one of the increasing number of Yemenis from rural areas coming to Sana to call for Mr. Saleh's removal.
The protesters say they believe that the pro-government demonstrators have been sent by the government to terrorize them, further cementing their disgust for the president. But the Yemeni government has denied that it has any connection with the men attacking the students.
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9) Protests in Bahrain Become Test of Wills
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN and NADIM AUDI
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/middleeast/23bahrain.html?ref=world
MANAMA, Bahrain - More than 100,000 demonstrators packed central Pearl Square here on Tuesday in what organizers called the largest pro-democracy demonstration this tiny Persian Gulf nation had ever seen, as the monarchy struggled to hold on to its monopoly on power.
In a nation of only 500,000 citizens, the sheer size of the gathering was astonishing. Tens of thousands of men, women and children, mostly members of the Shiite majority, formed a ribbon of protest for several miles along the Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Highway as they headed for the square, calling for the downfall of the government in a march that was intended to show national unity.
"This is the first time in the history of Bahrain that the majority of people, of Bahraini people, got together with one message: this regime must fall," said Muhammad Abdullah, 43, who was almost shaking with emotion as he watched the swelling crowd.
But for all the talk of political harmony, the past week's events have left Bahrain as badly divided as it has ever been. Its economy is threatened and its reputation damaged. Standard and Poor's lowered its credit rating this week, Bahraini authorities canceled next month's Bahrain Grand Prix Formula One race - a source of pride for the royal family - many businesses remain closed, and tourism is down.
On one side of the divide is a Sunni minority that largely supports King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa as the protector of its interests. On the other is a Shiite majority that knows the changes it seeks will inevitably bring power to its side. The king began releasing some political prisoners on Tuesday night, and the crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, has called for a national dialogue to try to bridge differences, preserve the monarchy and unite the nation.
But so far there is no substantive dialogue between the sides. There is a test of wills, as the Sunnis fight to hold on to what they have and the Shiites grapple for their fair share after years of being marginalized by an absolute monarchy that has ruled the nation for two centuries.
"I'm really excited, but I don't know what is going to happen," said Fatima Amroum, a 25-year-old woman in a black abaya who was quietly texting as she watched the procession on Tuesday. "I'm a little scared of uncertainty; we might get what we demand, but freedom will be chaotic at the beginning."
The days of protest and repression have mostly been about the Shiites speaking up and the Sunnis cracking down. But on Monday night, in the wealthy neighborhood of Juffair, tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators poured into Al Fateh Grand Mosque to express their support for the embattled king.
The pro-government crowd borrowed some of the opposition's slogans, including "no Sunni, no Shia, only Bahraini." But that was where the call for unity started and ended.
This was an affluent crowd, far different from the mostly low-income Shiites who took to the streets to demand a constitutional monarchy, an elected government and a representative Parliament. The air was scented with perfume, and people drove expensive cars. In a visceral demonstration of the distance between Sunni and Shiite, the crowd cheered a police helicopter that swooped low, a symbol of the heavy-handed tactics that have been used to intimidate the Shiites.
"We love King Hamad and we hate chaos," said Hannan al-Abdallah, 22, as she joined the pro-government rally. "This is our country and we're looking after it."
Ali al-Yaffi, 29, drove to the pro-government demonstration with friends in his shiny white sport utility vehicle. He was angry and distrustful. "The democracy they have been asking for is already here," he said. "But the Shias, they have their ayatollahs, and whatever they say, they will run and do it. If they tell them to burn a house, they will. I think they have a clear intention to disrupt this country."
On that point there is agreement: the Shiite opposition does want to disrupt, but with peaceful protests aimed at achieving its demands. The public here has learned the lessons of Egypt's popular uprising and the power of peaceful opposition.
"I feel freedom like I never felt it in my life, but I'm also a little worried," said Hussein al-Haddad, 32, as he marched with the Shiite protesters on Tuesday. "What is going to happen next?"
Last Monday, Shiites tried to hold a "day of rage," modeled on the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that forced out autocratic presidents. The police gave no ground, firing on crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets and leaving one man dead, shot in the back. The next day, at the funeral, another man was killed the same way.
The protesters marched into Pearl Square, the symbolic center of Manama, the capital, and set up camp. In the early morning hours, the police raided the camp, killing three men. Then on Friday, a group of unarmed protesters tried to march into the square. The army opened fire, and one young man, Abdul Redha Mohammed Hassan, was left with a bullet in his head. He died Monday and was buried Tuesday.
The army's attack on unarmed civilians shocked even the government's supporters, and the military was withdrawn. The demonstrators poured back in, setting up a camp and a speaker's podium and making it clear that they would not leave until their demands were met. The first demand, now, is the dissolution of the government and an agreement to create a constitutional monarchy.
"They are the ones who made the demands grow bigger," said Mohammed al-Shakhouri, 51, as he watched a procession of thousands follow the coffin of Mr. Hassan to the cemetery for burial.
The government seems to have accepted that violence will not silence the opposition and has shifted its strategy. It has set up a press center to get its message out and is working with a public relations firm.
The opposition has stuck with its tactic of peaceful protest. On Tuesday, the Shiite political parties, chief among them Al Wefaq, called for the demonstration to start at the Bahrain mall and march into Pearl Square. Even the organizers were surprised as turnout swelled, packing the eastbound side of the highway from the mall to the square.
"It is a revolution," said Hussein Mohammed, 37, a bookstore owner and volunteer for Al Wefaq. "It is a big revolution. It is unbelievable."
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10) Business Group Tied to U.S. Wades Into Nicaragua's Politics
"The chamber's activities over the past two years - detailed in interviews with Nicaraguan officials and business executives and in State Department cables obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks - illuminate the remarkable role the foreign affiliates of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sometimes play in the politics of their host nations. Occasionally they are at odds with United States policy. But often, the chamber groups are so aligned with it that they appear to act as unofficial instruments to advance the American government's goals."
By ERIC LIPTON
February 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/world/americas/24chamber.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - As president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua, Róger Arteaga Cano routinely dealt with business issues and trade practices affecting members like ExxonMobil or Citigroup. But he also led an unusual campaign: organizing secret meetings with opposition party leaders in an effort to oust President Daniel Ortega in an election this year.
A former official in the previous government led by a rival party, Mr. Arteaga turned the chamber into a harsh critic of Mr. Ortega, the leftist Sandinista party leader and longtime adversary of the United States.
On the group's behalf, Mr. Arteaga issued fiery denunciations of the Nicaraguan government and its ruling party, calling its policies unconstitutional and its style that of "gangsters" or "terrorists." He briefed officials at the United States Embassy in Managua, the capital, and in Washington on his efforts to spur an effective challenge to Mr. Ortega, winning their tacit approval.
The chamber's activities over the past two years - detailed in interviews with Nicaraguan officials and business executives and in State Department cables obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks - illuminate the remarkable role the foreign affiliates of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sometimes play in the politics of their host nations. Occasionally they are at odds with United States policy. But often, the chamber groups are so aligned with it that they appear to act as unofficial instruments to advance the American government's goals.
Created more than a century ago to promote the interests of American corporations, the groups - nicknamed AmChams - today operate in more than 100 countries. While many affiliates appear to restrict their activities to issues like opening access to government contracts or combating the counterfeiting of name-brand goods, others, like the Nicaraguan group, seek broader influence, echoing the role increasingly played in Washington by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
In Honduras, for example, executives at the American-affiliated chamber expressed support for the June 2009 coup d'état that forced out President José Manuel Zelaya, the State Department cables say. After leaders in the group applied pressure on the Obama administration, American officials retreated from their initial demands that Mr. Zelaya be allowed to return to power.
In Taiwan, the chamber got into a nasty public dispute with a pro-independence party there, suggesting that the party was holding the nation hostage to its belief that trade between China and Taiwan should be limited, the cables say.
Kevin Casas-Zamora, who served as a minister of economic policy and second vice president of Costa Rica until 2007, said that overt political action by a United States-affiliated business group was almost always counterproductive.
"It is a really bad idea, and it tends to backfire," he said, who noted that the logo for the American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua included the United States flag. "You are simply handing on a platter a rhetorical weapon to that someone like Ortega will surely use against you."
Indeed, the political intervention embraced by Mr. Arteaga - he has just stepped down from his two-year term as the chamber's president - has been denounced by the Nicaraguan government and other supporters of Mr. Ortega as unwelcome meddling by the United States.
"Every time outside forces have sought to interfere in Nicaragua's internal affairs, the result has been harmful to the Nicaraguan people," Francisco Campbell, Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States, said in an interview.
Executives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, who came under scrutiny last year for spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising that helped Republicans in the midterm Congressional elections, said it had played no role in instigating political activity by foreign chamber groups.
"AmChams are independent of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in terms of the policies they advocate," a chamber spokeswoman said in a statement. The United States chamber collects dues from its international members, and approves the creation of any new foreign affiliate.
In 2009, when Mr. Arteaga took over as the unpaid president of the chamber in Nicaragua - his small consulting firm has a corporate client based in the United States, making him eligible for membership - he began challenging Mr. Ortega almost from the start. The former top federal tax official under a previous administration, Mr. Arteaga was driven by disdain for Mr. Ortega, who was elected in 2006, after serving as president from 1985 to 1990 and a leader of the post-revolution junta from 1979 to 1985.
The animosity only grew as the Ortega government took actions that the chamber - along with many other groups in Nicaragua - viewed as violating the rule of law in an effort to expand its power, such as a ruling that Mr. Ortega could run again for president this year, even though the constitution prohibits a sitting president from seeking re-election.
"He has violated the Constitution of this country so many times he deserves a spot in the Guinness record book," Mr. Arteaga said, adding that such steps discouraged investment by American companies. "The business community is worried. There is bread now, but there will be hunger tomorrow."
During the Reagan administration, the American government secretly provided aid to right-wing rebels who tried to overthrow Mr. Ortega, assistance that ultimately resulted in the Iran-contra scandal. Since then, Washington has tried to play its hand more subtly, the State Department cables show, in part by encouraging business and civic leaders in Nicaragua to rally behind pro-American candidates or take stances supporting American views.
During the administration of President George W. Bush, for example, United States officials considered asking General Electric's corporate financing division to pressure Carlos Pellas, a prominent Nicaraguan banker and sugar mill executive, to support one of Mr. Ortega's rivals, according to a March 2006 cable. (The cables do not make it clear whether the proposal was ever carried out.)
While the Obama administration has tried to refrain from intervening in domestic politics, Mr. Arteaga was not so shy. Working behind the scenes, he helped organize meetings among leaders of opposition parties, urging them to put aside their personal political ambitions and together support a single candidate or party to challenge the president.
After one such gathering in December 2009, the American Embassy noted Mr. Arteaga's role in cables back to Washington.
"The group has been working for the last several months to bring opposition groups, civil society, and the business community together to confront President Daniel Ortega, preserve democratic space, and form a united bloc to challenge Ortega and/or the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the 2011 national elections," the cable said. An earlier cable, in August 2009, called Mr. Arteaga one of the two primary leaders of the opposition unity effort.
Robert J. Callahan, the United States ambassador to Nicaragua, confirmed in a telephone interview that he had attended the December 2009 meeting with Mr. Arteaga at the home of César Zamora, Mr. Arteaga's predecessor as chamber president and an executive of AEI, a Houston-based energy company.
But the American government did not request any of the actions taken by Mr. Arteaga and other business executives, he said. "If they are articulating policies that we agree with, then fine, it is a coincidence of views there," he said. Mr. Callahan added that the goal of the United States was to encourage a vibrant democracy in Nicaragua.
Yet cables sent by Mr. Callahan to Washington go a bit further, suggesting that the embassy at least indirectly encouraged groups like the chamber to work to unify the opposition to Mr. Ortega and his party.
"We will continue to encourage all pro-democratic groups to work together to advance their common goals, including uniting for 2011," said an August 2009 cable, which also mentions Mr. Arteaga and his role as American Chamber president. "It is clear that this message has been understood by some in the political and business community, fostering the above unity efforts."
Mr. Arteaga, in an interview, said his effort to unify the opposition was supported by some chamber members and representatives on its board, an assertion confirmed by several chamber members. Mr. Arteaga added that his intervention came not at the request of any American corporation, but reflected a consensus of chamber members. But in a second interview, he said he was acting on his own, particularly in endorsing an opposition presidential candidate.
Such a distinction was not always recognized by others. Mr. Arteaga said he was investigated by Nicaraguan officials who asked for the chamber's financial records as well as his own to see if he was secretly being paid $10,000 a month by the Central Intelligence Agency. (Both Mr. Arteaga and Mr. Callahan denied any payments.)
But the appearance that the United States was intervening in Nicaraguan affairs--through actions by the American chamber or the embassy there--provoked a backlash.
In October 2009, after Mr. Callahan spoke at an event sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce and echoed comments by chamber leaders condemning a Supreme Court decision allowing Mr. Ortega to run for re-election despite term limits, hundreds of demonstrators appeared outside the United States Embassy in Managua. Holding up signs saying "Death to Empire" and "Yankee Go Home," some protesters even launched explosive projectiles at the building, according to a State Department cable.
Last month, a newspaper in Nicaragua accused Mr. Arteaga of turning the chamber into a "political conspiracies' nest," a charge that drew a defense from the United States ambassador, who said the story falsely claimed that he believed that Mr. Arteaga had gone too far.
"We reiterate our excellent working relationship with the AmCham and excellent and fluid relations and friendship with its director, Roger Arteaga," an embassy statement said.
Yalí Molina Palacios, an international lawyer who just succeeded Mr. Arteaga as the chamber president, said in an interview that the chamber's efforts to unify the opposition to Mr. Ortega had not succeeded, and that he would curtail them.
Mr. Molina said that the American Chamber would continue to speak up if the Ortega administration took actions that violated the Constitution. But his own reading of the organization's bylaws makes clear that the chamber is prohibited from endorsing political candidates, he said.
He pointed out that Nicaragua's economy appeared to be growing and that foreign investment was on the rise. And Mr. Ortega is likely to win re-election in November.
"Don't get enemies," Mr. Molina said. "Get friends."
Andrew W. Lehren contributed reporting from New York.
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11) Midshipman, Then Pacifist: Rare Victory to Leave Navy
By PAUL VITELLO
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23objector.html?ref=us
NEW LONDON, Conn. - The question that changed Michael Izbicki's life appeared on a psychological exam he took not long after graduating in 2008 near the top of his class at the United States Naval Academy: If given the order, would he launch a missile carrying a nuclear warhead?
Ensign Izbicki said he would not - and his reply set in motion a two-year personal journey and legal battle that ended on Tuesday, when the Navy confirmed that he had been discharged from the service as a conscientious objector.
In the process, Mr. Izbicki, 25, went from Navy midshipman in the nuclear submarine fleet here, studying kill ratios, to resident of a small Quaker peace community a few blocks from the Thames River, where he prays several times a day, studies Hebrew and helps with the organic garden.
He is one of only a few graduates of the nation's military academies to be granted conscientious objector status in recent years. And while every case is deeply personal, his long struggle for an honorable discharge offers a glimpse of a rarely viewed side of military experience in the post-draft, all-volunteer era: the steep challenge facing any service member - and especially a graduate of a service academy - who signs up as a teenager to become a warrior and then changes his mind in adulthood about his willingness to kill.
The Navy fought his request hard, in much the same way that the Army contested the conscientious objector application of Capt. Peter D. Brown, a West Point graduate and an Iraq war veteran who was discharged in 2007 after a protracted court battle.
Academy graduates accounted for only a dozen of the roughly 600 applicants for the special status between 2002 and 2010, spokesmen for the service branches said. Of those requests, fewer than half were approved. And like many of the other academy applicants, according to lawyers who handle such cases, Mr. Izbicki won his discharge only by taking his petition to federal court.
The Navy rejected Mr. Izbicki's application twice, questioning the sincerity of his beliefs despite the support of several Navy chaplains and the testimony of two Yale Divinity School faculty members who said his religious convictions seemed to be mature and sincere.
One Navy commander suggested that the pacifist strain of Christianity that Mr. Izbicki embraced was inconsistent with mainstream Christian faith. The same commander likened the Quakers, who supported Mr. Izbicki, to the Rev. Jim Jones and his People's Temple, a suicide cult.
J. E. McNeil, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, a nonprofit group in Washington that helps service members navigate the conscientious objector process, said that a case like Mr. Izbicki's posed a profound challenge to the military. "You were someone they thought was going to be a leader," Ms. McNeil said. "They spent four years training you. Now you want nothing to do with that world."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, which filed a federal lawsuit on Mr. Izbicki's behalf in November seeking a reversal of the Navy's decision, announced on Tuesday that the Navy had granted Mr. Izbicki his discharge. Mr. Izbicki, who has continued to work at a Navy desk job, may have to reimburse the service for all or part of the cost of his education, said his lawyers, Sandra Staub, legal director of the A.C.L.U. of Connecticut, and Deborah H. Karpatkin and Vera M. Scanlon, of New York.
Mike McLellan, a spokesman for the Navy, said Mr. Izbicki had been discharged as a conscientious objector because "the Navy Personnel Command determined there was sufficient evidence to satisfy the requirements for this designation, and determined that it was in the Navy's best interests to discharge him."
Mr. Izbicki, a National Merit Scholarship finalist in high school, chose the naval academy at Annapolis, Md., over a bevy of colleges, including the California Institute of Technology, that offered him four-year scholarships, because he felt an obligation to serve his country during wartime, he told investigators in his application for discharge.
He grew up attending nondenominational Christian services in San Clemente, Calif., and remained a regular churchgoer during his four years at the academy, where Christianity is the dominant faith. Cadets are required in their junior year to study the "just war" theory, a doctrine justifying military action, based largely on the writings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
Not until his senior year did Mr. Izbicki register a sense of unease over what he would refer to in his application as "the frankness with which people talked about killing." He wrote: "The training did not live up to the ideals of the just war as I envisioned them. I saw formulas for calculating the number and types of casualties that would result from using each of our weapons systems. We calculated the extent of civilian casualties and whether these numbers were politically acceptable."
Still, Mr. Izbicki said, he remained convinced that his Christian beliefs could be reconciled with military culture, and that as an officer he would be able to effect change from within.
After graduating from the academy, he earned a master's degree in computer engineering at Johns Hopkins University in preparation for what he said he expected to be a career in nuclear submarines.
But Mr. Izbicki said he also began exploring his commitment to Christianity. He studied the Gospels, read widely about the early history of the church, took up Hebrew so he could read the Old Testament in the original, and started to measure his faith according to the evangelical touchstone "What would Jesus do?"
It was in that light that he encountered the exam question about launching a nuclear missile in early 2009, shortly after he was assigned to submariner school at the Nuclear Power Training Command in Charleston, S.C. Seeing the question spelled out like that, he said, made it impossible to hide his emerging pacifism any longer.
"I realized that I could not be responsible for killing anyone," he later explained.
His answer flagged him for psychological testing, and a consultation with a Navy chaplain, who was the first to suggest that Mr. Izbicki consider applying for discharge as a conscientious objector.
"I had never really heard of it," Mr. Izbicki, a reserved, soft-spoken man, said in an interview last week at St. Francis House, a Quaker residence. "It was one of those things people did in the '60s."
The transcripts of the hearings on his two applications for a discharge - which read partly like a court-martial, partly like oral exams for a doctor of divinity degree - run to more than 700 pages. They include esoteric queries about "just war" theory, the letters of St. Paul and the protocols known as the Six Capabilities of the United States Navy's Maritime Strategy.
Mr. Izbicki's beliefs are probed intensely for inconsistencies and deviations from conservative Christian belief.
One investigator, Lt. Cmdr. John A. Price, expresses surprise when Mr. Izbicki says he is not convinced that every word in the Bible is inspired by God. He questions how Mr. Izbicki can be sure, then, that the Sermon on the Mount, on which he bases his claim to know what Jesus would do, is accurate: "You realize that there's a danger when you start believing that some stuff in the Bible's not true, because then we might start believing that Jesus is not true."
At another point, Commander Price asks, "If Jesus was a pacifist, why didn't he tell all Roman soldiers to leave the army?"
Navy officers tried to persuade Mr. Izbicki to consider alternatives to discharge: Could he become a Navy medical officer or dentist? He replied that his pacifist beliefs were irreconcilable with any effort to prepare troops for battle. "I could not contribute in any way whatsoever," he said.
Mr. Izbicki said he had made no plans for the future other than a return to his parents' home in California. His discharge, he said, "has opened the whole world up to me."
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12) Mississippi: Dolphin Deaths Under Investigation
By REUTERS
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/us/23brfs-DOLPHINDEATH_BRF.html?ref=us
Marine scientists are examining the deaths of 20 baby dolphins whose carcasses have washed ashore in Mississippi and Alabama this year in possible fallout from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, researchers said Tuesday. The deaths, an unusually large number, are being studied as possible casualties of oil that fouled the Gulf of Mexico after a BP drilling platform exploded last April. The bodies of 20 infant and stillborn dolphins have been discovered since Jan. 20, most of them during the past week, on islands and beaches along a 130-mile stretch of coastline from Gulfport, Miss., east to Gulf Shores, Ala. That is about 10 times the number normally found in the two states during this time of the year, which is calving season in the region, said Moby Solangi, director of the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport.
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13) Judge Orders City to Release Reports on Shots Fired by Police at Civilians Since 1997
By AL BAKER
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23shootings.html?ref=nyregion
A Manhattan judge has moved to shine more light on New York Police Department shootings, ruling that departmental reports generated whenever an officer fired at a civilian in the last 13 years be turned over to the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The decision, by Justice Emily Jane Goodman of State Supreme Court, means that a trove of internal police documents could soon be thrust into public view. The decision, dated Feb. 14, gives police officials 60 days to turn over two sets of the documents for each shooting dating back to 1997 - a period covering roughly 850 shootings. The city has not decided whether to appeal.
One of the documents Justice Goodman ordered to be released is an investigatory report done within 24 hours of each shooting. The other report, completed within 90 days, is more extensive.
The ruling, affecting about 1,700 reports and thousands of pages, could provide the public new details about such recent police scandals as the 2006 shooting death of Sean Bell in Queens and the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx.
"There are going to be a lot of big cases in these reports," said Christopher T. Dunn, the associate legal director of the civil liberties group, who said he would make the reports public. "There will also be a lot of cases nobody ever heard of."
Asked about the decision at a news conference on Tuesday, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said that he had not yet seen the ruling but that police officials would turn over "whatever the court says we should." Mr. Kelly pointed out his administration's practice of making public each year a firearms-discharge report that serves as a statistical summary of police shootings.
Later, Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, said, "These are interim reports that shouldn't be made public for reasons that have been argued in the case, and especially considering the fact that our annual firearms report is already so comprehensive and that we already provide regular press briefings after each police-involved shooting."
Jesse Levine, senior counsel in the City Law Department's general litigation division, said the city was reviewing the decision and "considering our appellate options."
City officials noted that Justice Goodman sided with the department in rejecting the civil liberties group's request for separate documents related to the role of race in shootings.
The group, however, says it plans to use the shooting reports to better understand the complicated issues, including race, that emerge when officers use deadly force. And Mr. Dunn said the judge ruled that the group could submit a more specific request for documents on the role of race.
"We hope this marks the beginning of the end of the secrecy around N.Y.P.D. shootings," Mr. Dunn said. "When a police officer fires at a civilian, it is good for the public and good for the police for there to be full disclosure of the facts. This order will make that happen."
Though the judge's ruling is retrospective, Mr. Dunn said he expected it to lay the groundwork for obtaining future reports on individual shootings.
Justice Goodman rejected the department's position that sharing the information would violate officers' privacy rights, reveal investigative techniques or cause other harm. She ruled that the records be released, in part, "in order to promote open government and accountability."
Yet, she also ruled that some items be redacted from the reports, including personal information about the officers (though not their names), the civilians they shot and any witnesses. Also to be redacted is information about disciplinary recommendations.
Separately, the civil liberties group has requested statistical information about the disciplining of officers involved in civilian shootings. Mr. Dunn said the police had said they would respond by the end of this month.
Speaking of Justice Goodman's ruling, Ms. Levine said: "We are pleased that the judge properly recognized the privacy and law enforcement concerns expressed. However, we feel she did not strike the appropriate balance in directing us to provide documents that intertwine both confidential and nonconfidential information."
In October 2007, a year after the Bell shooting, the civil liberties group filed a request under the state freedom of information law seeking the Police Department's annual discharge reports, as well as documents on the race of everyone the police fired upon. In February 2008, the department gave the group the discharge reports covering 1996 to 2006. In January 2009, the City Council passed, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed, legislation requiring those reports to be made public each year.
In August 2008, the civil liberties group sued for the race data; it won its suit 15 months later. Meanwhile, in January 2009, the group used a freedom of information law request to seek the individual reports for each shooting. But it was rejected, so, Mr. Dunn said, the group sued in November 2009 - the case the judge ruled on this month.
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14) Street Stops by the Police Hit a New High
"According to data provided by the police, officers made 600,601 street stops in 2010, about a 3.5 percent increase from the more than 580,000 stops the department logged in 2009, the previous recorded high. Seven percent of the stops last year led to an arrest, compared with 6 percent a year earlier."
By AL BAKER
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/nyregion/23stop.html?ref=nyregion
New York City police officers last year stopped more people on the streets - to question, and sometimes frisk - than in any year since the Police Department began recording the number.
According to data provided by the police, officers made 600,601 street stops in 2010, about a 3.5 percent increase from the more than 580,000 stops the department logged in 2009, the previous recorded high. Seven percent of the stops last year led to an arrest, compared with 6 percent a year earlier.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly attributed the increase in stops to officers' observing more suspicious behavior. "It's situational," he said. "Situations drive the use of that tactic. It depends on what conditions police officers find in the street."
Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman, said the street stop number was "not so big," considering that officers had 23 million contacts with civilians last year. It is also not surprising, he said, in a city where officers make 422,000 arrests a year and issue 2.5 million summonses - both of which require higher legal standards to carry out than do stops.
The number of street stops last year is the highest since 2002, when the department first had to record its annual tally. But Mr. Browne said "it's fair to assume" that the annual number of stops was far higher in the 1980s and early '90s, when there were more than 700,000 reported crimes each year, compared with fewer than 200,000 crimes last year.
Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the City Council's Public Safety Committee, said that with a shrinking police force, the tactic is "the best way to get guns off our streets." He commended officers for "using this practice even more effectively."
In July, Gov. David A. Paterson signed legislation prohibiting the police in New York City from electronically storing the names and addresses of people stopped on the streets but found to have done nothing wrong.
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15) Lifting the Veil on the Practice of Billing Patients Who Sue
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
February 22, 2011, 12:28 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/lifting-the-veil-on-the-practice-of-billing-patients-who-sue/?ref=nyregion
Court record A government record produced as part of a long-running lawsuit challenging how New York bills psychiatric patients who sue the state for injuries.
New York State has long had a policy of countersuing patients who demand compensation for being injured in state psychiatric hospitals. The Office of Mental Health immediately bills them for the time they spend in the hospital, often stopping the case cold and making it nearly impossible for the patient to attract or keep a lawyer, a practice we explored in this article in December.
The strategy was hugely effective at quashing claims, even ones borne of extreme tragedy. But to avoid any chance of a public outcry, it now appears that billing personnel were told to code certain cases - for instance, those involving the death or rape of psychiatric patients - differently, apparently to signal the need for special handling, according to an examination of state records turned over in response to a long-running lawsuit called Brown v. Stone.
It was a tactic, one official said, solely intended to avoid bad publicity.
The cache of court records has pried open this and other windows into the state's debt collection practices, a subject that press officers for state agencies have been reluctant to discuss. The cache contains snapshots of the state's caseload and years of financial results. There are depositions from the architects of the billing policies, affidavits from the patients affected by the policies, and copies of the bills.
And there are the memos.
They were issued in 1999, shortly after the state had been criticized by a New York State assemblyman for trying to collect $382,182.41 from the family of a man who had been killed five years earlier at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center. The man, David Kaplan, had been stabbed to death in his sleep by a patient whose knife went undetected.
In court, the Kaplan family demanded the state pay $5 million for its negligence. The state parried with a six-figure bill reflecting Mr. Kaplan's years of care, including the day he was murdered, calculated at full cost. "First they kill you, and then they want your money," Madeline Lee Bryer, the Kaplan family's lawyer, said.
James F. Brennan, a Brooklyn assemblyman, drafted legislation that would have barred the state from reimbursing itself from damages it had paid out. "The state should not benefit from its wrong," explained Mr. Brennan, who reintroduced his bill on Feb. 3, his sixth attempt to get it passed.
Generally speaking, the Office of Mental Health does not bother preparing bills for patients it deems indigent.
But the moment the agency becomes aware that one of its current or former patients is suing New York for damages, its employees check to see what the patient might owe and sends the information to the attorney general's staff for legal action. "It's just a very routine process for us," Reginald Glover, a now retired state official, stated in a 1990 deposition.
Typically, the bill reflects the number of days a patient received treatment over the prior six years, multiplied by a statutory rate that can be as high as the current $918 a night. Payments made on the patient's behalf are, of course, deducted.
After the Kaplan case drew attention in late 1998, James L. Stone, the commissioner of the Office of Mental Health at the time, assured Assemblyman Brennan in writing that the agency waived many counterclaims "as part of settlement negotiations." In light of the Kaplan case, however, he represented that the agency would "no longer automatically file counterclaims for care and treatment," suggesting a more tailored approach.
In point of fact, the new approach was still somewhat automatic. Steven P. Hodges, a supervisor of the unit that was the agency's liaison to the attorney general's office, told his colleagues in a Sept. 9, 1999, memo that it was "imperative" they use newly coded transmittal forms when sending files to the lawyers, consistent with recent "policy revisions" at the Office of Mental Health. Sample forms can be viewed here.
The different forms, he explained, would signal which cases were "designated" for special handling either because a patient died or suffered severe physical or sexual abuse.
In cases where a patient died from his injuries, forms marked "aa-deceasedcocmemo.frm" would warn state lawyers at a glance to refrain from filing counterclaims.
In cases where a patient was alleging rape or serious assault, forms marked "aa-descocmemo.wpd" would alert lawyers to lodge a countersuit only if the patient refused settlement offers.
"Regular" cases, as Mr. Hodges called them, would use a third transmittal letter marked "MEMOVC.AAG" to let state lawyers know they were free to file the usual counterclaims.
Deposed the following year in the Brown v. Stone litigation, Mr. Hodges was asked why the policy changed. "There had been a newspaper article about a patient that was, I believe, murdered in one of our facilities," he stated, "and there was a lot of adverse publicity regarding the fact that we were billing for this."
According to the transcript, William M. Brooks, the plaintiffs' lawyer, pressed for clarification.
"So, you're saying it came down to bad publicity?" he asked.
"Yes," Mr. Hodges replied. "That's my understanding."
Other depositions and stipulations going back to Acevedo v. Surles, filed in 1989, record state officials describing their quickness to demand payment from those who sue as an effort to be "forthright" by putting adversaries on notice that a lawsuit would "serve no good purpose" in light of the state's ability to "defeat almost any claim."
The judge in that case, Judge Robert J. Ward of United States District Court, said the Office of Mental Health was violating the 14th Amendment prohibition against selective enforcement by "shooting only those ducks that have chosen to 'quack' by exercising their First Amendment right to sue."
In response, the agency said it would not sue for more than the amount of damages being sought. But it continued to file counterclaims. That led some of the same plaintiffs and lawyers, including Professor Brooks's clinic at Touro Law School, to file Siegel v. Surles in state court, alleging that the state's fixes had not gone far enough.
Justice Diane A. Lebedeff of State Supreme Court disagreed. In a much-cited 1995 decision, she ruled that the state's adjustments to the process had satisfied the constitutional concerns raised by Judge Ward.
As for state law, she wrote, the agency is "empowered to pursue what is a lawful claim" under Article 43 of the state's Mental Hygiene Law, and services rendered to the patient "are unrelated to the state's prior wrong."
Unbowed, Professor Brooks returned to federal court the following year with Brown v. Stone. There, he tried to make the case anew that the counterclaims, even in modified form, violated patients' First and 14th Amendment Rights. His lead case was a patient whose family was billed $220,136.90 for services after her brother sued the state for giving her a fatal dose of Thorazine at Middletown Psychiatric in 1993.
The professor is all too aware that he has been focused on this one business practice for 22 years with no end in sight. "It's depressing," he said. "Acevedo was filed in 1989," for an assault that occurred in 1986.
But if the professor's victories have been sparse, the knowledge - and paper trail - he has accumulated in that quarter-century about the state's habits have been vast, filling file cabinets at his office in Central Islip, N.Y.
Monthly summaries he forced the state to turn over show that the number of pending counterclaims reached a peak of 85 by early 1997. It then fell to 44 by April 2002, as the state added fewer cases than it closed, possibly a result of the 1999 policy shift or a reflection of a reduction in inpatients. Those 44 patients, by the way, owed a collective $27 million - $614,000 each on average. Individual amounts ranged from $14,616 up to $2.6 million.
The issues underlying Brown v. Stone all went to Senior Judge Frederic Block of United States District Court in Brooklyn for decision three years ago and have been awaiting resolution since.
In the meantime, patients who have sued New York in the 15 years that the matter has been churning continue to be sued for six- and seven-figure sums.
Paul Perry, a patient who lost an eye in an attack at Kingsboro in 1995, sued and was countersued for $3 million. Nine years later, his mother was discouraged enough to ask the judge for permission to drop the suit without prejudice so she could revive it "in the event of a change in law," court records show. State lawyers argued that it would be unfair to expect the state to defend itself once witnesses disappeared and memories faded. The judge denied the mother's motion.
Krayna B., a patient who spent decades at Manhattan Psychiatric, was similarly thwarted. (Her last name was withheld at her sister's request to protect the privacy of other family members.) The lawsuit she brought after fracturing her hip there in 1997 triggered a demand from the state that she contribute $1.2 million toward the cost of her care. Seven years later, her lawyer complained to the judge that legal precedents had effectively quashed any chance he and his client had of recovery. The judge let him bow out, leaving the indigent woman without representation.
"It's really a tragedy," her sister Shirley said last Wednesday. To keep fighting, she would have had to front the lawyer's costs herself, and, she said, "I'd have to be a millionaire."
Courtesy of Krayna B.'s family Krayna B., right, a longtime patient of Manhattan Psychiatric Center, and her brother during a visit by their sister Shirley on the hospital's grounds in 1993.
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16) Bank Closings Tilt Toward Poor Areas
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
February 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/business/23banks.html?ref=business
Until it closed its doors in December, the Ohio Savings Bank branch on North Moreland Boulevard was a neighborhood anchor in Cleveland, midway between the mansions of Shaker Heights and the ramshackle bungalows of the city's east side. Now it sits boarded up, a victim not only of Cleveland's economic troubles but also of a broader trend of bank branch closings that is falling more heavily on low- and moderate-income neighborhoods across the country.
In 2010, for the first time in 15 years, more bank branches closed than opened across the United States. An analysis of government data shows, however, that even as banks shut branches in poorer areas, they continued to expand in wealthier ones, despite decades of government regulations requiring financial institutions to meet the credit needs of poor and middle-class neighborhoods.
The number of bank branches fell to 98,517 in 2010, from 99,550 the previous year, a loss of nearly 1,000 locations, according to data compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Banks are expected to keep closing branches in the coming years, partly because of new technology and automation and partly because of the mortgage bust and the financial crisis of 2008. New regulations will also cut deeply into revenue, including restrictions on fees for overdraft protection - a major moneymaker on accounts aimed at lower-income customers. Yet the local branch remains a crucial part of the nation's financial infrastructure, banking analysts say, even as more customers manage their accounts via the Internet and mobile phones.
"In a competitive environment, banks are cutting costs and closing branches, but there are social costs to that decision," said Mark T. Williams, a banking expert at Boston University and a former bank examiner for the Federal Reserve. "When a branch gets pulled out of a low- or moderate-income neighborhood, it's not as if those needs go away."
Mr. Williams and other observers express concern that the vacuum will be filled by so-called predatory lenders, including check-cashing centers, payday loan providers and pawnshops. The F.D.I.C. estimates that roughly 30 million American households either have no bank account or rely on these more expensive alternatives to traditional banking.
The most recent wave of closures gathered steam after the financial crisis in 2008, as banks of all sizes staggered under the weight of bad home loans. In some cases, banks with heavy exposure to risky mortgage debt simply cut branches as part of a broader restructuring. In other cases, banking companies merged and closed branches to consolidate.
Whatever the cause, there were sharp disparities in how the closures played out from 2008 to 2010, according to a detailed analysis by The New York Times of data from SNL Financial, an information provider for the banking industry. Using data culled from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and ESRI, a private geographic information firm, SNL matched up the location of closed branches with census data from the surrounding neighborhood.
In low-income areas, where the median household income was below $25,000, and in moderate-income areas, where the medium household income was between $25,000 and $50,000, the number of branches declined by 396 between 2008 and 2010. In neighborhoods where household income was above $100,000, by contrast, 82 branches were added during the same period.
"You don't have to be a statistician to see that there's a dual financial system in America, one for essentially middle- and high-income consumers, and another one for the people that can least afford it," said John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a group that advocates for expanding financial services in underserved communities.
"In those neighborhoods, you won't see bank branches," he added. "You'll see buildings that used to be banks, surrounded by payday lenders and check cashers that cropped up."
Wayne A. Abernathy, an executive vice president of the American Bankers Association, disputed Mr. Taylor's conclusion, as well as the significance of the data.
"You need to look at the context," he said. "We're looking at a pool of more than 95,000 branches, and we've had several hundred banks fail, so what would be surprising is if no branches had closed."
The Community Reinvestment Act, signed into law more than three decades ago in an effort to combat discrimination and encourage banks to serve local communities, requires financial institutions to notify federal regulators of branch closings. But legal experts say the federal watchdogs that are supposed to enforce the law have been timid.
"The C.R.A. has been a financial Maginot Line - weakly defended and quickly overrun," said Raymond H. Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School. What's more, Mr. Brescia said, while closing branches violates the spirit of the law, if not the letter, he could not recall a single example in which a bank was cited by regulators under the C.R.A. for branch closures in recent years. "The C.R.A leaves banks a lot of leeway," he said, "and regulators have not wielded their power with much force."
Even as more customers turn to online banking, said Kathleen Engel, a law professor at Suffolk University in Boston, the presence of brick-and-mortar branches encourages "a culture of savings," beginning with passbook accounts for children and visits to the local bank. "If we lose branch banking in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, banks stop being central to the culture in those communities," said Ms. Engel, author of a new book, "The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure and Next Steps."
Among individual financial institutions, especially those hit hard by the mortgage mess, the differences between rich and poor communities were especially marked.
Regions Financial, based in Birmingham, Ala., had 107 fewer branches serving low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in 2010 than it did in 2008. The company, which has yet to repay $3.5 billion in federal bailout money, shuttered just one branch in a high-income neighborhood, according to SNL Financial.
At Zions Bancorporation, a Utah lender battered by losses on commercial real estate loans, branches in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods dropped by 24, compared with a decrease of just one branch in an upper-income area. It still owes the federal government $1.4 billion in bailout money. A spokesman for Zions said the branch closings reflected a strategic move to exit all supermarket locations as well as merger-related consolidation, rather than a withdrawal from particular neighborhoods.
A similar trend is evident at some larger institutions. Bank of America closed 25 branches in moderate-income areas and opened 14 in the richest areas, according to the SNL data. Citigroup, whose branch network is smaller than Bank of America's, closed two branches in the poorest areas and opened three in the wealthiest.
The head of Citigroup's global consumer business, Manuel Medina-Mora, made no secret of his bank's intention to focus on the wealthy in the country, telling a Wall Street investor conference in November that "in retail banking, we will focus our growth in the emergent affluent and affluent segments in major cities - exactly in line with our global consumer banking strategy."
Comparisons for two other giants, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, are more difficult because of the addition of thousands of branches in all categories in 2008 as they absorbed Wachovia and Washington Mutual, both of which were pushed to the brink by mortgage losses. From 2009 to 2010, however, Wells closed 57 branches in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, and shut 20 in upper-income census tracts.
JPMorgan Chase, which emerged from the turmoil of 2008 as the healthiest of the big banks, actually opened 11 branches in low- and moderate neighborhoods, while it closed one in the $100,000-plus communities.
A spokeswoman for Bank of America, Anne Pace, defended her company's record, noting that more than one-third of its new branch openings in 2011 would be in low- and moderate-income communities.
Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Regions Financial disputed the statistics provided by SNL, arguing that the number of branches closed in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods was overstated. The three banks insisted they are committed to serving all customers and communities, regardless of the income level.
In Cleveland, the closing of the Ohio Savings branch in December was one more bit of fallout from the financial crisis, according to Chris Warren, the city's chief of regional development.
A year earlier, New York Community Bancorp took over the assets of AmTrust Bank, now operating as Ohio Savings Bank in Ohio, after it was shut by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision. The F.D.I.C.'s deposit insurance fund took a $2 billion loss as a result of the closing. The North Moreland branch was the only one of Ohio Savings' 29 branches in the state to close.
"This was their introduction of their approach to community investment in this city," Mr. Warren said. "They closed down the only branch Ohio Savings had in a low-to-moderate-income, African-American neighborhood."
A spokeswoman for New York Community Bank said the branch was closed only because the bank was unable to reach a new agreement on a lease. She said customers could choose other branches nearby, including an Ohio Savings branch 2.4 miles way.
That is little comfort to customers like Lucretia Clay, who manages a store nearby and lives within walking distance of the now-shuttered branch. "I've given that bank a lot of money over the years," she said. "So they should be here in the community. I shouldn't have to drive forever to go find them."
Christopher Maag contributed reporting.
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17) Statement from Veterans For Peace In Support of Wisconsin Workers
February 23, 2011
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/news_detail.php?idx=44
With a name like “Veterans For Peace,” it’s a fair question to ask if we should make statements supporting union members battling government offensives in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
The VFP national leadership and, we believe, the overwhelming majority of our members think the answer is yes. We know too well that militarism and empire are central causes of the economic tragedies that have robbed millions of Americans of their livelihoods, health and homes. Those tragedies are now being played out at statehouses across the country.
Domestic pain is linked inextricably with far greater suffering wreaked by war. Empire has snuffed out over a million Iraqi and Afghan lives along with more than 6,000 of our young men and women. The people of this nation have poured over a trillion dollars into those wars and those who profit from them are prepared to spend much more, unless we stop them in their tracks.
“Unless we stop them in their tracks…” A year ago, that sentiment would have been only a rhetorical cry in the wilderness, but the courageous people across northern Africa are showing us what can be done. Like them, however, the first thing we must do is decide when we’ve had enough.
Is it enough to know that since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Wisconsin taxpayers alone have paid for those two wars, over 18 billion dollars, compared to an estimated state budget deficit this year of about two billion dollars?
Is it enough to know that what we’ve spent on these two wars would provide $8,000 annual scholarships for four years for every college-age person in Wisconsin?
Is it enough to know that wars for Empire have forever taken more than 100 young men and women from Wisconsin and left more than 750 wounded?
Forty-four years ago next month, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke in New York’s Riverside Church, giving what many believe was his greatest speech, “Beyond Vietnam.” In it, he called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” We are learning now that Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only places blighted by empire’s violence. Every working-class neighborhood in our country sinks further into economic serfdom and the violence that is poverty.
In that same speech, Dr. King observed that, “This war is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy-and-laymen-concerned committees for the next generation…We will be marching…and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life.”
Members of Veterans For Peace are heartsick that we continue organizing antiwar committees and “attending rallies without end.” We don’t just want our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we want a better life for the many. We want security – the kind of security that can only come when we don’t have to worry about being thrown out of our jobs and our homes. We want the security that comes with health care for everyone. We want education for all. And we want the rest of that better life that we can win only when we can control the appetites of the few.
Veterans For Peace knows we cannot do this by ourselves. The peace movement, even in its mightiest manifestation, cannot by itself end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, much less get America out of the business of empire.
To do that requires that we take the reins of government out of the hands of the few and place them in the hands of the many.
To do that we need each other! We need to be true to our chants in the streets: “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!” And we need to organize campaigns like VFP’s “How's the War Economy Working for You?” to find the allies we need and who need us.
In 1988, who would have thought that within two years, statues of Lenin would start toppling across Russia? Last summer, who would have that within a year, dictators would topple across northern Africa?
We must learn from those historic moments and join together, so that a year from now people will point to Wisconsin and say, “This is where we decided we had enough!”
Events for Workers Rights In Wisconsin
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