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FREE BRADLEY MANNING! HANDS OFF JULIAN ASSANGE!
In a recent New York Daily News Poll the question was asked:
Should Army pfc Bradley Manning face charges for allegedly stealing classified documents and providing them for WikiLeaks?
New York Daily News Poll Results:
Yes, he's a traitor for selling out his country! ...... 28%
No, he's a hero for standing up for what's right! ..... 62%
We need to see more evidence before passing judgment.. 10%
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/05/2011-03-05_wikileaks_private_loses_his_underwear.html?r=news
Sign the Petition:
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
Stand with Bradley!
A 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst, Pfc. Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians to the website Wikileaks. Among the dead were two working Reuters reporters. Two children were also severely wounded in the attack.
In addition to this "Collateral Murder" video, Pfc. Manning is suspected of leaking the "Afghan War Diaries" - tens of thousands of battlefield reports that explicitly describe civilian deaths and cover-ups, corrupt officials, collusion with warlords, and a failing US/NATO war effort.
"We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal," noted Barack Obama while on the campaign trail in 2008. While the President was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans, Pfc. Manning's alleged actions are just as noteworthy. If the military charges against him are accurate, they show that he had a reasonable belief that war crimes were being covered up, and that he took action based on a crisis of conscience.
After nearly a decade of war and occupation waged in our name, it is odd that it apparently fell on a young Army private to provide critical answers to the questions, "What have we purchased with well over a trillion tax dollars and the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?" However, history is replete with unlikely heroes.
If Bradley Manning is indeed the source of these materials, the nation owes him our gratitude. We ask Secretary of the Army, the Honorable John M. McHugh, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General George W. Casey, Jr., to release Pfc. Manning from pre-trial confinement and drop the charges against him.
http://standwithbrad.org/
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RAIN OR SHINE WE WILL MARCH!
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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Join the Bradley Manning street theater contingent at the SF anti-war march and rally this Saturday, March 19th
Meet us this Saturday, March 19th, at the Courage to Resist tent at UN Plaza, 7th and Market Streets, at noon. We'll have extra street theater props for you and a few friends. On the 8th anniversary of the Iraq War, folks will be taking to the streets to say enough is enough--end the wars, free Bradley Manning! Contact emma@couragetoresist.org to RSVP or more info.
Sunday "Rally for Bradley" in SF
10 AM at the Yerba Buena Gardens, 720 Mission, San Francisco. Local students take up the international call to take action for Bradley. Learn more at their Facebook event page
P/T Paid internship open: Web (CMS) / HTML / social media
Courage To Resist
484 Lake park Ave #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
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U.S./NATO HANDS OFF MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA! END ALL AID TO ISRAEL! STOP FUNDING DICTATORS ACROSS THE GLOBE! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT FOR WAR AND OCCUPATION! LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE HERE AND EVERYWHERE!
TAX THE RICH! LEAVE WORKERS AND THEIR UNIONS ALONE! DON'T AGONIZE, ORGANIZE!...BW
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
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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The Return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti
Press Conference and Emergency Rally
Friday, March 18, 4:30 PM
United Nations Plaza, Hyde at Fulton, San Francisco
Haiti Action Committee welcomes and celebrates the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his homeland, after almost 7 years of forced exile in South Africa, following a coup against his government on Feb. 29, 2004, orchestrated by Haitian elites, France, Canada, and the United States. "The return of Aristide is a tribute to the love the Haitian people have for the president they elected twice with overwhelming majorities, and their persistent demand for his return, in spite of adamant opposition from the coup supporters, and a continuing United Nations occupation force of almost 12,000 personnel," said committee member Ayana Labossiere.
We condemn the threatening language of the State Department, and its ongoing and blatant efforts to disrupt true democracy in Haiti. On March 14, U.S. State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner said, "We would urge former President Aristide to delay his return until after the electoral process has concluded, to permit the Haitian people to cast their ballots in a peaceful atmosphere. A return prior to the election may potentially be destabilizing to the political process."
These so-called "elections" excluded the participation of Haiti's largest party, President Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas, in the first place, and have forced a fraudulent "run-off" on Sunday, March 20, with two supporters of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, completely rejected by most Haitians. It is the United States that, since President Aristide was first elected in 1990, has refused to send funds directly to the Aristide government, blocked it from receiving signed international loans, economically destabilized it, and orchestrated his overthrow twice in 1991 and 2004 coups. Washington has also prevented the Fanmi Lavalas Party from participating in post-2004 coup elections.
If allowed to do so in peace, the Haitian people are perfectly capable of governing themselves wisely and democratically. They love President Aristide because his governments built more schools in their few short years in power than had been built previously in Haiti's entire history, built clinics and a medical school, built parks in neighborhoods with no open space, raised the minimum wage, and tried to get the wealthy to pay taxes, making powerful enemies in the process.
We want people to understand that the enthusiasm with which President Aristide will be welcomed in Haiti reflects not only the affection of Haitians for this individual and respect for the office to which he was elected, but also their cry for a legitimate democratic process. This means recognition of their favored political party, non-interference by foreign elements in Haiti's internal affairs, and a respect for the political and structural changes brought about during President Aristide's administrations.
Dear Bay Area Friends of Haiti,
We urge you to join Haiti Action Committee for an emergency rally Friday afternoon to support the historic return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti. As many know, President Aristide and his family departed South Africa for Haiti today, to banner headlines that read "Jean-Bertrand Aristide defies US by heading back to Haiti."
While this marks a great occasion, still the next 24 hours are critical as the US relentlessly pursues efforts to block the return of Haiti's most popular leader. Dozens of prominent lawyers and law professors sent a statement today to Cheryl Mills, US Dept of State Chief of Staff, criticizing US government interference with Aristide's constitutional and human right to return from forced exile. There are rallies planned across the country in NY, Boston, Florida, and the Bay Area to coincide with the anticipated popular celebrations that will - if all goes well - be held Friday in Haiti upon the arrival of President Aristide and his family.
We hope you will join us Friday, March 18th at 4:30PM at UN Plaza in San Francisco, Hyde at Fulton. Meanwhile follow the journey as Amy Goodman blogs from the plane that is bringing President Aristide and his family back to Haiti. Continue to demand the US annul Haiti's phony elections slated to be held this Sunday, March 20th - between two right wing Duvalierist candidates who together won 10% [6% and 4% respectively] of the vote in widely discredited November elections.
In solidarity,
Haiti Action Committee
www.haitisolidarity.net and on FACEBOOK
Contact: Marilyn Langlois, Haiti Action Committee spokesperson - 510-932-1942
Walter Riley, Haiti Emergency Relief Fund - 510-451-1422
Haiti Action Committee Voice Mail - 510-483-7481
action.haiti@gmail.com
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Vigil to Support the People of Japan, Oppose Nuclear Power
Friday, March 18 at 5pm
Participants will gather at 11th and Broadway in downtown Oakland at 5pm and march to City Hall, where the vigil and demonstration will take place.
For Immediate Release
www.movementgeneration.org
Contacts:
Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan, 415.359.7324
Mateo Nube, 510.759.2246
Gopal Dayaneni, 510.847.3592
Vigil to Support the People of Japan, Oppose Nuclear Power
Coalition of community-based organizations call on the city of Oakland to end its consumption of nuclear power from PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and demands the city fast track a local clean energy program
Oakland, CA - On Friday, March 18 at 5pm, a large coalition of local social justice, environmental, clean energy and climate justice groups will hold a vigil and demonstration to express their solidarity with the people of Japan and concurrently call on our local political leadership to insure that such a nuclear accident as the one developing at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant never take place in California.
At a hearing on Wednesday March 16, Senator Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, pointed out that seven million people live within 50 miles of the San Onofre nuclear power plant in Southern California. California's two nuclear power plants - San Onofre and Diablo Canyon - are both coastal plants that sit near earthquake fault lines. In 2008, a previously unknown fault line was discovered half a mile from the Diablo Canyon plant. PG&E, which owns the Diablo Canyon plant, is trying to renew its permit to operate the plant until 2045 before doing proper seismic studies based on this new fault line. Additionally the San Onofre plant, owned by Southern California Edison, is in a coastal area prone to tsunamis.
"As we pray for and stand with the people of Japan, we must take action at home to end the era of nuclear nightmares," saidMichelle Mascarenhas-Swan, one of the organizers of the event, "We cannot avoid earthquakes and tsunamis, but we can obviously avoid nuclear meltdown and oil spills. We say never again...no more man made disasters."
Vigil participants will be calling for every measure to be taken to ensure the safety of the people in Japan, including the shut down of compromised reactors.
Additionally, participants intend to call on the mayor and city council of Oakland to:
1) Implement Community Choice Energy, which would allow the city to pick and choose its energy sources. In this way, Oakland wouldn't have to choose nuclear, or other forms of dangerous, destructive energy like fossil fuels, and could prioritize clean, renewable sources. The city of Marin already runs a Community Choice energy program
2) Fast-track plans to take back public money currently administered by PG&E so that the city could run its own energy efficiency programs. In this way, city government would create local jobs, help build the Local Energy Economy and unplug the city from pollution-based energy sources.
"In tribute to the victims in Japan let's begin building our clean energy future now," stated Dave Room, coordinator of the Local Clean Energy Alliance, "Locally controlled clean energy will never meltdown. We can choose a future powered by the sun, wind, bike pedals and other renewable, decentralized sources but only if we first take back control of our energy systems at the local level."
Participants will gather at 11th and Broadway in downtown Oakland at 5pm and march to City Hall, where the vigil and demonstration will take place.
"Countries across the world are taking action to protect themselves by shutting down nuclear plants. It's time for California to join them," said Zaigham Kabir with the Center for Progressive Action. "The safety and health of our communities must come first. Oakland can be part of that solution by leading the way away from dirty, deadly, extreme energy and towards local, clean, renewable, energy."
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BUILD APRIL 10 MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE WARS
SATURDAY, MARCH 19, help distribute April 10 fliers at the March and Rally, UN Plaza, 12:00 NOON
http://www.answercoalition.org/sf/index.html
SATURDAY, MARCH 26 AND SATURDAY APRIL 6, AND 9 WE WILL MEET AT 24TH AND MISSION AT 12 NOON TO DISTRIBUTE LEAFLETS AND PUT UP POSTERS AND GO TO VARIOUS LOCATIONS AROUND THE CITY.
These bloody wars not only costs the invaluable lives of those who are the targets of U.S. guns, bombs and torture and those who were coerced by economic necessity to become the cannon fodder for these wars--but they are costing trillions of dollars--dollars direct from the pockets of working people who are also paying trillions for corporate bailouts and bonuses!
Enough is enough! Help build a real, independent, democratic movement to fight these wars on working people everywhere!
HELP BUILD APRIL 10 MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S WARS AT HOME AND ABROAD!
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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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San Francisco Rally for Bradley Manning!
Sunday, March 20, 10:00 AM
Location: Yerba Buena Gardens, 720 Mission, San Francisco, CA
Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105640796185621
Read more: http://www.bradleymanning.org/events/#ixzz1GsltuQLN
http://www.bradleymanning.org/events/#san-francisco
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Rally for Bradley! Quantico VA. Sunday, March 20
Read more: http://www.bradleymanning.org/16125/rally-for-bradley-quanitco-virginia-sun-march-20/#ixzz1Gt1TAiS1
On March 20, 2011, there will be a rally at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia to support accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. Supporters will gather for a 2pm rally at the town of Triangle (intersection of Anderson Road and Route 1/Jefferson Davis Hwy), then march to the gates of Quantico. Bradley has been held at the Quantico brig in solitary-like conditions for eight months without any meaningful exercise. We stand for truth, government transparency, and an end to our occupation wars... we stand with Bradley! Event endorsed by the Bradley Manning Support Network, Veterans for Peace, Courage to Resist, CodePink, and many other groups.
We will meet at 2pm immediately adjacent to Rt. 1 and Anderson Road. Parking can be found at the Marines Corps Museum. They have HUGE parking lot, there. About 1/4 mile walk. There might also be some parking behind church adjacent to Inn Rd and Rt. 1, behind the rally location.
The day before, on Saturday, March 19th, in Washington DC, supporters of Bradley's will be joining the noon rally at Lafayette Park and march on the White House to "Resist the War Machine!"
Reserve your seat (only $10 round trip) on our chartered bus from Washington DC at couragetoresist.org/bus. Buses will leave from in front of Union Station, Washington DC, at 12:30pm.
Download, view, print and share the event leaflet (PDF)
WHO: Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Paper's Whistleblower; Ret. Col. Ann Wright; Representatives from Veterans for Peace, Bradley Manning Support Network.
WHAT: Rally in support of Pfc. Bradley Manning
WHERE: US Marine Corps Base Quantico Entrance and neighboring Triangle. Rally to be followed by a march to the intersection of Rt. 1 and Fuller Road where the main entrance to Quantico is located.
WHEN: Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 2:00 PM ET
CONTACTS: Pete Perry, Veterans for Peace. (P) 202-631-0974 (W)pete4peace [at] gmail [dot] com; Trevor FitzGibbon, FitzGibbon Media. (P) 202.406.0646 (W) Trevor [at] FitzGibbonMedia [dot] com
Read more: http://www.bradleymanning.org/16125/rally-for-bradley-quanitco-virginia-sun-march-20/#ixzz1Gt1bnBja
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San Francisco Labor Council Resolution - Unanimously adopted 3/14/2011
Resolution in Support of April 4, 2011
No Business as Usual
Solidarity Actions
Whereas, the San Francisco Labor Council Executive Committee is calling for a mobilization in San Francisco on April 4, 2011 against union-busting and the budget cuts;
Therefore be it Resolved, that in the event that a Council affiliate votes to engage in an industrial action on April 4, the San Francisco Labor Council will call on all its affiliates with fax blast, e-mail, phone etc. to support such action by engaging, wherever possible, in work stoppages, sick-outs and any other solidarity actions.
Resolution adopted March 14, 2011 by unanimous vote of the regular Delegates Meeting of the Council, meeting in San Francisco, California.
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CWA ANNOUNCES NATIONWIDE DAY OF ACTION APRIL 4
http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/cohen_announces_nationwide_day_of_action_april_4
'We Have the Opportunity to Plan and Build Something Enormous'
The voice of the labor movement and its allies will roar louder than ever on April 4, the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when "it will not be business as usual at workplaces and communities across this nation," CWA President Larry Cohen said Wednesday.
Speaking to 10,000 CWA members on a nationwide phone call, Cohen said the AFL-CIO Executive Board had adopted his proposal for "movement-wide dramatic action" to honor King and the workers fighting for their rights today.
King was shot to death while he was in Memphis to support 1,300 striking city sanitation workers. "Their fight was about recognition, respect and dignity," Cohen said. "Dr. King called it a moral struggle for an economic outcome, much like the fights in the states and at the bargaining table and in every one of our organizing drives."
Cohen urged CWA locals and members to begin brainstorming ideas and making plans for April 4, challenging them and all Americans to "create events at every workplace in America."
It could be as simple as everyone wearing red that day, having workers meet outside and march into work together or standing up at noon and shouting, "Workers rights are human rights!" Cohen said.
Other ideas include candlelight vigils in parks, meetings of church congregations, rallies at statehouses and protests in front of corporate offices. Cohen said CWA locals and activists will receive an e-mail shortly asking them to submit their ideas and plans, and another town hall-style phone call will be held in advance of the events.
King's murder while fighting for city workers spurred public organizing drives across the United States. Cohen said there is no better way to honor that and King than by doing what he would do, "create a new movement for economic justice."
"We need to combine offense and defense," Cohen said. "We need to take it to every workplace, union and non union, private and public sector. We have an opportunity to plan and build something enormous."
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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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Dropkick Murphys - Worker's Song (with lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k&feature=email&tracker=False
Worker's Song Lyrics
Artist(Band):Dropkick Murphys
Yeh, this one's for the workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed
[Chorus:]
We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And we're always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
[Chorus x3]
All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can
Which Side Are You On - Dropkick Murphys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKWfnO7fhQM&feature=email&tracker=False
Lyrics :
Our father was a union man
some day i'll be one too.
The bosses fired daddy
what's our family gonna do?
Come all you good workers,
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell.
CHORUS:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on? (x2)
My dady was a miner,
And I'm a miner's son,
And I'll stick with the union
'Til every battle's won.
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.
Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?
Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize !
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Stephen King at Awake the State Rally in Sarasota 3.8.11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpn305Y7ToA&feature=player_embedded
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Lifting the Veil
http://metanoia-films.org/compilations.php
"Lifting the Veil is the long overdue film that powerfully, definitively, and finally exposes the deadly 21st century hypocrisy of U.S. internal and external policies, even as it imbues the viewer with a sense of urgency and an actualized hope to bring about real systemic change while there is yet time for humanity and this planet. See this film!"
Larry Pinkney
Editorial Board Member & Columnist
The Black Commentator
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'America Is NOT Broke': Michael Moore Speaks in Madison, WI -- March 5, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgNuSEZ8CDw&feature=player_embedded
Answer to Michael Moore: We ain't Gonna Play the Game No More!
By Bonnie Weinstein
info@socialistviewpoint.org
socialistviewpoint.org
The problem with Michael Moore's speech in Wisconsin March 5, 2011 is that the 14 Democratic emigres have already given away the economic security of the workers--their pay; their benefits; their vacations; their sick-days; their overtime. They have even convinced organized labor to accept the pay cuts, shorter hours--anything but unemployment, starvation and homelessness!
What noble choices the good Democrats have given to the masses of struggling working people in Wisconsin and everywhere!
In the prelude to his speech, Moore lauds those "heroic 14 Democratic" émigrés that have already given away the workers hard-won benefits and conditions for holding firm and staying away--"not one has come back!" he cheers.
Where are the rest of the Democratic politicians around the country? Where's Obama when masses of workers are being sold down the river? What about all the Democratic governors and mayors who are doing the same thing in their respective states and cities across the country. There isn't one state or city that's lavishing more on social services; on schools; on community medical centers; on healthcare--everyone everywhere EXCEPT THE TOP ONE PERCENT is being asked to give back and give up and surrender to the new middle ages--with the Democrats pretending and promising to steal a little less from workers than the Republicans! Workers can't depend upon any party that claims to represent both workers and the bosses. The jig is up!
Working people need to make democratic decisions based upon our own needs and wants and what is good for us and our families; like whether to spend trillions of OUR dollars on wars based upon lies; or on massive bailouts to corporations who have stolen and hoarded the wealth for themselves; or whether to use the fruits of our labor to pay for healthcare; schools; housing; all the things people need to live healthy, free and happy lives.
Working people produce the wealth; working people should have democratic control over that wealth and the means of production they operate to produce it.
The game of voting for one capitalist liar over another is over. It's like plea-bargaining when you are innocent. It's a lose/lose situation and certainly, the workers of the world are losing the game!
No, America is not broke. But telling workers to depend upon the capitalist electoral process, which only allows workers to vote for one capitalist representative over another, is preposterous and makes workers broke!
We workers must take that wealth that we, and we alone create, into our own hands. We can. We are the majority. And it's the only hope for creating a happy and healthy future for all of us, our children and the world. As Rosa Luxemburg said, the only choice for workers is Socialism; or else, we will continue the plunge into Barbarism!
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Michael Moore: People Still Have the Power
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/63-63/5157-michael-moore-people-still-have-the-power
More GRITtv
"This is a movement that is not going to stop," says filmmaker Michael Moore of the uprising in Madison, Wisconsin (and across the country--all 50 states held solidarity rallies this weekend). "I knew sooner or later people would say they've had enough."
Michael joins Laura in studio for part one of a two-part conversation about the war on working people in America. He notes that it started in 1981 with Reagan's attack on the air traffic controllers, and it's mostly targeted the poor, as with Clinton's welfare reform. But the attacks on middle class families have finally reached a point where people aren't going to take it anymore.
Watch out for part two tomorrow!
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BP Oil Spill Scientist Bob Naman: Seafood Still Not Safe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3VdxvMnDls
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Exclusive: Flow Rate Scientist : How Much Oil Is Really Out There?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHl3kn63ZA&NR=1
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Labor Beat: No Concessions Emergency Meeting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaFrWNi2gM0
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Iraq Veterans Against the War in Occupied Capitol, Madison, WI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7K0wn73uJU
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A joke:
A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are
sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a
dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies,
looks at the tea partier and says,"watch out for that union guy, he
wants a piece of your cookie."
Marc Luzietti
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Charlie Sheen on 9/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PviXgj-yS5Y
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18th dead baby dolphin washes ashore in Northern Gulf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybFeuSNszSg&feature=player_embedded
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[This is a great video. Kipp Dawson, the school teacher in the video, is an old friend...bw]
Middle Class Revolution
Hundreds packed USW headquarters Feb. 24. 2011, to rally for the middle class and stand up against attacks on workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere. Check out highlights here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_UmZYlSyC5U
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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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The Most Heroic Word in All Languages is Revolution
By Eugene Debs
Eugene Debs, that greatest son of the Middle American west, wrote this in 1907 in celebration of that year's May Day events. It retains all of its vibrancy and vitality as events breathe new life into the global struggle for emancipation. "Revolution" remains the most heroic word in every language. -The Rustbelt Radical
Today the slaves of all the world are taking a fresh breath in the long and weary march; pausing a moment to clear their lungs and shout for joy; celebrating in festal fellowship their coming Freedom.
All hail the Labor Day of May!
The day of the proletarian protest;
The day of stern resolve;
The day of noble aspiration.
Raise high this day the blood-red Standard of the Revolution!
The banner of the Workingman;
The flag, the only flag, of Freedom.
Slavery, even the most abject-dumb and despairing as it may seem-has yet its inspiration. Crushed it may be, but extinguished never. Chain the slave as you will, O Masters, brutalize him as you may, yet in his soul, though dead, he yearns for freedom still.
The great discovery the modern slaves have made is that they themselves must achieve. This is the secret of their solidarity; the heart of their hope; the inspiration that nerves them all with sinews of steel.
They are still in bondage, but no longer cower;
No longer grovel in the dust,
But stand erect like men.
Conscious of their growing power the future holds up to them her outstretched hands.
As the slavery of the working class is international, so the movement for its emancipation.
The salutation of slave to slave this day is repeated in every human tongue as it goes ringing round the world.
The many millions are at last awakening. For countless ages they have suffered; drained to the dregs the bitter cup of misery and woe.
At last, at last the historic limitation has been reached, and soon a new sun will light the world.
Red is the life-tide of our common humanity and red our symbol of universal kinship.
Tyrants deny it; fear it; tremble with rage and terror when they behold it.
We reaffirm it and on this day pledge anew our fidelity-come life or death-to the blood-red Banner of the Revolution.
Socialist greetings this day to all our fellow-workers! To the god-like souls in Russia marching grimly, sublimely into the jaws of hell with the Song of the Revolution in their death-rattle; to the Orient, the Occident and all the Isles of the Sea!
VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.
It thrills and vibrates; cheers and inspires. Tyrants and time-servers fear it, but the oppressed hail it with joy.
The throne trembles when this throbbing word is lisped, but to the hovel it is food for the famishing and hope for the victims of despair.
Let us glorify today the revolutions of the past and hail the Greater Revolution yet to come before Emancipation shall make all the days of the year May Days of peace and plenty for the sons and daughters of toil.
It was with Revolution as his theme that Mark Twain's soul drank deep from the fount of inspiration. His immortality will rest at last upon this royal tribute to the French Revolution:
"The ever memorable and blessed revolution, which swept a thousand years of villainy away in one swift tidal wave of blood-one: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell. There were two Reigns of Terror, if we would but remember it and consider it: the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death on ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the horrors of the minor Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror, which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over, but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves."
-The Rustbelt Radical, February 25, 2011
http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/the-most-heroic-word-in-all-languages-is-revolution/
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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
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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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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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"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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The Arab Revolutions:
Guiding Principles for Peace and Justice Organizations in the US
Please email endorsement to ekishawi@yahoo.com
We, the undersigned, support the guiding principles and demands listed in this statement. We call on groups who want to express solidarity with the Arab revolutions to join our growing movement by signing this statement or keeping with the demands put forward herewith.
Background
The long-awaited Arab revolution has come. Like a geologic event with the reverberations of an earthquake, the timing and circumstances were unpredictable. In one Arab country after another, people are taking to the street demanding the fall of monarchies established during European colonial times. They are also calling to bring down dictatorships supported and manifested by neo-colonial policies. Although some of these autocratic regimes rose to power with popular support, the subsequent division and subjugation of the Arab World led to a uniform repressive political order across the region. The Arab masses in different Arab countries are therefore raising a uniform demand: "The People Want to Topple the Regimes!"
For the past two decades, the Arab people witnessed the invasion and occupation of Iraq with millions killed under blockade and occupation, Palestinians massacred with the aim to crush the anti-Zionist resistance, and Lebanon repeatedly invaded with the purposeful targeting of civilians. These actions all served to crush resistance movements longing for freedom, development, and self-determination. Meanwhile, despotic dictatorships, some going back 50 years, entrenched themselves by building police states, or fighting wars on behalf of imperialist interests.
Most Arab regimes systematically destroyed the social fabric of civil society, stifled social development, repressed all forms of political dissent and democratic expression, mortgaged their countries' wealth to foreign interests and enriched themselves and their cronies at the expense of impoverishing their populations. After pushing the Arab people to the brink, populations erupted.
The spark began in Tunisia where a police officer slapped and spat on Mohammad Bou Azizi, flipping over his produce cart for not delivering a bribe on time. . Unable to have his complaint heard, he self-immolated in protest, igniting the conscience of the Tunisian people and that of 300 million Arabs. In less than a month, the dictator, Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, was forced into exile by a Tunisian revolution. On its way out, the regime sealed its legacy by shooting at unarmed protestors and burning detention centers filled with political prisoners. Ben Ali was supported by the US and Europe in the fight against Islamic forces and organized labor.
Hosni Mubarak's brutal dictatorship fell less than a month after Tunisia's. The revolution erupted at a time when one half of the Egyptian population was living on less than $2/day while Mubarak's family amassed billions of dollars. The largest population recorded in Egyptian history was living in graveyards and raising their children among the dead while transportation and residential infrastructure was crumbling. Natural gas was supplied to Israel at 15% of the market price while the Rafah border was closed with an underground steel wall to complete the suffocation of the Palestinians in Gaza. Those who were deemed a threat swiftly met the fate of Khalid Said. 350 martyrs fell and 2,000 people were injured.
After Egypt and Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan exploded in protest. Some governments quickly reshuffled faces and ranks without any tangible change. Some, like Bahrain and Yemen, sent out their security forces to massacre civilians. Oman and Yemen represent strategic assets for the US as they are situated on the straits of Hormuz and Aden, respectively. Bahrain is an oil country that hosts a US military base, situated in the Persian Gulf. A new round of US funded blood-letting of Arab civilians has begun!
Libyan dictator Qaddafi did not prove to be an exception. He historically took anti-imperialist positions for a united Arab World and worked for an African Union. He later transformed his regime to a subservient state and opened Libya to British Petroleum and Italian interests, working diligently on privatization and political repression. He amassed more wealth than that of Mubarak. In the face of the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi exceeded the brutality of Ben Ali and Mubarak blind-folding and executing opponents, surrounding cities with tanks, and bombing his own country. Death toll is expected to be in the thousands.
Qaddafi's history makes Libya an easy target for imperialist interests. The Obama administration followed the Iraq cookbook by freezing Libyan assets amounting to 30% of the annual GDP. The White House, with the help of European governments, rapidly implemented sanctions and called for no-fly zones. These positions were precipitated shortly after the US vetoed a resolution condemning the illegal Israeli colonization of the West Bank. Special operations personnel from the UK were captured by the revolutionary commanders in Ben Ghazi and sent back. The Libyan revolutionary leadership, the National Council clearly stated: "We are completely against foreign intervention. The rest of Libya will be liberated by the people ... and Gaddafi's security forces will be eliminated by the people of Libya."
Demands of the Solidarity Movement with Arab Revolutions
1. We demand a stop to US support, financing and trade with Arab dictatorships. We oppose US policy that has favored Israeli expansionism, war, US oil interest and strategic shipping routes at the expense of Arab people's freedom and dignified living.
2. We support the people of Tunisia and Egypt as well as soon-to-be liberated nations to rid themselves of lingering remnants of the deposed dictatorships.
3. We support the Arab people's right to sovereignty and self-determination. We demand that the US government stop its interference in the internal affairs of all Arab countries and end subsidies to wars and occupation.
4. We support the Arab people's demands for political, civil and economic rights. The Arab people's movement is calling for:
a. Deposing the unelected regimes and all of its institutional remnants
b. Constitutional reform guaranteeing freedom of organizing, speech and press
c. Free and fair elections
d. Independent judiciary
e. National self-determination.
5. We oppose all forms of US and European military intervention with or without the legitimacy of the UN. Standing in solidarity with the revolution against Qaddafi, or any other dictator, does not equate to supporting direct or indirect colonization of an Arab country, its oil or its people. We therefore call for:
a. Absolute rejection of military blockades, no-fly zones and interventions.
b. Lifting all economic sanctions placed against Libya and allowing for the formation of an independent judiciary to prosecute Qaddafi and deposed dictators for their crimes.
c. Immediately withdrawing the US and NATO troops from the Arab region.
6. We support Iraq's right to sovereignty and self determination and call on the US to immediately withdraw all occupation personnel from Iraq.
7. We recognize that the borders separating Arab nations were imposed on the Arab people by the colonial agreements of Sykes-Picot and the Berlin Conference on Africa. As such, we support the anti-Zionist nature of this revolution in its call for:
a. Ending the siege and starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza
b. Supporting the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own representation, independent of Israeli and US dictates
c. Supporting the right of the Lebanese people to defend their country from Israeli violations and their call to end vestiges of the colonial constitution constructed on the basis of sectarian representation
d. Supporting the right of the Jordanian people to rid themselves of their repressive monarchy
e. Ending all US aid to Israel.
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
Suggested text: "My name is __________, I am from _______(city), in
______(state). I am calling _____ to demand he call off the Grand Jury
and stop FBI repression against the anti-war and Palestine solidarity
movements. I oppose U.S. government political repression and support
the right to free speech and the right to assembly of the 23 activists
subpoenaed. We will not be criminalized. Tell him to stop this
McCarthy-type witch hunt against international solidarity activists!"
If your call doesn't go through, try again later.
Update: 800 anti-war and international solidarity activists
participated in four regional conferences, in Chicago, IL; Oakland,
CA; Chapel Hill, NC and New York City to stop U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald's Grand Jury repression.
Still, in the last few weeks, the FBI has continued to call and harass
anti-war organizers, repressing free speech and the right to organize.
However, all of their intimidation tactics are bringing a movement
closer together to stop war and demand peace.
We demand:
-- Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against International Solidarity
Activists!
-- Support Free Speech!
-- Support the Right to Organize!
-- Stop FBI Repression!
-- International Solidarity Is Not a Crime!
-- Stop the Criminalization of Arab and Muslim Communities!
Background: Fitzgerald ordered FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity
activists' homes and subpoenaed fourteen activists in Chicago,
Minneapolis, and Michigan on September 24, 2010. All 14 refused to
speak before the Grand Jury in October. Then, 9 more Palestine
solidarity activists, most Arab-Americans, were subpoenaed to appear
at the Grand Jury on January 25, 2011, launching renewed protests.
There are now 23 who assert their right to not participate in
Fitzgerald's witch-hunt.
The Grand Jury is a secret and closed inquisition, with no judge, and
no press. The U.S. Attorney controls the entire proceedings and hand
picks the jurors, and the solidarity activists are not allowed a
lawyer. Even the date when the Grand Jury ends is a secret.
So please make these calls to those in charge of the repression aimed
against anti-war leaders and the growing Palestine solidarity
movement.
Email us to let us know your results. Send to info@StopFBI.net
**Please sign and circulate our 2011 petition at http://www.stopfbi.net/petition
In Struggle,
Tom Burke,
for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
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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
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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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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/
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) Opposition Leaders Arrested in Bahrain as Crackdown Grows
By ETHAN BRONNER
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18bahrain.html?ref=world
2) 4 Times Journalists Are Missing in Libya
By JEREMY W. PETERS
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/africa/17times.html?ref=world
3) Greek Town Rises Up Against Planned Landfill
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/europe/17greece.html?ref=world
4) Castro Enemy Said to Have Recounted Role in Attacks
By DAN FROSCH
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/us/17posada.html?ref=world
5) Economic Downturn Holds Fierce Grip on Border Town
By JENNIFER MEDINA
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/us/17elcentro.html?ref=us
6) Rights Group Faults U.S. on Detained Immigrants
By KIRK SEMPLE
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/us/18detain-1.html?ref=us
7) Danger of Spent Fuel Outweighs Reactor Threat
By KEITH BRADSHER and HIROKO TABUCHI
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18spent.html?scp=1&sq=Danger%20of%20Spent%20Fuel%20Outweighs%20Reactor%20Threat&st=cse
8) Dividends Will Enrich Bank Chiefs
By ERIC DASH
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/business/17dividend.html?ref=business
9) The American Dilemma in Libya: To Bomb, Invade, Partition, Or All of the Above
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
March 16, 2011
http://blackagendareport.com/content/american-dilemma-libya-bomb-invade-partition-or-all-above
10) Support the Libyan people! No imperialist intervention in Libya!
Labour Party Pakistan statement on Libya
March 8, 2011
http://www.laborpakistan.org/
11) In Post Racial America Prisons Feast on Black Girls
By Rachel Pfeffer
March 15, 2011
http://ethnoblog.newamericamedia.org/2011/03/in-post-racial-america-prisons-feast-on-black-girls-1.php#
12) US government denies entry visa to Malalai Joya, Afghan women's rights activist and author
March 17, 2011
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1255
13) U.N. to Vote on Libya Airstrikes; U.S. Readies Forces
The Wall Street Journal
By JOE LAURIA, ADAM ENTOUS, YAROSLAV TROFIMOV and SAM DAGHER
MARCH 17, 2011, 2:33 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206373350344478.html
14) Libya: Rank Imperial Hypocrisy
The Rustbelt Radical
March 18, 2011
http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/7088/
15) U.S. Hands Off Libya and Bahrain
Issued Thursday evening, March 17, 2011
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace.org
16) 7th CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS RULES IN FAVOR OF ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
John Stainthorp (773)235-0070 ext. 120
Janine Hoft (773)235-0070 ext. 115
www.peopleslawoffice.com
17) Judge Halts Implementation of Anti-Union Law in Wisconsin
By: David Dayen
Friday March 18, 2011 9:10 am
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/03/18/judge-halts-implementation-of-anti-union-law-in-wisconsin/
18) At Least 40 Protesters Are Killed in Yemen
By LAURA KASINOF and J. DAVID GOODMAN
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/middleeast/19yemen.html?hp?hp
19) Bahrain Tears Down Monument as Protesters Seethe
By ETHAN BRONNER
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/middleeast/19bahrain.html?hp
19) Japan Raises Nuclear Crisis Warning Level Retroactively
By HIROKO TABUCHI and KEITH BRADSHER
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/asia/19japan.html?hp
20) The Forgotten Millions
By PAUL KRUGMAN
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18krugman.html?hp
21) Early Questions After Japan
New York Times Editorial
[Sorry, this quick fix is not good enough--SHUT THEM DOWN...BW]
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18fri1.html?hp
22) Amid Uncertainty, Aristide Returns to Cheers in Haiti
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/americas/19haiti.html?hp
23) Bullets Stall Youthful Push for Arab Spring
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18youth.html?ref=world
24) Complaints of Abuse in Army Custody
By LIAM STACK
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18cairo.html?ref=world
25) Crisis Prompts Exodus of Executives From Tokyo
By DAVID JOLLY and KEN BELSON
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18decamp.html?ref=world
26) C.I.A. Drones Kill Civilians in Pakistan
By SALMAN MASOOD and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18pakistan.html?ref=world
27) Report Finds Wide Abuses by Police in New Orleans
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/us/18orleans.html?ref=us
28) ACTION ALERT: Four Things YOU Can Do About Malalai Joya's Visa Denial
March 18, 2011
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1258
29) Obama Warns Libya on Allied Action
By ELISABETH BUMILLER, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ALAN COWELL
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19libya.html?hp
30) Libyan revolution and imperialist meddling
"Here we saw the spectacle of the direct representatives of Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama agreeing to intervene in Libya, the same people who at home are cutting pensions, attacking the right to free public education, cutting back on welfare in general, while at the same time defending the interests of their own capitalists. These same people have no qualms in sending the police against protesting workers and youth in their own countries, while at the same time shamefacedly decrying the lack of democratic rights in other countries."
Written by Fred Weston
Friday, March 18, 2011
http://www.marxist.com/libyan-revolution-and-imperialist-meddling.htm
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1) Opposition Leaders Arrested in Bahrain as Crackdown Grows
By ETHAN BRONNER
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18bahrain.html?ref=world
MANAMA, Bahrain - A day after hundreds of Bahraini troops forcefully cleared out a central square of reform-seeking protesters, the authorities arrested major opposition figures early Thursday, the next stage of a crackdown that has the opposition in a tailspin.
The Bahrain state news agency said the leaders were arrested for having "intelligence contacts with foreign countries" and because they "incited killing of citizens and destruction of public and private property."
Hassan Mushaima, a Shiite and Islamist dissident politician, who arrived here last month from London to great fanfare as a potentially charismatic leader, was among those detained overnight, officials from his party said. In addition, Ebrahim Sharif, leader of a secular party, was taken in by the police, his associates said.
A number of other political opponents were also detained by security officials as it became clear that the Bahraini government, which sought last month to mollify protesters clamoring for democratic reform, had decisively shifted tactics to forceful repression.
"We feel cornered and are trying to find a way out," said Jalal Fairooz, a leader of the Wefaq opposition party and one of 18 members of the Council of Representatives from the party who resigned en masse last month.
The streets remained littered with rubble and tanks held positions at intersections and outside the main hospital. Traffic was light and most shops remained shuttered although the government announced that the stock market had reopened.
These steps followed the military's retaking of Pearl Square in central Manama, the capital, on Wednesday and the arrival on Monday of 2,000 troops from Saudi Arabia and other neighboring allies.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa toured the capital's downtown financial district on Thursday, hailing the actions of Bahrain's security forces there the day before, the state news agency reported.
On Wednesday, popular protests here modeled on the hopeful events in Egypt took on the darkness of those in Libya as hundreds of Bahraini troops, backed by helicopters and tanks, cleared Pearl Square of demonstrators. Three protesters and two security officers were killed.
Security forces roared through downtown Manama, wresting it from the protesters who had in recent days taken charge of neighborhoods and nearby villages. As skirmishes continued into the evening, a curfew was announced for the center of the city.
"They broke everything, they shot at kids, there was no humanity, no respect," said Hassan Ali Ibrahim, 35, a gardener, who had spent the night in Pearl Square, a protest tent camp over the past month like Tahrir Square in Cairo. "When we saw the tanks and the cars, about a hundred of us went towards them, and started chanting, 'Peacefully! Peacefully!' This is when they started shooting, from the ground and from the bridge, from everywhere."
The crackdown placed the United States in an awkward bind. The United States, which bases its Fifth Fleet here, has struggled to balance its strategic interest in placating Bahrain and its ally, Saudi Arabia, its fears that Iran is exploiting the anger of Bahrain's majority Shiite protesters, and American democratic principles. American officials have held off backing the protesters while urging Bahrain's leaders to exercise restraint. That advice was ignored.
President Obama on Tuesday telephoned both King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Hamad to stress "the need for maximum restraint," said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary.
He added that Mr. Obama "also stressed the importance of a political process as the only way to peacefully address the legitimate grievances of Bahrainis and to lead to a Bahrain that is stable, just, more unified and responsive to its people."
Plumes of black smoke choked the city landscape as troops repeatedly fired tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and what sounded like live ammunition in their dawn assault. Telephone and Internet service were cut. Tents, trees and brush burned quickly in the desert wind. Security forces extinguished the fires with water cannons normally used to break up crowds. "This was not an attack aimed at just dispersing the people in the square, it was meant to hurt us, and the way they were advancing, with the helicopters above them, and the tanks, and the machine guns - it really felt like a war, not a police operation," said Hussein Ali Eid, 32, a demonstrator.
Simultaneously, troops and tanks surrounded and invaded Salmaniya Hospital, an opposition stronghold. The crackdown continued in villages outside Manama, and opposition leaders reported scores of people sent to local clinics and hospitals.
"The hospital was controlled by terrorists, and we liberated it," an army commander at Salmaniya who declined to provide his name or rank said at the complex's entrance. Like nearly all the troops on duty, he covered his face with a mask to prevent identification. It remained unclear whether the foreign troops had participated directly in the assault on Pearl Square or other actions during the day, though officials had said they were there only to protect strategically important ministries and institutions, like the monarchy itself.
A government announcement said it had lost two soldiers to demonstrators who had repeatedly run them over. It also asserted that the forces had not moved on the demonstrators at first but responded to their gunfire and that the fires were set by the demonstrators themselves.
The pro-democracy movement of Bahrain, a tiny island off the Saudi coast, is like many in the Arab world, seeking to wrest total power from the hands of the royal family and set up a government of accountability, especially in light of rising economic difficulty. It has been fed by a bulging youth population and access to social media. But it is more fraught, because 70 percent of the country, especially its poorest citizens, is Shiite Muslim while the king and the elite are Sunni.
This means that the dispute is over ethnicity and class as well as over governance, but also that outside forces have a keen interest. Iran, the center of Shiism, and which sometimes refers to Bahrain as one of its provinces, supports the majority population here. It has condemned the actions of the king, and labeled the Saudi military intervention an occupation. Saudi Arabia, which has a Shiite minority of its own to contend with, firmly backs the government and fears growing Iranian influence.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters in Cairo on Wednesday that the military move here was "alarming." She added: "It is unfortunately diverting attention and effort away from the political and economic track that is the only way forward to resolve the legitimate differences of the Bahrainis themselves. We have made that clear time and time again. We have deplored the use of force. We have said not only to the Bahrainis but to our gulf partners that we do not think security is the answer to what is going on."
Opposition politicians said that a number of Bahraini officials, all Shiite, had resigned as a result of Wednesday' s crackdown. They said they included the ministers of health and housing, four members of the Shura, or advisory council, and perhaps some judges. It was not possible to confirm the resignations, however.
The early morning attack on Pearl Square - named to honor pearl fishing in Bahraini culture - was observed from a neighboring building. By the time the first light came to the waters of the Persian Gulf, scores of jeeps and tanks were drawn up along the coastal area. As the attack unfolded, the hundreds of protesters there were forced into side streets and fled as security vehicles rolled through.
Participants said they had expected the attack after they heard that Saudi troops had been brought in on Monday and then that martial law had been declared. "So we were looking out for signs, we were watching out," Mr. Eid said. "We went to pray at a mosque nearby, and on the way back to the square, we looked at our phones and realized the network was out. It was about 6. At that point, we knew what was going to happen. So we took the women to a place on the safer side of the square."
He said that a group headed toward the soldiers, and then he heard dozens of explosions.
After the square had been cleared of people, with military helicopters still hovering, uniformed police officers accompanied by men in civilian clothes could be seen smashing windshields of parked cars. Meanwhile, tanks rolled toward the financial district. It was last Sunday's action by the protesters, taking over the streets leading to the financial district, that set the king on the path of smashing the movement. Bahrain calls itself "business friendly" and viewed that move as beyond the pale.
Mr. Eid added that Wednesday's action would not end the protests: "I'm unemployed. What do they want from me? They think I'm going to sit at home? With two kids? I need to ask for my rights, for my dignity. This is not going to go away, until we get all our rights."
Nadim Audi contributed reporting.
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2) 4 Times Journalists Are Missing in Libya
By JEREMY W. PETERS
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/africa/17times.html?ref=world
The New York Times said Wednesday that four of its journalists reporting on the conflict in Libya were missing.
Editors said they were last in contact with the journalists, who were reporting from the eastern city of Ajdabiya, on Tuesday morning New York time. And despite secondhand reports that they had been swept up by Libyan government forces, the newspaper said it could not confirm that information.
"We have talked with officials of the Libyan government in Tripoli, and they tell us they are attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of our journalists," said Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times. "We are grateful to the Libyan government for their assurance that if our journalists were captured they would be released promptly and unharmed."
The missing journalists are Anthony Shadid, the Beirut bureau chief and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for foreign reporting; Stephen Farrell, a reporter and videographer who was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2009 and rescued by British commandos; and two photographers, Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario, who have worked extensively in the Middle East and Africa.
Mr. Keller said there was some speculation that they had been detained at a government checkpoint between Ajdabiya and Benghazi, a rebel stronghold in eastern Libya. If that is the case, he said, they would eventually be taken to Tripoli. "Beyond that, we're still pretty much in the dark," he added.
The uprisings in the Arab world have made the region a perilous place for journalists. During the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, journalists were assaulted, accosted, detained and killed. Two Times reporters were detained there and eventually released unharmed. Lara Logan of CBS News was sexually assaulted by a group of men. An Egyptian reporter was shot and killed.
Journalists' safety in Libya has become only more uncertain since the month-old revolt began. Last week, the BBC reported that four of its journalists had been detained by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's security forces. They were beaten with rifles and subjected to mock executions, the network said. Also last week, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based television network, was gunned down in what it said was apparently an ambush near Benghazi.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented more than 300 cases of attacks on journalists in the Middle East and North Africa since uprisings began there in January. More than 40 of those have occurred in Libya.
Joel Simon, the group's executive director, said news organizations never had easy answers when it came to balancing safety with decisions about how to cover stories that put journalists in harm's way.
"In every one of these countries there are vital stories unfolding, stories of crucial significance that need to be told, so it's understandable that news organizations are accepting a certain level of risk," Mr. Simon said. "But how do you balance those risks? Those are very tough calls that journalists and news organizations have to make on an ongoing basis. But the starting point, I think, has to be these are crucially important stories."
The Times, like many news organizations, has procedures in place to carefully track its journalists' whereabouts in war zones and areas of conflict.
Susan Chira, foreign editor of The Times, said that each night, editors discuss plans for the following day with their correspondents, who are expected to check in regularly.
"We expect to hear from them several times a day - and so do their colleagues in the field, who are often our early warning system of any trouble," Ms. Chira said.
The Times's foreign picture editor, David Furst, said he requires photographers to check in with him at a designated time each day.
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3) Greek Town Rises Up Against Planned Landfill
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/europe/17greece.html?ref=world
KERATEA, GREECE - For three months, the residents of this small town, 40 kilometers southeast of Athens, have been locked in a violent standoff with the police over the planned construction of a huge landfill that aims to solve the capital's garbage problem.
The scenes broadcast on Greek television and on amateur videos on the Internet have been stark: middle-aged protesters hurling firebombs at the police, overturned cars in flames, Orthodox priests in black robes wailing amid clouds of tear gas.
Many residents and police officers have been hurt in the fighting. And though there have been dozens of arrests, the locals vow not to back down.
The Keratea campaign has been compared by some commentators to milder forms of civil disobedience appearing in a debt-stricken Greece, including a small movement of citizens who refuse to pay higher road toll charges and more for tickets for public transportation.
But fare-evasion is quite different than waging an armed standoff with the police, said Karolos Kavoulakos, a lecturer in social sciences at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
"This is about trash, and trash has been fueling violent protests for years," he said. "The fact that this dispute coincides with the economic crisis makes it all the more explosive."
Residents of Keratea say they will not become a dumping ground for the capital's population, about four million, and argue that the chosen site - covering 50 hectares, or 125 acres, of hillside on the town's outskirts - hides archaeological treasures.
But the government says the facility must go forward since the capital's existing landfill is full.
The dispute originated last year when Greece faced millions of euros in fines after missing a July 2010 deadline for razing hundreds of illegal landfills around the country. In January, the European Union froze these fines on the condition that the government carried out a waste-management program that increased recycling and replaced the illegal dumps with "sanitary" landfills that met E.U. health and safety standards.
But no town in Greece wants a landfill in its backyard, as is clear from the reaction in other communities over the years. In 2009, residents of Grammatiko, a town east of Athens, scuffled with the police for weeks over a landfill that is now under construction as locals fight the project in court. In 2008, a 43-year-old woman died when riots broke out on Corfu over the planned construction of a landfill there; the project has been held up as locals mount court challenges. In the northern port of Thessaloniki, residents have opposed landfill projects for years.
In Keratea, however, protest has given way to systematic civil disobedience and violence involving a large section of the town, including the middle-aged and the elderly. The residents' reactions appear to have taken the government by surprise and have provoked a political rift. The Citizen Protection Ministry says the heavy police presence in Keratea is a drain on resources, while the Interior Ministry insists that the authorities cannot back down.
Meanwhile, residents say they are under attack. "It's simple - we are being threatened, so we defend ourselves," said Sotiris Iatrou, a municipal councilor.
Asked about the involvement of anarchists in protests - frequently described in the Greek press and not denied on anarchist Web sites that proclaim support for Keratea residents - Mr. Iatrou responded, "We have solidarity from many sides."
He also referred to backing from leftist political groups and said locals had been instructed how to make firebombs. "We were taught," Mr. Iatrou said, smiling.
On most days, he joins fellow residents in a wooden hut set up alongside the road leading to the proposed site.
Locals guard a plastic barricade on the road, so construction workers cannot enter the site. About a kilometer away, some 400 police officers guard three excavators that have been vandalized since their transfer there in December.
On most nights, residents clash with police officers on the road and in the fields around the site. Residents also guard the barricade by day, playing resistance songs from the early 1970s, when the military ruled Greece, and drinking coffee around a wood-burning stove. The walls of the hut are covered with news articles about their efforts and children's drawings, many depicting stickmen in opposite camps.
"We are at war and this is our garrison," said Nikos Filippou, 64. "People are ready to die. It's a matter of honor."
Many hut regulars seem unlikely resistance fighters but defend locals wielding firebombs. "What can we do? No one listens to us," said Eleni Giorda, 60. "We will use guns if we have to."
Ioannis Andrianopoulos, 40, a shopkeeper, and his wife Sofia, 39, often leave their children, 8 and 10, at home for guard duty. Mr. Andrianopoulos said, "If they start building, we'll set fire to the garbage trucks."
His wife added, "We're not crazy, and we're not anarchists, but we are being provoked."
Concerned about Keratea's defiance, the government has appealed for discussions. But the locals will not talk until the police withdraw and the government will not talk until the residents' dismantle their barricade.
"You can't have dialogue in a hostile environment with firebombs' being thrown," said Theodora Tzakri, deputy interior minister, in a telephone interview. "We will not tolerate lawlessness."
The government has appealed a decision by a local court suspending work on the proposed landfill until environmental and archaeological assessments are carried out; residents have appealed a ruling by a higher court allowing construction to proceed.
Ms. Tzakri insisted that the Keratea project was non-negotiable. "We won't let Athens turn into Naples," she said, referring to the Italian port that has been swamped in garbage in recent years as a result of strenuous opposition by residents to the creation of more landfills.
But she said the government was willing to discuss making the Keratea landfill environmentally friendly by setting up a recycling plant and composting unit on the site. "If the mayor can guarantee us that police cars won't be firebombed, and workers' lives won't be threatened, we'll sit down and talk," Ms. Tzakri said.
Costas Levantis, the mayor of Lavreotiki, a municipality comprising Keratea and two other towns, said he could not guarantee anything. "People won't back down," he said. "If the machines start up, the whole town will come out and we'll have casualties."
The mayor said tensions between locals and police are at fever pitch. "There's trouble nearly every night."
And it is not only residents involved. Mr. Levantis said that last week 300 people from Exarchia, a central Athens hangout for anarchists who are often accused of violence,tried to torch the local police precinct.
Residents played down the role of anarchists, noting that 37 people arrested since December are locals. Five residents, including the former mayor, last month were charged with possession of explosives and other offenses and released pending trial. Keratea's ex-mayor Stavros Iatrou (no relation to the municipal councilor) said he has been falsely accused of plotting to blow up a gas station next to the police precinct. He said two policemen submitted fake testimonies.
"Keratea used to be a conservative community where the policeman was the resident's best friend," the ex-mayor said. This changed when police were sent to the landfill site in December.
When officers entered the town in early February and searched houses, huge clashes erupted. Locals said a plainclothes officer threatened protesters with a gun.
"It was the final straw," Mr. Iatrou said.
"Attacks on police officers in the area - with firebombs, stones and other objects - occur almost every day," said Lt. Col. Thanassis Kokkalakis, spokesman for the Greek Police. He said that police were in the area "to protect the public interest" but that this role had been "misunderstood by some residents."
The police say they are regularly pelted with firebombs and have been shot at by a sniper. They want to withdraw, said Christos Fotopoulos, who heads the police workers' union. "Keratea doesn't need policing," he said. "It needs a political solution."
The impasse will be difficult to break, said Mr. Kavoulakos, the university lecturer. The landfill is perceived not only as an environmental scourge but also as a threat to subsistence at a time of rising unemployment. "All people have is their property, and the landfill will devalue this," he said. "They are desperate."
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4) Castro Enemy Said to Have Recounted Role in Attacks
By DAN FROSCH
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/us/17posada.html?ref=world
EL PASO - A journalist called as a key prosecution witness in the perjury trial of an elderly anti-Castro militant testified on Wednesday that the defendant had described in detailed interviews his role in a wave of bombings that tore through Havana in 1997.
The witness, Ann Louise Bardach, was a contract writer for The New York Times when she interviewed the man, Luis Posada Carriles, in 1998. The interviews were the foundation for articles she wrote that year with Larry Rohter, a reporter for The Times, in which Mr. Posada spoke about coordinating the bombs at hotels and restaurants to frighten tourists.
Mr. Posada, 83, has been on trial in federal court here for two months, but not for the attacks in Havana that killed an Italian tourist, or in connection with the downing of a Cuban jet in 1976 that killed 73 people - both of which have made him a wanted man in Cuba and Venezuela.
He is charged instead with perjury, obstruction of federal proceedings and making false statements during a naturalization hearing. Ms. Bardach's testimony is critical to the prosecution's case.
Federal prosecutors say Mr. Posada, who was on the C.I.A.'s payroll during the 1960s and '70s, lied during immigration hearings more than five years ago about how he had gotten into the United States and about his involvement in the Havana bombings.
In her testimony, Ms. Bardach described how she had arranged a meeting with Mr. Posada in Aruba after he left a mysterious message on her answering machine while she was researching a series on Cuban exiles for The Times.
Mr. Posada was unhappy with how he was portrayed in articles published in The Miami Herald at the time and wanted to shed light from his perspective on "the heroic nature of what he was doing in Cuba with the campaign," Ms. Bardach said, referring to the bombings in Havana.
Courteous and polite, Mr. Posada shared lemonade, dinners and conversation with Ms. Bardach in interviews over three days, during which, she said, Mr. Posada told a tale of insurgency against the Castro regime stretching from Miami to Guatemala to Cuba.
The lead prosecutor, Timothy J. Reardon, played tape recordings from the interviews - much of which was referred to in the articles in The Times - in which Mr. Posada discussed the bombings with Ms. Bardach at a cafe in Aruba.
At one point Ms. Bardach was heard asking Mr. Posada about the reasons behind the attacks. He replied 'No mas tourismo,' and Ms. Bardach said she took his answer to mean that the bombings were intended to stymie the flow of tourists to Cuba, which anti-Castro militants feared was giving the regime new life.
Mr. Posada, drifting in and out of Spanish, said on the recordings that the bombings were not intended to hurt anyone and that he felt sad for the Italian tourist who was killed.
But when prompted by Ms. Bardach, Mr. Posada told her he slept "like a baby."
"My conscience is very clean," he said.
Prosecutors also introduced a handwritten note that Mr. Posada gave Ms. Bardach after their interviews clarifying that he neither admitted nor denied responsibility for the bombings.
White-haired and wizened, one side of his face shattered from bullet wounds sustained in an assassination attempt, Mr. Posada stared expressionless during the testimony.
His lawyer, Arturo V. Hernandez, who has yet to cross-examine Ms. Bardach in front of the jury, said in his opening statement that the prosecution's case was riddled with unreliable witnesses and that there was a series of erasures in the tapes.
Mr. Hernandez has said that Mr. Posada never admitted to the bombings in the interviews but had instead attributed them to internal dissent in Cuba.
Ms. Bardach and The Times had initially fought a subpoena seeking her interview tapes as part of a 2007 investigation into whether Mr. Posada had received financing for terrorist attacks from Cuban exiles in New Jersey. But a federal judge ruled against the newspaper. That investigation never led to an indictment.
Declassified F.B.I. documents placed Mr. Posada at planning meetings for the bombing of the Cubana jet in 1976. He was held in a Venezuelan prison for nine years on charges of conspiring with the bombers and escaped disguised as a priest. He has long denied involvement in the jet bombing.
In 2000, Mr. Posada was arrested in Panama in connection with a plot to kill Fidel Castro. He was pardoned after serving four years in prison, before allegedly sneaking into the United States on a shrimp boat in 2005
Mr. Posada faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on 10 counts in the indictment, and 10 years on the last count.
During a break in the proceedings, Ms. Bardach found herself face to face with Mr. Posada. Ms. Bardach asked him how he was doing.
"He told me, in Spanish, 'It is what it is,' " she said.
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5) Economic Downturn Holds Fierce Grip on Border Town
By JENNIFER MEDINA
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/us/17elcentro.html?ref=us
EL CENTRO, Calif. - This is the desert, not meant for lush fields and tight cul-de-sacs. But here they are, a few miles from the Mexican border. For a time, this was a thriving place that represented the promise of a new middle-class life, full of hope and optimism.
Now, some of that hope, too, is drying out in the sun.
For two years, El Centro has struggled with the highest unemployment rate in the country. The latest official figures put it at 28 percent, an improvement from the peak of 32 percent last summer. At unemployment centers, often the most bustling places in town, it is something of a competition to talk about how long a job search has lasted.
Eleven months hardly raises an eyebrow. Two years might draw a little sympathy.
The job losses here began as fewer workers were needed to pluck asparagus and lettuce from the fields. Then the housing boom collapsed, devastating thousands who once had steady construction work. The same two forces have pummeled other cities around the country. But El Centro has taken a third, crippling hit: with tighter security making lines at the border longer each day, restaurants and shops that once relied on Mexican tourists are struggling.
Visitors still come from the other side, from the metropolis of Mexicali to the strip malls and small towns that make up the Imperial Valley, about 100 miles east of San Diego and less than a mile from the border. But there are fewer of them.
Now, many come to collect unemployment checks. After working legally in the United States, they are eligible for the same benefits as any resident, a situation that some say drives up the unemployment rate. It is impossible to know how much, because California does not track those figures. But each month, their checks are delivered to relatives or post office boxes near the border.
"People don't understand what we learn to live with here," said Sam Couchman, the director of the Imperial County Workforce Development Office here. Mr. Couchman has spent more than three decades guiding work training programs in the county and said he does not expect the unemployment rate drop to below 20 percent in the next decade. "We have all kinds of up and downs, but it doesn't send us into a panic. This is the way life is here."
California's agricultural heartland has been hit particularly hard in the downturn - 8 of the 10 metro areas with the highest jobless rates are in the state, in central inland cities like Fresno, Modesto and Merced. But the only area that comes close to El Centro's unemployment rate is Yuma, Ariz., another border town about 55 miles east of here.
"You have someone who is considered a local resident but lives in another country," Mr. Couchman said. "We don't have that problem in Fresno. But it also means that we have tens of thousands of people a day visiting us to make purchases and go shopping."
The county has grown over the last decade, but still has fewer than 200,000 residents. And the local economy has long depended on the other side of the border - "If Mexicali sneezes, we get pneumonia," people around here like to say. So when tougher security measures at the border came after threats related to terrorism and Mexico's drug war, businesses here almost immediately felt the pinch. A decade ago, crossing the border was a 20-minute inconvenience. Now the wait in the morning can stretch into a two- or three-hour ordeal.
Carlton Hargrave, the owner of the Family Buffet restaurant in Calexico, the town that hugs the Mexican border, said that since he opened in 1993, the vast majority of customers travel from the other side.
In the last year or so, Mr. Hargrave has laid off more than half of his roughly 40 employees. Most of them live in Mexicali, he said, and few return. "People used to say they were coming to take your jobs," he said. "Now, we know that's not true. They are coming to make your jobs."
Some El Centro neighborhoods look like a ghost town. Downtown is pockmarked with shuttered storefronts and broken signs. But in other areas, the city is more like quintessential suburbia, with cookie-cutter housing tracts and huge parking lots outside big box stores. Border Patrol agents are just as likely to roam the streets as city police officers.
The year-round sun and the affordability make the city an attractive place to live. The cost of living is much less than in Los Angeles or San Diego, yet it is possible to get to either place within hours. Some young people can hardly wait to escape, but for many, staying in the town their grandparents helped create nearly a century ago is a point of pride. When the annual county fair comes along, neighbors routinely pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for animals raised by local schoolchildren.
"That unemployment rate is a black eye, but it's a real misnomer," said Timothy E. Kelly, president of the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation, who considers marketing the area a personal mission. "You don't come here seeing people on the streets. We've got a ready and eager work force."
For some people, the unemployment numbers are more of a nuisance than anything. Some relatively well-heeled residents say they do not know anyone without a job. If anyone is not working, they say, it must be because they are not really looking. They point to the large hiring banner in front of the International House of Pancakes.
There has long been a promise that the heat and sunshine will provide work. Local leaders speak excitedly about geothermal plants and solar projects bringing more jobs. Several training programs offer courses to develop skills for that kind of work. But Jesse Aguilar, who completed such a class last year, said that of the 30 in his class, only two have found jobs. Both of them are at fast food outlets.
"People tell us to be hopeful, but that's pretty hard sometimes," Mr. Aguilar said. These days, he visits the local unemployment center about once a week, combing through job listings. His wife has a steady income, working at one of the centers helping people like him try to find jobs. "Every night I pray for it - to be able to take care of everybody again."
Mr. Aguilar moved from San Jose in 2003, knowing there would be construction work. And there was. He made as much as $960 a week, plus a bit on side jobs and landscaping. Now there are no construction crews here, so Mr. Aguilar takes his résumé to Home Depot and Costco.
There are no hard numbers, but unemployment seems to have hit men here particularly hard. They were more likely to work in construction and other jobs hurt by the economy, while women took more stable jobs in government, which remains the largest employer in the region.
Edward Castenon has kept careful notes about every job posting he has responded to. With each application, he marks a note in red on his computer calendar. Entire months are filled with red, going back to when he first lost his job as a technician for Starbucks in 2009. Because he is a military veteran, Mr. Castenon, 43, is eligible for a program that would pay half his salary in any job he receives. He sends a letter explaining the program to every potential employer. But they rarely respond.
"I'm not even overqualified," he said one recent afternoon, sitting at his dining room table with his wife. They married two years ago, each with two teenage daughters from first marriages. As a technician, repairing coffee machines all over the area, he earned about $23 an hour. Now he applies for jobs that would pay far less.
"Before I have to work at McDonald's or a Jack in the Box, I need to pursue every other option," he said. "There is honor in every job, but I have a family to be loyal to."
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6) Rights Group Faults U.S. on Detained Immigrants
By KIRK SEMPLE
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/us/18detain-1.html?ref=us
Immigration enforcement in the United States is plagued by unjust treatment of detainees, including inadequate access to lawyers and insufficient medical care, and by the excessive use of prison-style detention, an international human rights group said Thursday.
The group, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, issued those findings in a report that also criticized a federal program that allows county and state law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws. The report said the government had failed to ensure that local police were not singling out people by race or detaining illegal immigrants on the pretext of investigating crimes.
The commission, an arm of the Organization of American States, recommended that the federal government cancel the program, known as 287(g).
While many of the findings reiterated criticisms that have been made before by immigrant advocates and others, the report appeared to be the first comprehensive review of American immigration enforcement in recent years by an international body of the organization's stature.
The commission, based in Washington, has no enforcement powers, but it has considerable moral authority and a record of cooperation by member countries, including the United States.
The 155-page report was based on hearings and research that began in 2008, including visits in July 2009 by a team of investigators to six American detention centers in Arizona and Texas.
Since much of the research was completed, however, the Obama administration has begun a major overhaul of the detention system. A month after the commission's visits, immigration officials announced a sweeping plan to establish more centralized authority over the system and to renovate centers designed for penal detention to make them more appropriate for detainees facing deportation, particularly those accused of administrative violations.
The administration said it would also close centers that were rarely used or failed to meet its standards, and would consolidate the nation's patchwork of detention centers to meet increasing demand in specific areas, especially near big cities. It also said it would explore alternatives to detention.
Felipe González, president of the commission, acknowledged those plans but said the commission would withhold judgment on the efficacy of the reforms. "According to the information that we have so far, it's not clear that it's been implemented or will satisfy the international standards" of human rights, he said in an interview.
The commission will continue monitoring immigration enforcement to ensure that its grievances were addressed, Mr. González added.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees enforcement, said Thursday that the department would review the report, and made no further comment.
Earlier, however, the Obama administration was given a draft. In their response, according to the report, administration officials pointed out that they had conducted their own comprehensive review of immigration enforcement and made "important changes."
Still, the commission said it was "deeply troubled by the continual and widespread use of detention in immigration cases," the report said.
"The Inter-American Commission is convinced that in many if not the majority of cases, detention is a disproportionate measure and the alternatives to detention programs would be a more balanced means of serving the State's legitimate interest in ensuring compliance with immigration laws," the report said.
Mr. González also expressed skepticism that the administration would provide less penal settings for immigrants held on administrative, rather than criminal, charges. "It's not clear to us whether the new system will really mean that the facility will provide migrants in detention with a system that is fully respectful of human rights," he said.
Mr. González said his commission was inspired to investigate the system after receiving numerous requests from human rights advocates and civil society organizations. The group, he added, is now planning to investigate other immigration detention systems in the hemisphere.
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7) Danger of Spent Fuel Outweighs Reactor Threat
By KEITH BRADSHER and HIROKO TABUCHI
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18spent.html?scp=1&sq=Danger%20of%20Spent%20Fuel%20Outweighs%20Reactor%20Threat&st=cse
Years of procrastination in deciding on long-term disposal of highly radioactive fuel rods from nuclear reactors is now coming back to haunt Japanese authorities as they try to control fires and explosions at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Some countries have tried to limit the number of spent fuel rods that accumulate at nuclear power plants - Germany stores them in costly casks, for example, while Chinese nuclear reactors send them to a desert storage compound in western China's Gansu province. But Japan, like the United States, has kept ever larger numbers of spent fuel rods in temporary storage pools at the power plants, where they can be guarded with the same security provided for the power plant.
Figures provided by Tokyo Electric Power on Thursday show that most of the dangerous uranium at the power plant is actually in the spent fuel rods, not the reactor cores themselves. The electric utility said that a total of 11,195 spent fuel rod assemblies were stored at the site.
That is in addition to 400 to 600 fuel rod assemblies that had been in active service in each of the three troubled reactors. In other words, the vast majority of the fuel assemblies at the troubled reactors are in the storage pools, not the reactors.
Now those temporary pools are proving the power plant's Achilles heel, as the water in the pools either boils away or leaks out of their containments, and efforts to add more water have gone awry. While spent fuel rods generate significantly less heat than newer ones, there are strong indications that the fuel rods have begun to melt and release extremely high levels of radiation. Japanese authorities struggled Thursday to add more water to the storage pool at reactor No. 3.
Four helicopters dropped water, only to have it scattered by strong breezes. Water cannons mounted on police trucks - equipment designed to disperse rioters - were deployed in an effort to spray water on the pools. It is unclear if they managed to achieve that.
Nuclear engineers around the world have been expressing surprise this week that the storage pools have become such a problem. "I'm amazed that they couldn't keep the water in the pools," said Robert Albrecht, a longtime nuclear engineer who worked as a consultant to the Japanese nuclear reactor manufacturing industry in the 1980s and visited the Fukushima Daiichi reactor then.
Very high levels of radiation above the storage pools suggest that the water has drained in the 39-foot-deep pools to the point that the 13-foot-high fuel rod assemblies have been exposed to air for hours and are starting to melt, he said. Spent fuel rod assemblies emit less heat than fresh fuel rod assemblies inside reactor cores, but the spent assemblies still emit enough heat and radioactivity that they must still be kept covered with 26 feet of water that is circulated to prevent it from growing too warm.
Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, made the startling assertion on Wednesday that there was little or no water left in the storage pool located on top of reactor No. 4, and expressed grave concern about the radioactivity that would be released as a result. The spent fuel rod assemblies there include 548 assemblies that were only removed from the reactor in November and December to prepare the reactor for maintenance, and may be emitting more heat than the older assemblies in other storage pools.
Even without recirculating water, it should take many days for the water in a storage pool to evaporate, nuclear engineers said. So the rapid evaporation and even boiling of water in the storage pools now is a mystery, raising the question of whether the pools may also be leaking.
Michael Friedlander, a former senior nuclear power plant operator who worked 13 years at three American reactors, said that storage pools typically have a liner of stainless steel that is three-eighths of an inch thick, and they rest on reinforced concrete bases. So even if the liner ruptures, "unless the concrete was torn apart, there's no place for the water to go," he said.
At each end of a pool are 16-foot-tall steel gates with rubber seals, used to swing fresh fuel rod assemblies into a reactor and to swing out and store the spent assemblies. The gates are designed to withstand earthquakes, Mr. Friedlander said, but could have sprung leaks given the power of last Friday's quake, now estimated to have had a magnitude of 9.0.
Even if water gushed out of the gates, there would still be about 10 feet of water left on top of the fuel rod assemblies.
When the water in a storage pool disappears, residual heat in the fuel rods' uranium left over from their time in a nuclear reactor continues to heat the rods' zirconium cladding. This causes the zirconium to oxidize, or rust, and even catch fire. This breaks the seal of the rods, and pressurized radioactive gases like iodine, which accumulated in the rods while they were in the reactor, suddenly spurt out, Mr. Albrecht said.
Each rod inside the assembly holds a vertical stack of cylindrical uranium oxide pellets. These pellets sometimes become fused together while in the reactor, in which case they may stay standing up even as the cladding burns off. If the pellets stay standing up, then even with the water and zirconium gone, nuclear fission will not take place, Mr. Albrecht said.
But Tokyo Electric said this week that there was a chance of "recriticality" in the storage ponds - that is to say, the uranium in the fuel rods could become critical in nuclear terms and resume the fission that previously took place inside the reactor, spewing out radioactive byproducts.
Mr. Albrecht said this was very unlikely, but could happen if the stacks of pellets slumped over and became jumbled together on the floor of the storage pool. Tokyo Electric has reconfigured the storage racks in its pools in recent years so as to pack more fuel rod assemblies together in limited space.
If recriticality occurs, pouring on pure water could actually cause fission to take place even faster. The authorities would need to add water with lots of boron, as they have been trying to do, because the boron absorbs neutrons and interrupts nuclear chain reactions.
If recriticality takes place, the uranium starts to warm. If a lot of fission occurs, which may only happen in an extreme case, the uranium would melt through anything underneath it. If it encounters water as it descends, a steam explosion may then scatter the molten uranium.
At Daiichi, each assembly has either 64 large fuel rods or 81 slightly smaller fuel rods, depending on the vendor who supplied it. A typical fuel rod assembly has a total of roughly 380 pounds of uranium.
One big worry for Japanese officials is that reactor No. 3, the main target of the helicopters and water cannons on Thursday, uses a new and different fuel. It uses mixed oxides, or mox, which contains a mixture of uranium and plutonium, and can produce a more dangerous radioactive plume if scattered by fire or explosions.
According to Tokyo Electric, 32 of the 514 fuel rod assemblies in the storage pond at reactor No. 3 contain mox.
Tokyo Electric has said very little about the biggest repository of spent fuel assemblies at the site: 6,291 assemblies located in a common storage pool immediately inland from reactor No. 4.
Japan had hoped to solve the spent fuel buildup with a large-scale plan to recycle the rods into fuel that would go back into its nuclear program. But even before Friday's quake, that plan had been hit with massive setbacks.
Central to Japan's plans is a $28 billion reprocessing facility in Rokkasho village, north of the quake zone, which would extract uranium and plutonium from the rods for use in making MOX fuel. After countless construction delays, test runs began in 2006, and the plant's operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel, said operations would begin in 2010. However, in late 2010, its opening was delayed by another two years. A facility for making MOX fuel is also under construction.
To close the nuclear fuel recycle process, Japan also built the Monju, a fast breeder reactor, which started running in full in 1994. But a year later, a fire caused by a sodium leak shut down the plant.
Despite revelations that the operator, the quasi-governmental Japan Atomic Energy Agency, had covered up the seriousness of the accident, Monju again started operating at a reduced capacity, reaching criticality, or sustained nuclear chain reactions within the reactor, in May.
Another nuclear reprocessing facility in Tokaimura has been shut down since 1999, when an accident at an experimental fast breeder showered hundreds in the vicinity with radiation, and two workers were killed.
Many of these facilities were hit by Friday's massive quake. A spent fuel pool at Rokkasho spilled over, and power at the plant was knocked out, triggering back-up generators, Japan Nuclear Fuel said. According to the Citizens Nuclear Information Center, an anti-nuclear NGO, about 3,000 tons of fuel are stored at Rokkasho. But the plant, built 55 meters (180 feet) above sea level, was spared from the destructive tsunami that followed the quake. Grid power was restored on Monday, the company said.
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8) Dividends Will Enrich Bank Chiefs
By ERIC DASH
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/business/17dividend.html?ref=business
Even as ordinary investors look forward to the prospect of larger dividend payouts by the big banks, another group is poised for a rich payday: bank chief executives. In the next few days, the Federal Reserve is expected to give a handful of institutions, including JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, permission to pay higher dividends, another sign of the remarkable comeback of banks since the depths of the financial crisis.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, stands to eventually reap nearly $6 million a year in dividend payments from the stock he owns, an amount that equals almost a third of his total pay in 2010. Capital One's chief executive, Richard D. Fairbank, could earn nearly $3 million a year as the credit card giant weighs a similar move.
These figures are based on the number of shares the executives own and estimates from the banks about the percentage of earnings they plan to earmark for dividend payments. The increase in dividends is likely to occur in stages, so it may take until 2012 for the executives to collect the entire amount.
A JPMorgan spokesman said the payouts were on shares Mr. Dimon accumulated while at the bank, including 2.6 million he bought with his own money. A Capital One spokeswoman said Mr. Fairbank had been paid entirely in stock during his tenure.
To some extent, the expected windfall comes because banks have been paying executives a greater portion of their compensation in stock instead of salaries or bonuses.
Regulators hoped that if banks handed out more shares and other forms of deferred pay, executives would avoid the type of excessive risk-taking that contributed to the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
At that time, regulators also pressured lenders to cut dividends and shore up their finances as loan losses mounted. Even some of the strongest institutions halted their stock repurchase programs and cut their quarterly dividend to a mere nickel or penny a share. As part of the financial bailout in 2008, banks need federal approval before they could increase the dividends. Dividends for financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell to $19 billion in 2010, from $51 billion in 2007. JPMorgan Chase, for example, now has an annual dividend of 20 cents a share, compared to $1.52 before the crisis.
The larger dividends will also put billions of dollars into the pockets of big investors, like pension and hedge funds, as well as retirees who rely on the quarterly payouts as a steady source of income. JPMorgan has said it plans to pay roughly 30 percent of earnings as dividends. With analysts projecting the company to earn over $19 billion in 2011, that would translate to an annual dividend of $1.13 a share.
Several other banks have said they plan to pay a similar percentage of earnings to shareholders. So chief executives stand to reap especially large gains because they are traditionally among the biggest holders of company stock.
Corporate governance experts do not typically fret about such payouts since they help align the interests of management with those of investors more equally than other compensation practices. However, the dividends collected by chief executives will not be broken out in the compensation tables found in corporate filings. Investors must crunch the numbers themselves.
"Even a small dividend can add up to a pretty substantial amount of money," said Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at GovernanceMetrics International. "It could be just another bonus for some C.E.O.'s. For others, it is a huge windfall."
The likely approval on dividends comes as the Federal Reserve completes a second round of stress tests for the nation's 19 largest banks. Regulators are gauging whether they have stockpiled enough capital to weather a still-anemic economic recovery and meet the higher requirements put in place by new international accords.
The top banks will learn the results of the examinations by Monday, including whether they can raise dividends and buy back shares. With the Fed's expected blessing in hand, financial stocks could get a lift in the coming days, as one bank after another announces their plans.
"Allowing some dividends to go up is a big vote of confidence in our banks," said Jeffery Harte, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill.
In addition to JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, other institutions hoping for dividend increases include BB&T, Bank of New York Mellon, U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial and Wells Fargo.
If Wells Fargo pays 30 percent of earnings to shareholders, its chief executive, John G. Stumpf, would reap nearly $400,000 a year in dividends, based on the bank's expected profit in 2011. Using similar assumptions, PNC Financial's chief executive, James E. Rohr, stands to earn close to $1 million a year.
Other chief executives, like Brian T. Moynihan of Bank of America and Vikram S. Pandit of Citigroup, may have to wait until the second half of 2011 or even into 2012 for a modest dividend increase, because their companies are recovering more slowly.
American Express, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have told investors they may eschew dividend increases in favor of things like investing in their businesses or buying back stock. Goldman expects to use some of the money to repurchase the preferred shares it sold Warren E. Buffett at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
Some regional banks, like SunTrust Banks and KeyCorp, are forbidden by the federal government to raise dividends because they have yet to return the billions in federal bailout money they received in 2008. Depending on how those banks fare in the stress tests, the Fed may let them start repaying the government in the coming weeks.
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9) The American Dilemma in Libya: To Bomb, Invade, Partition, Or All of the Above
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report
March 16, 2011
http://blackagendareport.com/content/american-dilemma-libya-bomb-invade-partition-or-all-above
The Obama administration insists it is retaining "all options" to bring down Libyan leader Muamar Khadafi-meaning, legalities don't matter. Absent permission from the United Nations Security Council, the Americans and Europeans, separately or in concert, have no right to intervene militarily in the Libyan conflict. With Khadafi's forces on a roll toward Benghazi, the rebel stronghold, the possibility of permanent Security Council members China and Russia providing legal cover becomes remote to nonexistent. But that doesn't stop the Americans from loudly pondering end runs around international law, or from making up law out of whole cloth.
"R2P"-Responsibility to Protect-is the Obama regime's favored formula for pouring mud in the otherwise clear waters of international law. The philosophy-actually, a political position seeking legal recognition-amounts to a kind of super-power judicial waiver couched in the language of nobles oblige, the obligation of the strong to help the weak. In the real world, the strong only help themselves-in this case, to Libya's oil reserves, the largest in Africa.
Obama UN Ambassador Susan Rice, a far meaner junkyard dog than George Bush's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is the administration's loudest and most bellicose proponent of so-called "humanitarian" intervention. Even before the Democrats won the White House, Susan Rice proposed a sea and air blockade and "no-fly zone" against Sudan. Having finally succeeded in partitioning Sudan, after decades of fomenting civil war, the West is clearly considering the "option" of partitioning Libya, where most of the oil is conveniently located in the eastern part of the country, near Benghazi.
The workings of the imperial brain are plainly visible in the output of the corporate press, which act as ventriloquist dummies to power. Suddenly, the media have all undergone a crash course in the intractable nature of Libyan tribal politics-a subject until now totally unknown to the western press. After a quick education from the State Department and designated think tankers, corporate media dutifully prepare the public for the possible drawing of an American "line in the sand" somewhere before the gates of Benghazi, a town that would then be dubbed a "hero city"-the opposite of Fallujah, the demon-city leveled by the U.S. in 2004 at the cost of tens-of-thousands of Iraqi lives, to the cheers of U.S. corporate media.
Western reporters, who are such quick studies when it comes to tribalism's and other perceived pathologies of exotic, non-western peoples, have not yet figured out who the rebels are, politically. This is quite strange, since corporate correspondents have for weeks spent all their waking hours among the rebels, profiling individuals and rushing to the battlefronts. Yet, they cannot-or will not-provide a coherent overview of rebel politics, beyond an incandescent hatred of Khadafi, the man. Khadafi's narrative of the conflict, that the rebels are largely Al Qaida-type elements, is dismissed as nonsensical. But no one disputes that Benghazi was the center of an Islamic revolt in the Nineties, and that resentments from that period fester. The presence of Islamic militants among the rebels is now widely acknowledged, although corporate correspondents can't seem to find many in the flesh to profile.
The western media, and the governments they serve, are caught in a crossfire of contradictions. The U.S. wants desperately to position itself on the "right" side of some aspect of the unfolding Arab Reawakening. The West dearly wishes to appropriate to itself a section of the "Arab revolt," so as to bomb an evil "dictator" on their behalf. The western media's job is to do the public relations work, presenting these "pro-western" combatants in the most attractive light. However, it appears the media are having trouble packaging the Libyan rebels as sufficiently virtuous "freedom fighters"-one suspects because, on closer inspection, many turn out to be fundamentalists or tribalists.
Ironically, the merest presence of Islamic fundamentalist fighters would have, in previous times, been reason for a U.S. attack and invasion-against those harboring such elements.
And, what happened to the estimated 6,000 former regime troops that deserted at the start of the rebellion? Some former Khadafi officers occupy high profile positions in the rebel ranks, but the equivalent of several brigades' worth of deserters is not in evidence. This, again, raises the question of who the rebel leaders really are; why are they apparently incapable of taking advantage of mass desertions from the armed forces? One cannot help but suspect the presence of unwholesome elements around whom former soldiers and others cannot bring themselves to effectively coalesce.
The most unwholesome elements of all, of course, are the U.S. and European imperialists, whose intervention represents the overarching threat to the Libyan and Arab nation. Much is made of the Arab League's request for a no-fly zone over Libya. But the League's rather ambiguous proposal-it cautions against an "attack" on Libya, as if a no-fly zone can be imposed without attacking anybody-has no more force of law than a NATO no-fly decision, or an African Union decision to attack Europe!
The United States has paid no attention to countless Arab League resolutions regarding Israel's six decades of lawless behavior in the region, or to the Jewish State's constant violations of UN resolutions. No one in the Arab world believes the West has suddenly developed a new respect for either Arabs or the rule of law. What's new is western fear that, at long last, the empire is finally slipping away.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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10) Support the Libyan people! No imperialist intervention in Libya!
Labour Party Pakistan statement on Libya
March 8, 2011
http://www.laborpakistan.org/
The shock waves of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions continue to spread throughout the Arab world and beyond. For several days, it has been Libya which is at the centre of the revolutionary upheaval. Events are evolving from day to day, from hour to hour, but everything depends today on the extraordinary mobilisation of the Libyan people.
Hundreds of thousands of Libyans have risen up to attack the dictatorship of Gaddafi, often with their bare hands. Whole cities and regions have fallen into to the hands of the insurgent people. The answer of the dictatorship has been ruthless: pitiless repression, massacres, bombardment of populations with heavy arms and air strikes.
Today, it is a fight to the death between the people and the dictatorship. One of the characteristics of the Libyan revolution, compared to the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, is the splintering of the police and military apparatuses. There are confrontations within the army itself, a territorial division, with confrontation between regions and cities controlled by the insurgents and the area of Tripoli based on the military force of the dictatorship. The Libyan dictatorship represents too many social and democratic injustices and, too much repression, too many attacks on elementary liberties and rights. It must be driven out.
The Libyan revolution is part of a whole process which covers the whole Arab world, and beyond, in Iran and China. The revolutionary processes in Tunisia and Egypt are radicalising. In Tunisia, governments fall one after the other. Youth and the workers' movement are pushing their movement still further. All the forms of continuity with the old regime are called into question. The demand for a constituent assembly, opposed to all the rescue operations of the regime, is becoming increasingly strong.
In both countries, Tunisia and Egypt, the workers' movement is reorganising itself in the fire of a wave of strikes for the satisfaction of vital social demands. This revolutionary rise takes forms that are particular and unequal, according to the countries: violent confrontations in Yemen and Bahrain, demonstrations in Jordan, Morocco and Algeria. Iran is also once again affected by an outbreak of struggles and demonstrations against the regime of Ahmadinejad and for democracy.
It is in this context that the situation in Libya takes on strategic importance. This new rise already carries within it historical changes, but its development may depend on the battle of Libya. If Gaddafi takes control of the situation again, with thousands of deaths, the process will be slowed down, contained or even blocked. If Gaddafi is overthrown, the whole movement will as a result be stimulated and amplified. For this reason, all the ruling classes, all the governments, all the reactionary regimes of the Arab world are more or less supporting the Libyan dictatorship.
It is also in this context that US imperialism, the European Union and NATO are multiplying operations to try to control the process that is underway. The revolutions that are in progress weaken, over and above what the imperialists say in their speeches, the positions of the Western imperialist powers. So, as is often the case, imperialism uses the pretext of a "situation of chaos", as it calls it, or of "humanitarian catastrophe" to prepare an intervention and to take control of the situation again. We are totally against any military or other interventions by the Imperialist forces in Libya.
No one should be fooled about the aims of the NATO powers: they want to confiscate the revolutions in progress from the peoples of the region, and even to take advantage of the situation to occupy new positions, in particular concerning control of the oil regions. It is for this fundamental reason that it is necessary to reject any military intervention by American imperialism. It is up to the Libyan people, who have begun the job, to finish it, with the support of the peoples of the region, and all progressive forces on the international level must contribute to that by their solidarity and their support.
There is a lot of confusion among the activists in Pakistan on the question of Libya. Gaddafi was seen as one of the progressive leaders of the Arab world and who was opposed to US imperialism. He had many followers in Pakistan. One of them was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, father of Benazir Bhutto, who named one of the main support stadiums of Pakistan as Qazafi [Gaddafi] Stadium. Gaddafi was not seen the same as Hosni Mubarak, Ben Ali and others. Now the threat of NATO intervention is also creating some confusion among the progressive activists.
You do not oppose imperialism by supporting dictators who massacre their people who are making a revolution. That can only reinforce imperialism. The fundamental task of the revolutionary movement on an international level is to defend these revolutions and to oppose imperialism by supporting these revolutions, not the dictators.
We are on the side of the Libyan people and the Arab revolutions that are in progress. We must express our unconditional solidarity, for the civil, democratic and social rights which are emerging in this revolution. One of the priorities consists of supporting all aid to the Libyan people -- medical aid coming from Egypt or Tunisia, the food aid which is needed, demanding the cancellation of all commercial contracts with Libya and the suspension of all delivery of arms. We have to prevent the massacre of the Libyan people.
Solidarity with the Arab revolutions!
Support the Libyan people!
No imperialist intervention in Libya!
Hands off Libya!
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11) In Post Racial America Prisons Feast on Black Girls
By Rachel Pfeffer
March 15, 2011
http://ethnoblog.newamericamedia.org/2011/03/in-post-racial-america-prisons-feast-on-black-girls-1.php#
African American girls and young women have become the fastest growing population of incarcerated young people in the country. Efforts to stop mass incarceration focused on black girls are almost nonexistant in government policy, the media, foundations and academia.
Recently, the Thelton Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Law School took the bold and necessary step of organizing a day-and-a-half free event titled, "African American Girls and Young Women and Juvenile Justice System: A Call to Action."
The beauty of this conference was the focus on black girls and the passionate energy to create a path for action among the participants.
Academics and activists, among them formerly incarcerated African American girls and young women, gathered together from across the divides of class, age, race and place to talk about what we know about these young people, their interaction with the criminal justice system--and what we are going to do about it.
Sociologist Nikki Jones of UC Santa Barbara, and Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii opened up the conference with a look at the statistics.
"No", said Jones, "Black girls are not committing more crimes, even though they are being incarcerated in record numbers."
"I've been studying this for decades," said Chesney-Lind. She added, "We have never seen these kind of numbers before. National policies like zero tolerance are responsible for the school to prison pipeline. And a dual justice system that treats white girls differently from black girls is disproportionately impacting African American girls."
She continued, "In 2008, we knew the arrest rate in California was 49 out of every 1,000 for black girls, 8.9 per 1,000 for white girls and 14.9 per 1,000 for Latinas."
The cause of the over criminalization of African American young women is best understood by looking back through the lens of American history and the ideological construction of black criminality.
"The shackles of slavery endured into other eras, including convict leasing systems and chain gangs," said Prisicilla Ocen, a professor at UCLA's Critical Race Studies.
"In order to sustain these systems, de-humanizing stereotypes of black women were created to maintain the difference between white and African American women," she said. "Black girls are still dealing with racial and gendered stereotypes that were used to justify punishment."
Ocen continued, "These historical stereotypes laid the groundwork for the creation of a dual criminal justice system - one where African American women and girls are treated differently for the same behaviors."
Many participants saw the treatment of African American girls in the justice system as criminal with little accountability. "Adults are committing crimes too; this is part of the story that needs to be told," said Barry Krisberg, Research and Policy Director at UC Berkeley's Earl Warren Institute on Law.
Krisberg went on, "Once in the criminal justice system, African American girls are treated with brutality, so much emotional and sexual abuse. We are violating African American girls' human rights everyday in all 58 counties of California. Where are the lawsuits? Where is the accountability?"
The breadth of the problem seems overwhelming, yet no one at the conference seemed daunted. The resolve in the room at Boalt Law School was palpable and the ideas for action began to flow. Formerly incarcerated participants, who work at the Center for Young Women's Development (CYWD), and other formerly incarcerated African American girls will lead these efforts. They are the experts.
For the past 17 years, young women at CYWD have been leaving jail, the street economies and gangs to work for self healing, social justice, policy change and a meaningful place in their communities.
"The call to action is the task before us-there are a number of things we can do," said Lateefah Simon, activist and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights San Francisco.
"The Henderson Center can provide institutional support for African American Leaders, who are engaging in the criminal justice system. We can convene all the judges, we can organize ourselves locally and nationally to focus on African American girl," said Simon. "Yes, let's do that--we want our girls to be free."
There is room for everyone to have a meaningful part in efforts to stop the over incarceration of African American girls or young women. For more information about how to get involved in this effort please contact: african.american.girls.a.call.to.action@lists.berkeley.edu
Rachel Pfeffer is the founder of the Center for Young Women's Development and currently on the Advisory Board. For more information www.cywd.org.=
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12) US government denies entry visa to Malalai Joya, Afghan women's rights activist and author
March 17, 2011
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1255
For Immediate Release -
The United States has denied a travel visa to Malalai Joya, an acclaimed women's rights activist and former member of Afghanistan's parliament. Ms. Joya, who was named one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, was set to begin a three-week US tour to promote an updated edition of her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords, published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Joya's publisher at Scribner, Alexis Gargagliano, said, "We had the privilege to publish Ms. Joya, and her earlier 2009 book tour met with wide acclaim. The right of authors to travel and promote their work is central to freedom of expression and the full exchange of ideas." Joya's memoir has been translated into over a dozen languages, and she has toured widely including Australia, the UK, Canada, Norway, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands in support of the book over the past two years.
Colleagues of Ms. Joya's report that when she presented herself as scheduled at the U.S. embassy, she was told she was being denied because she was "unemployed" and "lives underground." Then 27, Joya was the youngest woman elected to Afghanistan's parliament in 2005. Because of her harsh criticism of warlords and fundamentalists in Afghanistan, she has been the target of at least five assassination attempts. "The reason Joya lives underground is because she faces the constant threat of death for having had the courage to speak up for women's rights - it's obscene that the U.S. government would deny her entry," said Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women's Mission, a U.S. based organization that has hosted Joya for speaking tours in the past and is a sponsor of this year's national tour.
Joya has also become an internationally known critic of the US-NATO war in Afghanistan. Organizers argue that the denial of Joya's visa appears to be a case of what the American Civil Liberties Union describes as "Ideological Exclusion," which they say violates Americans' First Amendment right to hear constitutionally protected speech by denying foreign scholars, artists, politicians and others entry to the United States.
Events featuring Malalai Joya are planned, from March 20 until April 10, in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and California. Organizers of her speaking tour are encouraging people to contact the Department of State to ask them to fulfill the promise from the Obama Administration of "promoting the global marketplace of ideas" and grant Joya's visa immediately.
Malalai Joya is available for a limited number of interviews. Contact Sonali Kolhatkar (626-676-7884), Prachi Patankar (917-415-0659), or Natalie Reyes (562) 319-3046).
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Praise for Malalai Joya and A Woman Among Warlords:
'The youngest and most famous of all the women in the Afghan parliament...a powerful symbol of change'
- Guardian
'A courageous female MP'
- The Times
'... one of the few symbols of hope for Afghanistan's future.'
- New Statesman
'Quite simply the most passionate and devastating critique of Western intervention in Afghanistan I have ever read.'
- Peace News
'[Has] spoken her mind as few Afghan women dare to do'
- New York Times
'Malalai Joya leaves us with hope that the tormented people of Afghanistan can take their fate into their own hands if they are released from the grip of foreign powers.'
- Noam Chomsky
'Unwavering in her mission to bring true democracy to her country...Women have been known to walk for miles just to touch her. For them, she is their only real hope for a better future'
- Telegraph
'Joya is a model for women everywhere seeking to make the world more just.'
- Six women Nobel Peace Prize laureates
'Joya's pain and bravery are genuine and can be felt on almost every page'
- Christina Lamb, Sunday Times
'A fascinating account of Afghanistan's political reality...Malalai Joya has been compared to Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi'
- Irish Times
'Malalai Joya is a staunch defender of human rights and a powerful voice for Afghan women.'
- Human Rights Watch
'Heroic'
- John Pilger
'Extraordinary'
- The Independent
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13) U.N. to Vote on Libya Airstrikes; U.S. Readies Forces
The Wall Street Journal
By JOE LAURIA, ADAM ENTOUS, YAROSLAV TROFIMOV and SAM DAGHER
MARCH 17, 2011, 2:33 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206373350344478.html
The United Nations Security Council was set to vote at 6 p.m. on a
resolution that would authorize airstrikes on Libya, several diplomats
said, as Col. Moammar Gadhafi's air force bombed the opposition's capital
of Benghazi in a push to end the month-long revolt against his rule.
The U.S. joined Britain and France Thursday in pushing for the vote.
"We need to act quickly," said Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong, the current
Security Council president. Mr. Li didn't indicate how China would vote.
Beijing has been considered a possible obstacle to passage of a resolution.
French Ambassador Gerard Araud said there would no unanimity. "There will
be some suprises and more than one abstention," he said. Diplomats
speculated that as many as five nations could abstain, including China,
Russia, Germany, India and South Africa.
The measure would pass with nine votes and no vetoes on the 15-member
council.
In anticipation of authorization to use force, the Pentagon was
fine-tuning military options for "serious" strikes against ground and air
targets in Libya, military and defense officials said.
A defense official said the U.S. military has enough assets in place to
begin strikes almost immediately.
"There is significant, serious planning going on right now," an official
said. The options would be "more aggressive than a show of force," the
official added.
Options included using cruise missiles to take out fixed Libyan military
sites and air-defense systems. Manned and unmanned aircraft could be used
against Col. Gadhafi's tanks, personnel carriers and infantry positions.
Sorties could be flown out of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization
bases in the southern Mediterranean.
Officials said the goal would be to protect civilians in Benghazi, push
Col. Gadhafi's forces back, and sow enough confusion and disorder within
military ranks that officers will turn against Col. Gadhafi.
A Libyan defense committee, quoted on state television, said any foreign
military intervention in Libya would be met with attacks against military
and civilian ships and aircraft in the Mediterranean. "The Mediterranean
Sea basin will be in grave danger not only in the short-term but in the
long-term as well," the committee said.
Libya's military could "cause harm but it is obsolete and it can be dealt
with swiftly" by NATO assets, said Riad Kahwaji, of the Institute for Near
East and Gulf military studies, in Dubai. Because of sanctions that lasted
almost ten years and were only lifted in 2003, Libya hasn't been able yet
to renovate its military arsenal, he said.
The U.K. Thursday said it welcomed what it said was a "significant change"
in the U.S. position, after a week of frustration from Britain and France
at what they saw as foot-dragging by other nations on the issue of a
military response.
In discussions with other U.N. Security Council members, the Obama
administration has made the case that simply establishing a no-fly zone to
ground Col. Gadhafi's air force would be "insufficient" to save Benghazi,
in eastern Libya since Col. Gadhafi could strike the city with ground
forces, officials said.
The draft resolution, however, included the authorization of a no-fly
zone, which would set up a ban on all flights in Libyan airspace "in order
to help protect civilians," with the exception of humanitarian aircraft or
planes evacuating foreign nationals.
Leaders of the month-old Libyan uprising insisted that Benghazi, a city of
700,000 residents where opposition to Col. Gadhafi has always been strong,
won't fall easily-even if the international community doesn't intervene.
"Benghazi is a hard city to conquer, and we're not afraid," said Maj. Gen.
Ahmad Gothrani, a senior commander in the rebel army. "We're fighting for a
cause, while Gadhafi is fighting to keep a rusty chair."
The head of the rebel council managing the city, Saleh el Gazal, a
70-year-old businessman who spent 18 years in jail for opposing Col.
Gadhafi's rule, said Benghazi would be able to hold out for a long time.
"We have no fear of running out of supplies-our stocks will last three or
four months," he said.
Col. Gadhafi's forces bombed the city for the second day in a row
Thursday, near the airport on the southern edge of the city, killing one
shepherd and injuring at least 12 civilians, rebel officials said.
The bombing brought Col. Gadhafi's forces the closest to the rebels'
stronghold since the uprising began. The raids and the advances made by
Col. Gadhafi's forces prompted stores and businesses in Benghazi, which
maintained an air of surprising normality until just a couple of days
earlier, to close down on Thursday.
Meanwhile, rebel resistance appeared to be vanishing in the recently
captured city of Ajdabiya.
In the port of Tobruq, the influx of refugees from Ajdabiya stopped on
Thursday, as Col. Gadhafi's forces appeared to have shut down the only exit
route from the strategic city.
Rebel spirits were buoyed somewhat on Thursday by reports that their
anti-aircraft artillery managed to shoot down at least one Gadhafi warplane
near Benghazi.
Shelling resumed Thursday against the coastal city of Misrata, the only
rebel-controlled city in western Libya, one day after pro-Gadhafi troops
tried to storm the center from the south, east and west.
A doctor inside the city said at least 21 people were killed over the two
days of fighting, including three rebels who died in clashes with
government troops on Thursday. The doctor said surgical supplies were
running low in the city, 130 miles east of Tripoli.
Photographs coming out of the city showed damage to several buildings
including a mosque and a library in the center.
A resident, who is affiliated with the rebel military and civilian
councils that were established after rebels took control of the city last
month, said Misrata had been without water for almost one week and that
cellular phone coverage was disconnected Tuesday.
He said troops were stationed in farmland to the west and east as well as
at the air force academy and civilian airport in the south and that they
were targeting anyone affiliated with the rebels through assassination,
kidnapping or the use of snipers on rooftops in areas close to the center.
He said one of his relatives was killed over the weekend when his vehicle
was sprayed with bullets while traveling to his farm on the outskirts.
Rebels planted roadside bombs at the entrances of the city to impede the
advance of government troops, according to this person.
"Our goal is the toppling of the regime, no dialogue, no negotiations," he
said.
The government in Tripoli couldn't be immediately reached for comment on
events in Misrata.
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14) Libya: Rank Imperial Hypocrisy
The Rustbelt Radical
March 18, 2011
http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/7088/
The cynicism and hypocrisy on display over the vote in the United Nations Security Council, whose permanent members constitute a den of thieves if ever there was one, for an assault on forces loyal to Gaddafi in Libya is rank, even by the odoriferous standards of that body. The very same day the United States was, yet again, accused of a drone strike resulting in the mass murder of civilians in Pakistan. The very same day, just kilometers from where the United States' vaunted Fifth Fleet is stationed, US allies Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were gunning down protesters on the streets of Manama. Just this morning nearly 30 protesters were killed by US ally Yemen.
For years since Muammar came in from the cold in 2003 European and American arms exporters have been selling weapons to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Gaddafi regime. Italy, France, Germany and Britain sought to lift the arms embargo in 2004 and they got quite a return for their efforts. Those planes bombing the Libyan revolutionaries are French Mirages, and now France will send their own against the ones they sold yesterday. And then there is the oil....
I support the overthrow of Gaddafi by his own people; he should go the way of Ceausescu. I do not support the overthrow of Gaddafi by the most criminal regimes in the world, US and European imperial powers. France bombing North Africa? No thanks, seen that movie before. The United States bombing an Arab country? Way past time to end the sequels in that franchise too. There is not an instance in the last 100 years and longer, and if readers can come up with one please do share, where imperial powers have played anything but a pernicious role in the region. Just look at where those weapons Gaddafi is using to role over the towns held by revolutionaries come from. We are to trust those same mother fuckers with saving the Lybian people? Not for a single moment.
I wish the workers movement was in a position to independently help the Libyan revolution. I wish the popular revolts in the region were able to as well. But the left can't take responsibility for a situation where we have little or no power. Yes, I know my wishes mean nothing to those under the most dangerous, do-or-die assault from Gaddafi and they need real assistance. If we were in a position to give genuine assistance we would do so, happily. The assistance given by the imperial powers may provide a temporary reprieve from the counter-revolutionary onslaught of the regime, but that assistance is not genuine. It comes with a huge price tag; the independence of Libya.
There is much more to say on this and the situation is deserving of far more than a rant, but it's 7 AM and a rant seems the most appropriate response I can give at the moment. Victory to the Libyan Revolution! Death to Imperialism!
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15) U.S. Hands Off Libya and Bahrain
Issued Thursday evening, March 17, 2011
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace.org
The United National Antiwar Committee (UNACpeace.org) calls for emergency day-after demonstrations in every location in the US tomorrow, Friday, March 18th, and Saturday, March 19, to protest the UN Security Council vote (10 for and 0 against, 6 abstentions) authorizing military action against Libya.
France has indicated it is ready to launch air strikes within hours, and all day media reports have said the US and Britain as well as other powers could strike as soon.
Obama has made clear his strategy now is not primarily imposition of a no fly zone but rather air strikes on Libyan government forces and personnel, which will inevitably claim many civilian casualties.
The utter hypocrisy and cynicism of this declaration of war is best seen the lack of any response to the U.S. equipped Saudi attack on Bahrain and the brutal repression of the unarmed movement that is underway now.
It is important to note that the U.S. Government stopped all action, even a UN resolution, against the massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2008 or the bombardment and attempted invasion of Lebanon in 2006.
Therefore, we are sure that the US-promoted UN Security Council resolution will not be used to defend the movement for democracy and dignity in the Arab world, but to establish a military presence antagonistic to genuine self-determination in all the nations in which the masses are mobilizing.
UNAC says NO air strikes!
NO no-fly zone!
NO imperialist military intervention of any kind against Libya!
US/UN/NATO hands off Libya and Bahrain!
All out Friday, March 18th and/or Saturday, March 19th
Forward to building massive antiwar demonstrations on April 9 &10.
In NYC an Emergency Protest is called for in front of the Federal Building, 26 Federal Plaza, Broadway side from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, today, March 18th.
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16) Swazi regime prepares to suppress peaceful demonstration
By Peter Kenworthy, Africa Contact's Swaziland group
Peter Kenworthy
Dickens Alle 2
2860 Søborg
Denmark
Tlf. +45 23 26 52 55
pechken@gmail.com
The Swazi police forces and army are preparing to clamp down heavily on today's demonstration in Manzini. The government is prepared for demonstrations against its increasingly unpopular policies and cut-backs on public services and salaries, and has positioned 20 000 troops in and around Manzini, as well as having recently purchased new weapons for its police and paramilitary armed forces.
The demonstration has been announced by the unions and Democratic movement in an attempt to highlight and protest against the planned cuts, but is also a call for democracy. According to the Swaziland United Democratic Front (SUDF), an umbrella organization of democratic forces in Swaziland, "the regime is preparing to brutally crush the peaceful demonstrations."
In a press statement yesterday, the SUDF insisted that "the time for an all-inclusive interim government has come. We appeal to the international community to finally heed our call for targeted smart sanctions on the collective leadership of the Tinkhundla regime until our demands are met."
In another press statement, the Swaziland National Union of Students was even more explicit in stating that their "demand in tomorrow's protest action is for the government to resign and the immediate establishment of a transitional government that should draft, in consultation with our people, a democratic constitution that will lead us towards free and fair democratic elections."
On previous occasions mass protests in Swaziland, such as the "Global Day of Action" in September 2010, have been met by acts of violence by the Swazi police and armed forces.
Swaziland is nominally a middle-income nation, but the income differential in the country is huge. Unemployment is around 50%, 40% have AIDS, the average age in 31 years, and two thirds of the population has to get by for under a dollar a day. All of this while a small minority, especially the Royal family, live in luxury.
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16) 7th CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS RULES IN FAVOR OF ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
John Stainthorp (773)235-0070 ext. 120
Janine Hoft (773)235-0070 ext. 115
www.peopleslawoffice.com
7th CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS RULES IN FAVOR OF ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS
CHICAGO, IL March 17, 2011: Today, on the eve of the 8 year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq and the huge Chicago protest to that war, the Seventh Circuit has recognized the Constitutional rights of people to protest in their decision in Vodak v. City of Chicago. In the class action lawsuit, the Court of Appeals held in a unanimous decision that the police may not lawfully arrest people merely for being present at a demonstration.
One of the class attorneys John Stainthorp, a civil rights lawyer with People's Law Office in Chicago, responded to the decision saying, "We are pleased that the Court of Appeals has strongly reaffirmed the right of the people to protest the actions of the government and express their opposition to the war in Iraq. The actions of the City of Chicago and its police department in 2003 in illegally arresting hundreds of people whose only crime was voicing their political opinions was an outrageous assault on our rights under the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution to freely express our opposition to the war without fear of arrest and prosecution."
The 24 page decision written by Judge Posner affirms the Constitutional right to protest and stresses that the police cannot make mass arrests of demonstrators without probable cause. In describing the illegal actions of the Chicago Police, Judge Posner writes, "What they could not lawfully do, in circumstances that were not threatening to the safety of the police or other people, was arrest people who the police had no good reason to believe knew they were violating a police order."
The Court of Appeals recognized that the case is already more than seven years old and urged its expeditious resolution. Janine Hoft, also a civil rights attorney at People's Law Office and class counsel said, "We hope the new mayor will heed the 7th Circuit's call and at long last recommend justice for aggrieved demonstrators rather than continuing to pay private defense lawyers millions of dollars to defend illegal actions of the police department."
The class action lawsuit has been litigated by a legal team of attorneys and legal workers associated with the National Lawyers Guild. Counsel on the case has included civil rights attorneys Melinda Power and Jim Fennerty. Other People's Law Office attorneys who have worked on the case have involved Joey Mogul and Sarah Gelsomino.
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17) Judge Halts Implementation of Anti-Union Law in Wisconsin
By: David Dayen
Friday March 18, 2011 9:10 am
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/03/18/judge-halts-implementation-of-anti-union-law-in-wisconsin/
According to news reporter Jessica Arp, a Dane County judge in Wisconsin has halted the implementation of Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union law. Judge Maryann Sumi said that the prosecution was likely to succeed on their claim that the conference committee for the bill, which stripped collective bargaining from most state workers, violated open meeting requirements.
Sumi stressed that she was not judging on the merits of the legislation, but on the specifics of the open meeting requirements. Wisconsin law requires that public meetings are announced with 24 hours notice, 2 hours if there's some extenuating circumstance which prevents advanced planning. The meeting in question, the conference committee, actually had less than two hours notice. "I have been shown no rule that overrides the statutory requirement," Judge Sumi said.
The legislature in Wisconsin could simply re-do the conference committee, under the rules, and pass the bill again. Since they believe it's a "non-fiscal" bill, quorum requirements would not apply. Alternatively, with the Fab 14 Senators back in Madison, they could just pass the budget repair bill they wanted all along, and have the quorum to do so, unless the Democrats leave the state again.
But this temporary restraining order will stop the implementation scheduled for March 25. And it drags out the process once again, keeping it in the headlines. This is not at all what Scott Walker and the Republicans facing recall elections wanted to see.
In addition, it gives time for other legal cases to be brought. There could be municipal challenges that the law's changes in pension contributions violates "home rule" provisions that allow the cities and towns to govern their own pensions for their workers.
Meanwhile, the labor assault in the states continued this week, as Oklahoma became the latest to eliminate collective bargaining for state workers, reversing a 2004 bill that allowed unionization in municipalities. Like Scott Walker's bill in Wisconsin, it exempts police and firefighters, but strips collective bargaining for "non-uniform" public employees. Four cities which had agreements before 2004 will get to keep them.
Clearly, this is a coordinated effort to bust unions across the country. But in Wisconsin, for the time being, they've been stopped.
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18) At Least 40 Protesters Are Killed in Yemen
By LAURA KASINOF and J. DAVID GOODMAN
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/middleeast/19yemen.html?hp?hp
SANA, Yemen - Security forces and government supporters opened fire on demonstrators in the capital on Friday, killing at least 40 people, according to a doctor at a makeshift hospital near the scene. But the crackdown failed to disperse the protest, the largest seen so far in the center of the city.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a state of emergency shortly after the violence, and denied that security forces had been involved in any shooting.
The level of violence dwarfed that seen in previous clashes during weeks of large protests in cities around Yemen calling for Mr. Saleh's immediate ouster.
By escalating its violent response, the government appeared to take up the same playbook that Libya and Bahrain have followed this week. The move opened a troubling new chapter for Yemen, a strife-torn nation that is home to one of Al Qaeda's most active affiliates and has been an American ally in the fight against terrorism.
At a news conference in Sana, Mr. Saleh claimed that the clashes on Friday were between "citizens and demonstrators" and that "the police were not present and did not open fire."
President Obama condemned violence in a written statement that called on President Saleh "to adhere to his public pledge to allow demonstrations to take place peacefully." He added: "Those responsible for today's violence must be held accountable."
The death toll rose through the afternoon as some of the more than 200 people who were wounded by gunfire, or by rocks hurled by government supporters, succumbed to their injuries, according to the doctor, Muhammed Rizq, and others at a makeshift hospital near the protest site. The majority of those killed had been shot in the head or neck, doctors said.
Despite the heavy toll, the protesters in Sana kept control of a lengthening portion of Ring Road, which stretches from Sana University to a central highway overpass, as the shooting appeared to halt in the middle of the afternoon.
The security forces that had massed at the protest's south end then began to pull back into the city center, firing tear gas as hundreds of protesters gave chase, hurling rocks. People in apartments overlooking the action tossed onions down to the protesters for them to use to relieve the effects of the tear gas.
The violence began almost immediately after the protesters' noon prayers, conducted en masse in the street. As they rose, government supporters in plain clothes opened fire from rooftops and windows, while security forces at the south end of the protest fired guns and a water cannon, apparently in an effort to keep demonstrators from moving further into the center of the capital.
A heavy cloud of black smoke was seen over the downtown commercial district at the southern end of the protest, which swelled to tens of thousands of people and stretched for a mile from its center at Sana University.
Though many in the crowd ran for cover when the shooting started, a crowd of mostly tribal men from the outskirts of the capital appeared to stand firm. A man walked through the crowd with a microphone yelling, "Peaceful, peaceful! Don't be afraid of the bullets!"
Then the shooting appeared to stop, and the security forces withdrew about a mile down the wet, rock-strew road.
Scores of injured men were carried in bloody blankets through the crowd of protesters to a mosque that had been turned into a makeshift hospital, with the dead and wounded lying on its floor. Many of the wounded appeared to have been hurt by rocks as well as bullets.
Some of the men in the protest raided buildings where gunmen had been seen. The men peeked out of windows and flashed peace signs to indicate to the crowd below that they were not, themselves, snipers. Flames erupted from a building said to have housed a sniper, while elsewhere government supporters burned tents belonging to protesters.
In several raids at a far edge of the protest, men said to be a snipers were caught and beaten by angry demonstrators. Protesters pulled one suspected sniper from an apartment overlooking the demonstration, and said that they found military uniforms and Defense Ministry identification in the apartment.
With the violence spreading, many people in central Sana took cover. "Today is the worst day; this is a new Qaddafi," said Khalil al-Zekry, who hunkered down in his video shop along the protest route.
Tensions have increased in the capital. Clashes broke out last weekend at the continuing sit-in near the university. But during those clashes, the security forces generally used tear gas and fired into the air rather than at protesters.
In an attempt to quell opposition, Mr. Saleh has offered concessions, including a promise not to run for a new term in 2013 and a proposal to hand over some powers to Parliament. But demonstrators and the political opposition have rejected his proposals, out of suspicion that Mr. Saleh, an American ally in the fight against terrorism, would find a way to extend his 32-year-rule once protests subsided.
Before Friday, at least 40 protesters had been killed in weeks of demonstrations across the country. Most of those deaths occurred in the restive southern port city of Aden, where protests have focused on seceding from the nation rather forcing Mr. Saleh from power.
Ibrahim Raja, an accountant who had protested against Mr. Saleh's rule on Friday but then fled the violence, stressed the peaceful nature of the demonstrations in the capital, opening his coat to show that he had no weapon. The Yemeni population, among the poorest in the Arab world, is also among the most heavily armed.
"All of us have a weapon in house," he said. "None of us have our weapons here."
Another protester, Abdul-Ghani Soliman, said he was not surprised by the violence.
"I actually expect more than this, because freedom requires martyrs," said Mr. Soliman, an unemployed tribesman from outside Sana. "This will continue, and it will grow."
Laura Kasinof reported from Sana, Yemen, and J. David Goodman from New York.
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19) Bahrain Tears Down Monument as Protesters Seethe
By ETHAN BRONNER
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/middleeast/19bahrain.html?hp
MANAMA, Bahrain - Bahrain on Friday tore down the defining monument, the pearl at the center of Pearl Square, in a symbolic end to the popular protests put down by the government. The official news agency described the razing as a facelift.
It was one more strike at the movement, part of a chain of events that, in a matter of days, turned Bahrain from a symbol of hopeful pro-democratic protest into one of violent repression.
On Friday, the family of Ahmed Farhan, 30, who was killed on Tuesday by security forces in Sitra, an island south of the capital, received the body of their son, with its shotgun pellet wounds to the back and gaping hole in the skull. The family had been trying to bring him home to this activist Shiite village and bury him here, but permission was withheld.
In Bahrain, the Arab spring turned to winter in less than a week. Martial law was declared on Tuesday. It is now illegal to hold rallies. Tanks remain outside the central hospital and Saudi troops are here as back-up. Still, on Friday the Farhan family buried their son and, despite the ban on protests and gatherings, some 5,000 people helped them do it in their home village of Sitra. The village, once an island, is now linked to the mainland by landfill and causeway. It turned into a sea of raised fists and tearful wailing, piety and political indignation, the core of what has been driving the Bahraini protests since mid-February.
The Farhan family is poor, like many in this village, and like many of the 70 percent of the country that is Shiite. Ahmed Farhan, who never married, lived with his family in a ramshackle structure around a courtyard, having lost his job as a fisherman some years ago after harbor construction made fishing impossible. He was taking part in a protest demonstration when he was killed.
The battle to turn this kingdom into a democracy has also been a battle of class and ethnicity - poor majority Shiites against the Sunni elite and royal family. It is also an international struggle, with Saudi Arabia on one side, Iran on the other.
Mr. Farhan's body arrived hours after it was scheduled and came in a van owned by a local aluminum kitchen supply company. The authorities had claimed they had no driver to bring it back so the family had to ask neighbors at the last minute for it to be fetched.
The body was swathed in white cloth, the face exposed, the skull covered in netting to hide the terrible wound. The enormous bullet removed from his head was shown around. As the body was slid from the van, there were shouts of "God is great." It was washed and placed in a coffin draped in the Bahraini flag and covered with his photographs. Posters of the martyr were widely distributed.
"There is no god but God," those watching repeatedly chanted.
Prayers were recited outside the mosque attached to the cemetery. Hundreds of men crowded the main street. Women, draped nearly uniformly in black, stood to one side.
After praise of God and his prophet, the leader turned to politics. "Down with the Khalifas!" he shouted of the Bahraini royal family, to thunderous repetition. "Occupation forces out! Death to the Saudis! Death to Khalifa! Freedom for Bahrain!"
They added: "With our soul and our blood, we will redeem you, o martyr."
A military helicopter circled high in the sky and at the village entrance, troops and tanks awaited trouble. None came.
Shiite preachers at noon prayer across this island kingdom called for ongoing nonviolence. "The peaceful approach has been our choice since day one," Sheik Issa Qassem, the top Shiite clergyman here, said in his sermon. But rage and fear are spreading fast and nonviolence is likely to be a victim.
Basel Hamad, a 35-year-old information technology manager, lives in Sitra as did his parents and grandparents and he took part in the funeral march on Friday. He has three daughters and is wondering whether to move to Europe given what has happened in recent days.
"When this started, I thought the king would accept the changes," he said. "Now the people are very angry."
Ali Hbel, a taxi driver injured in the police action at Pearl Square on Wednesday, was also at the funeral. He showed his splintered arm from the injury and pointed simultaneously at the coffin of Mr. Farhan and said, "This is not going to go for free."
Nadim Audi contributed reporting.
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19) Japan Raises Nuclear Crisis Warning Level Retroactively
By HIROKO TABUCHI and KEITH BRADSHER
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/asia/19japan.html?hp
TOKYO - Japanese engineers battled on Friday to cool spent fuel rods and restore electric power to pumps at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station as new challenges seemed to accumulate by the hour, with steam billowing from one reactor and damage at another apparently making it difficult to lower temperatures.
As the crisis seemed to deepen, Japan's nuclear safety agency raised the assessment of its severity to 5 from 4 on a 7-level international scale retroactive to Tuesday, but it was unclear if the level reflected the current situation at the plant.
Outside experts have said for days that this disaster was worse than that at Three Mile Island - which was rated a 5 but released far less radiation outside the plant than Fukushima Daiichi already has.
The decision to raise the level came two days after the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned publicly that the situation at the crippled plant was much bleaker than Japanese officials had indicated, either because they were less worried or playing down the scope of the problems for fear of sparking panic.
A senior official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Friday that regulators had not raised the threat level earlier because they were still assessing the situation. But on Friday, they decided events starting at the plant on Tuesday had been worrisome enough to justify the higher rating.
There were two explosions at the plant Tuesday, which appeared to be the first day of significant releases of radiation.
Despite changing the threat level, the Japanese government did not extend the evacuation area from 12 miles. The United States on Tuesday warned its nationals in the area to move at least 50 miles away from the plant.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke to the nation after the announcement on the threat level was made, but he did not address it. Instead, he offered words of encouragement to his countrymen, saying "Japan will overcome this tragedy and will recover."
In a further sign of spreading alarm Friday that uranium in the Japanese plant could begin to melt, Japan planned to import about 150 tons of boron from South Korea and France to mix with water to be sprayed onto damaged reactors, French and South Korean officials said Friday. Boron absorbs neutrons during a nuclear reaction and can be used in an effort to stop a meltdown if the zirconium cladding on uranium fuel rods is compromised.
Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the plant, said earlier this week that there was a possibility of "recriticality," in which fission would resume if fuel rods melted and the uranium pellets slumped into a jumble on the floor of a storage pool or reactor core. Spraying pure water on the uranium under these conditions can actually accelerate fission, said Robert Albrecht, a longtime nuclear engineer.
Nuclear reactions at the plant had been halted soon after last week's 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.
In the last two days, Japanese officials have focused their efforts on cooling spent fuel rods in a storage pool in Reactor No. 3, but steam that was probably laden with radioactive particles was also seen on Friday rising from Reactor No. 2. That reactor was one of two hit by an explosion on Tuesday.
Additionally, a senior Western nuclear industry executive said that there also appeared to be damage to the floor or sides of the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4, and that this was making it extremely hard to refill the pool with water. The problem was first reported by The Los Angeles Times.
Engineers had said on Thursday that a rip in the stainless steel lining of the pool at Reactor No. 4 and the concrete base underneath it was possible as a result of earthquake damage. The steel gates at either end of the storage pool are also vulnerable to damage during an earthquake and could leak water if they no longer close tightly.
The senior executive, who asked not to be identified because his comments could damage business relationships, said Friday that a leak had not been located but that engineers had concluded that it must exist because water sprayed on the storage pool has been disappearing much more quickly than would be consistent with evaporation.
Technicians at the plant focused Friday on fixing electrical connections at Reactor No. 2 and spraying more water on Reactor No. 3 while studying the problem at Reactor No. 4.
"They have to figure out what to do, and certainly you can't have No. 2 going haywire or No. 3 going haywire at the same time you're trying to figure out what to do with No. 4," said the executive, who said he had learned of the problem from industry contacts in Japan.
One concern at No. 4 has been a fire that was burning at its storage pool earlier in the week; American officials are not convinced the fire has gone out. American officials have also worried that the spent-fuel pool at that reactor has run dry, exposing the rods.
The new setbacks emerged as the first readings from American data-collection flights over the plant in northeastern Japan showed that the worst contamination had not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.
But another day of frantic efforts on Thursday to cool nuclear fuel in the troubled reactors and in the plant's spent-fuel pools resulted in little or no progress, according to United States government officials. The crisis at the plant seemed increasingly to have produced divergent narratives in Washington and Tokyo, with Japanese officials emphasizing the efforts they were making to tame the damaged plant and American officials highlighting the challenges.
On Friday, water cannons sprayed the stricken Reactor No. 3, live video on the public broadcaster NHK suggested. The footage showed a stream of water aimed at the damaged reactor building, which was rocked by an explosion on Monday, and occasional clouds of steam rising into the air. The Defense Ministry said soldiers of the Japan Self-Defense Force were manning seven trucks that were approaching the No. 3 building one after the other, staying near the reactor for only a short period to minimize soldiers' exposure to radiation.
With a first phase of the operation completed, "the water is likely to have reached the target," said Shigeru Iwasaki, the chief of staff of Japan's Air Self Defense Force. The water cannons were reported to have returned to the plant later in the day. Perhaps because of the difficulties experienced on Thursday trying to accurately drop water from helicopters, the military announced on Friday that it was halting those efforts for at least a day. But the limited flow of information about what is happening continued to provoke international concerns.
After a meeting with Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday, Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he would dispatch a team "within days" to monitor radiation near the damaged plant.
At the meeting, Mr. Amano, who had just arrived from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, said Mr. Kan agreed on the necessity to disclose as much information as possible on the unfolding nuclear crisis in Fukushima. "What's important is coordination with international society and better transparency," Mr. Amano told reporters before the meeting.
The data from American flights was collected by the Aerial Measuring System, among the most sophisticated devices rushed to Japan by the Obama administration in an effort to help contain a nuclear crisis that a top American nuclear official said Thursday could go on for weeks.
Strapped onto a plane and a helicopter that the United States flew over the site, with Japanese permission, the equipment took measurements that showed harmful radiation in the immediate vicinity of the plant - a much heavier dose than the trace levels of radioactive particles that make up the atmospheric plume covering a much wider area.
While the findings were reassuring in the short term, the United States declined to back away from its warning to Americans there to stay at least 50 miles from the plant, setting up a far larger perimeter than the Japanese government had established. American officials did not release specific radiation readings.
American officials said their biggest worry was that a frenetic series of efforts by the Japanese military to get water into four of the plant's six reactors - showed few signs of working.
"This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as eventually you remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent fuel pool," said Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, briefing reporters at the White House.
After a day in which American and Japanese officials gave radically different assessments of the danger from the nuclear plant, the two governments tried on Thursday to join forces.
Experts met in Tokyo to compare notes. The United States, with Japanese permission, began to put the intelligence-collection aircraft over the site, in hopes of gaining a view for Washington as well as its allies in Tokyo that did not rely on the announcements of officials from Tokyo Electric, which operates Fukushima Daiichi.
American officials say they suspect that the company has consistently underestimated the risk and moved too slowly to contain the damage.
Aircraft normally used to monitor North Korea's nuclear weapons activities - a Global Hawk drone and U-2 spy planes - were flying missions over the reactor, trying to help the Japanese government map out its response to last week's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami that followed and now the nuclear disaster.
American officials, meanwhile, remained fixated on the temperature readings inside Reactor No. 2 and two others that had been operating until the earthquake shut them down, as well as at the plant's spent fuel pools, looking for any signs that their high levels of heat were going down. If the fuel rods are uncovered and exposed to air, they heat up and can burst into flame, spewing radioactive elements. So far the officials saw no signs of dropping temperatures. And the Web site of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, made it clear that there were no readings at all from some critical areas. Part of the American effort, by satellites and aircraft, is to identify the hot spots, something the Japanese have not been able to do in some cases.
Critical to that effort are the "pods" flown into Japan by the Air Force in the past day. Made for quick assessments of radiation emergencies, the Aerial Measuring System is an instrument system that fits on a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft to sample air and survey the land below.
Getting the Japanese to accept the American detection equipment was a delicate diplomatic maneuver, which some Japanese officials originally resisted. But as it became clear that conditions at the plant were spinning out of control, and with Japanese officials admitting they had little hard evidence about whether there was water in the cooling pools or breaches in the reactor containment structures, they began to accept more help.
The sensors on the instrument pod are good at mapping radioactive isotopes, like cesium 137, which has been detected around the nuclear complex and has a half-life of 30 years. In high doses, it can cause acute radiation sickness. Lower doses can alter cellular function, leading to an increased risk of cancer.
Cesium 137 can enter the body through many foods, including milk.
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Tokyo and Keith Bradsher reported from Hong Kong. Reporting was contributed by David E. Sanger from Washington, William J. Broad from New York, Thom Shanker from Washington and Alan Cowell from Paris.
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20) The Forgotten Millions
By PAUL KRUGMAN
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18krugman.html?hp
More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed.
Jobs do get mentioned now and then - and a few political figures, notably Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, are still trying to get some kind of action. But no jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts.
So one-sixth of America's workers - all those who can't find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job - have, in effect, been abandoned.
It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that's very difficult to escape. There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.
In short, we're well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn't Washington care?
Part of the answer may be that while those who are unemployed tend to stay unemployed, those who still have jobs are feeling more secure than they did a couple of years ago. Layoffs and discharges spiked during the crisis of 2008-2009 but have fallen sharply since then, perhaps reducing the sense of urgency. Put it this way: At this point, the U.S. economy is suffering from low hiring, not high firing, so things don't look so bad - as long as you're willing to write off the unemployed.
Yet polls indicate that voters still care much more about jobs than they do about the budget deficit. So it's quite remarkable that inside the Beltway, it's just the opposite.
What makes this even more remarkable is the fact that the economic arguments used to justify the D.C. deficit obsession have been repeatedly refuted by experience.
On one side, we've been warned, over and over again, that "bond vigilantes" will turn on the U.S. government unless we slash spending immediately. Yet interest rates remain low by historical standards; indeed, they're lower now than they were in the spring of 2009, when those dire warnings began.
On the other side, we've been assured that spending cuts would do wonders for business confidence. But that hasn't happened in any of the countries currently pursuing harsh austerity programs. Notably, when the Cameron government in Britain announced austerity measures last May, it received fawning praise from U.S. deficit hawks. But British business confidence plunged, and it has not recovered.
Yet the obsession with spending cuts flourishes all the same - unchallenged, it must be said, by the White House.
I still don't know why the Obama administration was so quick to accept defeat in the war of ideas, but the fact is that it surrendered very early in the game. In early 2009, John Boehner, now the speaker of the House, was widely and rightly mocked for declaring that since families were suffering, the government should tighten its own belt. That's Herbert Hoover economics, and it's as wrong now as it was in the 1930s. But, in the 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama adopted exactly the same metaphor and began using it incessantly.
And earlier this week, the White House budget director declared: "There is an agreement that we should be reducing spending," suggesting that his only quarrel with Republicans is over whether we should be cutting taxes, too. No wonder, then, that according to a new Pew Research Center poll, a majority of Americans see "not much difference" between Mr. Obama's approach to the deficit and that of Republicans.
So who pays the price for this unfortunate bipartisanship? The increasingly hopeless unemployed, of course. And the worst hit will be young workers - a point made in 2009 by Peter Orszag, then the White House budget director. As he noted, young Americans who graduated during the severe recession of the early 1980s suffered permanent damage to their earnings. And if the average duration of unemployment is any indication, it's even harder for new graduates to find decent jobs now than it was in 1982 or 1983.
So the next time you hear some Republican declaring that he's concerned about deficits because he cares about his children - or, for that matter, the next time you hear Mr. Obama talk about winning the future - you should remember that the clear and present danger to the prospects of young Americans isn't the deficit. It's the absence of jobs.
But, as I said, these days Washington doesn't seem to care about any of that. And you have to wonder what it will take to get politicians caring again about America's forgotten millions._
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21) Early Questions After Japan
New York Times Editorial
[Sorry, this quick fix is not good enough--SHUT THEM DOWN...BW]
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/opinion/18fri1.html?hp
As Japan's nuclear crisis unfolds, nations around the world are looking at the safety of their nuclear reactors - as they should. But most are also waiting until all the facts are in before deciding whether or how to change their nuclear plans. The Obama administration has vowed to learn from the Japanese experience and incorporate new safety approaches if needed.
That makes sense to us - so long as there is rigorous follow-through. The operator of the stricken plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, and the Japanese government have been disturbingly opaque about what is happening at the Fukushima Daiichi complex and about efforts to prevent a meltdown and the potential public threat.
That has deepened anxieties in Japan and around the world and led the United States government to take the extraordinary step of announcing that the damage to at least one of the crippled reactors may be far worse than Tokyo had admitted - and urging Americans there to move further away from the official safety perimeter.
Still, enough is known to begin raising questions about our own nuclear operations. We hope regulators and industry leaders are equally forthcoming about this country's vulnerabilities and challenges.
One of the first questions is whether current evacuation plans are robust enough. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires plant operators to alert the public within a 10-mile radius if a dangerous plume of radioactivity will be heading their way, and local officials decide whether to order an evacuation. The American Embassy in Japan, based on advice from Washington regulators, has told Americans there to evacuate to a radius of about 50 miles from the Fukushima plant.
Why wouldn't a worst-case accident here merit the same caution? The difficulty, of course, is that some plants - including Indian Point north of New York City - are within 50 miles of millions of people. Regulators will need to clarify this discrepancy or start coming up with more ambitious evacuation plans.
Regulators need to immediately review their safety analyses of two California plants, which, like the Fukushima plant, are located on the coast and near geological faults and might theoretically face the double calamity of an earthquake and tsunami.
The type of reactors used at the Fukushima plant - made by the General Electric Company, they are known as Mark 1 boiling-water reactors - have long been known to have weak containment systems. In Japan, they appear to have been ruptured by explosions of escaping hydrogen. American regulators will need to determine whether similar reactors in this country are vulnerable and whether modifications in newer versions have made them sufficiently safe.
The stricken Japanese complex housed six reactors in close proximity; explosions, fires and radiation spread damage among four of them and has made rescue efforts harder. Regulators will need to look at whether American nuclear plants with multiple reactors are vulnerable to the same cascading effects. In recent days, a new danger has emerged in the spent fuel pools adjacent to the reactors. At least one has apparently lost its cooling water and another is cracked and possibly losing water. If the fuel catches fire, it could spew radiation over a large area. Regulators here may need to expedite the removal of some spent fuel from pools to dry storage in casks.
So far, the all-important lesson would seem to be: have sufficient emergency power at hand to keep cooling water circulating in the reactors to prevent a meltdown.
The Japanese reactors seem to have survived one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded without major structural damage. The crisis developed because the plant lost electrical power from the grid and the tsunami knocked out its backup diesel generators. American regulators must ensure that all nuclear plants have enough mobile generators or other backup power in place if their first two lines of defense are disabled.
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22) Amid Uncertainty, Aristide Returns to Cheers in Haiti
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/americas/19haiti.html?hp
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former priest who rose to become the nation's first democratically elected president before being forced into exile twice, returned home to an uncertain political climate on Friday, only days before a presidential runoff intended to settle months of discord in this rattled nation.
A big cheer rose up from the Haitian journalists and supporters lined up behind a rope 200 yards from his plane as Mr. Aristide - who left Haiti in 2004 under strong American pressure as rebels closed in on the capital - landed at about 9:05 a.m. local time and stepped back onto Haitian soil.
Some held posters of Mr. Aristide and others clutched small Haitian flags. Throughout the capital, Port-au-Prince, the streets were quiet early Friday, but by late morning a throng of several hundred supporters had gathered outside the airport as word spread that he had come back after seven years in exile.
Standing at a lectern in the shade of a veranda, Mr. Aristide spoke for 20 minutes, mostly in Creole. He did not comment directly on the candidates in the presidential runoff on Sunday, but he criticized the electoral process, denouncing the exclusion of political parties, including his own, Fanmi Lavalas, which officials barred from the first round of voting last year for what was described as paperwork problems.
"The exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion of the Haitian people," he said in Creole. In English, he added: "In 1804, the Haitian revolution marked the end of slavery. Today, may the Haitian people end exiles and coup d'états, while peacefully moving from social exclusion to inclusion."
He left in a dark S.U.V. along with a caravan of cars, marchers following him into the streets and chanting "We don't have a candidate, so we are not going to the election."
The roads soon became blocked with supporters, some grabbing tree branches to wave - a custom here - in lieu of flags and placards. A carnival float pounded out a thumping beat, with "Welcome Home President Aristide" painted on it side and supporters dancing as they marched to his house.
Once they got there, several hundred people sang amid the blare of music around his home, some climbing over the front wall to get in and others clinging to trees. When the thick crowd finally parted enough for him to get out of the car and enter the house, a roar went up and people crammed onto his patio, craning their necks to see him through the windows.
With Haitian elections fragile affairs in normal times, it remained unclear what effect Mr. Aristide, a polarizing figure beloved by the poor but dismissed by others as corrupt and autocratic, might yield on the country. He has said he is coming back just to work on his educational foundation, but Western diplomats working to keep him out of the country were skeptical given the timing of his return.
"Aristide represents the voice of the poor people here," said Wadson Pierre, 19, a supporter outside the airport. "We feel comfortable when he is here."
Mr. Pierre said he still planned to vote in the runoff on Sunday, even though Mr. Aristide is not on the ballot. The election is the product of months of political wrangling and international intervention after the fraud and violent protests that accompanied the first round last year. But as the marchers' chant indicated, some Aristide supporters said they would take no part in it.
"Since he left, things are difficult for us; I hope his return can change the poor situation here," said James Fenelon, 25, who is unemployed. "I am not going to vote. I have one leader. It's Aristide."
Mr. Aristide is the second major figure in Haitian history to return in recent months: Jean-Claude Duvalier, the former dictator known as Baby Doc, suddenly returned from exile in January and is living quietly here while courts iron out pending human rights and corruption charges related to his government.
With the former archrivals on Haitian soil and the country still reeling from the political crisis it hoped to dispel with a peaceful election, the prospect of Mr. Aristide's return generated furious diplomatic negotiation, with the United States pressing for a delay in his arrival until after the election.
President Obama telephoned President Jacob Zuma of South Africa to prevent Mr. Aristide from leaving his adopted home there , but to no avail. On Thursday night, South Africa's minster of international relations and cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, joined Mr. Aristide at the airport and wished him "a safe and happy landing" before his plane took off for Haiti.
President Obama reiterated his concerns through a spokesman on Thursday before Mr. Aristide began his journey home.
"The United States, along with others in the international community, has deep concerns that President Aristide's return to Haiti in the closing days of the election could be destabilizing," Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the United States National Security Council, said Thursday.
South African officials, who oversaw Mr. Aristide's residence and security, said they ultimately had no cause to hold him. But the South African government remained close-mouthed about the details of Mr. Aristide's departure right up to the last minute; some members of the Aristide delegation, which included the actor Danny Glover, said they were uncertain about when or if the flight would leave.
The Haitian government issued Mr. Aristide a diplomatic passport weeks ago and said there was no reason he could not come back. Mr. Aristide's supporters have spruced up his former residence and banners declaring "Welcome Back President Titide," using his nickname, have sprung up around here. Mildred Aristide, his wife, said she did not even know if the home was still furnished. "I hope there is a bed," she said before leaving.
Both candidates in the runoff, Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady, and Michel Martelly, one of the country's most popular singers, have derided Mr. Aristide in the past.
But, in a sign of his continuing support here, particularly among the poor, they have both sought to neutralize their past opposition.
Ms. Manigat has said he could play a role in her government as an education adviser. A banner, evidently put up by Ms. Manigat's backers, hangs near the airport, declaring, "You have your mother, now your father is coming."
Mr. Martelly, who has vulgarly dismissed Mr. Aristide in song, now says he has the right to return.
Kenneth H. Merten, the American ambassador here, said of Mr. Aristide's return, "He gets to choose whether he will play a positive role here, and I hope that's his choice."
Mr. Aristide helped lead a popular revolt that ended the Duvalier family's nearly 30-year dictatorship. He became president in Haiti's first democratic elections in 1990, was soon ousted in a coup in 1991 but then returned to power in 1994 after the United States military forced out the military regime.
Mr. Aristide was re-elected in 2000 in an election boycotted by the major opposition parties, and while he inspired great loyalty among the poor he was criticized by many for corruption, an autocratic style of leadership and the violent suppression of political opponents.
Amid an armed uprising, led in part by former members of the Haitian Army that Mr. Aristide had disbanded, he left Haiti on Feb. 29, 2004. He has said American diplomats kidnapped him, but the United States has long denied the accusation.
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23) Bullets Stall Youthful Push for Arab Spring
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18youth.html?ref=world
MANAMA, Bahrain - These days, Muhammad al-Maskati is a prisoner in his apartment, his BlackBerry shut off by the government, the streets outside his apartment filled with tanks, the hospitals around town packed with the wounded.
Mr. Maskati is a 24-year-old human rights activist who not long ago felt so close to achieving Egypt's kind of peaceful revolution, through a dogged commitment to nonviolence. Then the Saudi tanks rolled into Bahrain, and protesters came under attack, the full might of the state hammering at unarmed civilians.
"We thought it would work," Mr. Maskati said, his voice soft with depression, yet edged with anger. "But now, the aggression is too much. Now it's not about the protest anymore, it's about self-defense."
The Arab Spring is not necessarily over, but it has run up against dictators willing to use lethal force to preserve their power. The youth-led momentum for change stalled first in Libya, where Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi unleashed troops on his people, and then in Bahrain, where King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa enlisted Saudi Arabia's help to crush demonstrations.
Bahrain's protests were part of a transformation sweeping the Middle East, propelled by young people free of the fear that held back their parents.
At first, they seemed an unstoppable force, driven by the power of demographics - about 60 percent of the population across the Arab world is under the age of 30. They started to reshape societies where the young defer to the old, toppling old hierarchies along with governments.
The movement is still forcing change in places like Morocco and Jordan, guiding transitions in Egypt and Tunisia, and playing out in countries like Algeria and Yemen. Young people remain out front, wielding the online tools they grew up with to mobilize protests, elude surveillance and cross class lines.
This generation's access to a life without borders through the Internet and pan-Arab television networks like Al Jazeera exposed them to other societies, fueling anger at the repressive politics and economic stagnation that deprived the region's youth of opportunity and freedom.
It was long anticipated that young people would emerge as a powerful force because the median age across the Middle East is just 26. But what surprised many was the absence of religious discourse - and the embrace of pluralism - from a generation that was more observant than its parents and often sought solace from despotic rulers and blighted lives in an embrace of Islam.
This generation rejected traditional opposition leaders, like the toothless political parties that served dictators by providing a veneer of democratic legitimacy, or the Muslim Brotherhood, which many came to see as having been co-opted by the status quo.
Young people interviewed across the region echoed the same ideas, tactics and motivations that set off revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. In Morocco and Jordan, monarchs have already offered concessions, fueling excitement and hope. It is a force driven by young men like Tarek al-Naimat, 26, of Jordan, who joined Facebook a few weeks ago, saying that it was a more powerful tool than the Muslim Brotherhood.
And Oussama el-Khlifi, 23, who left the Socialist Union of Popular Forces in Morocco to found a nonideological movement - initially organized on Facebook - that has already rallied unmatched numbers in the streets of Morocco and pressed the king to announce plans to modify the Constitution.
"We saw change would not happen through the parties, it would happen through the people," Mr. Khlifi said. "We created a Facebook group called Moroccans Discuss the King, and in four or five days we had 3,000 members."
The early victories in Tunisia and Egypt emboldened them. "I grew up in a world where we believed we could not do anything," said Mariam Abu Adas, 32, an online activist in Jordan who helped create a company called Hiber to train young people to use social media.
"Generations believed we could do nothing," she said, "and now, in a matter of weeks, we know that we can."
It is a new model for the Middle East, not only because the young people are taking the lead, but because their elders have started to listen and follow.
"The youth, we were afraid of, but we have come to see the youth are moving the region," said Mustafa Rawashdeh, a former headmaster at a school in Karak, Jordan, who was fired after trying to form a teachers' union. "Young people saw the winds of change and drove us."
And then Colonel Qaddafi's forces opened fire, followed by King Hamad's crackdown. The young activists' idealism has been challenged by the bitter reality of repression, leaving them dispirited but resolute.
It is a sobering pause, as Bahrainis tend their wounded and Libya's opposition flees from the advance of pro-Qaddafi forces. The future of the Arab Spring is at stake.
"I don't believe the peaceful protests will go on," Mr. Maskati said. "Now, it's about resisting the aggression."
Jordan
The women at Ammon News stood firm when the Jordanian authorities told them to take down a daring post critical of the monarchy and, in particular, Queen Rania - a taboo in a nation where criticizing the royal family is a crime punishable by three years in prison. The authorities promptly hijacked the Web site, and the staff's editor told them to give up and go home. Instead, the women took to the streets in protest, and the authorities backed down.
"It was the principle," said Ala Alyan, 22. "Liberty is very important."
The incident hardly registered beyond the borders of Jordan, a close American ally. But it illustrates the contagion of a movement determined not to allow its governments to treat its citizens as subjects.
Jordan's King Abdullah II is not facing the kind of popular revolt that forced out the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia. But there have been demonstrations that prompted the king to fire the cabinet, appoint a new government and promise constitutional change. The open question, as in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, is how far change will go, and whether young people will be satisfied.
"If you feel you have right on your side, you do not have fear," said Heba Alazari, 26, one of the Ammon News women who protested. "If an injustice happened before, no one knew about it. Now you can deliver your voice in a different way and everyone will know."
In the Jordanian countryside, the cyberworld and the real world intersect. The staff of Hiber, the social media training and blogging organization, recently visited the village of Tafilah, two hours south of the capital, Amman. It is a small, dry outpost of cinder-block and white-stone homes on rocky soil, with a traffic circle, a few shops and lot of young people. Every woman on the street was veiled, and fathers sternly police their daughters.
About 35 young people in the workshop run by Hiber, more than half of them women, were eager to learn more. "The people in Egypt, who used these tools, woke up after 30 years," said Rasha Garabaa, 25, who wore a bright red head scarf and heavy makeup.
Ramsey Tesdell, 27, who was leading the discussion, said that social media allowed young women in the village to bypass the men - fathers, brothers, husbands - who circumscribed their worlds and their ability to communicate. They cannot go to the park unaccompanied and meet friends, but they can join a chat room or send instant messages.
"In a lot of ways, it has taken the power away from the traditional powerful leaders, especially older men," Mr. Tesdell said.
Ms. Garabaa understood, and marveled at the changes. "Remember how they closed Ammon the other day," she said, almost in a whisper, to one of the other members of the group. "Think how much the Internet can empower you. You have the world at the tip of your fingers."
Morocco
The secret password was tsk-tsk-tsk, and the door opened into the Feb. 20th movement.
Inside a run-down apartment at the top of narrow darkened staircase, Montasser Drissi, 19, was listening to traditional Moroccan music and working on subtitles for a protest video. He was one of the young men who helped organize nationwide protests on Feb. 20 that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators in a show of opposition that has already begun to change Morocco's political landscape.
"Our goal is a new constitution that serves the people, not the elite," said Mr. Drissi, a slight, understated young man with a dab of a beard.
The Feb. 20th movement is the loosely knit Moroccan manifestation of the youth fever sweeping the region. Its members met on Facebook and decided that like their peers in Egypt and Tunisia, they wanted to fight for change. Their goal was not to oust the monarchy, but to reduce its near absolute authority and strengthen elected institutions.
"We are young, we study, we have jobs - we're normal," said Yassine Falah, 23, who recently quit his job selling insurance and moved from Fez to Rabat to dedicate his time to the movement. "We tried hard to not politicize the thing, we used Facebook, we came together and that's how it started. Our spontaneity is our strength."
The government was concerned from the start. It tried to blunt the movement's impact, first by trying to demonize its young leaders as enemies of the state, and then, when that failed, taking the creative approach of announcing that the demonstration was canceled. But that did not work either. Instead, traditional opposition parties that initially shunned the upstart movement jumped in, trying to ride the wave churned up by the young.
King Mohammed VI apparently got the message and in a rare nationally televised speech announced that he intended to meet some of the group's core demands - without ever actually acknowledging that the group existed.
The group helped break down barriers to join secular leftists with conservative Islamists in the fight for democracy. "In Morocco, there has always been a war between the left and the Islamists, and the state wants it that way," said Younes Belghazi, 20, as he flopped onto a mattress on the floor. "When the state saw we had agreed on basic things, like values, change, democracy, they just didn't know what to do."
Over in the corner, in what passes for the group's video studio - a white sheet taped to the tile wall and a camera on a tripod - Mr. Drissi's new friend and collaborator, Nizar Bennamate, 23, was discussing how the movement planned another national protest on March 20. The challenge was to maintain momentum, difficult for a leaderless organization whose members often could not agree on when to meet, or even exactly what it was they were fighting for.
"The demands we talk about are the lowest common denominator, the first stage," Mr. Bennamate said. "Once we get these demands, we will be at an early stage of democracy where different ideas can confront each other."
The group's secret headquarters was discovered recently by the police, who have also visited the homes of some of the organizers in an attempt at intimidation. But that also seems to be a sign of their power and success.
"I am an activist because I want change," said Mr. Khlifi, an unemployed high school graduate who has become one of the leading voices in the movement. "I want a political dialogue. I want to criticize. I want democracy. I want the people to have power."
Bahrain
Mr. Maskati struggled to force out each painful word: "They. Shot. The. People." Bahrain's army had just opened fire on demonstrators and he was trying to type out "Urgent from Bahrain" on his BlackBerry and post a video link of the attack to Twitter, Facebook and the extensive e-mail list of his human rights organization.
For years, Mr. Maskati was dismissed as naïve for trying to convince people that peaceful protests would be more effective than violence. And then, suddenly, the protesters so embraced his view that a group walked into an army roadblock, hands in the air, chanting "peacefully, peacefully."
Nearly a month ago, the army opened fire, killing a young man after six were killed by the police. But the protesters clung to nonviolence, taking to the streets in remarkably large numbers, confident that international attention would force the government to stop shooting. The government did back down, offer concessions, release political prisoners, call for a national dialogue and shuffle the cabinet.
Mr. Maskati marveled at the radical change in approach after years of watching young people throw rocks and burn tires in the street, to no avail.
He founded the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, a small monitoring and training organization that is one part of a youth-led movement that has posed the most serious challenge to the monarchy since the Khalifa family took power in the 18th century. Mr. Maskati's main weapons are his phone and his BlackBerry. He does not organize protests and he does not protest himself. He sees his role as informing the world through Facebook, Twitter and his extensive e-mail list.
From Feb. 14, the start of the demonstrations, Mr. Maskati was always on the scene, dodging the police, hovering at the periphery, posting updates to the Internet. He was one of the first to notify the world that the police had shot and killed a 21-year-old man. "Mr. Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima was killed by the riot police in Daih village.( 8:00 PM, 14 FEB. 2011 )," his message said. "Ali was not involved in the demonstration, but went out of his house to see what happens in his village."
The death galvanized the community of mainly Shiite protesters, and they turned out by the thousands for the funeral. At the cemetery, mourners did more than fume. They had a laptop computer and a wireless airstick, and as the young man's body was lowered into the ground, the image was immediately uploaded to the Internet.
"They did a big mistake," said Hussein Ramadan, 32, a manager in the local aluminum plant, as he stood at the edge of the grave. "They will pay for it, peacefully. We are not thinking about any violence. People are angry. But we can control our anger. We tried violence before, now we try the other way. We are ready to give our blood. It is our country."
Mr. Maskati is from a wealthy Shiite family, part of the Shiite majority in Bahrain that has smoldered under a repressive Sunni monarchy. He became interested in human rights work when he was 14, but he said he found his calling in 2006 after attending a training course in Jordan with Otpor, a Serbian youth movement that also inspired the Egyptian activists, and then in Washington with the Center for Nonviolence.
The next year, he founded his own group. He continues to monitor the events in Bahrain and post his observations each day. Last week, Mr. Maskati and two other human rights activists received death threats because of their work. But Mr. Maskati was undeterred and instead sent word of the death threats out on Twitter, Facebook and e-mail and to every blogger he knew.
Then the tanks rolled in, and on Thursday the police began rounding up opposition leaders. Mr. Maskati kept sending messages until Wednesday morning, when his phone number was shut off. He stayed home, using his computer, issuing updates always titled "Urgent from Bahrain."
Nadim Audi contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 18, 2011
An earlier version of this article ncorrectly referred to Mariam Abu Adas, an online activist in Jordan, as a man. Ms. Adas is a woman.
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24) Complaints of Abuse in Army Custody
By LIAM STACK
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/middleeast/18cairo.html?ref=world
CAIRO, Egypt - Ragy el-Kashef was relieved when Egypt's military took power last month and pledged to steer the country from dictatorship to democracy. But after he spent four days in army custody, during which he says he was arrested, tortured and hastily tried before a military judge, anxiety and dread now cloud his hope for the future.
Mr. Kashef, 24, was detained by the military police on March 9, when soldiers and armed men in plainclothes known as baltageyya ("thugs") violently broke up a small protest camp in Tahrir Square.
Soldiers brought him and his brother Raif to an entrance of the nearby Egyptian Museum. For six hours, Mr. Kashef said, soldiers beat, whipped and electrically stunned them and scores of other blindfolded prisoners as they lay face down on the pavement. The prisoners were later taken to a military base, and Mr. Kashef said the people in his group were stripped and beaten. Eventually, he said, he was given a military trial that lasted just 30 minutes.
"I was happy when the army took over," he said. "I felt safe with the army because I thought they were responsible. Now I hate the army."
When the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took over as the transitional government after the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, it was greeted by many protesters as a protector of the revolution, whose demands for democracy it vowed to uphold. But since then, allegations of torture and the prosecution of civilians in closed-door military trials have tarnished its reputation and raised questions about its commitment to democratic rule.
The military, said Heba Morayef, a researcher on Egypt for Human Rights Watch, is routinely abusing human rights by "arbitrarily arresting people and then subjecting those it has arbitrarily arrested to military trials." She said this was "not indicative of a shift to the rule of law."
Ms. Morayef said the organization had received more and more "serious reports" of military torture in recent weeks, with a surge of new cases after March 9, the day 190 protesters, including Mr. Kashef and his brother, were arrested. The protesters had remained in Tahrir Square to press for a number of demands of the revolution that had not been fulfilled.
Ragia Omrane, a lawyer with the Front for the Defense of Egyptian Protesters, said the detainees were beaten and subjected to electric shocks, and later tried behind closed doors, in proceedings that sometimes lasted only 10 minutes. She said one of the detainees was 15 years old. Ultimately, 148 of the detainees were convicted and are serving sentences in military prisons.
The crimes they are charged with range from obstructing traffic to possession of explosives, Ms. Omrane said. She added that lawyers had not been given access to either the detainees or their trials, nor had they been informed of the specific convictions or sentences of individual detainees, although military judges told Ms. Omrane that sentences ranged from one to seven years.
Since then, 37 more people have been arrested after being taken into custody either on the streets of downtown Cairo or at an antitorture protest held outside the museum on March 16, Ms. Omrane said. Eleven of them have been sent to appear before military prosecutors, she said.
The chief of the military police, Maj. Gen. Hamdi Bedeen, denied that the army was engaging in torture or using the museum as a detention center. In an interview published on Thursday by Egypt's El Sherouk newspaper, he called the accusations "totally false" and said the testimony about torture was "fabricated."
"Not one complaint has reached me until now," General Bedeen said.
Under the harsh, autocratic regime of Mr. Mubarak torture by the police was "routine and systemic," according to Human Rights Watch.
The military does not make public information about detentions and military prosecutions, Ms. Morayef said. Former prisoners and the family of one detained man said that three detainees died in army custody on Saturday, while as many as 150 others began a hunger strike against the ill treatment on Monday. Neither reporters nor lawyers can verify those claims.
Human-rights activists have expressed concern about the apparent cooperation between army and the plainclothes enforcers who attacked the protesters on March 9, because Mr. Mubarak's government regularly deployed them to beat and intimidate people.
People detained that day said in interviews that they were tied up and blindfolded, beaten with metal clubs and whips and repeatedly shocked with electric stun devices.
Rami Essam, a well-known singer, said he had been beaten with clubs and bricks by soldiers who cut his hair. Rasha Azab, a journalist, said she had been beaten while handcuffed to a wall around a manicured museum garden.
Sherif Abdel Moneim said he had been beaten inside the grand entrance hall of the main museum building by soldiers who struck him across a scar from cancer surgery. That earlier mark is now crisscrossed by lines that are fresher and redder.
"The soldiers were yelling, 'Raise your head up high, you son of a dog, you're Egyptian!' " Mr. Kashef said. The taunt twists the meaning of a chant from the uprising that overthrew Mr. Mubarak, which encouraged Egyptians to hold their heads high and be proud.
Mr. Kashef said he and his brother were in a group taken to a military prison the day after their arrest. There, they were strip searched, held in a cell and beaten by a soldier who showered them with curses while accusing them of having Facebook accounts.
That night he and 30 others were herded into the base's long rectangular kitchen for their trial. A military judge presided from behind the kitchen table while a pot of stewed potatoes and peas bubbled on the stove behind the accused, he recalled. A military lawyer who did not speak to them served as their defense, and they were fed from the pot before filing back to their cramped cell.
Two days after that episode, Mr. Kashef was told he could go free. All of men tried in the kitchen were found innocent, but inexplicably only Mr. Kashef and a handful of others were let go. Some of the co-defendants, including his brother, remain jailed. "We ask the soldiers and we ask the courts, but no one has a logical answer," he said.
This week, Mr. Kashef, whose body remains bruised, visited Raif in jail with their parents. Walking the halls of the military base, he saw soldiers and officers he recognized and was gripped with fear that they would take him back to his cell. A filmmaker, he passed the room where he and the other detainees were strip searched and said he "saw it like it was a scene in a movie."
He is worried about his brother and what comes next for Egypt.
"I am afraid for the future because maybe the army and the old system and the thugs will work together to kill our revolution," he said.
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25) Crisis Prompts Exodus of Executives From Tokyo
By DAVID JOLLY and KEN BELSON
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18decamp.html?ref=world
TOKYO - The crisis at the nuclear power plant 140 miles north of here is leading to a steady but orderly departure of business executives from Tokyo. Foreigners in particular are among those leaving, as concerns grow about the possibility of a catastrophic release of radiation and governments urge their citizens to consider seeking safety elsewhere in Japan or overseas.
Much as in 2003, when the SARS virus slowed business around Asia, a peculiar psychology has taken hold in Tokyo, where businessmen with the wherewithal are weighing whether to decamp to cities south and west of Tokyo - or wait and see whether the nuclear emergency escalates further.
The confusion, in addition to the distraction of relocating employees, is preventing some companies from addressing urgent problems in shattered plants and facilities along the northeastern coast of the main island, Honshu, which was ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami last week.
And the oppressive atmosphere of fear has made concentrating on even routine tasks difficult. Meetings are being canceled, salesmen have given up visiting clients and stores are cutting back hours or closing entirely. Getting a table in even the most popular restaurants has suddenly become easier.
There are no open signs of panic on the streets of Tokyo. But executives from a growing number of banks, law firms, consultants and other businesses have started to rent space in Osaka or Fukuoka or other cities farther from the badly damaged nuclear reactors.
With thousands of Japanese also fleeing the quake-stricken areas in the north, travel on domestic airlines and bullet trains headed away from northern Japan has climbed, and rooms in hotels considered out of harm's way are filling up.
In many cases, the Tokyo evacuees are expatriates, often prompted by their governments' embassies, which have recommended that their citizens seek shelter elsewhere as a precaution. The German government, for instance, advised its citizens in Tokyo and areas north either to leave the country or head to the Osaka area. The United States Embassy said it would help fly American citizens in Japan to safer places. Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia are among the other countries whose governments have told their nationals to consider leaving Tokyo and to refrain from traveling to Japan's northeast. France has asked Air France to mobilize extra planes for evacuations.
Two Czech military planes landed in Prague on Thursday morning after evacuating 106 people from Japan, mostly Czechs but also several nationals of Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Korea, the Associated Press reported. Also onboard were 41 members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra that had been touring Japan since March 6, as well as 11 children.
China has already evacuated more than 3,000 nationals from Japan's north coast to Niigata in the west, Xinhua News agency reported.
Japanese authorities have responded to these various moves by urging governments not to sound alarmist. But Japanese companies, too, have started to move some of their employees - or give them the option of working from home. The reaction is partly in response to the reduction in train service in the Tokyo region caused by rolling blackouts that are meant to conserve energy.
The French nuclear power operator Areva is one of many companies moving workers and their families away from areas affected by the disaster or the possible path of radioactive fallout. Eighteen of the firm's 100 employees, including Americans and Germans, left a mission they were on at the Fukishima nuclear plant when the earthquake hit, a spokeswoman said.
Since the weekend, Areva has been relocating the families of expatriate workers who want to leave Tokyo to the Kyushu region in the south, although employees considered most vital to operations have been asked to stay in the city.
Many other companies are responding in one of three ways: giving employees the option of leaving the area; moving some staff to Osaka while maintaining a skeleton staff in Tokyo, or shutting down operations in Tokyo and setting up elsewhere.
The law firm Jones Day, for instance, has shut its Tokyo office except to deal with urgent court filings. Chartis, the Japanese division of A.I.G., has moved some of its managers from Tokyo to its regional command center in Osaka. The bulk of companies, though, are letting workers decide for themselves whether to go or stay.
SAP, the German software giant, which has about 1,000 employees in Tokyo, has instructed all employees to work from home for now. The company has also given them the option of moving to hotel rooms in Kobe or Osaka, at company expense, if they choose, and to take their families with them.
An SAP spokeswoman, Angelika Pfahler, said the company took the measure shortly after the earthquake hit for safety reasons, although company headquarters here did not suffer any serious damage. Because it is a software company, it is possible for SAP to continue to operate almost normally even when workers are at remote locations, she said.
Martin Reilly, 43, an Irish software designer who works for the French insurance giant AXA, said his company had given employees the option to move, while keeping enough people in Tokyo to maintain operations. Though he said he was not fearful, Mr. Reilly was nevertheless taking the precaution of traveling to Osaka.
"I'm taking my work with me, and I can be back in three hours when this is cleared up," Mr. Reilly said at Tokyo Station before boarding a train. "I think the chances of something happening are very small. But my parents are going ballistic. If I don't go, my mother's going to get on a plane and come take me away."
The clothing retailer H&M has temporarily closed its nine stores in the Tokyo region because its employees had difficulty getting to work and were on edge while the nuclear crisis continued, said Mie Anton, a spokeswoman for the company. The planned opening of a store on Saturday has been postponed.
The disruption could provide an extra blow to Japan's economy because so much of the nation's business takes place in the capital, although it is too early to quantify the effect on consumer spending and business investment.
Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, said some companies were clearly taking the initiative in leaving the city, particularly in the foreign community. But short of an evacuation order, most people will remain in the city because so far, "it's hard to judge just how dangerous it is," he said.
Most Japanese residents, he said, "have nowhere to hide."
The growing number of departures, sometimes with little warning, has in some cases worsened the tensions that often divide local and expatriate staff. The International Bankers Association, which represents foreign financial institutions in Tokyo, said in a statement that its 59 member institutions were operating "business as usual." But privately, spokesmen for major Western banks said that many of their employees had chosen to take vacations now until there was more clarity on the situation.
While economic activity in Tokyo has slowed, business in cities like Osaka has picked up, a welcome development - despite the circumstances - given the sluggish economy.
Shuhei Otsuka, 24, an employee of the railroad operator JR-East at Tokyo Station, compared the number of Japanese riders in the last few days with the New Year's holiday rush or the summer vacation travel peak.
Many of the Japanese travelers were families, or mothers with children, while the number of businessmen traveling was about normal, Mr. Otsuka said. Domestic travel agents said that reservations for flights to the islands of Kyushu and Okinawa surged starting Tuesday.
Bookings at hotels that cater to the well-heeled and to expatriates have picked up as well. Many customers who have arrived this week appeared to have left their homes in a rush, said Matsuko Akesaka, a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton in Osaka. Many guests have booked rooms - which start at 58,000 yen, or $720 - for only a few nights until they decide whether it is safe to return.
"Business is nothing like during the bubble economy, but compared to the last few years, it's picked up" in the last few days, she said, noting that her hotel had set up a playroom for children who had accompanied their parents.
Some companies are planning to stay in cities like Osaka and Kobe for far longer. Demand for office space at full-service backup operations providers like Regus and Servcorp has surged as companies set up or expand their remote operations outside the Tokyo area, said Brett Jensen, account manager for west Japan at the Osaka office of Colliers International, a real estate broker.
Other companies are expanding existing offices in Osaka and elsewhere, or signing new leases for office space.
"The nuclear issue is one of the main drivers, but there is also concern about the ability to have a stable supply of electricity even after the nuclear issue is resolved," Mr. Jensen said. Thousands of workers could temporarily relocate to Osaka, he said, and many could remain long-term as companies decide to diversify their risks.
The influx of newcomers has been noticeable in central Osaka in recent days. Ken Shimabuku, who works for a large executive search firm in Osaka, said he had been surprised Tuesday by the number of people carrying suitcases through the streets. "It was so obvious that people were going away," he said. "Not just foreigners, the ones coming to Osaka, but the Japanese."
Liz Alderman contributed reporting from Paris and Jack Ewing from Frankfurt.
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26) C.I.A. Drones Kill Civilians in Pakistan
By SALMAN MASOOD and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18pakistan.html?ref=world
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Several missiles fired from American drone aircraft on Thursday struck a meeting of local people in northwest Pakistan who had gathered with Taliban mediators to settle a dispute over a chromite mine. The attack, a Pakistani intelligence official said, killed 26 of 32 people present, some of them Taliban fighters, but the majority elders and local people not attached to the militants.
The civilian death toll appeared to be among the worst in the scores of strikes carried out recently in Pakistan's tribal areas by the C.I.A., which runs the drones. Local residents and media reports said as many as 40 people had been killed in all, though the intelligence official disputed that.
The Pakistani military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, issued an unusual and unusually strong condemnation of the attack. "It is highly regrettable that a jirga of peaceful citizens, including elders of the area, was carelessly and callously targeted with complete disregard to human life," the statement said.
But American officials on Thursday sharply disputed Pakistan's account of the strikes and the civilian deaths, contending that all the people killed were insurgents. "These people weren't gathering for a bake sale," an American official said. "They were terrorists."
About four missiles fired from one or more drones hit the meeting, known as a jirga, of two tribes and Taliban mediators who had gathered on open ground at a market in Datta Khel, in North Waziristan, according to two residents who live nearby in Miram Shah.
The intelligence official said that of the 32 people at the meeting, 13 were Taliban fighters, 11 of whom were killed. The rest of the dead were elders and tribesmen.
"The Taliban will never gather in such a large number in broad daylight to be targeted by the drones," according to a resident who did not want to be identified for fear of running afoul of the militants. "It has been a big mistake to target the jirga, as it will have severe consequences."
Recently discovered chromite mines are common in the area. To keep the mines running profitably, the Taliban - as the reigning authorities in the area - often settle disputes between tribes with competing claims and levy taxes on exports and the mine operators.
The drone strikes on Thursday were the second such barrage in two days in Datta Khel, and the sixth in the tribal areas in the past week, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that monitors the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After a pause in drone attacks from Jan. 23 to Feb. 20, the pace of attacks has picked up again this month.
Some analysts attributed the lull to the C.I.A.'s not wanting to upset negotiations to free Raymond A. Davis, the C.I.A. security officer who was released on Wednesday. But American intelligence officials denied that and attributed the pause in part to poor weather.
The region is under the sway of a local warlord and Taliban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who made a truce with the government as the Pakistani military pushed into South Waziristan in 2009.
But Mr. Bahadur has accepted many Taliban fighters who fled the campaign into his area, and he continues to have close ties to the Haqqani network, a militant group allied with the government and the Taliban that uses North Waziristan as its main base to launch attacks against American forces in Afghanistan.
Attacks by the American drones are immensely unpopular in Pakistan and have been a rallying point for anti-American sentiment, though in recent years they have provoked less outrage in the tribal areas, as the strikes have focused increasingly on foreign fighters loyal to Al Qaeda who have infiltrated the area, and as fewer civilians have been killed by them.
The attack on Thursday, however, threatened to turn opinion in the region against the attacks once again.
One resident said that given the large Taliban presence, average people and the militants were difficult to distinguish in the area, but that to target a jirga would lead to a backlash. "It will create resentment among the locals," he said, "and everyone might turn into suicide bombers."
Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Pir Zubair Shah from New York. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
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27) Report Finds Wide Abuses by Police in New Orleans
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
March 17, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/us/18orleans.html?ref=us
NEW ORLEANS - Justice Department officials on Thursday released the findings of a 10-month investigation into this city's Police Department, revealing a force that is profoundly and alarmingly troubled and setting in motion a process for its wholesale reform.
The report describes in chilling detail a department that is severely dysfunctional on every level: one that regularly uses excessive force on civilians, frequently fails to investigate serious crimes and has a deeply inadequate, in many cases nonexistent, system of accountability.
Using the report as a guideline, federal and local officials will now enter into negotiations leading to a consent decree, a blueprint for systemic reform that will be enforced by a federal judge.
"There is nobody in this room that is surprised by the general tenor and the tone of what this report has to say," said Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, at a news conference attended by city and federal officials.
But, added Mr. Landrieu, who publicly invited federal intervention in the Police Department just days after his inauguration in May, "I look forward to a very spirited partnership and one that actually transforms this Police Department into one of the best in the country."
The city's police chief, Ronal Serpas, said he fully embraced the report and would be going over its findings with senior leadership later in the day.
While the report describes an appalling array of abuses and bad practices, it does not address in detail any of the nine or more federal criminal investigations into the department. These inquiries have already led to the convictions of three police officers, one for fatally shooting an unarmed civilian and another for burning the body.
Justice Department officials chose to exclude the information gleaned in the criminal inquiries to keep a wall between those investigations and the larger civil investigation into the practices of the department. But there were more than enough problems left to uncover.
While other departments generally have problems in specific areas, like the use of excessive force, "New Orleans has every issue that has existed in our practice to date, and a few that we hadn't encountered," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil rights division.
The report reveals that the department has not found a policy violation in any officer-involved shooting for the last six years, though federal officials who reviewed the records found that violations had clearly occurred. The department's canine unit was so badly mismanaged - the dogs were so aggressive they frequently attacked their handlers - that federal officials encouraged the department to suspend it last year even though the investigation was still under way.
The report details a record of discriminatory policing, with a ratio of arrests of blacks to whites standing at nearly 16 to 1. Calls for police assistance by non-English speakers often went unanswered.
The report also found that the police "systemically misclassified possible sexual assaults, resulting in a sweeping failure to properly investigate many potential cases of rape, attempted rape and other sex crimes."
The problems described in the report go beyond policy failings, depicting a culture of dysfunction that reaches all facets of the department. The recruitment program is described as anemic, training as "severely deficient in nearly every respect," and supervision as poor or in some cases nonexistent.
The department has attracted this level of scrutiny before. As bad as it appears now, the police force was far more troubled in the mid-1990s. Two officers from that era are now on death row, and the number of murders in the city at the time soared above 400.
Federal agents conducted a similar investigation of the department, but there was less cooperation by local officials and, crucially, there was no consent decree.
While the department improved for a time, the structural problems remained and festered, as Thursday's report makes clear.
This time, there will be federal court oversight, and there is already widespread consensus that systemic police reform is needed. Confidence in the department is so low that prosecutors have trouble finding juries, as so many prospective jurors declare that they would not put any trust in the testimony of a New Orleans police officer.
The robust citizen engagement that has been a significant factor in the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina has also changed the dynamic, officials said. While the New Orleans police force may be troubled to a rare degree, federal officials also described the city's appetite for systemic reform as unprecedented.
Federal officials said the team of agents assigned to investigate the department worked with police leadership as well as rank-and-file officers. Investigators also reached out to community leaders to a degree that they had not previously done.
Still, officials acknowledge that changing the department's entrenched culture will be hard and will take years. Though Mr. Serpas, who was an officer during the reform efforts in the 1990s, has already begun addressing many of the concerns, news reports of police abuses during the Mardi Gras season have come out in the past few weeks, and the number of homicides is still stubbornly high.
"I'm not naïve about the hard work that lies ahead," Mr. Perez said, adding that he was still optimistic. "I'm certain that we're in a qualitatively different position than we were 10 years ago."
Community advocates viewed the day's announcement with a mix of hope and skepticism. Some groups had been trying to draw attention to police abuse in the city for years before their complaints were noticed by law enforcement.
"Nobody believed anything we said," said Norris Henderson, a founder of a group for former prisoners called Voice of the Ex-Offender. He said he was encouraged that community groups were so involved in the federal inquiry, but was concerned about the level of involvement going forward.
"Will we be a part of the conversation?" he asked. "Just going to the quote-unquote criminal justice folks, well, y'all the folks responsible for this damn problem."
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28) ACTION ALERT: Four Things YOU Can Do About Malalai Joya's Visa Denial
March 18, 2011
http://www.afghanwomensmission.org/?p=1258
The U.S. Embassy this week denied famed Afghan women's rights activist Malalai Joya a visa to the United States for an extensive speaking tour that was to kick off on Saturday March 19th. Americans are being denied the right to hear from an on-the-ground activist how the war is affecting ordinary Afghans, especially women.
Read AWM's press release about it here.
FOUR THINGS YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT:
1. Have your elected representatives sign onto a letter urging the U.S. Embassy to reconsider their decision - DEADLINE: Friday March 18th 5 pm EST.
Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) has drafted and signed a letter urging the US Embassy to grant Malalai Joya the visa. A draft of the letter can be found here.
Ask your Senator or Representative to add their names to this letter NO LATER THAN 5 pm EST on Friday March 18th. Have the staff in your Senator or Representative's office contact Jessica Lee at Jessica.lee@mail.house.gov. (Do not contact Ms. Lee yourself). The more elected representatives that sign onto the letter, the greater the chance of that the U.S. Embassy will reverse their visa denial.
2. Sign an online petition demanding Malalai Joya be granted a visa to the United States
Click here to sign the petition. Then, send it to all your friends and post it on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
3. Attend one of the many events organized for Malalai around the country. Whether she gets to the U.S. or not it is imperative that the events go on as scheduled. If she is unable to be physically present organizers will attempt to have her speak to the audience via live video chat. Transform the events into "free-speech" events, to affirm your right to hear from people like Malalai Joya.
Details of Malalai's tour are here.
4. Demand media coverage of Malalai's Visa Denial
Contact local and national media urging them to cover Malalai Joya's visa exclusion. The denial of a visa to Afghanistan's most intrepid and well known feminist should make headlines! Point them to our press release for details.
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29) Obama Warns Libya on Allied Action
By ELISABETH BUMILLER, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ALAN COWELL
March 18, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19libya.html?hp
WASHINGTON - President Obama ordered Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi on Friday to implement a cease-fire immediately and stop all attacks on Libyan civilians or face military action from the United States and its allies in Europe and the Arab world.
In one of the most forceful statements he has issued from the White House Mr. Obama said that his demands were not negotiable: Colonel Qaddafi had to pull his forces back from major cities in Libya or the United States and its allies would stop him. The president said that he was forced to act because Colonel Qaddafi had turned on his own people and had shown, Mr. Obama said, "no mercy on his own citizens."
The president said that with the passage on Thursday night of a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing military action against Colonel Qadaffi to protect Libyan civilians, the United States would not act alone, and in fact that France, Britain and Arab nations would take the lead. That is the clear desire of the Pentagon, which has been strongly resistant to another American war in the Middle East. Mr. Obama said flatly that American ground forces would not enter Libya.
"Muammar Qaddafi has a choice," he said. "The United States, the United Kingdom, France and Arab states agree that a cease-fire must be implemented immediately. That means all attacks against civilians must stop."
"Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable - these terms are not negotiable," Mr. Obama said in the East Room of the White House. "If Colonel Qaddafi does not comply with the resolution, the international community will impose consequences. The resolution will be enforced through miitary action."
He set no deadline and gave no hint when the military action would commence, but said that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would travel to Paris on Saturday to consult with allies on further action. An allied military strike against Libya did not appear to be imminent.
Specifically, Mr. Obama said, Colonel Qaddafi must stop his troops from advancing against the town of Benghazi and pull them back from other cities, and water, electricity and gas supplies must be allowed in, as well as other humanitarian aid.
He spoke as the United States, Britain and France pushed forward against Libya on Friday as they declared that a cease-fire abruptly announced by Colonel Qaddafi's government was not enough, and as reports came in from the region of continuing attacks in some places.
Mrs. Clinton, echoing remarks hours earlier by Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, said in Washington on Friday morning that the United States would be "not responsive or impressed by words."' She said that the allies would "have to see actions on the ground, and that is not yet at all clear."
Those actions included, she said, a clear move by Colonel Qaddafi's forces away from the east, where they were threatening a final assault on the rebels' stronghold in Benghazi.
Only hours after the United Nations Security Council voted late Thursday to authorize military action and a no-fly zone, Libya executed a remarkable about-face on Friday, saying it would call an "immediate cease-fire and the stoppage of all military operations" against rebels seeking to oust Colonel Qaddafi.
But people fleeing the eastern city of Ajdabiya said government forces were still bombing and conducting other assaults at 4 p.m. local time.
A spokesman for the rebels, Mustafa Gheriani, said that attacks continued against both that city and Misurata, in the west, according to news agency reports. "He's bombing Misurata and Ajdabiya from 7 a.m. this morning until now," Mr. Gehriani said, according to The Associated Press.
The announcement of cease-fire came from Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa after Western powers said they were preparing imminent airstrikes to prevent Libyan forces from launching a threatened final assault on Benghazi.
In London, Mr. Cameron told the BBC of Colonel Qaddafi: "We will judge him by his actions, not his words."
Mr. Cameron told the House of Commons that the British Air Force would deploy Tornado jets and Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes, "as well as air-to-air refueling and surveillance aircraft."
"Preparations to deploy these have already started, and in the coming hours they will move to airbases from where they can take the necessary action," Mr. Cameron said.
The Typhoon is a fighter jet armed with air-to-air missiles for shooting down airplanes, as well as laser-guided bombs for targets on the ground. The Tornado is especially well suited for attacking runways - that was its first combat mission, in the Persian Gulf war, when the planes swooped in to bomb runways in Iraq, facing thick anti-aircraft defenses that shot down several of the planes.
In Paris the French foreign ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, said that Colonel Qaddafi "begins to be afraid, but on the ground, the threat hasn't changed." He added, "We have to be very cautious."
Earlier François Baroin, a French government spokesman, told RTL radio that action would come "rapidly," perhaps within hours, after the United Nations resolution authorized "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.
But he insisted the military action was "not an occupation of Libyan territory." Rather, he said, it was intended to protect the Libyan people and "allow them to go all the way in their drive, which means bringing down the Qaddafi regime."
Other French officials said that Mr. Baroin was speaking to heighten the warning to Colonel Qaddafi, and that in fact any military action was not that imminent, but was still being coordinated with allies including Britain and the United States.
Obama administration officials said that allied action against Libya had to include the participation of Arab countries and were insistent, as one senior official put it, that the red, green and black of Arab nations' flags be prominent in military operations. As of Thursday night, the United States said it had firm commitments from both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to contribute fighter jets to the effort, and that Jordan had also agreed to take part, although to what extent was not yet clear by Friday.
The administration also spoke to Egyptian officials about taking part but Egypt - the leading military power of the Arab world - was concerned that air strikes could endanger some million Egyptians who live in Libya. In addition, protesters only last month toppled the 30-year regime of President Hosni Mubarak and Egypt's transitional military government remains fragile.
Administration officials said it remained unclear on Friday morning which country would take the lead as the air traffic controller of an operation that might involve waves of fighter jets from multiple countries in the skies above Libya, taking turns or at the same time. But the United States was expected to play a major role, as were Britain and France.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Mr. Cameron will attend the meeting in Paris on Saturday with European, European Union, African Union and Arab League officials to discuss Libya, Mr. Sarkozy's office announced. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations will also take part, his office said.
Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, which had supported the no-fly proposal, told Reuters on Friday: "'The goal is to protect civilians first of all, and not to invade or occupy."
Apparently pulling back from the increasingly bellicose statements that came as recently as Thursday from Colonel Qaddafi and his son Seif al-Islam, Mr. Koussa - his hands shaking as he read a statement at a news conference in Tripoli on Friday afternoon - said the Qaddafi government would comply with the United Nations resolution by halting combat operations.
"Libya has decided an immediate cease-fire and the stoppage of all military operations," Mr. Koussa said. He did not take questions.
It was not immediately possible to confirm that military action. Mr. Koussa did not say whether the Libyan government intended to restore water, electricity and telecommunications to Misurata.
He expressed "our sadness" that the imposition of a no-fly zone would also stop commercial and civilian aircraft, saying such measures "will have a negative impact on the general life of the Libyan people."
And he called it "strange and unreasonable" that the resolution authorized the use of force against the Qaddafi government, "and there are signs that this may indeed take place." Mr. Koussa called the resolution a violation of Libyan sovereignty as well as of the United Nations charter, and repeated a call for a "fact-finding mission" to evaluate the situation on the ground.
Government minders told journalists in Tripoli on Friday that they could not leave their hotel for their own safety, saying that in the aftermath of the United Nations vote, residents might attack or even shoot foreigners. The extent of the danger was unclear.
Shortly before Mr. Koussa spoke Mr. Cameron told Parliament in London: "This is about protecting the Libyan people and saving lives. The world has watched Qaddafi brutally crushing his own people. We expect brutal attacks. Qaddafi is preparing for a violent assault on Benghazi."
"Any decision to put the men and women of our armed forces into harm's way should only be taken when absolutely necessary," he said. "But I believe that we cannot stand back and let a dictator whose people have rejected him kill his people indiscriminately. To do so would send a chilling signal to others."
"The clock is now ticking," Mr. Cameron said. "We need a sense of urgency because we don't want to see a bloodbath in Benghazi." Responding to criticism from members of Parliament about getting Britain involved militarily, Mr. Cameron retorted: "To pass a resolution like this and then just stand back and hope someone in the region would enforce it is wrong."
Before the cease-fire was announced, the Libyan leader signaled his intentions in Benghazi.
"We will come house by house, room by room," Colonel Qaddafi said Thursday on a radio call-in show before the United Nations vote. It's over. The issue has been decided." To those who continued to resist, he vowed: "We will find you in your closets. We will have no mercy and no pity."
In a television broadcast later, he added: "The world is crazy, and we will be crazy, too."
Before Mr. Koussa's announcement of a cease-fire, forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi unleashed a barrage of fire against Misurata, news reports said, while his son was quoted as saying government forces would encircle Benghazi. Eurocontrol, Europe's air traffic control agency, said in Brussels on Friday that Libya had closed its airspace. It was not immediately clear whether loyalist troops had begun honoring the cease-fire.
The Security Council vote seemed to have divided Europeans, with Germany saying it would not take part while Norway was reported as saying it would. In the region, Turkey was reported to have registered opposition, but Qatar said it would support the operation.
On Thursday night in New York, after days of often acrimonious debate played out against a desperate clock, and with Colonel Qaddafi's troops within 100 miles of Benghazi, the Security Council authorized member nations to take "all necessary measures" to protect civilians, diplomatic code words calling for military action.
Diplomats said the resolution - which passed with 10 votes, including that of the United States, and abstentions from Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India - was written in sweeping terms to allow for a wide range of actions, including strikes on air-defense systems and missile attacks from ships.
Benghazi erupted in celebration at news of the resolution's passage. "We are embracing each other," said Imam Bugaighis, spokeswoman for the rebel council in Benghazi. "The people are euphoric. Although a bit late, the international society did not let us down."
A Pentagon official said Thursday that decisions were still being made about what kind of military action, if any, the United States might take with the allies against Libya. The official said that contingency planning continued across a full range of operations, including a no-fly zone, but that it was unclear how much the United States would become involved beyond providing support.
That support is likely to consist of much of what the United States already has in the region - Awacs radar planes to help with air traffic control should there be airstrikes, other surveillance aircraft and about 400 Marines aboard two amphibious assault ships in the region, the Kearsarge and the Ponce.
The Americans could also provide signal-jamming aircraft in international airspace to muddle Libyan government communications with its military units.
Elisabeth Bumiller reported from Washington, David D. Kirkpatrick from Tripoli, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Reporting was contributed by Kareem Fahim from eastern Libya; Dan Bilefsky from the United Nations; Mark Landler from Washington; Steven Erlanger from Paris; Julia Werdigier from London; Helene Cooper from Washington; and Steven Lee Myers from Tunis.
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30) Libyan revolution and imperialist meddling
"Here we saw the spectacle of the direct representatives of Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama agreeing to intervene in Libya, the same people who at home are cutting pensions, attacking the right to free public education, cutting back on welfare in general, while at the same time defending the interests of their own capitalists. These same people have no qualms in sending the police against protesting workers and youth in their own countries, while at the same time shamefacedly decrying the lack of democratic rights in other countries."
Written by Fred Weston
Friday, March 18, 2011
http://www.marxist.com/libyan-revolution-and-imperialist-meddling.htm
Yesterday the United Nations Security Council voted by 10 votes in favour against 5 abstentions to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. The resolution authorises UN member states "to take all necessary measures... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory".
Gaddafi has responded - through his foreign minister - by announcing his intention to call a cease-fire. This is clearly intended to stop the airstrikes which were being prepared by NATO and other forces. He realises what he risks if he ignores the UN and simply marches on and bombs the rebel held towns. With such a ceasefire in place - if Gaddafi keeps his word and isn't using this simply to buy time to take towns such as Misurata - the country is de facto divided into two.
This sudden about face on the part of Gaddafi may also be dictated by the fact that he has realised that taking Benghazi would be a far more formidable task than what he has achieved so far. Benghazi is a major city under the control of the revolutionary people, and these would put up strong resistance against any force sent in by Gaddafi. Thus a compromise which leaves him in control of part of the country may seem the better option.
With the revolution in stalemate, the Interim Council remains standing in Benghazi but Gaddafi holds on to the biggest city, Tripoli and several other key cities, including important oil fields and refineries.
A ceasefire means neither side attacks the other. It also means putting on hold the Libyan revolution, which is what Gaddafi's regime wants, but also what the imperialists want. Those who lose out in all this are the Libyan workers and youth, those who actually started the revolution. In Tripoli Gaddafi will keep his grip on the situation and in the East and other rebel held areas, the revolutionary youth will be pulled back.
Let us not forget that until recently the west were doing very good business with Gaddafi. Western oil companies have been operating in the country for some time. Gaddafi was putting in place laws that would favour the development of private enterprise and the market. The IMF recently [February 15, 2011] applauded the Gaddafi regime noting that, "An ambitious program to privatize banks and develop the nascent financial sector is underway. Banks have been partially privatized, interest rates decontrolled, and competition encouraged. Ongoing efforts to restructure and modernize the CBL [Central Bank of Libya] are underway with assistance from the Fund." Gaddafi's son, Saif, was in fact a key promoter of "liberalisation".
The people who sit on the Interim Council, led by Gaddafi's former Minister of Justice, have no differences with the Gaddafi clique on this question. So on both sides of the divide the imperialists will be able to carry on doing good business. What the imperialists have been seeking is a way of cutting across the revolutionary wave in the Arab world. In Libya they have found, at least for now, a way of partially achieving that. The idea that tyrants can easily be toppled by mass movements has been brought into question by the survival of Gaddafi. The idea that outside help from the western "democracies" is required to "defend people's democratic rights" has been added to the equation.
All this is aimed at removing from the minds of millions of downtrodden, ordinary working people, of the unemployed youth, the poor, that they have the power to rise up and take their destinies into their own hands. Egypt and Tunisia, however, are still there as examples of revolutions that have removed despots from power. The idea that revolution is possible is still gripping the minds of millions in the Arab world. And whatever manoeuvres the imperialist may come up with, this idea is not going to go away so easily. In Yemen, Jordan, Oman and many other countries revolution is on the agenda.
The role of the United Nations
In speaking at the gathering of the Security Council, Susan Rice, the US representative claimed that by passing this resolution they were defending the democratic rights of the Libyan people. Such words in the mouths of the representatives of US imperialism stink of hypocrisy. We should not be taken in by all this rhetoric. The imperialist powers hide behind such words as they proceed to defend their fundamental interests.
Let us not forget that it was only last month that the same Susan Rice vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution which condemned Israel's settlements in Palestinian territory. Thus while in Libya people are to be guaranteed "democratic rights" the Palestinians can go on waiting for theirs. In the past two years the US have vetoed more than 30 resolutions that called for a defence of the rights of the Palestinians. On the other hand, in the past when the US sought a UN mandate to justify their invasion of Iraq, in spite of failing to get such a mandate, went ahead and invaded the country anyway.
Unfortunately, among many on the left there are big illusions in what the United Nations can achieve. There is this idea that somehow the UN is an organisation that stands above society, i.e. stands above class and national interests as some kind of "democratic" or "humanitarian" referee. It is nothing of the sort.
The UN Security Council, has within it five major powers, the US, China, Russia, France and Britain, who have the right of veto. If any single one of these feels that its national interests are at risk it can stop a resolution going through. What this means is that the UN can take a decision, when the "national interests", that is the interests of the respective ruling classes, of all these powers converge in some way.
Here we saw the spectacle of the direct representatives of Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama agreeing to intervene in Libya, the same people who at home are cutting pensions, attacking the right to free public education, cutting back on welfare in general, while at the same time defending the interests of their own capitalists. These same people have no qualms in sending the police against protesting workers and youth in their own countries, while at the same time shamefacedly decrying the lack of democratic rights in other countries.
Marxists do not fall for any of this. The interests of the capitalist class are the same at home and abroad. Their home policy is based on defending the profits and privileges of the ruling class. Their foreign policy is determined by the exact same criteria. That is why it is very unfortunate that many on the left - whether they call themselves Social-Democratic, Socialist, Labour, Left, Communist and so on - have fallen for all the rhetoric of the ruling class.
Bahrain and Libya... two weights and two measures
One has only to look at the situation in Bahrain to see the utter hypocrisy of what is going on. In Bahrain we have seen a mass movement of immense proportions. The government has responded brutally, shooting at unarmed peaceful demonstrators. Other Gulf States such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait have sent in troops and police forces to help the government quell the revolt. Where is the call for a UN force to defend the Bahraini people? So far, what we have is Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general expressing his "deepest concern" about what is happening in Bahrain.
The argument that the Bahraini government (which is violently repressing its own people) has called for the "help" of neighbouring countries and that by doing so legitimizes foreign intervention is grotesquely ridiculous. These hypocrites forget the very fact that the mass revolt in Bahrain has deprived the local government of any authority whatsoever to claim it represents the will of the majority.
Why do we have two weights and two measures here? Because in each situation the interests of the imperialists are different. If the revolution in Bahrain were to successfully overthrow the regime, then next in line would be Saudi Arabia, followed by the other smaller Gulf States. Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserves in the world. Kuwait and the UAE also have sizeable reserves. The Saudi regime itself is not exactly an example of democracy. It is a brutal regime, and always has been.
The Saudi regime has come under some - very mild - pressure to introduce "reforms". The result? The king is about to announce a... "government reshuffle", an "anti-corruption drive" and promises to increase subsidies on basic foodstuffs. But where are the democratic reforms, the right to form parties, the right to organize free trade unions and to strike? We can rest assured that these will not be in the king's speech today.
Saudi Arabia is a very important player in what is happening in the Middle East. It is a key ally of US imperialism, but in the recent period we have seen differences over how to deal with the revolutions that have been spreading across the whole region.
For example, when the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions started, the Saudis and other reactionary Arab regimes were all putting pressure, particularly on Mubarak to resist at all costs. They understood that the toppling of the Egyptian regime could open the floodgates and that they could be next.
US imperialism, on the other hand, after the initial shock of seeing millions on the streets - something they had not expected - realized that in order to maintain some degree of control over the situation, what was required was some loosening up from the top, i.e. to grant some reforms from above in order to avoid revolutionary explosions from below. That is in fact the line they are pushing now, even giving some kind advice to the Bahraini regime to follow along the same lines.
But it is one thing to pontificate from across the Atlantic Ocean; it is another to be sitting right on top of the volcano in the Middle East. These regimes realize that once you start loosening up from the top, in the face of revolutionary movements of the masses, it is only the beginning of a process that will go much further than they would like. Once the masses get a feeling that a regime is weak, that it is divided and it is making reforms only to try and stop the tide of revolution, then they are encouraged and move forward with more demands. The masses want full democratic rights, and with these they also want a solution to their burning economic and social problems.
This the imperialists understand and what they are trying to do now to make cosmetic changes while maintaining the essence of the old regimes that have either been toppled or are about to be toppled, i.e. regimes that maintain and defend the interests of the capitalist system as a whole.
It is in this context that we need to look at what is happening in Libya and why the UN voted the resolution that prepared the ground for the imposition of a no-fly zone over the country. It was evident that US imperialism was not prepared to take up on itself the task of imposing such a zone. They have had their fingers burned in Iraq and are not keen to get bogged down in another war in an Arab country. That explains why so much insistence has been placed on the fact that there is not going to be an "occupation" of Libya. Unfortunately for the US strategists, they have now been dragged into supporting such a resolution and will have to participate to some degree in imposing the no-fly zone. They see it as the lesser evil, and also have to weigh up their interests in the region as a whole. They cannot ignore the needs of the Saudi Arabian regime, which is far more important to them.
A call for a no-fly zone actually came from within Libya itself, from the Interim Council in Benghazi. The reason for this was that Gaddafi had kept control of key sections of the armed forces, as we have explained in a previous article [see Why has the revolution stalled in Libya?], in particular of the air force which could be used to bomb rebel held areas. The leadership of the Council has played an important role in all this. They dithered at crucial moments, held back the revolutionary youth, hoping more sections of the military would come over to the revolution or even that Gaddafi would be removed by people within the regime itself.
Revolutionary momentum must be regained
Once the revolutionary momentum was lost, Gaddafi was able to reorganize his forces and begin to strike back. At that point the conflict became more of a war than a revolution, and with far superior firepower, the people of Benghazi and other cities were facing the risk of losing everything they had fought for and of suffering a bloody clampdown at the hands of Gaddafi's forces. When it seemed that Gaddafi was close to launching an offensive against Benghazi the UN decided to pass its resolution.
The reaction on the streets of Benghazi was ecstatic. Now they felt they had the big powers backing them and they feel Gaddafi can be defeated. This euphoria is understandable, but is it justified? The imperialists are not intervening to defend the Libyan revolution. On the contrary, their purpose is to strangle the revolution and divert it along safer lines. They are backing the Council in Benghazi, whose members have shown that what they want is to be on good terms with the imperialists, open up Libya to imperialist economic interests even more than has been done so far, and in the process win ministerial positions for themselves.
For what kind of regime could emerge from a defeat of Gaddafi achieved with the aid of the imperialists? Victory over Gaddafi in such circumstances would come at a price. One only has to look at Iraq to see what kind of regime it would be. Libya would have a government that would have to carry out the demands of the imperialists. That would involve speeding up the programme of privatization initiated by Gaddafi, further cuts in welfare, cuts in food subsidies and so on. It would be a capitalist regime, with a democratic façade, but none of the pressing social problems would be solved. On the contrary they would worsen.
For now, however, Gaddafi still has his armed forces intact. His attack was not mainly based on aerial bombardment, but on troops on the ground, aided by tanks and other hardware. If what is intended is to defend civilians, then a no-fly zone would not be enough. Eventually they would have to commit ground troops.
Once such a process starts then it would lead eventually to the need to send troops into Libya. From a purely military point of view, they could defeat Gaddafi, as they defeated Saddam Hussein, but at what cost? It would mean much destruction and many deaths. Precisely what they were supposed to be avoiding with this resolution.
Now that Gaddafi has accepted to hold back his forces, this may not become reality. But the alternative is one of a crystallisation of the situation as it is now and the opening of negotiations that will see the Benghazi Council, Gaddafi and the imperialist powers (under the cover of the UN) sit around a table and decide how to divide up the country's wealth at the expenses of the Libyan people.
The real alternative for the Libyan workers and revolutionary youth will be to regain the initiative. They must explain that the revolution is not simply about removing a despot who had good relations with the imperialists and replace him with another pro-imperialist government. The Libyan people yearn for freedom and democracy, the right to express their views and aims and the right to organise to achieve those aims. It is clear, however, that the aims of those who sit on the Interim Council are not the same as those of the workers and revolutionary youth who started the revolution.
The message must be sent to the people, in Tripoli especially, that the revolution is not about, placing a few defectors from Gaddafi's camp in government in place of Gaddafi himself. It is not about having a government that will continue with more or less the same imperialist imposed policies that Gaddafi was pursuing anyway.
The revolution is about ending all compromises with imperialism. It is about establishing workers' control over the nationalised industries and taking back any key resources that have been privatised. For this to happen, the workers must come out with their own voice, with their own banner, and their own party. That is what is missing in the revolution. And that is what needs to be built.
The revolutionary youth and the workers will be drawing conclusions from the events that have unfolded over the past few weeks. They have been through a very bitter school. But if they do not want to see their revolution stolen from them, they must come out as an independent force.
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