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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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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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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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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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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) One: HANDS OFF THE MIDDLE EAST - NO MILITARY INTERVENTION IN LIBYA - TROOPS OUT
OF AFGHANISTAN
Two: JOIN THE WELFARE NOT WARFARE BLOC ON MARCH 26TH
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2241/242/
2) Explosion Rocks Japan Nuclear Plant After Quake
By MICHAEL WINES AND MATTHEW L. WALD
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13nuclear.html?hp
3) The Limits of Safeguards and Human Foresight
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/weekinreview/13limits.html?hp
4) Fighting Escalates in Yemeni Capital
By LAURA KASINOF
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/middleeast/13YEMEN.html?ref=world
5) Gates Visits Bahrain Amid Huge Protests
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/world/middleeast/12unrest.html?ref=world
6) Obama Defends Detention Conditions for Soldier Accused in WikiLeaks Case
By SCOTT SHANE
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/us/12manning.html?ref=us
7) Virginia: Manslaughter VerdictsIn Death of Afghan Civilian
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/us/12brfs-MANSLAUGHTER_BRF.html?ref=us
8) America should not prosecute Julian Assange
By Joseph Nye
Published: March 8 2011 22:06 | Last updated: March 8 2011 22:06
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/595fd0c4-49bd-11e0-acf0-00144feab49a.html#axzz1GP9Yq0Vd
9) Insubordinate Arabs
By Amer Jubran
March 12, 2011
Via Email
10) Stripped naked every night, Bradley Manning tells of prison ordeal
US soldier held on suspicion of leaking state secrets speaks out for first time about experience
'Stripping me of all of my clothing is without justification'
By Ed Pilkington in New York
The Guardian
Friday 11 March 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-bradley-manning-prison
11) This Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning
By Daniel Ellsberg
March 12, 2011
http://original.antiwar.com/daniel-ellsberg/2011/03/11/this-shameful-abuse-of-bradley-manning/
12) Up to 100,000 protest Wisconsin law curbing unions
Bigger protest than during Vietnam era, police estimate
Wisconsin battle has ignited national struggle
By James B. Kelleher
March 12, 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/13/usa-wisconsin-idUSN1227540420110313
13) Japan Death Toll Tops 10,000, Multiple Nuclear Meltdowns Loom
By Eric Talmadge and Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press
March 13, 2011
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/338-177/5264-japan-death-toll-tops-10000-multiple-nuclear-meltdowns-loom
14) Partial Meltdowns Presumed at Crippled Reactors
By HIROKO TABUCHI and MATTHEW L. WALD
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14nuclear.html?hp
15) State Department Spokesman Out, After Comments on Prisoner
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
March 13, 2011, 1:56 pm
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/state-department-spokesman-out-after-comments-on-prisoner/?hp
16) Nuclear Emergency Is Worst in Decades
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13accidents.html?ref=world
17) Protesters Seal Off Bahrain's Financial Center
By ETHAN BRONNER
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/middleeast/14bahrain.html?ref=world
18) Itinerant Life Weighs on Farmworkers' Children
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/us/13salinas.html?ref=us
19) Cuba Gives 15-Year Prison Term to American
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/americas/13cuba.html?ref=us
20) Labour Calls for New Tax on Bank Bonuses
By REUTERS
March 14, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/03/14/business/business-us-britain-budget.html?src=busln
21) Risk of Meltdown Spreads at Japanese Plant
By HIROKO TABUCHI and MATTHEW L. WALD
March 14, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?ref=business
22) Radioactive Releases in Japan Could Last Months, Experts Say
By DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALD
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-reactor.html?ref=health
23) Several Plant Workers Are Ill, but Radiation Risk in Japan Is Seen as Low for Now
By DENISE GRADY
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14health.html?ref=health
24) German Workers Rally in Solidarity with Wisconsin Public Employees
Teresa Casertano in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department sends us this report.
March 14, 2011
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/03/11/german-workers-rally-in-solidarity-with-wisconsin-public-employees/
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1) IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
One: HANDS OFF THE MIDDLE EAST - NO MILITARY INTERVENTION IN LIBYA - TROOPS OUT
OF AFGHANISTAN
Two: JOIN THE WELFARE NOT WARFARE BLOC ON MARCH 26TH
***************
One: HANDS OFF THE MIDDLE EAST - NO MILITARY INTERVENTION IN LIBYA - TROOPS OUT
OF AFGHANISTAN
Join the day of action this Saturday March 12th - Downing Street 2pm in
London
Check website for out of London details
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2241/242/
This Saturday Stop the War activists around the country will be out campaigning
against western military intervention - against the occupation of Afghanistan
and against possible intervention in Libya.
Soaring civilian casualties in Afghanistan are causing growing anger there. On
Sunday hundreds of people chanting against NATO protested in Kabul against a
spate of civilian casualties caused by international forces. Recent UN figures
show that civilian deaths were up 20% in 2010. Violence is due to increase
again as the spring fighting season starts.
Meanwhile the British government is pushing for military intervention in Libya.
As even some Pentagon chiefs are saying, setting up a no fly zone would
effectively involve a Western attack on Libya, almost certainly strengthening
Gadaffi's hand.
Any such operation would be driven by the same cynical self interest that has
led the West to back dictators - including Gadaffi - across the region for
generations.
Gadaffi's attempt to repress the uprising is sickening, but the best way to
support the democracy movement is to demand that Western governments recognise
the Interim National Council, stop paying Gadaffi for oil and drop any plans
for intervention.
See Stop the War's statement on Libya
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2241/242/
The letter in today's Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/10/libya-no-fly-zone
And John Rees's interview on BBC 24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50HsJbCp-8&feature=player_embedded
Stalls, petitioning sessions and protests are taking place in many towns and
cities this weekend, check the website for details.
In London Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Initiative have called a
protest outside Downing Street at 2pm. Make sure you are there.
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2241/242/
***************
Two: JOIN THE WELFARE NOT WARFARE BLOC ON MARCH 26TH
Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Initiative are organising an antiwar
contingent on the TUC anti-cuts March in a fortnight's time. The march
promises to be huge. The government continues to pretend there is no
alternative to its austerity plan, so it's vital we get across our demands
for a different set of priorities. If we brought the troops home from
Afghanistan and cut Trident we would have enough to spend on education, health
and housing.
Stop the War has produced special postcards publicising the demonstration and
outlining the difference cutting war and Trident could make. You can order them
from the office - 0207 801 2768, office@stopwar.org.uk
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2) Explosion Rocks Japan Nuclear Plant After Quake
By MICHAEL WINES AND MATTHEW L. WALD
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13nuclear.html?hp
TOKYO - An explosion at a nuclear power plant in northern Japan on Saturday blew the roof off one building and destroyed the exterior walls of a crippled reactor, but officials said radiation leaks from the plant were receding and that a major meltdown was not imminent.
Japanese television showed a cloud of white-gray smoke from the explosion billowing up from a stricken reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Saturday afternoon, and officials said the threat of ongoing radiation leaks prompted them to expand the evacuation area around the facility to a 12-mile radius.
Although safety officials described the release of radioactive materials as small, they also told the International Atomic Energy Agency that they were making preparations to distribute iodine, which is used to help protect from radiation exposure, to people living near two nuclear plants that suffered damage in the quake. Japanese news media said three workers at the Daiichi plant had suffered radiation exposure.
Government officials and executives of Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the plant, gave confusing accounts of the causes of the explosion and the damage it caused. Late Saturday night, officials said that the explosion occurred in a structure housing turbines near the No. 1 reactor at the plant rather than inside the reactor itself.
The blast, apparently caused by a sharp build-up of pressure after the reactor's cooling system failed, destroyed the concrete structure surrounding the reactor but did not collapse the critical steel container inside, they said. They said that raised the chances they could prevent the release of large amounts of radioactive material and could avoid a core meltdown at the plant.
"We've confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged. The explosion didn't occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said in a news conference Saturday evening. "At this point, there has been no major change to the level of radiation leakage outside, so we'd like everyone to respond calmly."
Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the plant, which is located 160 miles north of Tokyo, now plans to fill the reactor with sea water to cool it down and reduce pressure. The process would take five to 10 hours, Mr. Edano said, expressing confidence that the operation could "prevent criticality."
The company also said its workers also added boric acid to the containment vessel Saturday night to slow down the nuclear reaction.
Mr. Edano said radioactive materials had leaked outside the plant before the explosion, but that the explosion did not worsen the leak and that, in fact, measured levels of radioactive emission had been decreasing. He did not specify the levels of radiation involved.
Officials said even before the explosion that they had detected cesium, an indication that some of the nuclear fuel in the reactor was already damaged. That suggests that the plant experienced a partial meltdown. But officials insisted the fuel damage was contained and that the prospect of more radioactive leaks had receded.
Naoto Sekimura, a professor at Tokyo University, told NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, that "only a small portion of the fuel has been melted. But the plant is shut down already, and being cooled down. Most of the fuel is contained in the plant case, so I would like to ask people to be calm."
The crisis at the aging plant confronted Japan with its worst nuclear accident - and one of the biggest malfunctions at a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
Japanese nuclear safety officials and international experts said that because of crucial design differences the release of radiation at the Fukushima plant would likely be much smaller than at Chernobyl even if the Fukushima plant had suffered a complete core meltdown, which they said it had not. But the problems at the plant are likely to increase concerns about the safety record and reliability of Japan's extensive nuclear power facilities, which have been criticized for major safety violations in the past.
The vulnerability of nuclear plants to earthquakes was also underscored by ongoing problems at the cooling system of reactors at a second nearby plant, known as Daini, which prompted a smaller evacuation from surrounding communities.
Tokyo Electric Power said the explosion happened "near" the No. 1 reactor at Daiichi at around 3:40 p.m. Japan time on Saturday. It said four of its workers were injured in the blast.
Both the Daiichi and Daini plants were shut down during Friday's earthquake. But the loss of power in the area and damage to the plant's generators from the subsequent tsunami crippled the cooling systems, which need to function after a shut down to cool down nuclear fuel rods.
Malfunctioning cooling systems allowed pressure to build up beyond the design capacity of the reactors. Early Saturday officials had said that small amounts of radioactive vapor were expected to be released into the atmosphere to prevent damage to the containment systems and that they were evacuating tens of thousands of people living around the plants as a precaution.
Those releases apparently did not prevent the buildup of hydrogen inside the plant, which ignited and exploded Saturday afternoon, government officials said. They said the explosion itself did not increase the amount of radioactive material being released into the atmosphere, but they expanded the evacuation area around the Daiichi plant from a six-mile radius to a 12-mile radius.
Safety officials continued to insist that the levels of radiation were not large enough to threaten the health of people outside the plants, but they also told people living in the vicinity to cover their mouths and stay indoors.
David Lochbaum, who worked at three reactors in the United States similar to the Fukushima design, and who was later hired by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to teach its personnel about that technology, said that from pictures he had seen of the stricken plant, the explosion appeared to have occurred in the turbine hall, which is usually a large, rectangular building adjacent to a smaller, taller reactor building.
The technology used at Fukushima is called a boiling water reactor, in which the reactor, inside a containment, sends its steam out of containment to a turbine. The turbine converts the steam's energy into rotary motion, which turns a generator and makes electricity.
But as the water goes through the reactor, some water molecules break up into hydrogen and oxygen. A system in the turbine hall usually scrubs out those gases. Hydrogen is also used in the turbine hall to cool the electric generator. Hydrogen from both sources has sometimes escaped and exploded, he said, but in this case, there is an additional source of hydrogen: interaction of steam with the metal of the fuel rods.
Earlier Saturday, before the explosion, a Japanese nuclear safety panel said the radiation levels were 1,000 times above normal in a reactor control room at the Daiichi plant. Some radioactive material had also seeped outside, with radiation levels near the main gate measured at eight times normal, NHK quoted nuclear safety officials as saying.
The emergency at the Daiichi plant began shortly after the earthquake struck on Friday afternoon. Emergency diesel generators, which had kicked in to run the reactor's cooling system after the electrical power grid failed, shut down about an hour after the earthquake. There was speculation that the tsunami had flooded the generators and knocked them out of service.
For some time after the quake, the plant was operating in a battery-controlled cooling mode. Tokyo Electric said that by Saturday morning it had also installed a mobile generator at Daiichi to ensure that the cooling system would continue operating even after reserve battery power was depleted. Even so, the company said it needed to conduct "controlled containment venting" in order to avoid an "uncontrolled rupture and damage" to the containment unit.
Why the controlled release of pressure on Saturday did not succeed in addressing the problem at the reactor was not immediately explained. Tokyo Electric and government nuclear safety officials also did not explain the precise sequence of failures at the plant.
Daiichi and other nuclear facilities are designed with extensive backup systems that are supposed to function in emergencies to ensure the plants can be shut down safely.
At Daiichi, a pump run by steam, designed to function in the absence of electricity, was adding water to the reactor vessel, and as that water boiled off, it was being released. Such water is usually only slightly radioactive, according to nuclear experts. As long as the fuel stays covered by water, it will remain intact, and the bulk of the radioactive material will stay inside. But if fresh water cannot be pumped into the containment vessel and the cooling water evaporates, the nuclear fuel is exposed, which can result in a meltdown.
Japan relies heavily on nuclear power, which generates just over one-third of the country's electricity. Its plants are designed to withstand earthquakes, which are common, but experts have long expressed concerns about safety standards, particularly if major quake hit close to a reactor.
Yasuko Kamiizumi contributed reporting from Tokyo, Alan Cowell from Paris and Ken Belson from New York.
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3) The Limits of Safeguards and Human Foresight
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/weekinreview/13limits.html?hp
Here's the truly scary thing about the 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Honshu Island and its resulting tsunami: Japan is a country that is lauded for doing preparedness right.
Japan is a rich, high-tech nation with much rough experience of seismic rumblings: those factors have led it to plan, and plan well, for disaster, with billions spent over the years on developing and deploying technologies to limit the damage from temblors and tsunamis.
Those steps almost certainly kept the death count lower than it might otherwise be - especially in comparison with the multitudes lost in recent earthquakes in China and Haiti. Last Friday, however, showed the limits of what even the best preparation can do.
"I'm still in shock," said Ivan G. Wong, the principal seismologist of URS Corporation in Oakland, Calif., contemplating Japan's efforts to resist earthquake damage and its parallels to building standards in this country.
"This is really the best analogue we have for the United States," he said, and "I'm just flabbergasted by the amount of damage we're seeing."
Mr. Wong noted that the Pacific Northwest is at considerable risk of a strong earthquake from the Cascadia fault, which lies off the coast under the seabed. And while the coastal zone of the Northwest does not have as much residential and business development as that slammed by the Japanese tsunami, the earthquake risks farther inland along the Pacific Northwest could well end up sustaining severe damage, he said. Nearly a thousand Oregon schools built in the last century have poor earthquake resilience, and many vulnerable dams protect urban areas in the region. Oregon is moving to shore up its schools, but the program is not slated for completion until 2032. The federal government is working to address dam issues, but the pace is deliberate, he said.
"Steps are being taken, but there's a lot of dams, there's a lot of fixing that needs to be done," Mr. Wong said. "We're decades away from being able to fix all our dams."
The sobering fact is that megadisasters like the Japanese earthquake can overcome the best efforts of our species to protect against them. No matter how high the levee or how flexible the foundation, disaster experts say, nature bats last. Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, warned that an earthquake in the United States along the New Madrid fault, which caused strong earthquakes early in the 19th century, could kill tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people in the more densely populated cities surrounding the Mississippi River.
All technology can do in the face of such force is to minimize damage to communities and infrastructure, he said, and "on both of those fronts, we're never going to be perfect."
Given the limits of steel and concrete to resist the forces of nature, much depends on people's own preparedness to face up to disaster - but that mental infrastructure is in even poorer shape than the nation's roads and bridges. People in the Midwest might have storm cellars to shield them from tornadoes, and those in coastal cities like New Orleans might keep a hatchet in the attic in case they have to chop their way onto their roof after a hurricane. But in most of the country, simple plans that include having a quick-grab case of supplies, medications and important family papers, as well as a plan for reuniting family members who have been separated in a disaster, are distressingly rare, Dr. Redlener said.
Dr. Redlener, the author of "Americans at Risk," about why the United States is not prepared for megadisasters and what we be done about it, said the biggest problem is a failure to go so far as even Japan has to protect its citizens from natural disasters.
"We seem to not have the ability or the willingness to do that right now," he said. "At a time when states are facing $175 billion in deficits and the federal government is trying to deal with very compelling issues of long-term debt and deficits, the likelihood of our being able to mobilize the resources to significantly improve disaster readiness is limited."
And yet there are few issues as important. In a telephone press conference on Friday, W. Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Service, said, "The lesson that you learn from this is that earthquakes don't come with a warning. And that's why being prepared is so critical."
Even preventable disasters, however, get short shrift because of our aversion to long-term planning and commitment, said Russell Schweickart, the former Apollo astronaut. Mr. Schweickart has spent years trying to get citizens of earth to focus the risks that many people might think of as pretty far out: asteroid impact.
Mr. Schweickart and others, however, estimate that asteroid impacts like the one that flattened 800 square miles of forest in the Tunguska region of Siberia in 1908 happen every few hundred years, and should be taken seriously. Mr. Schweickart is chairman of the B612 Foundation, which advocates monitoring near-earth asteroids to find the ones that might someday strike this planet. With proper research and financing, he noted, it should be possible to divert a space rock and avoid disaster.
"The good news is, you can prevent it - not just get ready for it!" he said in an interview. "The bad news is, it's hard to get anybody to pay attention to it when there are potholes in the road."
Moments like the Japanese quake, Dr. Redlener said, are often referred to as "wake-up calls" that could lead to change. But after so many examples and teachable moments that lead to so little change, he argued, "it's more like a snooze alarm" that jolts us for a moment; in no time at all, he said, we "drift back into a level of complacency."
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4) Fighting Escalates in Yemeni Capital
By LAURA KASINOF
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/middleeast/13YEMEN.html?ref=world
SANA, Yemen - Fighting between anti-government protesters and security forces built to new levels here on Saturday, and two people were reported killed, even as President Ali Abdullah Saleh promised the White House that violence would not be used against demonstrators.
The confrontation in the capital also left 13 people with gunshot wounds, according to medical staff at the scene. Random shooting was reported in other areas of the city.
"We finished our morning prayers and then they rushed at us with a water cannon and then live bullets and tear gas," said Sadeq Al Haijazy, an unemployed protester, his head bandaged after he was hit by a flying rock. "But we are staying here until we die."
The fighting dragged on for hours as water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and what witnesses said was live ammunition were used against protesters, and snipers fired from nearby roof-tops. Hundreds of men rushed towards the front line separating protesters and security forces, their eyes red from tear gas, covering their faces with their turbans. A man announced through a bull-horn: "Youth, God is great. We should not retreat."
Many people lay injured in a mosque as volunteer medical staff rigged intravenous drips and bandaged wounds. One doctor, Faisal Al Hija, a surgeon who tried to help the wounded there, said he had been turned back by soldiers who said entry was forbidden.
Some protesters retaliated by throwing rocks towards security forces, which included around 200 soldiers and plain-clothes officials, breaking pieces of the stone from a barrier that soldiers had previously used to halt the anti-government crowds.
"They wanted to push us back off this street," said Abdel Kader Al Mamari, an engineer standing in a puddle left over from a water cannon. "They don't understand that what we want is to change the regime."
On Friday afternoon, demonstrators forced the police to give ground peacefully and set up tents at major intersections in the city. A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters about the subject, said residents had been complaining to authorities about the expansion of the protesters' sit-in.
According to a statement from the White House, John O. Brennan, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, telephoned Mr. Saleh on Friday, urging that "representatives of all sectors of the Yemeni opposition should respond constructively to President Saleh's call to engage in a serious dialogue to end the current impasse."
Mr. Saleh "reiterated his hope that the opposition will engage immediately in a dialogue with the government as well as his public assurance not to use violence against peaceful demonstrators."
During the clashes on Saturday, some protesters voiced anger at the suggestion that they should engage in dialogue with the authorities. Because Mr. Saleh's sons and relatives control the armed forces, protesters view the attacks as directly coming from Mr. Saleh himself.
"The White House tells us to have dialogue, what is the use.? It's been 33 years" said Riyadh Al Selwy, a student holding an onion to his nose to ease the sting of tear gas, referring to Mr. Saleh's decades in power. "We want democracy like you," he told an American reporter.
A sit-in in front of Sana University has been continuing for about three weeks. Originally student-led, demonstrators now seem to include all segments of Yemeni society. The sit-in has been relatively peaceful, with random flares of violence.
However, according to one protester, Hamed Mofaraa, a tribesman from nearby Kowkaban, after the force used against protesters on Saturday , fighting could escalate - an ominous prospect in a land where many people routinely carry weapons.
"This is going to make tribes from all over Yemen come, our brothers are going to come after this and our number will grow," said Mr. Mofaraa, sitting under a tent watching the wounded being carried away from the battle's frontline. "Maybe they'll bring their weapons, maybe not. We don't know. But maybe they'll bring their weapons."
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5) Gates Visits Bahrain Amid Huge Protests
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and NEIL MacFARQUHAR
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/world/middleeast/12unrest.html?ref=world
MANAMA, Bahrain - As security forces and pro-government vigilantes beat back protesters here, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived Friday on an unannounced visit to offer American support to the royal family and prod the king and the crown prince toward talks with protesters demanding more democracy.
His visit took place against a backdrop of large and continuing protests across numerous Arab capitals on Friday, with neither repression nor government concessions stemming the tide of anger and demands for change.
The region's protests were for the most part peaceful, although there were scattered reports of injuries.
Here in this tiny Persian Gulf kingdom, security forces firing what protesters said were rubber bullets and pro-government Sunni vigilantes wielding sticks and swords beat back a rump group of several hundred protesters who were among the tens of thousands of Shiite demonstrators who were planning to march toward a particularly sensitive area: the Royal Court in Riffa, the preferred residential neighborhood for the ruling family and the Sunni Muslim elite. Its manicured lawns and wide streets contrast sharply with the narrow alleyways and raw cinder-block houses where many of the majority Shiite Muslims live.
The Interior Ministry issued a statement before the march warning that security forces would deploy in force to prevent it, given the "level of sectarian tension that threatens Bahrain's social fabric." Afterward, it issued another statement saying it had fired just eight tear gas canisters to repulse a rump force of marchers.
The protesters told a different story, saying they had been met with stones and clouds of tear gas. The Ministry of Health issued a statement saying 32 people were treated for injuries, mostly bruises or tear gas inhalation, at the Salmaniya Medical Complex, with an unspecified number treated elsewhere.
In his Friday sermon, Sheik Isa Qassim, the most senior Shiite cleric, said the king was falsely depicting the demand for basic rights as a rift between sects.
"Our demands are political ones, and have nothing to do with demands for a sect or segment of society," he said at Friday Prayer, according to an English translation distributed afterward. "We are demanding democracy."
In Saudi Arabia, the monarchy deployed a huge police presence to stop any protests from coalescing outside mosques, the sites of the weekly collective prayers that have helped fuel major protests throughout the region since the Arab uprising began in December. The Libyan government used the same tactic in Tripoli.
The region's biggest mass of demonstrators turned out in Sana, the capital of Yemen, with about 100,000 participating in a sit-in to demand that President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down.
Two were killed in Tunisia and more than 20 were wounded in protests in a Tunisian mining town, but the issues seemed to be economic, not political.
Antigovernment rallies of varying sizes occurred in Iraq, Jordan and Kuwait.
Mr. Gates is to meet in Bahrain on Saturday with the king, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, and the crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa. After weeks of prodemocracy protests - at times more than 100,000 people have massed in the streets - the royal family has pledged to enter a dialogue with the demonstrators after an initial crackdown killed seven people.
So far the dialogue has not happened. But in contrast to the uprisings in Egypt and Libya, Washington has continued to back the government of the Sunni royal family, to the growing consternation of the largely Shiite protesters.
On Friday a senior American military official said the administration remained optimistic and patient. "We're still a little bit in the talks-before-the-talks period, but we're hoping the dialogue will start soon," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules imposed by the Pentagon. "I don't think anybody expects you're going to have democracy overnight."
Obama administration officials say King Hamad listened to the president when he urged the king to pull back his security forces from the protesters and so has earned the right to try to manage reform on his own. Human rights activists remain skeptical about the prospects.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Bahrain two weeks ago, but Mr. Gates is the first cabinet secretary to visit since the protests began. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said that Mr. Gates would be playing "more of a diplomatic role" on the trip compared with his usual talks here focused on national security and defense. Bahrain is the home of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet.
In Cairo, Tahrir Square had the smallest turnout in weeks. Protest organizers had initially declared this Friday a day off as a way of thanking the governing military council for replacing the prime minister with a new one more to their liking. But they reconsidered, given their sense of urgency over a March 19 vote on proposed constitutional amendments as well as Muslim-Christian clashes this week that left 13 people dead.
"We always talk about Muslims and Christians being one hand, but that's not true," said a man named Akram, who was nervous to be criticizing the military and so did not give his last name. "Why doesn't the military do more for us? People always say the army is supposed to be so good, but that is garbage."
Many Egyptians of all stripes are convinced that people they call counterrevolutionaries opposed to changing the government system are provoking the sectarian violence to deflect attention from criticism of proposed constitutional amendments that would allow for quick parliamentary and presidential elections.
Also Friday, the public prosecutor ordered the detentions of the four former senior Interior Ministry officials on charges of ordering the violence that left several hundred protesters dead in the days before President Hosni Mubarak's fall, the official Middle East News Agency reported.
In Yemen, President Saleh had tried to head off the protest by making his biggest concession yet a day earlier. He said the country would be turned into a parliamentary system by the end of 2011, with power evolving away from the presidency.
Protesters said the only step they would accept was for Mr. Saleh to step down. At least 10 protesters were wounded in Aden by security forces, and three others in Sana were hurt by government supporters pelting them with stones and bottles, according to local reports.
In Saudi Arabia, several hundred took to the streets in Riyadh and in a couple of towns in its eastern province, where both the kingdom's Shiite minority and its oil reserves are concentrated.
Security forces flooded major cities and particularly squares where protesters had planned to gather, quickly dispersing the crowds, and at least 20 people were arrested, according to human rights advocates and residents.
Elisabeth Bumiller reported from Manama, and Neil MacFarquhar from Cairo. Laura Kasinof contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen, Liam Stack from Cairo, and Scott Sayare from Tunis.
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6) Obama Defends Detention Conditions for Soldier Accused in WikiLeaks Case
By SCOTT SHANE
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/us/12manning.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - President Obama has defended conditions in a Marine Corps jail for Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is accused of leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks. The president said Friday that he had been assured that such measures as forcing Private Manning to sleep without clothing were justified and for his own safety.
"With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards," Mr. Obama said at a news conference. "They assure me that they are."
"I can't go into details about some of their concerns," he added, "but some of this has to do with Private Manning's safety as well." He appeared to be referring to fears that Private Manning might harm himself, though the private, his friends and his lawyer have all denied that he is suicidal.
The question to Mr. Obama was prompted by critical comments from Philip J. Crowley, the top State Department spokesman, about Private Manning's treatment. In a talk at M.I.T., Mr. Crowley called the treatment "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid," and he said he did not understand Defense Department officials' reasons for imposing it, according to people present. Mr. Crowley later said he was expressing his personal views.
Starting on March 2, Private Manning was forced by guards at the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va., to sleep without clothing at night, though he has a blanket and in recent days has been given a "tear-proof smock" to wear at night, according to a Defense Department spokesman, Col. David Lapan.
"Pfc. Manning is being treated fairly, with dignity and respect," Colonel Lapan said. "All measures in place are to ensure his safety and security."
A document made public on Thursday by Private Manning's lawyer, David E. Coombs, said the nighttime stripping began as a result of a sarcastic quip from the imprisoned soldier about concerns that he might kill himself.
On March 2, a brig officer had told him his treatment would not change because "the brig simply considered me a risk of self-harm," Private Manning wrote in the document, which was filed as part of a formal complaint to military officials. "Out of frustration, I responded that the POI restrictions were absurd and sarcastically told him if I really wanted to harm myself, I could conceivably do so with the elastic waistband of my underwear or with my flip-flops." The initials refer to "prevention of injury," a status that restricts items in Private Manning's cell and requires guards to check him constantly.
Private Manning's lawyer and supporters have complained for months about his conditions, which they describe as effectively solitary confinement, since he is kept in his cell 23 hours a day and has almost no contact with other detainees.
Brig officials have said he is not in solitary confinement but is being treated as required for prisoners classified as "maximum custody" and placed on prevention-of-injury watch. Private Manning's lawyer has challenged both designations as unjustified.
According to Private Manning's written account, a brig psychiatrist recommended continuing the prevention-of-injury status for Private Manning in December, but in January decided it should be ended, a recommendation ignored by brig commanders. After the March 2 incident, the psychiatrist assessed Private Manning as "low risk," the document says.
Private Manning was arrested last May and accused of downloading several hundred thousand diplomatic cables and classified reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and providing them to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group. If he is convicted of the charges at a court-martial, he could face life in prison.
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7) Virginia: Manslaughter VerdictsIn Death of Afghan Civilian
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/us/12brfs-MANSLAUGHTER_BRF.html?ref=us
Two former Blackwater contractors were found guilty on Friday of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 shooting death of an unarmed Afghan civilian in Kabul. A federal jury found the contractors, Justin H. Cannon of Texas and Christopher Drotleff of Virginia, not guilty of murder and weapons charges that could have resulted in life sentences. They were also acquitted in the death of a second unarmed civilian. The men face a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. The trial focused on whether they had feared for their lives the night of the shooting; the vehicle in front of them, which was escorting their translators, got into a bad accident on a dark street. Defense lawyers said the contractors fired on a car when it approached them at a high speed. Prosecutors said the car had approached to help the accident victims. They also contended that the contractors acted out of anger on a day that their boss had been fired and that they had been drinking.
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8) America should not prosecute Julian Assange
By Joseph Nye
Published: March 8 2011 22:06 | Last updated: March 8 2011 22:06
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/595fd0c4-49bd-11e0-acf0-00144feab49a.html#axzz1GP9Yq0Vd
One-third of the world's population is now online. As we are seeing in the Middle East, this fact is changing global politics. An information revolution is shifting power away from states. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has called for "a serious conversation about the principles that will guide us" in such a world. She says she backs the "freedom to connect" for people everywhere, and calls on others in the Middle East and Asia to follow. But if she believes this, why is the US trying to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange?
In February, a court in London ruled that Mr Assange should be extradited to Sweden, although he quickly lodged an appeal. But the US justice department is considering a prosecution for espionage, and has subpoenaed Mr Assange's Twitter account. The rationale, from Mrs Clinton, is that the WikiLeaks cables incident "began with an act of theft". But that is grounds for prosecuting the soldier who allegedly stole the information, not Mr Assange - unless he can be proved to be part of a conspiracy, rather than a conduit of information.
One might also prosecute him for possession of stolen property, but then one must also prosecute The New York Times and other newspapers, with implications for press freedom. A third reason could be deterrence: perhaps the damage done by such disclosures is so great that an example must be set. Did the WikiLeaks disclosures do such harm? Clearly they caused some - as when an otherwise pro-US politician in Singapore publicly cautioned his officials against speaking too freely to Americans. However, as defence secretary Robert Gates has pointed out, foreign governments still have to work with the US. WikiLeaks may drive information out of diplomatic hands and into intelligence or other channels, but the job of governments working together will go on.
Therefore by trying to prosecute Mr Assange we only do damage to ourselves, both in terms of our own constitutional precedents, but also to the principle of openness on the internet that America must try to establish. The move is a blunder because it glorifies Mr Assange, and also because it confuses a cause with a symptom. If we are to understand power in an internet age, we must realise that if Mr Assange had never been born, something like this would have happened anyway.
In some ways the WikiLeaks disclosures actually did less damage than might have been assumed, because they did not include information from restricted state department channels. Nor was sensitive intelligence distributed on SIPRNet, the compromised network to which, according to press accounts, nearly 500,000 people had access. This tells us that we must focus on how the state manages its networks: porous, inadequately monitored information systems are the real culprit, not Mr Assange.
Those government employees who violate the oath that they make not to disclose classified information can already be prosecuted. Some might claim exemption for acts of conscience, if they are willing to defend their actions in public. But while the WikiLeaks videos of soldiers shooting journalists from a helicopter in Iraq might qualify, the broadside disclosure of 250,000 cables from around the world would not.
Instead, we should learn from more advanced approaches, in banks and other companies, to develop systems that classify less and protect data better. Better procedures should also be developed for dealing with things that are likely to be leaked, and how in turn this relates to our laws and to principles we are trying to establish for the internet.
Of course, this will not solve all problems. Disloyal employees and foreign spies have always been able to access some sensitive information. What is new is that now individuals can steal vast amounts and display it easily and widely online. However, that is the age we live in. At such a time, the less attention that is paid to Mr Assange, the better.
The writer is the author of 'The Future of Power', and was an assistant secretary of defence under US president Bill Clinton
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9) Insubordinate Arabs
By Amer Jubran
March 12, 2011
Via Email
"The hand is a tool; the body is only a larger tool. If the mind changes, humans would make miracles"-Abdurrahman Moneef
Although surprising to all, the revolutions currently sweeping through the Arabic countries were imminent. The tranquil conditions present in these countries in December of 2010 were only the silence before the storm. But one would ask: Why these revolutions? How did they happen?
And who is doing what?
Twenty-six years old, Tunisian street vendor Mohammad Bouazizi wrote to his mother on December 15, 2010, before setting himself on fire to protest the confiscation of his fruits and his assault by Tunisian police:
"Forgive me mother for I am leaving and blame will not stop me. Forgive me as I will be lost in a path that was not my choice. Forgive me for not obeying your wishes, and do not blame me. Blame the time that we live in. I will be leaving without coming back. I cried too much, but without tears."
Mohammad's action sparked an explosion all across Tunisia, then spread to the rest of the Arab world, bringing down, so far, Zain Alabedeen Ben Ali, and Hosni Mubarak. The unrest is now rocking Qaddafi of Libya, Ali Saleh of Yemen, and Ben Issa of Bahrain. Not one single Arabic ruler is feeling immune.
While it is true that Arabs are one united nation in language, religion, culture, and history-despite the efforts of the colonial powers of the west to dismember them-Arabs are also united in misery, humiliation, and low self-esteem, for a number of reasons.
First, Arabs were subjected to many depleting wars brought by the U.S. and western European powers. These wars used superior weapons and military power against the sovereignty and civilian infrastructure vital to the well being of society. These wars were waged by the false justifications of spreading democracy, the need to confront regimes, which threatened peace, fighting terrorism, and protecting Israel. The real reasons behind these wars were to protect the strategic interests of the western powers: natural resources, strategic water paths, and markets. These wars have lasted for decades.
Second, the western powers established local client regimes to ensure that their interests were well protected. These regimes were typically made up of a ruler, his family members, and compradors made up of businessmen, intelligence personnel, and military leaders. Repression and corruption have been the principal means by which these rulers governed their states. The hypocrisy of western powers supporting these regimes is illustrated in the West's covering up of non-democratic, brutal, and repressive practices for many long years. Qaddafi has been in power for over 42 years, Sultan Caboose of Oman has been in power for 40 years, Ali Saleh of Yemen has been in power for 33 years, Hosni Mubarak was in power for 30 years and Zain Ben Ali of Tunisia was in power for 23 years. Development, prosperity, education, and the welfare of the people were totally forgotten by these regimes.
Third, the Arabic masses were left with a heavy burden that directly affected their social, economic, and personal lives. Freedom of expression was not allowed when it came to critical views of the ruling regime, Israel, and the U.S. wars. Political prisoners filled jails, and activists were harassed in their freedom to travel, work, study, and socialize. In some cases political activists were arrested during their wedding ceremonies. Some disappeared completely from the face of the planet, and loved ones were abducted or assassinated to pressure them.
Corruption reached a point where these states became states of corruption rather than corrupted states. Of the 178 members of the International Transparency Agency, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Lebanon rank among the worst. The gross domestic product is very low for most of the Arab states including, surprisingly, the mineral rich Gulf States of Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Demographically, young people represent 45-60 percent of the population. They are mostly uneducated, and unemployed. In Yemen their percentage of the population exceeds 70 percent.
Fourth, Western powers instituted policies of collective punishment against Arabs worldwide based on ethnicity and religion. Such measures were evident in the so-called "war on terror" which targeted the culture, religious practice, heritage, identity, and character of Arab people. The Arabic regimes were instrumental in aiding this war.
Israel's illegal and provocative presence, its mass killing, displacement, and racist policies against Palestinians and other Arabs for over 60 years have been another method of collective punishment of Arab and Muslim people. The outright crimes committed by Israel against Arabs were excused by the Western powers as Israel's "right to self-defense." Arab civil resistance to Israel was viewed as aggression and terrorism. Arabic regimes were instrumental in preventing the Arabic people from coming to the help of their follow Palestinians or Lebanese as they faced one attack after another by the Israelis.
Fifth, the so-called "creative chaos" invented by the U.S. and introduced to the Arab and Muslim world added unbearable conditions of bloody division between ethnic and religious sects such as Sunni and Shiites.
Further, the tactics of soft-power intelligence operations, assassinations of activists or scientists or just ordinary people, and high-profile bombings, all caused division among the citizens of a state. Examples are the killing of Hariri1 in Lebanon February 14, 2005, and the destruction of the Iraq Shiite holy mosque known as Marqad Al-Imammian in Samarra. Many other covert activities fueled the anger of ordinary Arabic people, causing general resentment and bitterness toward the ruling regimes because of the regimes' partnership with the U.S. government.
All of the above made the Arabs a destitute, impoverished people suffering every minute and every day a process of deliberate humiliation. Finally, the Arabs had enough. The Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan, Yemeni, Omani, Iraqi, and other people of the Arab world are in the midst of totally genuine popular movements composed of ordinary people who were not politically organized or involved with the token local oppositions which existed before. It is truly a picture of ordinary people believing in themselves and finding enough solidarity and strength to face their oppressors. Most of these people are young and fearless. This resistance is not something new, as witness the Iraqi resistance against the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance against Israel, the first Palestinian Intifada, and the Algerian revolution against the French colonizers.
We also remember Arab attempts at change by means of democratic or popular revolution, such as the Iranian revolution led by Mossadeq during the 1950's. That revolution was sacked by a counter-coup lead by Roosevelt. Also, the democratically won elections by the Islamists in Algeria during the early 1990's were by crushed by the army based on a green light from the Western powers. Hamas's winning of the elections in 2006 brought "legal sanctions" against the Gaza Strip, which continue today. The Lebanese popular revolution in 1975 was converted into a civil war, which dragged on for over 15 years.
The West in general and the U.S. in particular were shocked and taken by surprise at developments in 2011. The U.S. response fell into either of two categories:
Plan A: Yield for the storm and come back later with a counter-coup; meanwhile, help steer change onto a favorable direction that does not threaten its interests. In both Tunisia and Egypt, in cooperation with the national armies of both states (already infiltrated and directed by the U.S.), the heads of the regimes were sacrificed in an attempt to deceive people into thinking that the revolutions had succeeded and that changes were made. This would keep the existing establishment and structure of presidency, prime ministry, secret service, and intelligence agencies unaffected. This plan focused on establishing an electoral process that would have the appearance of democracy, but keep control in the hands of the regime and therefore the Western powers. The revolutions represented a chance for the Western powers to repair their image as pro-democratic. The only expense was letting go the heads of states who had given them such dedicated service. They found no trouble in doing so, condemning both Ben-Ali and Mubarak. But the new leadership in both Tunisia and Egypt is obviously working in a very smart way to protect the revolution by insisting on a "COMPLETE CHANGE" of the regimes.
The U.S. also has a Plan B: Divide and Steal. A vast country like Libya with enormous oil resources and very little population (less than five million) is considered a prime prize in the eyes of the West. While official announcements coming from the West are condemning Qaddafi and promising help to the Libyan revolution, the actual approach for now is to hold the stick from the middle. Qaddafi accused the rebels of being "al-Qaeda" and "eastern Libyan tribes" that seek to break away from Libya and establish a separate state. He claimed that this would lead to civil war, and inviting colonial powers to occupy Libya as they have interest in its resources. The talk from the west about arming the rebels and imposing a "no-fly zone," or striking some targets of the dictatorship, plays into the hands of what Qaddafi claimed, and discredit the legitimacy of the rebels as collaborators with foreign power. This creates division among the Libyans seeking to oust Qaddafi, and allows Qaddafi to attack the poorly armed rebels with full force.
Ironically, the battles now are being fought around the oil port of "Ras Minoof" half way between west and east Libya. The eastern part, controlled by the rebels, has most of the oil reserves. It is clearly an unequal fight, which prepares the way for a quick outside intervention.
Also, the U.S. is allowing secretive talks with Qaddafi through a Portuguese official channel-talks having to do with future contracts and cooperation. At the same time, Obama is calling for an end to the rule of Qaddafi and Ms. Clinton is denouncing Qaddafi as a war criminal.
According to The Financial Times, the revenues from oil sold to Europe and the U.S. continue to be paid to the Libyan regime.
There is one more thing to be accomplished by the West through the Libyan revolution. That is, to make the level of repression and violence committed by the regime an example to the other revolutions: for anyone who dares to think about making a change, the consequences will be serious violence, partition, and tribal ethnic cleansing.
If the Libyan revolution wins its fight against the West and Qaddafi, the train of revolutions will continue forward to create a major tidal wave that will sweep repression and corruption out of the Arab World.
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10) Stripped naked every night, Bradley Manning tells of prison ordeal
US soldier held on suspicion of leaking state secrets speaks out for first time about experience
'Stripping me of all of my clothing is without justification'
By Ed Pilkington in New York
The Guardian
Friday 11 March 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-bradley-manning-prison
Bradley Manning, the US soldier being held in solitary confinement on suspicion of having released state secrets to WikiLeaks, has spoken out for the first time about what he claims is his punitive and unlawful treatment in military prison.
In an 11-page legal letter released by his lawyer, David Coombs, Manning sets out in his own words how he has been "left to languish under the unduly harsh conditions of max [security] custody" ever since he was brought from Kuwait to the military brig of Quantico marine base in Virginia in July last year. He describes how he was put on suicide watch in January, how he is currently being stripped naked every night, and how he is in general terms being subjected to what he calls "unlawful pre-trial punishment".
It is the first time Manning has spoken publicly about his treatment, having previously only been heard through the intermediaries of his lawyer and a friend. Details that have emerged up to now have inspired the UN to launch an inquiry into whether the conditions amount to torture, and have led to protests to the US government from Amnesty International.
The most graphic passage of the letter is Manning's description of how he was placed on suicide watch for three days from 18 January. "I was stripped of all clothing with the exception of my underwear. My prescription eyeglasses were taken away from me and I was forced to sit in essential blindness."
Manning writes that he believes the suicide watch was imposed not because he was a danger to himself but as retribution for a protest about his treatment held outside Quantico the day before. Immediately before the suicide watch started, he said guards verbally harassed him, taunting him with conflicting orders.
When he was told he was being put on suicide watch, he writes, "I became upset. Out of frustration, I clenched my hair with my fingers and yelled: 'Why are you doing this to me? Why am I being punished? I have done nothing wrong.'"
He also describes the experience of being stripped naked at night and made to stand for parade in the nude, a condition that continues to this day. "The guard told me to stand at parade rest, with my hands behind my back and my legs spaced shoulder-width apart. I stood at parade rest for about three minutes ... The [brig supervisor] and the other guards walked past my cell. He looked at me, paused for a moment, then continued to the next cell. I was incredibly embarrassed at having all these people stare at me naked."
Manning has been charged with multiple counts relating to the leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret US government cables, videos and warlogs from Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks. The charges include "aiding the enemy", which can carry the death penalty.
The legal letter was addressed to the US military authorities and was drawn up in response to their recent decision to keep Manning on a restriction order called Prevention of Injury (PoI). It means he is kept in his cell alone for 23 hours a day and checked every five minutes by guards including, if necessary, through the night.
The letter contains excerpts from the observation records kept in the brig which consistently report that Manning is "respectful, courteous and well spoken" and "does not have any suicidal feelings at this time".
Sixteen separate entries made from 27 August until the records stop on 28 January show that Manning was evaluated by prison psychiatrists who found he was not a danger to himself and should be removed from the PoI order.
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11) This Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning
By Daniel Ellsberg
March 12, 2011
http://original.antiwar.com/daniel-ellsberg/2011/03/11/this-shameful-abuse-of-bradley-manning/
President Obama tells us that he's asked the Pentagon whether the conditions of confinement of Bradley Manning, the soldier charged with leaking state secrets, "are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are."
If Obama believes that, he'll believe anything. I would hope he would know better than to ask the perpetrators whether they've been behaving appropriately. I can just hear President Nixon saying to a press conference the same thing: "I was assured by the the White House Plumbers that their burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's doctor in Los Angeles was appropriate and met basic standards."
When that criminal behavior ordered from the Oval Office came out, Nixon faced impeachment and had to resign. Well, times have changed. But if President Obama really doesn't yet know the actual conditions of Manning's detention - if he really believes, as he's said, that "some of this [nudity, isolation, harassment, sleep-deprivation] has to do with Private Manning's wellbeing", despite the contrary judgments of the prison psychologist - then he's being lied to, and he needs to get a grip on his administration.
If he does know, and agrees that it's appropriate or even legal, that doesn't speak well for his memory of the courses he taught on constitutional law.
The president refused to comment on PJ Crowley's statement that the treatment of Manning is "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid". Those words are true enough as far as they go - which is probably about as far as a state department spokesperson can allow himself to go in condemning actions of the defense department. But at least two other words are called for: abusive and illegal.
Crowley was responding to a question about the "torturing" of an American citizen, and, creditably, he didn't rebut that description. Prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity - that's right out of the manual of the CIA for "enhanced interrogation". We've seen it applied in Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. It's what the CIA calls "no-touch torture", and its purpose there, as in this case, is very clear: to demoralize someone to the point of offering a desired confession. That's what they are after, I suspect, with Manning. They don't care if the confession is true or false, so long as it implicates WikiLeaks in a way that will help them prosecute Julian Assange.
That's just my guess, as to their motives. But it does not affect the illegality of the behavior If I'm right, it's likely that such harsh treatment wasn't ordered at the level of a warrant officer or the brig commander. The fact that they have continued to inflict such suffering on the prisoner despite weeks of complaint from his defense counsel, harsh publicity and condemnation from organizations such as Amnesty International, suggests to me that it might have come from high levels of the defense department or the justice department, if not from the White House itself.
It's no coincidence that it's someone from the state department who has gone off-message to speak out about this. When a branch of the US government makes a mockery of our pretensions to honor the rule of law, specifically our obligation not to use torture, the state department bears the brunt of that, as it affects our standing in the world.
The fact that Manning's abusive mistreatment is going on at Quantico - where I spent nine months as a Marine officer in basic school - and that Marines are lying about it, makes me feel ashamed for the Corps. Just three years as an infantry officer was more than enough time for me to know that what is going on there is illegal behavior that must be stopped and disciplined.
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12) Up to 100,000 protest Wisconsin law curbing unions
Bigger protest than during Vietnam era, police estimate
Wisconsin battle has ignited national struggle
By James B. Kelleher
March 12, 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/13/usa-wisconsin-idUSN1227540420110313
MADISON, Wis., March 12 (Reuters) - Up to 100,000 people protested at the Wisconsin state Capitol on Saturday against a new law curbing the union rights of public workers that is seen as one of the biggest challenges in decades facing U.S. organized labor.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people, which would top the size of protests in Madison during the Vietnam War.
The demonstration, capping three weeks of public protests, came a day after Republican Governor Scott Walker signed into law a bill to eliminate most bargaining rights for many state government workers.
The state Legislature passed the measure this week after Republicans in the state Senate bypassed a Democratic boycott of the chamber.
The battle in Wisconsin has ignited a national struggle over efforts by several budget-strapped state governments to rein in union power.
Republicans say the measures are needed to gain control of deficit-ridden budgets. Democrats and their union backers say Republicans are ramming through union-busting proposals.
The confrontation with unions could be the biggest showdown with labor since President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers nearly 30 years ago.
Protesters on Saturday cheered the Democratic state senators who returned to Wisconsin after fleeing to Illinois for three weeks to try to stall the Legislature's consideration of the measure.
"It's so good to be home in Wisconsin," Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller told demonstrators, who chanted, "Welcome Home" and "We're With You."
"Our fight to protect union rights has become a fight to protect all our rights -- a fight to protect democracy," said Miller. "You have inspired the nation with your passionate and peaceful protests."
In a statement, Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, instrumental in shepherding the union restrictions through the Legislature, criticized the Democrats.
"It's an absolute insult to the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who are struggling to find a job, much less one they can run away from and go down to Illinois -- with pay," Fitzgerald said.
Restrictions on public sector unions have been introduced in a number of other U.S. states with Republican governors, including Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Florida. Some Democrats see it as the opening salvo of the 2012 presidential election because unions are the biggest single contributors to the Democratic Party. (Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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13) Japan Death Toll Tops 10,000, Multiple Nuclear Meltdowns Loom
By Eric Talmadge and Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press
March 13, 2011
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/338-177/5264-japan-death-toll-tops-10000-multiple-nuclear-meltdowns-loom
apan's nuclear crisis intensified Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and more than 170,000 people evacuated the quake- and tsunami-savaged northeastern coast where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination.
Nuclear plant operators were frantically trying to keep temperatures down in a series of nuclear reactors - including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be happening Sunday - to prevent the disaster from growing worse.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano also said Sunday that a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the latest reactor to face a possible meltdown. That follows a blast the day before in the power plant's Unit 1, and operators attempted to prevent a meltdown there by injecting sea water into it.
"At the risk of raising further public concern, we cannot rule out the possibility of an explosion," Edano said. "If there is an explosion, however, there would be no significant impact on human health."
More than 170,000 people had been evacuated as a precaution, though Edano said the radioactivity released into the environment so far was so small it didn't pose any health threats.
"First I was worried about the quake," Kenji Koshiba, a construction worker who lives near the plant. "Now I'm worried about radiation." He spoke at an emergency center in Koriyama town near the power plant in Fukushima.
The French Embassy urged its citizens Sunday to leave the area around Tokyo - 170 miles (270 kilometers) from Fukushima Dai-ichi - in case the crisis deepened and a "radioactive plume" headed for the area around the capital. The statement acknowledged that the possibility was looking unlikely.
Edano said none of the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors was near the point of complete meltdown, and he was confident of escaping the worst scenarios.
A complete meltdown - the collapse of a power plant's ability to keep temperatures under control - could release uranium and dangerous contaminants into the environment and pose major, widespread health risks.
Up to 160 people, including 60 elderly patients and medical staff who had been waiting for evacuation in the nearby town of Futabe, and 100 others evacuating by bus, might have been exposed to radiation, said Ryo Miyake, a spokesman from Japan's nuclear agency. The severity of their exposure, or if it had reached dangerous levels, was not clear. They were being taken to hospitals.
Edano said operators were trying to cool and decrease the pressure in the Unit 3 reactor, just as they had the day before at Unit 1.
"We're taking measures on Unit 3 based on a similar possibility" of a partial meltdown, Edano said.
Japan struggled with the nuclear crisis as it tried to determine the scale of the Friday disasters, when an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the most powerful in the country's recorded history, was followed by a tsunami that savaged its northeastern coast with breathtaking speed and power.
More than 1,400 people were killed and hundreds more were missing, according to officials, but police in one of the worst-hit areas estimated the toll there alone could eventually top 10,000.
The scale of the multiple disasters appeared to be outpacing the efforts of Japanese authorities to bring the situation under control more than two days after the initial quake.
Rescue teams were struggling to search hundreds of miles (kilometers) of devastated coastline, and hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers cut off from rescuers and aid. At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake, and food and gasoline were quickly running out across the region. Large areas of the countryside were surrounded by water and unreachable. Some 2 million households were without electricity.
Japanese Trade Minister Banri Kaieda warned that the region was likely to face further blackouts, and power would be rationed to ensure supplies to essential facilities.
The government doubled the number of troops pressed into rescue and recovery operations to about 100,000 from 51,000, as powerful aftershocks continued to rock the country. Hundreds have hit since the initial temblor.
Unit 3 at the Fukushima plant is one of three reactors there that had automatically shut down and lost cooling functions necessary to keep fuel rods working properly due to a power outage from the quake. The facility's Unit 1 is also in trouble, but Unit 2 has been less affected.
On Saturday, an explosion destroyed the walls of Unit 1 as operators desperately tried to prevent it from overheating and melting down.
Without power, and with its valves and pumps damaged by the tsunami, authorities resorted to drawing sea water mixed with boron in an attempt to cool the unit's overheated uranium fuel rods. Boron disrupts nuclear chain reactions.
The move likely renders the 40-year-old reactor unusable, said a foreign ministry official briefing reporters. Officials said the sea water will remain inside the unit, possibly for several months.
Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior policy adviser to the U.S. secretary of energy, told reporters that the sea water was a desperate measure.
"It's a Hail Mary pass," he said.
He said that the success of using sea water and boron to cool the reactor will depend on the volume and rate of their distribution. He said the dousing would need to continue nonstop for days.
Another key, he said, was the restoration of electrical power, so that normal cooling systems can operate.
Edano said the cooling operation at Unit 1 was going smoothly after the sea water was pumped in.
Operators released slightly radioactive air from Unit 3 on Sunday, while injecting water into it hoping to reduce pressure and temperature to prevent a possible meltdown, Edano said.
He said radiation levels just outside the plant briefly rose above legal limits, but since had declined significantly. Also, fuel rods were exposed briefly, he said, indicating that coolant water didn't cover the rods for some time. That would have contributed further to raising the temperature in the reactor vessel.
At an evacuation center in Koriyama, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) from the troubled reactors and 125 miles (190 kilometers) north of Tokyo, medical experts had checked about 1,500 people for radiation exposure in an emergency testing center, an official said.
On Sunday, a few dozen people waited to be checked in a collection of blue tents set up in a parking lot outside a local gymnasium. Fire engines surrounded the scene, with their lights flashing.
Many of the gym's windows were shattered by the quake, and glass shards littered the ground.
A steady flow of people - the elderly, schoolchildren and families with babies - arrived at the center, where they were checked by officials wearing helmets, surgical masks and goggles.
Officials placed five reactors, including Units 1 and 3 at Dai-ichi, under states of emergency Friday after operators lost the ability to cool the reactors using usual procedures.
An additional reactor was added to the list early Sunday, for a total of six - three at the Dai-ichi complex and three at another nearby complex. Local evacuations have been ordered at each location. Japan has a total of 55 reactors spread across 17 complexes nationwide.
Officials began venting radioactive steam at Fukushima Dai-ichi's Unit 1 to relieve pressure inside the reactor vessel, which houses the overheated uranium fuel.
Concerns escalated dramatically Saturday when that unit's containment building exploded.
Officials were aware that the steam contained hydrogen and were risking an explosion by venting it, acknowledged Shinji Kinjo, spokesman for the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, but chose to do so because they needed to keep circulating cool water on the fuel rods to prevent a meltdown.
Officials insisted there was no significant radioactive leak after the explosion.
If a full-scale meltdown were to occur, experts interviewed by The Associated Press said melted fuel would eat through the bottom of the reactor vessel, then through the floor of the containment building. At that point, the uranium and dangerous byproducts would start escaping into the environment.
Eventually, the walls of the reactor vessel - six inches (15 centimeters) of stainless steel - would melt into a lava-like pile, slump into any remaining water on the floor, and potentially cause an explosion that would enhance the spread of radioactive contaminants.
If the reactor core became exposed to the outside, officials would likely began pouring cement and sand over the entire facility, as was done at the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Ukraine, Peter Bradford, a former commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told reporters.
Another expert, physicist Ken Bergeron, told reporters that as a result of such a meltdown the surrounding land would be off-limits for a long time and "a lot of first responders would die."
Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers Tomoko A. Hosaka in Tokyo, Jeff Donn in Boston and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.
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14) Partial Meltdowns Presumed at Crippled Reactors
By HIROKO TABUCHI and MATTHEW L. WALD
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14nuclear.html?hp
TOKYO - Japanese officials struggled on Sunday to contain a quickly escalating nuclear crisis in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami, saying they presumed that partial meltdowns had occurred at two crippled reactors, and that they were bracing for a second explosion, even as problems were reported at two more nuclear plants.
That brings the total number of troubled plants to four, including one that is about 75 miles north of Tokyo.
The emergency at the hardest hit plant, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, appeared to be the worst involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago, and at least 22 residents near the plant showed signs of radiation exposure, according to local officials. The crisis at that plant, which is much further from Tokyo, continued late Sunday.
A day after an explosion at one reactor there, Japanese nuclear officials said Sunday that operators at the plant had suffered a setback in trying to bring the second reactor thought to be in partial meltdown there under control. The operators need to inject water to help cool the reactor and keep it from proceeding to a full meltdown, but a valve malfunctioned on Sunday, hampering their efforts for much of the day.
Pressure in the plant rose during the delay, leading to increased worries of an explosion. At a late-night press conference, officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the plant, said the valve had been fixed, but said water levels had not yet begun rising.
Until late Sunday, the government had declared an emergency at only two nuclear plants, Daiichi and the nearby Daini.
Then, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Japan had added a third to the list because radiation had been detected outside the plant, which is about 60 miles from Sendai, a city of 1 million people in Japan's northeast. The government did not immediately confirm the report from the I.A.E.A., which said it was not yet clear what caused the release of radiation.
Soon after that announcement, Kyodo News reported that a plant about 75 miles north of Tokyo was having cooling system problems.
The government was scrambling Sunday to test people who lived near the Daiichi plant, with local officials saying that about 170 people had likely been exposed, but it was unclear if they or the 22 who showed signs of exposure had received dangerous doses. Early Sunday, the government said three workers were suffering full-out radiation illness.
The developments at Daiichi and Daini prompted the evacuation of more than 200,000 people.
On Sunday, Kumiko Fukaya, 48, who fled the area with several family members, she had been lulled into a false sense of complacency because, she said, the plant had not had serious problems before. Then, on 7:30 Saturday morning, loudspeakers throughout her town of Tomioka blared a call for evacuation.
"The entire town was enriched by Tokyo Power," she said, referring to the company that runs the plant, which is 12 miles from her home. "I thought they picked a safe and secure location. So instead of opposing the nuclear plant, I felt more security.
"Now I realize it's a scary thing."
Japanese officials said they had also ordered up the largest mobilization of their Self-Defense Forces since World War II to assist in the relief effort, including helping with the evacuation of people around the plants.
On Saturday, Japanese officials took the extraordinary step of flooding the crippled No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 170 miles north of Tokyo, with seawater in a last-ditch effort to avoid a nuclear meltdown. That came after an explosion caused by hydrogen that tore the outer wall and roof off the building housing the reactor, although the steel containment of the reactor remained in place.
Then on Sunday, cooling failed at a second reactor - No. 3 - and core melting was presumed at both, said the top government spokesman, Mr. Edano. An explosion could also rock the No. 3 reactor, Mr. Edano warned, because of a buildup of hydrogen within the reactor.
"The possibility that hydrogen is building up in the upper parts of the reactor building cannot be denied. There is a possibility of a hydrogen explosion," Mr. Edano said. He stressed that as in the No. 1 unit, the reactor's steel containment would withstand the explosion.
"It is designed to withstand shocks," he said.
Officials also said they would release steam and inject water into a third reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after temperatures rose and water levels fell around the fuel rods.
Cooling had failed at three reactors at a nuclear complex nearby, Fukushima Daini, although he said conditions there were considered less dire for now.
With high pressure inside the reactors at Daiichi hampering efforts to pump in cooling water, plant operators had to release radioactive vapor into the atmosphere. Radiation levels outside the plant, which had retreated overnight, shot up to 1,204 microsieverts per hour, or over twice Japan's legal limit, Mr. Edano said.
NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, flashed instructions to evacuees: close doors and windows; place a wet towel over the nose and mouth; cover up as much as possible. At a news conference, Mr. Edano called for calm. "If measures can be taken, we will be able to ensure the safety of the reactor," he said.
Even before Mr. Edano's statement on Sunday, it was clear from the radioactive materials turning up in trace amounts outside the reactors that fuel damage had occurred. The existence or extent of melting might not be clear until workers can open the reactors and examine the fuel, which could be months from now.
Even before the explosion on Saturday, officials said they had detected radioactive cesium, which is created when uranium fuel is split, an indication that some of the nuclear fuel in the reactor was already damaged.
How much damage the fuel suffered remained uncertain, though safety officials insisted repeatedly through the day that radiation leaks outside the plant remained small and did not pose a major health risk.
However, they also told the International Atomic Energy Agency that they were making preparations to distribute iodine, which helps protect the thyroid gland from radiation exposure, to people living near Daiichi and Daini.
Worries about the safety of the two plants worsened on Saturday because executives of the company that runs them, Tokyo Electric Power, and government officials gave confusing accounts of the location and causes of the dramatic midday explosion and the damage it caused.
Late Saturday night, officials said that the explosion at Daiichi occurred in a structure housing turbines near its No. 1 reactor at the plant, rather than inside the reactor itself. But photographs of the damage did not make clear that this was the case.
They said that the blast, which may have been caused by a sharp buildup of hydrogen when the reactor's cooling system failed, destroyed the concrete structure surrounding the reactor but did not collapse the critical steel container inside. This pattern of damage cast doubt on the idea that the explosion was in the turbine building.
"We've confirmed that the reactor container was not damaged," Mr. Edano said in a news conference on Saturday night. "The explosion didn't occur inside the reactor container. As such there was no large amount of radiation leakage outside. At this point, there has been no major change to the level of radiation leakage outside, so we'd like everyone to respond calmly."
On Sunday morning, an official with Tokyo Electric Power said that the emergency cooling system at the No. 3 reactor at Daiichi had stopped working. The official, Atsushi Sugiyama, said that urgent efforts were being made to cool the reactor with water, and that, as with the first reactor, there would be a release of vapor containing trace amounts of radiation to relieve a buildup of pressure.
Japanese nuclear safety officials and international experts said that because of crucial design differences, the release of radiation at Daiichi would most likely be much smaller than at Chernobyl even if the plant had a complete core meltdown, which they said it had not.
After a full day of worries about the radiation leaking at Daiichi, Tokyo Electric Power said an explosion occurred "near" the No. 1 reactor at Daiichi around 3:40 p.m. Japan time on Saturday. It said four of its workers were injured in the blast.
The decision to flood the reactor core with corrosive seawater, experts said, was an indication that Tokyo Electric Power and Japanese authorities had probably decided to scrap the plant. "This plant is almost 40 years old, and now it's over for that place," said Olli Heinonen, the former chief inspector for the I.A.E.A., and now a visiting scholar at Harvard.
Mr. Heinonen lived in Japan in the 1980s, monitoring its nuclear industry, and visited the stricken plant many times. Based on the reports he was seeing, he said he believed that the explosion was caused by a hydrogen formation, which could have begun inside the reactor core. "Now, every hour they gain in keeping the reactor cooling down is crucial," he said.
But he was also concerned about the presence of spent nuclear fuel in a pool inside the same reactor building. The pool, too, needs to remain full of water to suppress gamma radiation and prevent the old fuel from melting. If the spent fuel is also exposed - and so far there are only sketchy reports about the condition of that building - it could also pose a significant risk to the workers trying to prevent a meltdown.
Both Daiichi and Daini were shut down by Friday's earthquake, but the loss of power in the area and damage to the plants' generators from the ensuing tsunami crippled the cooling systems. Those are crucial after a shutdown to cool down the nuclear fuel rods.
The malfunctions allowed pressure to build up beyond the design capacity of the reactors. Early Saturday, officials had said that small amounts of radioactive vapor were expected to be released into the atmosphere to prevent damage to the containment systems and to lower the pressure enough so they could pump in cooling water. They said they were evacuating people in the area as a precaution.
Those releases apparently did not prevent the buildup of hydrogen inside the plant, which ignited and exploded Saturday afternoon, government officials said. They said the explosion itself did not increase the amount of radioactive material being released into the atmosphere. However, safety officials urged people who were not evacuating but still lived relatively nearby to cover their mouths and stay indoors.
David Lochbaum, who worked at three reactors in the United States with designs similar to Daiichi, and who was later hired by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to teach its personnel about that technology, said that judging by photographs of the stricken plant, the explosion appeared to have occurred in the turbine hall, not the reactor vessel or the containment that surrounds the vessel.
The Daiichi reactor is a boiling-water reactor. Inside the containment, the reactor sends its steam out to a turbine. The turbine converts the steam's energy into rotary motion, which turns a generator and makes electricity.
But as the water goes through the reactor, some water molecules break up into hydrogen and oxygen. A system in the turbine hall usually scrubs out those gases. Hydrogen is also used in the turbine hall to cool the electric generator. Hydrogen from both sources has sometimes escaped and exploded, Mr. Lochbaum said, but in this case, there is an additional source of hydrogen: interaction of steam with the metal of the fuel rods. Operators may have vented that hydrogen into the turbine hall.
Earlier Saturday, before the explosion, a Japanese nuclear safety panel said the radiation levels were 1,000 times above normal in a reactor control room at Daiichi. Some radioactive material had also seeped outside, with radiation levels near the main gate measured at eight times normal levels, NHK quoted nuclear safety officials as saying.
The emergency at Daiichi began shortly after the earthquake struck Friday afternoon. Emergency diesel generators, which kicked in to run the cooling system after the electrical power grid failed, shut down about an hour after the earthquake. There was speculation that the tsunami had flooded the generators, knocking them out of service.
For some time, the plant was able to operate in a battery-controlled cooling mode. Tokyo Electric Power said that by Saturday morning it had also installed a mobile generator to ensure that the cooling system would continue operating even after reserve battery power was depleted. Even so, the company said it needed to conduct "controlled containment venting" in order to avoid an "uncontrolled rupture and damage" to the containment unit.
Why the controlled release of pressure did not succeed in addressing the problem was not immediately explained. Tokyo Electric Power and government nuclear safety officials also did not explain the precise sequence of failures at the plant.
Daiichi and other nuclear facilities are designed with extensive backup systems that are supposed to function in emergencies to ensure the plants can be shut down safely.
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Tokyo, and Matthew L. Wald from Washington. Martin Fackler contributed reporting from Nakaminato, Japan, David E. Sanger from Washington, and Michael Wines from Tokyo.
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15) State Department Spokesman Out, After Comments on Prisoner
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
March 13, 2011, 1:56 pm
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/state-department-spokesman-out-after-comments-on-prisoner/?hp
P.J. Crowley, the state department spokesman, stepped down Sunday after saying publicly that treatment of Wikileaks suspect Pfc. Bradley Manning in military detention has been "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."
In a statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote that she accepted his resignation with regret.
"P.J. has served our nation with distinction for more than three decades, in uniform and as a civilian. His service to country is motivated by a deep devotion to public policy and public diplomacy, and I wish him the very best," Ms. Clinton wrote.
The remark by Mr. Crowley last week to a small audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first reported by the blogger Philippa Thomas, was rejected by none other than President Obama at a press conference on Friday. Mr. Obama said that he had been assured the treatment of Private Manning was "appropriate and are meeting our basic standards."
Private Manning's lawyer had complained repeatedly about the conditions of his detention, including sometimes being deprived of his clothing, as a maximum security prisoner under restrictions intended to prevent self-injury, even though his supporters said there was no evidence that he was suicidal.
The president's comment likely sealed the fate of Mr. Crowley, whose service as the chief spokesman for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been rocky at times.
In his own statement, Mr. Crowley wrote that he takes "full responsibility" for the comment and expressed gratitude to Ms. Clinton. His departure was first reported by CNN.
"My recent comments regarding the conditions of the pre-trial detention of Private First Class Bradley Manning were intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discreet actions undertaken by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global standing and leadership," he wrote. "The exercise of power in today's challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent and consistent with our laws and values."
Last month, Mike Hammer, a former spokesman for the National Security Council, was shifted over to the state department to become Mr. Crowley's deputy. Ms. Clinton said that he will serve for the time being as the acting assistant secretary for public affairs and its regular face to the public.
Mr. Manning has been detained for months, suspected of passing on documents, many of them classified, to the Wikileaks site, which has since released many of them.
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16) Nuclear Emergency Is Worst in Decades
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13accidents.html?ref=world
The earthquake and tsunami that battered northern Japan on Friday set in motion one of the worst nuclear accidents in over two decades.
The International Atomic Energy Agency rates the severity of radiological events, with a scale starting at one, an "anomaly," and rising to seven, a "major" accident. Six and seven designate full meltdown, where the nuclear fuel or core of a reactor overheats and melts. The scale of the ensuing uncontrolled release of radiation that follows differentiates the two. Partial meltdowns, in which the fuel is damaged, are rated a four or a five.
The accident at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union in 1986 - which killed 56 people directly and thousands of others through cancer and other diseases - was the only nuclear accident so far to have been designated a seven. Just one other accident has surpassed five on the scale: an explosion of dried radioactive waste at the Mayak Nuclear Power Plant near the Soviet city of Kyshtym in 1957. The blast produced a radioactive cloud that spread for hundreds of miles over what is now Russia, forcing the evacuation of 10,000 people and causing the deaths of at least 200.
The Mayak blast was rated a six on the atomic agency's scale.
The full extent of the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan is yet to be determined. On Saturday, before emergency measures were announced at a second reactor at that plant, Japanese nuclear safety experts rated the accident a four, putting it just behind the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 near Harrisburg, Pa. That accident, the worst in United States history, was designated a five.
That accident was caused by what began as a seemingly minor plumbing glitch. A valve that opened to reduce pressure in the reactor failed to close, letting cooling water escape and leading the core to overheat. That set in motion a series of missteps by the machines and plant operators monitoring the reactor, a crisis that almost led to a full meltdown.
Officials monitoring the Daiichi (or No. 1) plant in Fukushima have said they detected a radioactive byproduct, cesium, that could indicate that some of the nuclear fuel in Reactor No. 1 was damaged and a partial meltdown had occurred. Officials at the plant filled the reactor with seawater to prevent a full meltdown. But early Sunday, they were struggling to inject water into another reactor. The government issued evacuation orders for about 200,000 people in the surrounding area.
Even as the accident continued to unfold, it was already considered worse than the most severe nuclear accident in Japanese history. In 1999, at a plant just outside Tokyo, a team of operators put a batch of highly enriched uranium in a precipitation tank that was not designed to handle it, setting off a critical reaction. Two operators died from radiation poisoning, and dozens of workers and people living nearby were hospitalized.
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17) Protesters Seal Off Bahrain's Financial Center
By ETHAN BRONNER
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/middleeast/14bahrain.html?ref=world
CAIRO - Thousands of antigovernment protesters in Bahrain blocked access to the financial district in Manama, the capital, on Sunday, preventing many workers from getting to their offices and pushing back the police who tried to disperse them. It was the most serious challenge to the royal family that rules Bahrain since protests began last month.
Witnesses said the police used tear gas and fired on the protesters with rubber bullets.
"This was a very, very big day," Mohammad al-Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, said by telephone from Pearl Square, the epicenter for protests in central Manama. "Now the protesters control these streets. There are walls of rubble keeping out the police and armed groups. People say they will not sleep tonight."
There were also clashes at the campus of the main university, where protesters contended that the security forces were protecting armed vigilantes accused of fomenting tensions between the 70 percent of the population that is Shia and the Sunni ruling family and elite.
The latest protests occurred a day after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates stopped in Bahrain and warned the Khalifa family, which has ruled Bahrain for two centuries, that it must go beyond the "baby steps" of reform to meet the economic and political demands sweeping much of the Arab world.
Bahrain, a tiny kingdom on the Persian Gulf, is home to the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet and is a crucial American ally. The Obama administration has supported the Khalifa family through the period of unrest, unlike the policy it adopted in seeking to remove the leaders of Libya and, to a lesser extent, Egypt. But the White House has tried to push the Bahraini government to meet many of the protesters' demands, worried that Iran, the capital of Shiite Islam, could exploit the unhappiness of the Shiites in Bahrain.
"I expressed the view that we had no evidence that suggested that Iran started any of these popular revolutions or demonstrations across the region," Mr. Gates told reporters after his visit on Saturday. "But there is clear evidence that as the process is protracted, particularly in Bahrain, that the Iranians are looking for ways to exploit it and create problems." He added, "Time is not our friend."
The demonstrations on Sunday occurred on King Faisal Highway at the entrance to Manama's financial district. In a statement, the government said the violence began when "a group of protesters attacked unarmed police officers, resulting in one police officer being stabbed and another sustaining a serious head injury."
"Police then sought to disperse approximately 350 protesters by using tear gas in order to clear the road," the government said. "The Ministry of Interior is currently undergoing operations to reopen the King Faisal Highway."
By Sunday evening, witnesses said, the highway remained essentially closed to traffic and was in the hands of demonstrators.
"It is like a ghost town with the highway closed and the financial district closed," Hussein Muhammad, a bookstore owner and activist, said by telephone. "Thousands of people came all morning, and hundreds were injured." Two demonstrators suffered serious head injuries, witnesses said.
Last month, Obama administration officials said that Bahrain's king, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, listened when President Obama asked him to pull back his security forces after seven people were killed at the start of the protests.
The demonstrators have grown frustrated that they have been allowed to hold onto Pearl Square, which is a traffic circle, but have not achieved any of their political goals. That is why, they said, they chose to move on the financial center in a country that prizes its business-friendly policies. And there is growing concern that the pro-democracy movement is deteriorating into a Sunni-Shia split.
"We want a new constitution, fair and free elections and a government elected directly by the people," Mohammad Mattar, an engineer and member of the Waad pro-reform movement, said by telephone. "These are not sectarian demands, but political ones. We want a constitutional monarchy, a clear relationship between the ruling family and society. But the security forces are trying to create a sectarian divide."
Mr. Gates said on Saturday that he told the king and crown prince that change "could be led or it could be imposed." He added, "Obviously, leading reform and being responsive is the way we'd like to see this move forward."
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18) Itinerant Life Weighs on Farmworkers' Children
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/us/13salinas.html?ref=us
SALINAS, Calif. - A girl in Oscar Ramos's third-grade class has trouble doing homework because six relatives have moved into her family's rusted trailer and she has no private space.
A boy has worn his school uniform for two weeks straight because his parents are busy with harvest season.
And while Mr. Ramos patiently explains the intricacies of fractions, he is attuned to the student who confides, "Teacher, on Saturday the cops came and took my brother."
"I know you still love your brother," Mr. Ramos gently told him. "But let's talk about your vision for your future."
In the clattering energy of Room 21 at Sherwood Elementary here, Mr. Ramos, 37, glimpses life beneath the field dust. His students are the sons and daughters of the seasonal farmworkers who toil in the vast fields of the Salinas Valley, cutting spinach and broccoli and packing romaine lettuce from a wet conveyor belt: nearly 13 heads a minute, 768 heads an hour, 10 hours a day.
One-third of the children are migrants whose parents follow the lettuce from November to April, Salinas to Yuma, Ariz. Some who leave will not return.
"Dear Mr. Ramos," they write, from Arizona or Oregon, "I hope you will remember me. ..." Mr. Ramos, the child of migrants himself, always does.
Schools like Sherwood, and teachers like Mr. Ramos, are on the front lines, struggling against family mobility, neighborhood violence and the "pobrecito," or "poor little thing," mentality of low academic expectations. But the often disrupted lives of the children of migrants here is likely to grow still more complicated as the national debate over immigration grows sharper.
Efforts by lawmakers to rescind automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants are already stoking fears among many agricultural workers, and that has consequences for their children. Some parents, as they move with the crops, are already keeping their children out of school when they get to Arizona because they are worried about the bureaucracy and tougher restrictions in the state.
Despite the resilience of their young charges, educators at Sherwood face a catalog of need: 97 percent of students are near the poverty line, compared with 56 percent statewide. Seventy-seven percent have limited English, versus 32 percent throughout California. Only 6 percent of parents here attended college - the state average is 55 percent - and many are illiterate in their native language.
Though there has been progress, Sherwood hovers near the bottom of the state's performance index, along with more than 100 California elementary schools with a similar demographic, many in the agricultural strongholds of the San Joaquin and Salinas Valleys.
Even as Latino enrollments grow, the number of new teachers earning bilingual credentials has fallen in the last decade to 1,147 per year from 1,829, according to the California Teacher Commission. The shortage of bilingual teachers is hurting Latino academic achievement, said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Teachers like Mr. Ramos, "who have both language skills and the framework to respond to these kids' cultural assets," Professor Fuller said, are all too rare.
Mr. Ramos, one of eight children, grew up following the lettuce, too. Home was a farm labor camp near Salinas, and he has traveled far. The camps - a setting for John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" - were the subject of his undergraduate thesis at the University of California, Berkeley.
In his classroom, he has built an altar of sorts: a collection of Berkeley memorabilia, crowned with the inspiring message "Class of 2024." But even for the most determined students here, poverty and college often do not mix.
The challenges for children in East Salinas, known as Alisal, have deep roots: during the Depression, thousands of Dust Bowl migrants packed into tiny shacks. Today, Sherwood sits on a fault line of violence between the Hebbron Heights Surenos (blue) and the Fremont Street Nortenos (red) street gangs; a first grader was wounded by gunfire last year hiding behind a play structure. Students must dress in black and white to avoid gang colors.
Bruce Becker, Sherwood's violence prevention specialist, counsels students who sleep beneath carports and live in such cramped quarters that their parents take them to the local truck stop to wash up before school. Jose Gil, a high school teacher who has started an after-school basketball academy, said many of his students did not see much of their parents during harvest season.
"They have little brothers and sisters to take care of, maybe cook for," he said. "Yet they're supposed to turn in a 10-page paper by tomorrow? I mean, it's unreal."
Recent crackdowns at the border have meant longer family separations. "My mom's in Mexico with my little baby sister," says one girl in Mr. Ramos's class, a frequent hand-waver. "Every day she calls me, but some days she forgets."
Mr. Ramos's approachable style contrasts with the tumult in his students' young lives. He firmly discusses rules and respect for others with a boy who misbehaves at recess, but takes him aside to talk about superheroes and Mexican soccer, two affinities they share. And in time he learns that his student was worried about his father, who has been deported. Talking with another boy whose father and brothers were jailed for gang activities, Mr. Ramos suggests that he does not need to follow the same path. They discuss the boy's goal of joining the Marines.
"He wanted to get away," Mr. Ramos said. "He didn't want to spend his life in Salinas."
Like those of many Sherwood parents, the life stories of Benjamin Soto, 51, and his wife, Oliva Resenaiz, 38, are told in their hands.
Mr. Soto completed sixth grade in Mexico; his wife stopped with fifth. The family lives in a landlord's afterthought of a house down a dirt drive. A garden brimming with vegetables and a homemade swing beneath the avocado tree perk up the modest home. Though Oscar Soto does his homework on a plastic storage bin, he is one of Mr. Ramos's most gifted students, able to solve complex math problems in his head.
When Mr. Soto wants to encourage his son to work harder in Mr. Ramos's class, he displays his hands, thick with calluses, his thumb and forefinger permanently crooked from years of gripping a field knife.
"It shows him what a hard life he'd have," Mr. Soto said.
Rocia Picazo, whose daughter Sara is in Mr. Ramos's class, leaves at 5 a.m. to pack romaine. Her face is barely visible beneath the protective gear that shields her from the chlorine used to sanitize lettuce.
She was shocked to learn that Sara's teacher had labored in the fields, picking chilies, walnuts, apricots and lettuce. "I see his face and his hands, and I never imagined he'd do that kind of work," Mrs. Picazo said.
The $394 million federal Migrant Education Program, created in the 1960s, provides health care, summer school and tutoring for migrant children. Still, nearly half do not complete high school. California has about 200,000 children in the program, one-third of the national total.
Sherwood's migrant student population dropped 10 percent last year, in part because other crops are providing year-round employment. In addition, said Rosa E. Coronado, the migrant education director for Monterey County, "Parents are getting the message that it's not beneficial for the children to move around so much."
One boy in Mr. Ramos's class did not attend school for five months. He spent his time on PlayStation. This year, his father will move for work. But his mother is staying in Salinas, worried, she said, that "my son is falling behind."
Families may also be more hesitant to uproot because of the immigration climate. Measures proposed in Arizona recently would deny education to illegal immigrants and require proof of citizenship to enroll in public and private school. The Supreme Court has ruled that every child is entitled to a public education.
Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, who introduced a bill to repeal "birthright" citizenship, said that conferring automatic citizenship and educating children of people who are here illegally is a "misapplication" of the 14th Amendment.
"I don't think lawbreakers should be rewarded," said Mr. King, the vice chairman of the House immigration subcommittee.
For families in East Salinas, disparities in opportunity come down to education. Terri Dye, the principal of Sherwood Elementary, said the trick was "understanding where the students come from but also having high expectations."
And so at 6:45 a.m., Mr. Ramos can be found stapling "Student of the Month" notices to the class bulletin board.
There are signs of progress in Room 21: last year, 13 students moved up a level in math, surpassing the state average. During reading vocabulary exercises, hands are raised often, accompanied by exuberant shouts of "Mr. Ramos, I've got it!"
Outside the classroom one recent morning, Melissa Aledo described a change she had noticed in her son, Paul Gray.
"It's 'Mom, Mr. Ramos liked that college,' " she said, "or 'That's where Mr. Ramos went.' Curiosity has got my son."
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19) Cuba Gives 15-Year Prison Term to American
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
March 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/americas/13cuba.html?ref=us
MEXICO CITY - An American contractor who United States officials said went to Cuba to deliver communication equipment to religious groups was sentenced Saturday to 15 years in prison by a Cuban court, the latest turn in a case that could trip up thawing relations between the countries.
The United States has portrayed the contractor, Alan P. Gross, 61, as a suburban Washington humanitarian who was merely bringing satellite telephone equipment, which could be used to bypass heavy Internet restrictions in Cuba, to the small community of Cuban Jews when he was detained in December 2009.
But Cuban authorities said American officials, who eventually acknowledged that Mr. Gross lacked a proper visa and was working on a secretive United States Agency for International Development, or Usaid, program to expand Internet access, must have known such equipment was barred in Cuba without a permit.
They accused Mr. Gross of being a spy, tried him and convicted him of taking part in "a subversive project of the U.S. government that aimed to destroy the revolution through the use of communications systems out of the control of authorities."
The Obama administration has called Mr. Gross's case a sticking point in improving relations with Cuba.
"We deplore this ruling," said Philip J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman. "Alan Gross is a dedicated international development worker who has devoted his life to helping people in more than 50 countries. He was in Cuba to help the Cuban people connect with the rest of the world."
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, issued a statement Saturday saying the sentence "adds another injustice to Alan Gross's ordeal. He has already spent too many days in detention and should not spend one more."
Analysts had predicted the conviction and sentencing. But they say it is likely that Mr. Gross, who suffers from diabetes and has lost 90 pounds in detention and whose 26-year-old daughter has received cancer treatment, would be freed on humanitarian grounds.
Cuba, this thinking goes, wanted to make a statement about what it considered the intrusion on their sovereignty of the Usaid programs. The Associated Press reported that Cuban television last week broadcast the first part of a documentary on Usaid, accusing it of waging a cyberwar against the country.
Still, given that President Obama has relaxed some travel restrictions to the island and limits on sending money there while Mr. Gross was being detained, and that Cuba has released a number of dissidents, it was unclear whether the Gross case would have any long-term impact.
"The judicial process had to conclude to open the door for a political solution," said Philip Peters of the Lexington Institute, a nonpartisan policy group in Arlington, Va., who has been following the case.
Mr. Gross's case became a cause célèbre among Jewish groups in the United States and for a range of religious leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who offered to mediate the dispute with President Raúl Castro.
Mr. Gross's American lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, said in a statement Saturday that Mr. Gross would explore an appeal.
"Having already served a 15-month sentence in a Cuban prison, Alan and his family have paid an enormous personal price in the longstanding political feud between Cuba and the United States," Mr. Kahn said. "We will continue to work with Alan's Cuban attorney in exploring any and all options available to him, including the possibility of an appeal."
A statement from the Cuban judges on the Cuban News Agency Web site said that during the trial, Mr. Gross "had recognized having been used and manipulated by the Usaid" through its contractor, Development Alternatives Inc., of Bethesda, Md., for which Mr. Gross worked.
His relatives and friends have said he has traveled the world as an international development worker, and a company he formed in 2001, Joint Business Development Center, said it had increased Internet connections in several countries.
Mr. Gross had visited Cuba several times in the months before his arrest.
American officials have said Usaid programs in Cuba, a $20 million initiative, were being reworked to emphasize educational exchanges and small-business growth rather than efforts that could be perceived as directly weakening the government.
Elizabeth A. Harris contributed reporting from New York.
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20) Labour Calls for New Tax on Bank Bonuses
By REUTERS
March 14, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/03/14/business/business-us-britain-budget.html?src=busln
LONDON (Reuters) - The Labour Party called on the government Monday to impose a further 2 billion pound tax on bankers' bonuses in next week's budget, but the government said it had no plans for further bank taxes.
"We are asking (Chancellor) George Osborne to repeat the bank bonus tax for a second year ... and use the ... money to act now to build homes, to create jobs," shadow chancellor Ed Balls told a news conference.
The 10-month-old coalition government has not repeated a one-off bank bonus tax imposed by the previous Labour government. Instead it has implemented a permanent bank levy designed to raise 2.5 billion pounds a year.
Labour is calling for the bank bonus tax, which brought in 3.5 billion pounds last year, to be repeated this year in addition to the bank levy.
Labour say the tax would raise at least 2 billion pounds this year and proposes using 1.2 billion pounds of that to build 25,000 homes, as well as creating a 600 million pound fund for youth jobs and boosting a regional growth fund by 200 million pounds.
Public anger over bankers' bonuses remains high as the government was forced into multi-billion-pound bank bailouts during the financial crisis, but there is no sign of the cabinet adding to already announced steps in this month's budget.
New Barclays boss Bob Diamond and his two replacements as head of the investment banking arm were paid 28 million pounds last year. The trio also received shares worth 40 million pounds for past performance, the bank said last week.
Balls urged Osborne to ease the burden on motorists hit by soaring fuel prices by reversing a recent rise in VAT sales tax on petrol at a cost of 800 million pounds.
It hopes to put pressure on the government over this issue in a parliamentary debate and vote Wednesday.
Responding to Labour's call to repeat the bonus tax, Justine Greening, the economic secretary to the Treasury, said the Conservative-led government had recently concluded an agreement with banks to curb bonuses and boost lending to businesses.
"That's the deal that we've done with the banks and we are not going to go further than that," she told reporters.
She said Labour's proposal to reduce VAT just on fuel would be against European Union law.
Greening said the March 23 budget would include measures aimed at reducing unemployment.
Labour says the coalition is reducing the record peacetime budget deficit too quickly, undermining the economy which shrank in the final quarter of last year.
(Editing by Patrick Graham)
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21) Risk of Meltdown Spreads at Japanese Plant
By HIROKO TABUCHI and MATTHEW L. WALD
March 14, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?ref=business
TOKYO - The risk of a meltdown spread to a third reactor at a stricken nuclear power plant in Japan on Monday as its cooling systems failed, exposing its fuel rods, only hours after a second explosion at a separate reactor blew the roof off a containment building.
The widening problems underscored the difficulties the Japanese authorities are having in bringing several damaged reactors under control three days after a devastating earthquake and a tsunami hit Japan's northeast coast and shut down the electricity that runs the crucial cooling systems for reactors.
Operators fear that if they cannot establish control, despite increasingly desperate measures to do so, the reactors could experience full meltdowns, which could release catastrophic amounts of radiation. The two reactors where the explosions occurred are both presumed to have already suffered partial meltdowns - a dangerous situation that, if unchecked, could lead to full meltdowns.
The chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, said that the release of large amounts of radiation was unlikely. But traces of radiation could be released into the atmosphere, and about 500 people who remained within a 12-mile radius of the plant were ordered to take cover indoors temporarily, he said.
The country's nuclear power watchdog said readings taken soon after the explosion showed no big change in radiation levels around the plant or any damage to the containment vessel, which protects the radioactive material in the reactor.
"I have received reports that the containment vessel is sound," Mr. Edano said. "I understand that there is little possibility that radioactive materials are being released in large amounts."
But later Monday Mr. Edano said cooling systems at a third reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant had failed. The water level inside the reactor fell, exposing the fuel rods at its core for more than two hours despite efforts to pump seawater into the reactor, he said. Exposure of the rods means they heat up, melting their outer casing and raising the risk of a meltdown.
At first, water was successfully injected into the reactor and the rods were again submerged. But new problems resulted in the rods being exposed again.
A vent that had been letting out steam from the reactor closed, leading to pent-up pressure inside the containment vessel and hampering water from being injected. Water levels then fell rapidly, leaving the fuel rods again exposed, Tokyo Electric officials said at a news conference early Tuesday.
The jury-rigged fire hose pumps being used by the workers have added to the crisis by hindering efforts to keep reactors adequately cooled. Difficulties in gauging exactly how much water remains in the containment vessel, as well as what exactly is occurring at the heart of the reactor, have also added to problems.
Earlier, Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said plant workers had renewed efforts to flood the reactor with seawater, and readings suggested that water again covered the fuel rods. Workers were also battling rising pressure within the reactor, Mr. Nishiyama said. They have opened vents in the reactor's containment vessel, which houses the fuel rods, a measure that could release small amounts of radiation. Higher-than-normal levels of radiation have been detected from at least 22 people evacuated from near the plant, the nuclear safety watchdog said, but it is not clear if the doses they received were dangerous.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant and the Fukushima Daini power station, about 10 miles away, have been under a state of emergency.
On Monday morning, Tokyo Electric, which runs both plants, said it had restored the cooling systems at two of three reactors experiencing problems at Daini. That would leave a total of four reactors at the two plants with pumping difficulties.
Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a nuclear safety expert formerly at the Research Center for Urban Safety and Security at Kobe University, said emergencies at multiple reactors in close proximity posed particular risks. "If an incident were to happen at one reactor that released high amounts radiation, the whole area would become unapproachable," Mr.
Ishibashi said. "Then the other reactors would have to be abandoned, and left to run their disastrous course."
Frank N. von Hippel, a physicist and professor at Princeton, said he was not aware of any cases were more than one reactor had problems.
"The whole country was focused on Three Mile Island," he said, referring to the Pennsylvania nuclear plant accident in 1979. "Here you have Tokyo Electric Power and the Japanese regulators focusing on multiple plants at the same time."
In what was perhaps the clearest sign of the rising anxiety over the nuclear crisis, both the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Russian authorities issued statements on Sunday trying to allay fears, saying they did not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach their territory.
Late Sunday night, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Japan had added a third plant, Onagawa, to the list of those under a state of emergency because a low level of radioactive materials had been detected outside its walls. But on Monday morning, it quoted Japanese authorities as saying that the radioactivity levels at the Onagawa plant had returned to normal levels and that there appeared to be no leak there.
"The increased level may have been due to a release of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant," the agency said. The Onagawa and Daiichi plants are 75 miles apart. The operator of the Onagawa plant, Tohoku Electric Power, said that levels of radiation there were twice the allowed level, but that they did not pose health risks.
Soon after that announcement, Kyodo News reported that a plant about 75 miles north of Tokyo was having at least some cooling system problems. But a plant spokesman later said a backup pump was working.
The government was testing people who lived near the Daiichi plant, with local officials saying that about 170 residents had probably been exposed. The government earlier said that three workers had radiation illness, but Tokyo Electric said Monday that only one worker was ill.
The problems at Fukushima Daiichi appeared to be the most serious involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. A partial meltdown can occur when radioactive fuel rods, which normally are under in water, remain partly uncovered for too long. The longer the fuel is exposed, the closer the reactor comes to a full meltdown.
Technicians are essentially fighting for time while heat generation in the fuel gradually declines, trying to keep the rods covered despite a breakdown in the normal cooling system, which runs off the electrical grid. Since that was knocked out in the earthquake, and diesel generators later failed - possibly because of the tsunami - the operators have used a makeshift system for keeping cool water on the fuel rods.
Now, they pump in new water, let it boil and then vent it to the atmosphere, releasing some radioactive material. But they are having difficulty even with that, and have sometimes allowed the water levels to drop too low, exposing the fuel to steam and air, with resulting fuel damage.
On Sunday Japanese nuclear officials said operators at the plant had suffered a setback trying to bring one of the reactors under control when a valve malfunction stopped the flow of water and left fuel rods partially uncovered. The delay raised pressure at the reactor.
At a late-night news conference, officials at Tokyo Electric said that the valve had been fixed, but that water levels had not yet begun rising.
Hiroko Tabuchi reported from Tokyo and Matthew L. Wald from Washington. Michael Wines contributed reporting from Koriyama, Japan, and Ellen Barry from Moscow. Keith Bradsher contributed from Hong Kong.
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22) Radioactive Releases in Japan Could Last Months, Experts Say
By DAVID E. SANGER and MATTHEW L. WALD
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/japan-fukushima-nuclear-reactor.html?ref=health
WASHINGTON - As the scale of Japan's nuclear crisis begins to come to light, experts in Japan and the United States say the country is now facing a cascade of accumulating problems that suggest that radioactive releases of steam from the crippled plants could go on for weeks or even months.
The emergency flooding of stricken reactors with seawater and the resulting steam releases are a desperate step intended to avoid a much bigger problem: a full meltdown of the nuclear cores in reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. On Monday, an explosion blew the roof off the second reactor, not damaging the core, officials said, but presumably leaking more radiation.
Later Monday, the government said cooling systems at a third reactor had failed. The Kyodo news agency reported that the damaged fuel rods at the third reactor had been temporarily exposed, increasing the risk of overheating. Sea water was being channeled into the reactor to cover the rods, Kyodo reported.
So far, Japanese officials have said the melting of the nuclear cores in the two plants is assumed to be "partial," and the amount of radioactivity measured outside the plants, though twice the level Japan considers safe, has been relatively modest.
But Pentagon officials reported Sunday that helicopters flying 60 miles from the plant picked up small amounts of radioactive particulates - still being analyzed, but presumed to include cesium-137 and iodine-121 - suggesting widening environmental contamination.
In a country where memories of a nuclear horror of a different sort in the last days of World War II weigh heavily on the national psyche and national politics, the impact of continued venting of long-lasting radioactivity from the plants is hard to overstate.
Japanese reactor operators now have little choice but to periodically release radioactive steam as part of an emergency cooling process for the fuel of the stricken reactors that may continue for a year or more even after fission has stopped. The plant's operator must constantly try to flood the reactors with seawater, then release the resulting radioactive steam into the atmosphere, several experts familiar with the design of the Daiichi facility said.
That suggests that the tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated may not be able to return to their homes for a considerable period, and that shifts in the wind could blow radioactive materials toward Japanese cities rather than out to sea.
Re-establishing normal cooling of the reactors would require restoring electric power - which was cut in the earthquake and tsunami - and now may require plant technicians working in areas that have become highly contaminated with radioactivity.
More steam releases also mean that the plume headed across the Pacific could continue to grow. On Sunday evening, the White House sought to tamp down concerns, saying that modeling done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had concluded that "Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Territories and the U.S. West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity."
But all weekend, after a series of intense interchanges between Tokyo and Washington and the arrival of the first American nuclear experts in Japan, officials said they were beginning to get a clearer picture of what went wrong over the past three days. And as one senior official put it, "under the best scenarios, this isn't going to end anytime soon."
The essential problem is the definition of "off" in a nuclear reactor. When the nuclear chain reaction is stopped and the reactor shuts down, the fuel is still producing about 6 percent as much heat as it did when it was running, caused by continuing radioactivity, the release of subatomic particles and of gamma rays.
Usually when a reactor is first shut down, an electric pump pulls heated water from the vessel to a heat exchanger, and cool water from a river or ocean is brought in to draw off that heat.
But at the Japanese reactors, after losing electric power, that system could not be used. Instead the operators are dumping seawater into the vessel and letting it cool the fuel by boiling. But as it boils, pressure rises too high to pump in more water, so they have to vent the vessel to the atmosphere, and feed in more water, a procedure known as "feed and bleed."
When the fuel was intact, the steam they were releasing had only modest amounts of radioactive material, in a nontroublesome form. With damaged fuel, that steam is getting dirtier.
Another potential concern is that some Japanese reactors (as well as some in France and Germany) run on a mixed fuel known as mox, or mixed oxide, that includes reclaimed plutonium. It is not clear whether the stricken reactors are among those, but if they are, the steam they release could be more toxic.
Christopher D. Wilson, a reactor operator and later a manager at Exelon's Oyster Creek plant, near Toms River, N.J., said, "normally you would just re-establish electricity supply, from the on-site diesel generator or a portable one." Portable generators have been brought into Fukushima, he said.
Fukushima was designed by General Electric, as Oyster Creek was around the same time, and the two plants are similar. The problem, he said, was that the hookup is done through electric switching equipment that is in a basement room flooded by the tsunami, he said. "Even though you have generators on site, you have to get the water out of the basement," he said.
Another nuclear engineer with long experience in reactors of this type, who now works for a government agency, was emphatic. "To completely stop venting, they're going to have to put some sort of equipment back in service," he said. He asked not to be named because his agency had not authorized him to speak.
The central problem arises from a series of failures that began after the tsunami. It easily overcame the sea walls surrounding the Fukushima plant. It swamped the diesel generators, which were placed in a low-lying area, apparently because of misplaced confidence that the sea walls would protect them. At 3:41 p.m. Friday, roughly an hour after the quake and just around the time the region would have been struck by the giant waves, the generators shut down. According to Tokyo Electric Power Company, the plant switched to an emergency cooling system that operates on batteries, but these were soon depleted.
Inside the plant, according to industry executives and American experts who received briefings over the weekend, there was deep concern that spent nuclear fuel that was kept in a "cooling pond" inside one of the plants had been exposed and begun letting off potentially deadly gamma radiation. Then water levels inside the reactor cores began to fall. While estimates vary, several officials and industry experts said Sunday that the top four to nine feet of the nuclear fuel in the core and control rods appear to have been exposed to the air - a condition that that can quickly lead to melting, and ultimately to full meltdown.
At 8 p.m., just as Americans were waking up to news of the earthquake, the government declared an emergency, contradicting its earlier reassurances that there were no major problems. But the chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, stressed that there had been no radiation leak.
But one was coming: Workers inside the reactors saw that levels of coolant water were dropping. They did not know how severely. "The gauges that measure the water level don't appear to be giving accurate readings," one American official said.
What the workers knew by Saturday morning was that cooling systems at a nearby power plant, Fukushima Daini, were also starting to fail, for many of the same reasons. And the pressure in the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi was rising so fast that engineers knew they would have to relieve it by letting steam escape.
Shortly before 4 p.m., camera crews near the Daiichi plant captured what appears to have been an explosion at the No. 1 reactor - apparently caused by a buildup of hydrogen. It was dramatic television but not especially dangerous - except to the workers injured by the force of the blast.
The explosion was in the outer container, leaving the main reactor vessel unharmed, according to Tokyo Electric's reports to the International Atomic Energy Agency. (The walls of the outer building blew apart, as they are designed to do, rather than allow a buildup of pressure that could damage the reactor vessel.)
But the dramatic blast was also a warning sign of what could happen inside the reactor vessel if the core was not cooled. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that "as a countermeasure to limit damage to the reactor core," Tokyo Electric proposed injecting seawater mixed with boron - which can choke off a nuclear reaction - and it began to do that at 10:20 p.m. Saturday.
It was a desperation move: The corrosive seawater will essentially disable the 40-year-old plant; the decision to flood the core amounted to a decision to abandon the facility. But even that operation has not been easy.
To pump in the water, the Japanese have apparently tried used firefighting equipment - hardly the usual procedure. But forcing the seawater inside the containment vessel has been difficult because the pressure in the vessel has become so great.
One American official likened the process to "trying to pour water into an inflated balloon," and said that on Sunday it was "not clear how much water they are getting in, or whether they are covering the cores."
The problem was compounded because gauges in the reactor seemed to have been damaged in the earthquake or tsunami, making it impossible to know just how much water is in the core.
And workers at the pumping operation are presumed to be exposed to radiation; several workers, according to Japanese reports, have been treated for radiation poisoning. It is not clear how severe their exposure was.
Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Hong Kong, Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo and Henry Fountain from New York.
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23) Several Plant Workers Are Ill, but Radiation Risk in Japan Is Seen as Low for Now
By DENISE GRADY
March 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/world/asia/14health.html?ref=health
Although several plant workers are ill from radioactive exposure in Japan, the radiation risk to the public appears low so far, experts said.
"At least as of now, what we're looking at is rather more like Three Mile Island than Chernobyl," said Dr. David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University.
The radiation release from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, where the entire reactor blew up and vaporized its radioactive fuel, was about a million times the amount released from the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, he said. The Chernobyl accident led to an epidemic of thyroid cancer and increases in leukemia, he said.
But from Three Mile Island, Dr. Brenner said, "There is no evidence that anybody at all got sick, even decades later."
At the exposure rate now being reported at the boundary of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, it would take many weeks before people exposed would notice any symptoms.
"The sorts of numbers I'm seeing are not the sort that could be linked with radiological symptoms," Dr. Brenner said.
Inside the plant, however, the three workers with radiation sickness were presumably exposed to much more radiation.
"The medical consequences depend entirely on how much radioactive material is released," Dr. Brenner said.
The duration of exposure also matters.
High levels of exposure can cause severe radiation sickness and death. Symptoms can include nausea, fatigue, vomiting, hair loss, diarrhea and hemorrhaging.
Even high doses generally take several weeks to cause death.
"It's normally due to what we call 'gut death,' " Dr. Brenner said. "The lining of the gut gets depleted."
Radiation interferes with the cells' ability to divide and reproduce, and cells in the intestine are usually replaced frequently. For the same reason, the blood-forming cells in bone marrow are also sensitive to radiation. "What you really die of in the end is infection," Dr. Brenner said.
The more likely risk for the public is that of low-level exposures, which can increase the risk of cancer many years later. Again, the danger depends on the length of exposure and what types of radioactive materials to which one is exposed.
Some radioactive materials are readily absorbed by the body and linger there. Iodine, for example, goes to the thyroid gland, and strontium to bone, and they emit radiation inside the body that over time can lead to cancer or leukemia. Other radioactive materials, like tritium, pass quickly through the body.
The Japanese government is handing out iodine pills to flood the thyroid gland with ordinary iodine in hopes of preventing it from taking up the radioactive form.
Dr. Brenner said the iodine pills were protective, but were "a bit of a myth" because their use is based on the belief that the risk is from inhaling radioactive iodine. Actually, he said, 98 percent of people's exposure comes from milk and other dairy products.
"The way radioactive iodine gets into human beings is an indirect route," he said. "It falls to the ground, cows eat it and make milk with radioactive iodine, and you get it from drinking the milk. You get very little from inhaling it. The way to prevent it is just to stop people from drinking the milk." He said that the epidemic of thyroid cancer around Chernobyl could have been prevented if the government had immediately stopped people from drinking milk.
Crops can also be contaminated. "I wouldn't be eating an apple from a tree close to the plant," Dr. Brenner said.
Children, and fetuses, are more vulnerable to radiation than are adults. Scientists estimate that about 5 percent of the population is genetically more susceptible to radiation than the rest.
The radioactive elements released from the reactor form clouds that are carried off by the prevailing winds. Again, the risk depends on how much is released. "As it's being blown away, to some extent it's being dispersed," Dr. Brenner said. "And some of it falls on the ground."
One way of measuring radiation exposure is in a unit called the rem. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, most people in the United States receive 0.3 rem per year just from normal, background radiation. Flying for 12 hours at 39,000 feet exposes a person to 0.006 rem. At 5 to 10 rem, lab tests can pick up changes in blood chemistry. Nausea starts after 50 rem, hemorrhaging at 100 rem. At 500 rem, half of people exposed will die within 30 days. At 2,000 rem, a person can die within hours or days. So far, one employee at a nuclear plant in Japan has been reported to have had an exposure of 10 rem, not enough to produce obvious symptoms. The annual dose limit for workers at nuclear plants in the United States is 5 rem.
People are so afraid of radiation that any threat of exposure can cause what Dr. Brenner called psychophysical consequences. He cited an incident in 1987 in Goiania, Brazil, in which people were exposed to radioactive material stolen from a hospital. Fearing contamination, about 125,000 sought medical exams. Thousands reported symptoms of radiation sickness, like vomiting and rashes. Ultimately, only 249 turned out to have any signs of contamination.
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24) German Workers Rally in Solidarity with Wisconsin Public Employees
Teresa Casertano in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department sends us this report.
March 14, 2011
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/03/11/german-workers-rally-in-solidarity-with-wisconsin-public-employees/
As tens of thousands of Wisconsin residents rally and march across the state tomorrow for the fourth weekend in a row, they will receive support from union members in Berlin who are holding a solidarity rally. Members of the German telecommunications union, ver.di, will turn out to to support bargaining rights for workers in the United States. They know that collective bargaining is not possible unless workers are able to join unions and participate in their own organizations free from the fear of reprisals by their employers.
In a letter to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is trying to take away the right of public employees to bargain for a good, middle-class life, Frank Bsirske, chairman of the United Services Union ver.di of Germany, said Walker's "proposed unilateral action" is:
"...an attack on one of the fundamental pillars in a well-developed democracy, where social dialogue and collective bargaining through trade unions secure constructive relationships between employers and employees. This kind of relationship has proved its high value in many countries, both in times of economic growth and during crisis."
The ver.di members are part of a global effort with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Council of Global Unions, UNI Global Union and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to organize 40,000 T-Mobile USA technicians, call center and retail workers all over the United States. T-Mobile is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, a German company that employs nearly 132,000 workers in Germany, most of whom are ver.di members. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom respects workers' right to belong to the union and engages productively with the union through collective bargaining.
Ver.di members have learned about the reality for T-Mobile workers in the United States, as T-Mobile USA workers have told stories of being instructed to turn in their colleagues for receiving union materials or to report any gathering of workers, even if they take place in the evening or on weekends. U.S. workers described their terror of even learning about their rights fearing that any demonstration of interest in the union would result in reprimand, reprisals surrounding promotions or opportunities for advancement, or outright dismissal.
Ver.di was shocked and disappointed that a German employer that has participated in dialogue and collective bargaining in its home country would stoop to the worst union-busting practices in its operations in the United States and other countries. Because they expect better from Deutsche Telekom they have taken a leadership role along with the the global labor movement to carry out a coordinated campaign to ensure that all Deutsche Telekom/ T-Mobile workers can exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively free from fear and intimidation.
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