tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23300687259882559712024-02-07T00:17:54.670-06:00Northland Anti-War Coalitionadam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.comBlogger237125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-78607668900304718682015-03-14T13:50:00.002-05:002015-03-14T13:51:07.585-05:00NAWC in no more . . .The Northland Anti-War Coalition has voted to dissolve. We will leave this page up though as a record of some of our activity. We thank you for your past support and participation, and urge you to get involved in one of the many exciting progressive movements working for social change in our region.<span class="fullpost">
</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-52270655291410036482014-06-22T11:25:00.001-05:002014-06-22T11:25:03.324-05:00Presbyterian Church Votes to Divest<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr4ytLbj21jiKX2fdLYNsFe-rHs_ZmfFEKqaTt6HVUmsHtz1kD6CQooYms9R23X1LwIxdxFYn5yLfR6BS1XiIVy3rvKt_OQc5W28Zcfimv5YV7LmevUyh9lJ1wpVaG3x9dXS1sLnnvSQU/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr4ytLbj21jiKX2fdLYNsFe-rHs_ZmfFEKqaTt6HVUmsHtz1kD6CQooYms9R23X1LwIxdxFYn5yLfR6BS1XiIVy3rvKt_OQc5W28Zcfimv5YV7LmevUyh9lJ1wpVaG3x9dXS1sLnnvSQU/s1600/unnamed.jpg" height="320" width="317" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I am overjoyed to report that just moments ago, the Presbyterian Church (USA) just voted to divest $21 million from Hewlett-Packard, Motorola Solutions, and Caterpillar – three companies whose profits from the ongoing Israeli occupation have been extensively documented.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">This is an unbelievably fantastic - and brave - decision, grounded in the Presbyterians' deep sense of justice and commitment to human rights.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />And, having been here for the last week with our huge team of interfaith partners, I can guarantee you that the backlash is going to be intense.</span></span></b><b style="font-size: small; line-height: 16.61px;"><br /></b></div>
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<a href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=7ZbxxWFI8F%2BUZbGlYeWL9A8nlsyLUSyi" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: small; line-height: 16.61px;" target="_blank"><span style="color: maroon;"><u><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />Please click here to sign a Thank You Card</span></b></u></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> so we can make sure the entire church also sees how many people support their courageous work to align their investments and values.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16.61px;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The Presbyterians should be commended in particular for crafting a unique path combining divestment with positive investment, and a commitment to seek reconciliation.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It's a powerful model for how </span><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">any and every community can take on the profoundly important work of looking inward to align their values and actions.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">This decision will have real consequences, sending a message to Palestinians that their human rights matter. </span></span><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">And it puts corporations and the Israeli government on notice that the occupation is both morally and economically untenable.</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">This vote also shows how attempts by Jewish institution to forestall principled actions by using accusations of anti-semitism are losing power. Make no mistake - the opposition did everything they could to stop this resolution.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />But you should be extremely proud of what JVP contributed to this effort. Our rabbis, young members and chapter leaders worked their hearts out - on the ground here in Detroit and all over the country. I have never been more amazed by what our community can accomplish, or the thoughtfulness which with we make change happen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />We can only hope that as this movement for justice grows, all those who want to see real peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis will join us and cherished allies like the Presbyterian Church (USA) to take concrete action to change policy. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #339966;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: maroon;"><a href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=llh6vt/oL3FiYrR3yAZZng8nlsyLUSyi" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: maroon;"><u><br />Please take a moment now to say thank you</u></span></a></span></span></span></b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> - our courageous partners have thoroughly earned it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Yasher Koach Presbyterians! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Rabbi Alissa Wise<br />Co-Director of Organizing</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">ps: if you are also overjoyed by this success, you can make sure history keeps moving in the right direction - </span></span><a href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=LhUQcEXQRPrYZ7sYREm2lA8nlsyLUSyi" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" target="_blank"><span style="color: maroon;"><u><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">support JVP and our interfaith partnerships with a donation today!</span></span></b></u></span></a><br />
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</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-58673507468572611552013-10-23T14:19:00.003-05:002013-10-23T14:19:55.059-05:00Israel/Palestine Films at Zinema2--We Need Your Help!<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo7KZ3nMAPIfKxtGFmDTdg_OQE2W7ErTkx2SDFHuAoAP9EOcOWbGt2RMkhuzVTiW2NkoKsHyamtJHcY9eNqga5hyphenhyphenKZ92nUP7II8nMLeolAwpTG24SFsS3wn4I90dX-mx1_cKIzKkdiC10/s1600/rodchenko-0236.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo7KZ3nMAPIfKxtGFmDTdg_OQE2W7ErTkx2SDFHuAoAP9EOcOWbGt2RMkhuzVTiW2NkoKsHyamtJHcY9eNqga5hyphenhyphenKZ92nUP7II8nMLeolAwpTG24SFsS3wn4I90dX-mx1_cKIzKkdiC10/s320/rodchenko-0236.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Since
spring we've been trying to find ways to fund a series of 3 or 4 documentary
films on the Israel-Palestine conflict at the Zinema2. We expect the
documentaries to be challenging yet hopeful (for example, Budrus, Five Broken
Cameras, The Gatekeepers, etc.) about the prospects for justice and peace in
the region. Zinema2 does not need us to foot the entire cost but we need about
half of the maximum of $1000 to get the project off the ground. Other funds
will come from ticket sales and fundraisers during the fall of 2013. We expect
the film series to take place in early 2014. Can you help us with a gift of
$10, $25, $50 or $100?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Since we
don't have a bank account, it will be necessary to send money (cash or personal
check to Robert Kosuth) to Robert Kosuth, </span><st1:address><st1:street><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">1224 E. 11th Street</span></st1:street><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, </span><st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Duluth</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><st1:postalcode><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">55805</span></st1:postalcode></st1:address><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. You can also bring a donation to
our next meeting at Bixby's Cafe (1808 </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Woodland</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">) between </span><st1:time hour="15" minute="0"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">3-4 p.m.</span></st1:time><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Sunday, November 2.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Thank you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bob Kosuth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-84375764796682416832013-05-19T12:10:00.001-05:002013-05-19T12:10:21.760-05:00How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 19.5px; margin-bottom: 13px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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In just ten months, the United States managed to transform an 82 year-old Catholic nun and two pacifists from non-violent anti-nuclear peace protestors accused of misdemeanor trespassing into federal felons convicted of violent crimes of terrorism. Now in jail awaiting sentencing for their acts at an Oak Ridge, TN nuclear weapons production facility, their story should chill every person concerned about dissent in the US. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho51l-Dl_INQ_7GFSdn4LZX22P66mfqhoBer3hS-66OBCd6h5EdyKY_PfJQcbUUDShm0DWUkyf9lA0daxKV07xKpZc9ubu5w7oBM9GjKD4cxxvlklGCbez_G7-1bV5WIUq2RCtkBdGX-o/s1600/three_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho51l-Dl_INQ_7GFSdn4LZX22P66mfqhoBer3hS-66OBCd6h5EdyKY_PfJQcbUUDShm0DWUkyf9lA0daxKV07xKpZc9ubu5w7oBM9GjKD4cxxvlklGCbez_G7-1bV5WIUq2RCtkBdGX-o/s320/three_0.jpg" width="320" /></a>Here is how it happened. </div>
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In the early morning hours of Saturday June 28, 2012, long-time peace activists Sr. Megan Rice, 82, Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, and Michael Walli, 63, cut through the chain link fence surrounding the Oak Ridge Y-12 nuclear weapons production facility and trespassed onto the property. Y-12, called the Fort Knox of the nuclear weapons industry, stores hundreds of metric tons of highly enriched uranium and works on every single one of the thousands of nuclear weapons maintained by the U.S.</div>
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<span class="pullquote" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #111111; float: right; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px 20px; text-align: right; text-shadow: rgb(183, 183, 183) 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 216px;">“The truth will heal us and heal our planet, heal our diseases, which result from the disharmony of our planet caused by the worst weapons in the history of mankind, which should not exist. For this we give our lives — for the truth about the terrible existence of these weapons.”<br />- Sr. Megan Rice</span></div>
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Describing themselves as the <a href="http://transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Transform Now Plowshares</a>, the three came as non-violent protestors to symbolically disarm the weapons. They carried bibles, written statements, peace banners, spray paint, flower, candles, small baby bottles of blood, bread, hammers with biblical verses on them and wire cutters. Their intent was to follow the words of Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”</div>
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Sr. Megan Rice has been a Catholic sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus for over sixty years. Greg Boertje-Obed, a married carpenter who has a college age daughter, is an Army veteran and lives at a Catholic Worker house in Duluth Minnesota. Michael Walli, a two-term Vietnam veteran turned peacemaker, lives at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker house in Washington DC.</div>
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In the dark, the three activists cut through a boundary fence which had signs stating “No Trespassing.” The signs indicate that unauthorized entry, a misdemeanor, is punishable by up to 1 year in prison and a $100,000 fine. </div>
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No security arrived to confront them. </div>
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So the three climbed up a hill through heavy brush, crossed a road, and kept going until they saw the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF) surrounded by three fences, lit up by blazing lights. </div>
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Still no security. </div>
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So they cut through the three fences, hung up their peace banners, and spray-painted peace slogans on the HEUMF. Still no security arrived. They began praying and sang songs like “Down by the Riverside” and “Peace is Flowing Like a River.”</div>
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When security finally arrived at about 4:30 am, the three surrendered peacefully, were arrested, and jailed.</div>
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The next Monday July 30, Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli were arraigned and charged with federal trespassing, a misdemeanor charge which carries a penalty of up to one year in jail. Frank Munger, an award-winning journalist with the Knoxville News Sentinel, was the first to publicly<a href="http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/30/y-12-protesters-arraigned-for-federal-more-could/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">wonder</a>, “If unarmed protesters dressed in dark clothing could reach the plant's core during the cover of dark, it raised questions about the plant's security against more menacing intruders.”</div>
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On Wednesday August 1, all nuclear operations at Y-12 were ordered to be put on hold in order for the plant to focus on security. The “security stand-down” was ordered by security contractor in charge of Y-12, B&W Y-12 (a joint venture of the Babcock and Wilcox Company and Bechtel National Inc.) and supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration.</div>
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On Thursday August 2, Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli appeared in court for a pretrial bail hearing. The government asked that all three be detained. One prosecutor called them a potential “danger to the community” and asked that all three be kept in jail until their trial. The US Magistrate allowed them to be released.</div>
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Sr. Megan Rice walked out of the jail and promptly admitted to gathered media that the three had indeed gone onto the property and taken action in protest of nuclear weapons. “But we had to — we were doing it because we had to reveal the truth of the criminality which is there, that’s our obligation,” Rice said. She also challenged the entire nuclear weapons industry: “We have the power, and the love, and the strength and the courage to end it and transform the whole project, for which has been expended more than 7.2 trillion dollars,” she <a href="http://transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/sister-megan-rice-upon-her-release/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">said</a>. “The truth will heal us and heal our planet, heal our diseases, which result from the disharmony of our planet caused by the worst weapons in the history of mankind, which should not exist. For this we give our lives — for the truth about the terrible existence of these weapons.”</div>
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Then the government began increasing the charges against the anti-nuclear peace protestors.</div>
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The day after the Magistrate ordered the release of Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli, a Department of Energy (DOE) agent swore out a federal criminal complaint against the three for damage to federal property, a felony punishable by zero to five years in prison, under 18 US Code Section 1363.</div>
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The DOE agent admitted the three carried a letter which stated, “We come to the Y-12 facility because our very humanity rejects the designs of nuclearism, empire and war. Our faith in love and nonviolence encourages us to believe that our activity here is necessary; that we come to invite transformation, undo the past and present work of Y-12; disarm and end any further efforts to increase the Y-12 capacity for an economy and social structure based on war-making and empire-building.”</div>
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Now, Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli were facing one misdemeanor and one felony and up to six years in prison. </div>
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But the government did not stop there. The next week, the charges were enlarged yet again.</div>
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On Tuesday August 7, the U.S. expanded the charges against the peace activists to three counts. The first was the original charge of damage to Y-12 in violation of 18 US Code 1363, punishable by up to five years in prison. The second was an additional damage to federal property in excess of $1000 in violation of 18 US Code 1361, punishable by up to ten years in prison. The third was a trespassing charge, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison under 42 US Code 2278.</div>
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Now they faced up to sixteen years in prison. And the actions of the protestors started to receive national and international attention.</div>
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On August 10, 2012, the New York Times ran a picture of Sr. Megan Rice on page one under the headline “The Nun Who Broke into the Nuclear Sanctum.” Citing nuclear experts, the paper of record <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/11/science/behind-nuclear-breach-a-nuns-bold-fervor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">called</a> their actions “the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex.”</div>
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At the end of August 2012, the Inspector General of the Department of Energy issued at comprehensive report on the security breakdown at Y-12. Calling the peace activists trespassers, the report indicated that the three were able to get as far as they did because of “multiple system failures on several levels.” The cited failures included cameras broken for six months, ineptitude in responding to alarms, communication problems, and many other failures of the contractors and the federal monitors. The report <a href="http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/IG-0868_0.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">concluded</a> that “Ironically, the Y-12 breach may have been an important “wake-up” call regarding the need to correct security issues at the site.”</div>
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On October 4, 2012, the defendants announced that they had been advised that, unless they pled guilty to at least one felony and the misdemeanor trespass charge, the U.S. would also charge them with sabotage against the U.S. government, a much more serious charge. Over 3000 people signed a <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-attorney-general-don-t-impose-death-sentence-on-82-year-old-nun-and-peacemaker" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">petition</a> to U.S. Attorney General Holder asking him not to charge them with sabotage.</div>
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But on December 4, 2012, the U.S. filed a new indictment of the protestors. Count one was the promised new charge of sabotage. Defendants were charged with intending to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of the United States and willful damage of national security premises in violation of 18 US Code 2155, punishable with up to 20 years in prison. Counts two and three were the previous felony property damage charges, with potential prison terms of up to fifteen more years in prison. </div>
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Gone entirely was the original misdemeanor charge of trespass. Now Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli faced up to thirty-five years in prison.</div>
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In a mere five months, government charges transformed them from misdemeanor trespassers to multiple felony saboteurs.</div>
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The government also successfully moved to strip the three from presenting any defenses or testimony about the harmful effects of nuclear weapons. The U.S. Attorney’s office filed a document they called “Motion to Preclude Defendants from Introducing Evidence in Support of Certain Justification Defenses.” In this motion, the U.S. asked the court to bar the peace protestors from being allowed to put on any evidence regarding the illegality of nuclear weapons, the immorality of nuclear weapons, international law, or religious, moral or political beliefs regarding nuclear weapons, the Nuremberg principles developed after WWII, First Amendment protections, necessity or US policy regarding nuclear weapons.</div>
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Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli argued against the motion. But, despite powerful <a href="http://orepa.org/ramsey-clark-y12-activities-are-unlawful/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">testimony</a> by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a declaration from an internationally renowned physician and others, the Court ruled against defendants.</div>
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Meanwhile, Congress was looking into the security breach, and media attention to the trial grew with a remarkable <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2013/04/29/the-prophets-of-oak-ridge/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">story</a> in the Washington Post, with CNN coverage and AP and Reuters joining in.</div>
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The trial was held in Knoxville in early May 2013. The three peace activists were convicted on all counts. Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli all took the stand, admitted what they had done, and explained why they did it. The federal manager of Y-12 said the protestors had damaged the credibility of the site in the U.S. and globally and even <a href="http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/may/07/testimony-cost-of-y-12-intrusion-more-than-just/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">claimed</a> that their acts had an impact on nuclear deterrence.</div>
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As soon as the jury was dismissed, the government moved to jail the protestors because they had been convicted of “crimes of violence.” The government argued that cutting the fences and spray-painting slogans was property damage such as to constitute crimes of violence so the law obligated their incarceration pending sentencing. </div>
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The defense pointed out that Rice, Boertje-Obed, and Walli had remained free since their arrest without incident. The government attorneys argued that two of the protestors had violated their bail by going to a congressional hearing about the Y-12 security problems, an act that had been approved by their parole officers. </div>
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The three were immediately jailed. In its decision affirming their incarceration pending their sentencing, the court ruled that both the sabotage and the damage to property convictions were defined by Congress as federal crimes of terrorism. Since the charges carry potential sentences of ten years or more, the Court ruled there was a strong presumption in favor of incarceration which was not outweighed by any unique circumstances that warranted their release pending sentencing.</div>
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These non-violent peace activists now sit in jail as federal prisoners, awaiting their sentencing on September 23, 2013.</div>
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In ten months, an 82 year old nun and two pacifists had been successfully transformed by the U.S. government from non-violent anti-nuclear peace protestors accused of misdemeanor trespassing into felons convicted of violent crimes of terrorism.</div>
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<i>> The article above was written by Fran Quigley.</i></div>
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</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-22356262102789567252013-02-10T12:04:00.001-06:002013-02-10T12:04:43.223-06:00Behind the French & U.S. Attack in Mali<span class="fullpost">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">On Feb. 1, The New York Times published a major article by Adam Nossiter and Neil MacFarquhar entitled “Algeria Sowed Seeds of Hostage Crisis as It Nurtured Warlord.” The warlord in question is Iyad Ag Ghali, who heads Ansar Dine, one of the three Islamic groups that The Times says threatened to capture the Malian capital, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Bamako</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, in early January. The involvement of radical Islamists provided the excuse for the Jan. 11 French military intervention, which is, without a doubt, an important escalation in the imperialists’ new “Scramble for </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Africa</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nossiter and MacFarquhar explain that the Algerian government nurtured Ag Ghali in the hope that Ansar Dine, which advocated an Islamic state but not a breakaway state, could supplant the battle for self-determination of the secular Tuareg organizations fighting in the northern regions of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Mali</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Niger</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The Tuareg people traditionally have claimed territory not only in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Mali</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Niger</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> but in the border regions of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Algeria</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, as well. The Algerian government feared that a victory for the Tuareg would unleash the pent-up anger of oppressed peoples inside </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Algeria</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Like the United States, which helped to create the Taliban to fight pro-Soviet forces in Afghanistan—and Pakistan, which works to maintain dependent Islamic radical “players” in the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan—so Algerian elites supported Ansar Dine as part of a strategy to suppress more threatening opposition forces like the secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) or that creature of their own recent civil war, al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Instead, their game plan is now subordinate to the goals of the direct military intervention of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Canada</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, all of whom see the Sahara-Sahel as key to protecting their substantial economic and political interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Algeria’s dirty tricks, illuminating as they are about the way that elites intrigue to hold onto power, are really only a sideshow to the main operation—that is, the effort of the U.S. and the old colonizers of Europe to successfully compete with China and each other for Africa’s extraordinary petroleum and mineral wealth in a period of deep capitalist economic crisis of incredible duration. According to an article by Patrick Smith in the Financial Times of June 3, 2010, “the Great Game being played out in Africa’s mines and on its sea routes is no less dramatic than the great rivalries over Afghanistan two centuries ago.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Africa</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> holds at least 10% of the world’s oil reserves, and greater reserves are likely. </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">China</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> buys a third of its oil from </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Africa</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> expects to import 25% of its oil from the West African seaboard by 2015. </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Africa</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> also appears to hold the largest reserves of rare earth metals outside of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">China</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The French military intervention, which centered on air attacks supported by </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> logistics, was ostensibly launched to free northern </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Mali</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> from the brutality of the imposition of a crude sharia law by Islamic militants from al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb. Skepticism about the humanitarianism of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s assault, however, is warranted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">If France—Mali’s old colonial master and one of the main brokers for European investment, loans, and “aid” to Mali—were actually motivated by the interests of the workers, farmers, traders, and herders of the Konna, Gao, Timbuktu areas, it would be reasonable to assume that these peoples would not be among the poorest on the planet. Before, during, and after this war, the majority of Malians will continue to try to live on less than $1 a day. </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s actual interests are clearly more mercenary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As the former colonizer of much of Central and </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">West Africa</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s economic stake in the region is considerable. French uranium mines in the bordering country of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Niger</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> have for 40 years supplied the lion’s share of the fuel for their nuclear power industry, and that industry produces 75% of the country’s electricity. The global economic crisis has pushed other capitalist countries to try to get a piece of the action long dominated by </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">. </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">China</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> have now thrown their hat in the ring in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Niger</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and will undoubtedly jump to participate in Malian mining developments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> interests in the Sahara-Sahel are multiple but center on petroleum from </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nigeria</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, phosphates from </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Morocco</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and natural gas from </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Algeria</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">. In </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Washington</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s strategic thinking, the availability and security of these resources are tied to developments in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Sahel</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> as a whole. </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Washington</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s already substantial Trans-Saharan Security Initiative was boosted on Dec. 25, when Obama announced that </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Washington</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> would be sending troops to 35 African countries. On Jan. 29, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Niger</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> announced that it had agreed to host a </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> drone base, expanding the already significant drone operations </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Washington</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> runs out of </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">East Africa</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The profits from </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s mines in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Niger</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> have been the target of the MNJ, the Niger Movement for Justice. The MNJ is a mostly Tuareg group that has been demanding a share of the revenues and an environmental cleanup. Kidal, one of the northern Malian towns recently taken by French forces, and the heart of Tuareg spiritual life, is at the center of a uranium-prospecting project given a 2007 go-ahead by the Malian government of over 20,000 square kilometers. Oklo Resources was due, as late as last October, to start drilling in May 2013. Malian uranium reserves have been estimated at 5200 tons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The Malian government, which in the early 1990s was pressured by international financial institutions to agree to mining regulations highly favorable to foreign investors, abandoned a 1991 agreement to share power with the nomadic people that inhabit the uranium-rich areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Subsequent government policy, developed under economic and political pressure from European and U.S. institutions, focused on integrating a small layer of Tuaregs into the military and other government organizations rather than tackling the huge disparity in resources that colonialism had bequeathed to the north and the south. When the stick was required, they responded with direct brutality or gave backhanded support to informal militias composed of other ethnic groups in the north, such as the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Songhai</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, who do not support a Tuareg-led government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">French colonialism, of course, set in motion these modern-day ethnic divisions. The occupiers focused on resource extraction and development in the south of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Mali</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and recruited for government service primarily from the Bambara and other southern people. The colonial government then sent them north to implement policies that shrunk the pastoral commons on which various nomadic peoples survived. Contemporary mining concessions, security measures demanded as part of the global “War on Terror, and severe drought have further exacerbated the shrinkage, forcing more of the Tuareg to turn to black market operations or to migrate to an increasingly impoverished south to vie for very scarce jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“Jobless growth” is the phrase used to describe the current African economic “boom.” Policies imposed on </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Mali</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> by the IMF and the World Bank for 40 years have exacted a terrible price in the more developed south, as well. Neoliberal schemes have led to the privatizations of the Malian railway and cotton enterprises, and encouraged corporate land acquisitions and genetically modified seed experiments that threaten food sovereignty and the livelihood of small peasants. Today, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Mali</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> faces one of the largest food shortfalls in years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The demands of world capitalism have left </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Mali</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> divided, impoverished, dependent, and ripe for further plunder. The recent military coup, sparked by an ethnic rebellion, was led by an officer trained by the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and it was dependent for survival on the intervention of the French. It was, in a real sense, the sad outcome of 70 years of colonization, 40 years of IMF and World Bank intervention in the interest of non-African elites, and repeated imperialist efforts to head off genuine insurgency by nurturing hand-picked groups of Islamic extremists in </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Central Asia</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Middle East</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">North Africa</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">However, the 2011 upsurges in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Tunisia</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Western Sahara</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, to say nothing of the 2012 militant fight back of the South African miners of Marikana, suggest that resistance is brewing against the dictates of global capital on the continent. Activists in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Americas</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> can contribute to that process by demanding that </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Canada</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> get out of the Sahara-Sahel now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><i>> The article above was written by Christine Marie.</i></span></div>
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adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-47574263096105486592012-12-16T13:12:00.001-06:002012-12-16T13:13:04.979-06:00Historic Vote, December 17th, Duluth City Council<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2iFRxA7xMyT-YxQ3uDsEwBHToOwhdoDbv5dDRgBU8a8INiS7dMVjfy5FJ0Kiswe0wS8G79oMr4_My7RiouEcU6Cd_fR_AZ_b63OEStzDeOWBJLVrQbJ1_Rtx0wUnnDIaoonHxkzJ5Bo/s1600/420514_473739625982076_1043768428_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2iFRxA7xMyT-YxQ3uDsEwBHToOwhdoDbv5dDRgBU8a8INiS7dMVjfy5FJ0Kiswe0wS8G79oMr4_My7RiouEcU6Cd_fR_AZ_b63OEStzDeOWBJLVrQbJ1_Rtx0wUnnDIaoonHxkzJ5Bo/s320/420514_473739625982076_1043768428_n.jpg" width="302" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Connecting the dots between bloated Pentagon Spending and cuts in our local communities. If the Duluth vote passes, our city will join the Saint Paul and Minneapolis City Councils in passing the MN ASAP resolultion.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"> </span><br />
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The Minnesota Arms Spending Alternatives Project (MN ASAP) resolution connects the dots between bloated Pentagon spending and cuts (austerity) in our local communities. Thanks to Council Member Sharla Gardner, our resolution is on the Duluth City Council agenda for December 17th at 7:00 pm. </div>
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DAY OF THE VOTE EVENTS: December 17th, 2012.<br />
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1.) At 5:45 pm, we will hold a candle light vigil with peace songs performed by the "Echoes of Peace" Choir (led by Rachael Kilgour). This will be held in front of the City Hall building.<br />
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2.) At 6:15 pm, we will hold a press conference. MN ASAP leader, Peace and Social Justice Professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer will give a short speech and then do a Q & A with the media. Rev. John Pegg of Duluth (former Marine) will also represent MN ASAP in the press conference. Other potential press conference representatives TBD.<br />
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3.) At 7:00 pm, we move into the City Council Chambers for the historic vote! 3-5 MN ASAP supporters will be encouraged to sign up for the public hearing session (open mic).<br />
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WHAT DOES THE RESOLUTION SAY?<br />
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RESOLUTION REGARDING STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING AND THE IMPACT OF PENTAGON SPENDING.<br />
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(This resolution is still being revised by council members)<br />
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BY COUNCILOR GARDNER:<br />
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WHEREAS, in 2011 the Minnesota state government shut down over disputes as to how to address a $5 billion dollar two-year budget shortfall; and<br />
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WHEREAS, many small towns, cities and rural communities throughout the state are managing austerity budgets, laying off police, firefighters, and teachers and cutting essential services in response to cuts in state aid and/or federal cuts to community development block grants; and<br />
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WHEREAS, communities throughout the state have suffered from a regressive property tax system due in part to state and federal cuts; and<br />
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WHEREAS, Duluth tax payers have contributed $450 million dollars and counting towards the Irag and Afghanistan wars alone; and<br />
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WHEREAS, in addition to these costly wars, Minnesota tax payers are<br />
spending more than $16 billion in 2012 for their share of the base Pentagon budget, a budget that increased from $290.5 billion to $526 billion between 2000<br />
and 2011; and<br />
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WHEREAS, in 2012 $.59 cents of every dollar of federal discretionary<br />
spending is funding military purposes; and<br />
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WHEREAS, on a local level the 148 Fighter Wing is an example of a th<br />
military unit doing more with less, and serves as a model of prudent military spending; and<br />
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WHEREAS, the budget for veterans is separate from the military budget and the nation has a responsibility to provide veterans with quality medical care and other support, including opportunities for meaningful jobs; and<br />
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WHEREAS, our nation needs to better balance its approach to national security to include the economic, social, and environmental needs of our local communities, state and nation.<br />
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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Duluth city council hereby requests that our state and federal representatives make an effort to shift federal funding priorities from pentagon spending to domestic economic, social and environmental priorities to better serve local communities.<br />
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Approved as to form:<br />
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[Please or write call your city council member. Ask for a yes vote on the "MN ASAP resolution, which connects the dots between Pentagon spending and cuts at the local level].<br />
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MN ASAP is a non-partisan citizen-based initiative using a simple resolution process to build political support to shift federal spending from the military to meeting essential community needs. The Minneapolis and St. Paul City Councils recently endorsed the resolution; we hope to add Duluth to the list.<br />
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Federal financial priorities have an impact locally. Duluth taxpayers alone have spent $450 million dollars and counting for our share of the Iraq and Afghan Wars. Congress is currently facing decisions to deal with the “Fiscal Cliff” with the possibility of across the board cuts to programs, so it is a good time to make our voices heard. Military spending takes 57% of the total discretionary budget – compared to only 4% spent on education. We would rather see more funding for Social Security, Medicare, Education, infrastructure, and Community Development Block Grants that fund programs for low -income people.<br />
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For more information, call 218.310.7682, email minnesotaasap@gmail.com or visit our website at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mnasap.org&h=9AQGzVZVC&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">www.mnasap.org</a> </div>
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adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-91578025492623296332012-12-02T14:20:00.003-06:002012-12-02T14:20:41.659-06:00Is the U.S. Really Ending the War in Afghanistan?<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNVp78WiCrVtCzIqHKwhXrR03Rmo92yzKUPOMcvOSbBufrCGmu2pepSrCGjWsx4QpywoEaTjHVHJWP_vlXW8mhM8ezQMFGKHdGuieVrmA8-8jKBD4E3n4m8ijBXFNIKHrVs9LlnMYurAg/s1600/546231_375269319188898_455370811_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNVp78WiCrVtCzIqHKwhXrR03Rmo92yzKUPOMcvOSbBufrCGmu2pepSrCGjWsx4QpywoEaTjHVHJWP_vlXW8mhM8ezQMFGKHdGuieVrmA8-8jKBD4E3n4m8ijBXFNIKHrVs9LlnMYurAg/s320/546231_375269319188898_455370811_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">It is
amazing to watch politicians trying to weasel their way around their promises.
President Obama is providing us with a good illustration of the art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">During the
latest presidential campaign and in the final televised debates, both Obama and
Vice President Joe Biden were adamant in asserting that the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> would be leaving </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> and ending the war in that country
at the end of 2014–<a href="http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=26154">a goal most
Americans profoundly want</a>. Biden, in a heated debate with his Republican
opponent Paul Ryan, said the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> would “absolutely” be “out” of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> at the end of 2014. Obama, a week
later, said, “By 2014, this process of transition will be complete and the
Afghan people will be responsible for their own security.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">I’m
reminded of President Clinton, a lawyer who, when pressed under oath by a
special prosecutor hounding him over the details of whether he had had sex with
a young White House intern, said that the answer hinged on “what the meaning of
the word ‘is’ is.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">This past
weekend, it was reported that Obama and the generals at the Pentagon are
planning on keeping at least 10,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan
indefinitely after that 2014 deadline for ending the war and withdrawing from
that war-torn land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Just to
make it clear what we’re talking about here, 10,000 troops would represent an
army half the size of the entire army of either the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Netherlands</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> or </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Denmark</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, two countries which currently have
troops assigned to the NATO forces posted in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> as allies in the 12-year-long US
war there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The notion
that these 10,000 post-2014 soldiers would just be “training” the Afghan
military is simply absurd. </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Parris Island</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, the famed boot camp in </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">South Carolina</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> for the US Marine Corps,
which boasts what probably is the toughest training program of any of the
branches of the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> military, churns out 17,000 new
Marines a year with a training unit of 600 uniformed personnel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">That’s one
trainer per 170 recruits. At that rate, the 10,000 </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> “trainers” in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> could be training 1.7 million new
recruits for the Afghan army each year! Even allowing for the typical
top-heaviness of the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> military, if only a third of those
10,000 “trainers” were actually drill sergeants and their staff, we’re talking
about a training force capable of producing over 500,000 new Afghan soldiers
per year! But </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">’s army today, which the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> claims is already largely trained
and ready to protect the country, has only a total of some 200,000 active duty
soldiers altogether.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">So let’s
get serious here. These 10,000 soldiers that Obama and the Pentagon are talking
about stationing in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> after the war is “ended” in
December 2012 are not really going to be trainers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Besides,
how do you “end” a war by simply having one side say it’s over, unless you
actually do stop fighting and walk away? Certainly the invading side in a
foreign war can call that war quits, but if the other side doesn’t, and the
invader stays on the battlefield — which in Afghanistan is the whole county —
you haven’t ended it at all. The other side will continue to hit you until
you’re gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">In other
words, clearly that force of 10,000 US troops, whatever they are called
officially, will be in a state of war, because there is no way that the Taliban
in Afghanistan will quietly allow them to be there training an army to fight
them, without taking the battle to the “trainers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">So how
then, can Obama, Biden and the generals be promising that the war will be ended
in 2014?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The answer
is that they are not calling what will be happening after 2014 a “war.”
They will be changing the definition of the word “war.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">It is
totally predictable that the unfortunate soldiers who are ordered over as part
of that 10,000-member force of “trainers” after 2014 will be subjected to
attacks by Taliban fighters, by suicide bombers, and by IED mines. Their bases
will be hit by mortars and rockets. When they travel, their vehicles will be
the targets of RPGs. They will also be subject to attack by members of the
Afghan military whom they are ostensibly training, since the Taliban have
already learned that infiltration of the country’s army is a great way to get
close to the American forces, the better to hit them when their guard is down
or their backs are turned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Inevitably,
the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> forces will be forced to fight
back, and to take the offensive too. There will certainly continue to be US
airstrikes, and we can be sure that armed attack drones will be widely employed
also, guaranteeing the creation of plenty of new enemy forces sworn to punish
and drive out the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">None of
this will, of course, be described as “war” by the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, or by the compliant corporate
media in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">There is a
model for this kind of thing. </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> has been fighting a war in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Colombia</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> for years against the FARC, marxist
rebels operating in the jungles of that country at the northern end of </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">South America</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. Only this has never been described
as a war in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> media or in reports from the
Pentagon. The soldiers sent down there, we are informed, are just “training”
and “advising” the Colombian military, which we are told is fighting against
“drug lords.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The same
was true for years in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">El Salvador</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, a little country in </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Central America</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> that endured a decade-long
revolution and civil war, in which the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> was backing a vicious oligarchy and
supporting a brutal military that regularly sent death squads out into the
slums and the countryside to murder those who supported the rebels. American
forces there were always described as “trainers” or “advisors,” though their
roles were far more active, and bloody, than that, as was occasionally exposed
when they’d get caught in rebel ambushes (as happened to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/23/world/the-green-berets-at-the-barricades-28-hours-at-the-besieged-salvador-hotel.html">12
Green Berets staying at a hotel that rebels temporarily captured</a> during
an offensive in the country’s capital).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Putting
military forces in a country and calling them advisors or trainers is an old
propaganda stand-by for the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. The only thing that sets this
latest fraud apart from earlier imperial interventions by US military forces
this time is the numbers involved. Even that legendary Bill Clinton obfuscator
would have a hard time making anyone believe that a force of 10,000 heavily
armed </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> troops are just “trainers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>> The
article above was written by Dave Lindorff and is reprinted from
Counterpunch.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span class="fullpost">
</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-90472534958670796672012-12-02T14:18:00.002-06:002012-12-02T14:19:08.827-06:00Kathy Kelly: Truth & Trauma in Gaza<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSygXxe0opw5FNDyH4uwignnJzLYttuKM075rcFW6CT1MUlOl0_WZTB4BsSevePG99IgxOsxvdzobW7stR8KanS0ozRoYzPWfU_kVlSTZsVW_DFzJb1EvrI4aBm_CyUTMouQ4QQT4W_do/s1600/DSC01462.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSygXxe0opw5FNDyH4uwignnJzLYttuKM075rcFW6CT1MUlOl0_WZTB4BsSevePG99IgxOsxvdzobW7stR8KanS0ozRoYzPWfU_kVlSTZsVW_DFzJb1EvrI4aBm_CyUTMouQ4QQT4W_do/s320/DSC01462.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dr. T., a
medical doctor, is a Palestinian living in </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Gaza</span></st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">City</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. He is still reeling from
days of aerial bombardment. When I asked about the children in his community he
told me his church would soon be making Christmas preparations to lift the
children’s spirits. Looking at his kindly smile and ruddy cheeks, I
couldn’t help wondering if he’d be asked to dress up as “Baba Noel,” as Santa
Claus. I didn’t dare ask this question aloud. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“The most
recent war was more severe and vigorous than the Operation Cast Lead,” he said
slowly, leaning back in his chair and looking into the distance. “I was
more affected this time. The weapons were very strong, destroying everything.
One rocket could completely destroy a building.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The 8-day
Israeli offensive in November lasted for fewer days and brought fewer
casualties, but it was nonstop and relentless, and everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“At </span><st1:time hour="1" minute="0"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">1:00 a.m.</span></st1:time><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> the bank was bombed, and everyone
in the area was awakened from sleep. Doors were broken and windows were
shattered. There was an agonizing sound, as if we were in a battlefield.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“The
bombing went on every day. F16 U.S. jets were hitting hard.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“This is
more than anyone can tolerate. We were unsafe at any place at any time.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> media and government statements are
full of accounts about the scattershot Hamas rocket fire that had taken one
Israeli life in the months before the Israeli bombing campaign. The </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> government demands that the Gazans
disarm completely. Due to simple racism and a jingoistic eagerness to get
in line with </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> military policy, Western
commentators ignore the bombardment of Gazan neighborhoods which has caused
thousands of casualties over just the past few years. They automatically frame </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Israel</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">’s actions as self-defense and the
only conceivable response to Palestinians who, under whatever provocations,
dare to make themselves a threat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Any house
can be destroyed. The airplanes filled the skies,” Dr. T.
continued. “They were hitting civilians like the one who was distributing
water.” The <a href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9045:weekly-report-on-israeli-human-rights-violations-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-14-21-nov-2012&catid=84:weekly-2009&Itemid=183">Palestine
Centre for Human Rights</a> report confirms that Dr. T is discussing
Suhail Hamada Mohman and his ten year old son, who were both killed instantly
at </span><st1:time hour="16" minute="30"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">4:30 p.m.</span></st1:time><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> on </span><st1:date day="18" month="11" year="2012"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sunday, November 18, 2012</span></st1:date><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> in Beit Lahiya while distributing
water to their neighbors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dr. T. then
mentioned the English teacher and his student killed nearby walking in the
street. The PCHR report notes that on November 16, at approximately </span><st1:time hour="13" minute="20"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">1:20
p.m.</span></st1:time><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">,
Marwan Abu al-Qumsan, 42, a teacher at an UNRWA school, was killed when Israeli
Occupation Forces bombarded an open space area in the southeast section of Beit
Lahia town. He had been visiting the house of his brother, Radwan, 76,
who was also seriously wounded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">And Dr. T.
mentioned the Dalu family. “They were destroyed for no reason. You can go
visit there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The next
day, I went to the building north of </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Gaza</span></st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">City</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> where the Dalu family had lived.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9045:weekly-report-on-israeli-human-rights-violations-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-14-21-nov-2012&catid=84:weekly-2009&Itemid=183">In
the afternoon on Sunday, November 18</a>, an Israeli F-16 fighter jet fired a
missile at the 4-story house belonging to 52-year-old Jamal Mahmoud Yassin
al-Dalu. The house was completely destroyed as were all inside. Civil
Defense crews removed from the debris the bodies of 8 members of the family,
four women and four children aged one to seven. Their names were:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Samah Abdul
Hamid al-Dalu, 27;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tahani
Hassan al-Dalu, 52;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Suhaila
Mahmoud al-Dalu, 73<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Raneen
Jamal al-Dalu, 22.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Jamal
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 6;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Yousef
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 4;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sarah
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 7;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Ibrahim
Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 1;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">On November
23rd, two more bodies were found under the rubble, one of them a child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The attack
destroyed several nearby houses, including the house of the Al-Muzannar family
where two civilians, a young man and a 75year-old woman, also died. They
were: Ameena Matar al-Mauzannar, 75; and Abdullah Mohammed al-Muzannar, 19.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">One banner
that hangs on a damaged wall reads, “Why were they killed?” Another shows
enlarged pictures of the Dalu children’s faces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Atop the
rubble of the building is the burned wreckage of the family minivan, flipped
there upside down in the blast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Israeli
military later claimed it had collapsed the building in hope of assassinating
an unspecified visitor to the home, any massive civilian death toll justifiable
by the merest hint of a military target. Qassam rockets killing one
Israeli a year are terrorism, but deliberate attacks to collapse buildings on
whole families are not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“All
Palestinians are targeted now,” a woman who lives across the street told us.
Every window in her home had been shattered by the blast. She had been
sure it was the end of her life when she heard the explosion. She had covered
her face, and then, opening her eyes, seen the engine from the neighbor’s car
flying past her through her home. She pointed to a spot on the floor
where a large rocket fragment had landed in her living room. Then, looking at
the ruins of the Dalu building, she shook her head. “These massacres would not
happen if the people who fund it were more aware.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr. Dalu’s
nephew Mahmoud is a pharmacist, 29 years of age, who is still alive because he
had recently moved next door from his uncle’s now-vanished building to an
apartment that he built for himself, his wife and their two year-old daughter
who are also alive. With his widowed mother and several neighborhood
women, he and his wife had been preparing to celebrate his daughter’s
birthday. A garland of tinsel still festoons a partly destroyed
wall. The blast destroyed much of his home’s infrastructure, but he was
able to shepherd his family members and their guests out of the house to
safety. Several were taken to the hospital in shock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“I don’t
know why this happened to us,” Mahmoud says. “I am a pharmacist. In
my uncle’s house lived a doctor and a computer engineer. We were just finishing
lunch. There were no terrorists here. Only family members
here. Now I don’t know what to do, where to go. I feel
despair. We are living in misery.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Any war is
inhuman, irreligious, and immoral,” my friend, Dr. T., had told me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dr. T. is
afraid that </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Israel</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> is preparing a worse war, one with
ground troops deployed, for after its upcoming election. “We are hopeful
to live in peace. We don’t want to make victims. We love Israelis as we
love any human being.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">“But we are
losing the right to life in terms of movement, trade, education, and
water. The Israelis are taking these rights; they are not looking out for
the human rights of Palestinians. They only focus on their sense of
security. They want </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Palestine</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> to lose all rights.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Election
logic aside, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Israel</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> has already violated the ceasefire
– at any time the missiles and rockets could start raining down once more. Year
round, that is what it means to live in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Gaza</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">I decided
not to bring up the Santa Claus question and instead thanked him for his honest
reflections and bade him farewell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>> The article above was written by Kathy Kelly. Kathy co-coordinates Voices for
Creative Nonviolence (<a href="http://www.vcnv.org/">www.vcnv.org</a>).</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="fullpost">
</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-50366228064157967102012-11-10T18:02:00.000-06:002012-11-10T18:02:36.634-06:00Thirty-Five U.S. Bases Surround Iran - Who’s Threatening Whom?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2lVqcQeAa7m6zhMyx-ih_rSFkDbzjafYdeXRoyhAballorzTnTtq4YrTwY09JNUubowibORIcycCQ7Gsuco7FIDY-KrNdT5bRzCUtfWd6PYcc5SVDyCef5I_0kON48hRU0bgQZBPn-cs/s1600/1131_795_188_john_laforge_708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2lVqcQeAa7m6zhMyx-ih_rSFkDbzjafYdeXRoyhAballorzTnTtq4YrTwY09JNUubowibORIcycCQ7Gsuco7FIDY-KrNdT5bRzCUtfWd6PYcc5SVDyCef5I_0kON48hRU0bgQZBPn-cs/s1600/1131_795_188_john_laforge_708.jpg" /></a></div>
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<st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, which has not invaded another
country for hundreds of years, has no nuclear weapons and may legally produce
reactor fuel and medical isotopes as a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty. The U.S. and Israeli governments, which have repeatedly bombed and
invaded and militarily occupied territories in all directions around Israel,
have been ironically considering military strikes against Iran’s uranium
processing facilities, all the while maintaining nuclear arsenals that include
Israel’s 150 to 600 and the United States’ 5,000 deployed warheads.<br />
<br />
</span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Senators Ron Johnson, Herb Kohl, Amy Klobuchar, and
Al Franken must speak out urgently against any </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> military attack on </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. Voices of reason are needed to
rebut the irrational, ignorant, and dangerous threats coming from the likes of
Senator Lindsay Graham, R-SC, who declared two weeks ago, “The time for talking
is over.” Sen. Graham’s provocation is preposterous considering the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> has had no direct talks with </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> for decades. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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As Ambassador James Dobbins, a Director of <st1:stockticker><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">RAND</span></st1:stockticker><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, has pointed out, “We spoke to
Stalin’s </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Russia</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. We spoke to Mao’s </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">China</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. In both cases, greater mutual
exposure changed their system, not ours. It’s time to speak to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, unconditionally and
comprehensively.” Even former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Pickering
recently wrote, “Patient, committed diplomacy is the only way to realize the
long-term and durable objectives of an </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> without nuclear weapons and a
region without war.… It is a grave and uncertain time.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Nothing could be more grave or uncertain than the consequences of a </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> bombardment of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
But two things are known about any such bombing: civilians would be the
victims, and since </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> hasn’t attacked anyone, it would be
another example, as if history needs one, of unprovoked, unlawful aggression.
After invading </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> in 2003, two UN secretary generals
said the adventure was unlawful. </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> invasions and occupations of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> have caused the death and
dismemberment of hundreds of thousands of innocent and often illiterate
civilians. All aerial bombing of cities destroys civilians and civilian
objects, and consequently violate the U.S. Air Force’s own law, which prohibits
attacks when civilian deaths are inevitable. The city of </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tehran</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> alone has 8.8 million inhabitants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /><b>
Security Hawks Warn Against Long War, Call for Negotiations</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
On Oct. 15, a group of national security experts including prominent
Republicans such as former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and
ex-Senator Chuck Hagel issued a report under the name Iran Project. They
predicted that it could take many years of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> bombing to ensure that there is no
regrouping and restart of an Iranian nuclear program, following a
much-discussed but limited initial </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> bombing of the facilities. The
report warns that preventing a restart would require a “significantly expanded
air and sea war over a prolonged period of time, likely several years.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
The experts note that a </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> attack would invite endless
retaliation. Their report anticipates the possible closure the Strait of Hormuz
for days or weeks, devastating the world’s oil racket — as if gas prices
weren’t high enough already. </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> could also sponsor rogue attacks on
</span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> facilities around the world using mercenaries and
surrogates, conceivably setting off a regional war, they said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Moreover, the report warns that an attack would strengthen, not weaken, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">’s leaders’ hold on their country.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has noted that in addition to merely
delaying </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">’s nuclear program, military strikes
could be counter-productive. War, “as far as I’m concerned…will bring together
a divided nation, it will make them [Iranians] absolutely committed to
attaining nuclear weapons, and they will just go deeper and more covert,” Gates
told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
The Iranians claim their nuclear program is for power reactors and medical
isotopes. Unless and until </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> proves otherwise and moves to
attack another state, there is no lawful or justifiable reason for the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> to bomb, and then only under strict
UN Security Council authority. Indeed, how threatening can </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> really be? It is the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> that has built at least 35 military
bases that surround </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> (see map), and the U.S that
maintains a fleet of Naval warships in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Persian Gulf</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
ABC News reported in July that Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps Aerospace Force, told reporters the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> has 35 bases around </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> and all are “within the reach of
our missiles” and could be hit “in the early minutes after an attack.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
After decades of bloody </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> quagmires in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">, our </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> senators should help cooler heads
prevail by demanding that diplomacy be put to work rather than more mayhem and
wider war.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /><i>> This article was written by John LaForge of Nukewatch, a nuclear watchdog and anti-war
group in </i></span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>Wisconsin</i></span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>. This article is reprinted from the Reader Weekly newspaper.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="fullpost">
</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-49680096727015605922012-11-10T17:57:00.002-06:002012-11-10T18:00:13.787-06:00Wars Come Home: A Suicide Every Day Among Vets<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOm7bzreXru3Q_CfrAsLFvl1nIfLWy_0ReSsaM1ue3S6iicz9QvTy-_BxHHgi6ZO2R7R6Jz4sms3O4KK_4r-CA81xgQuqIC2bO7yxAaX_RhDyxVOIUHS8Sj5Xg5kfTBZIU5Vo9RyTJEw/s1600/1119_793_155_john_laforge_707.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOm7bzreXru3Q_CfrAsLFvl1nIfLWy_0ReSsaM1ue3S6iicz9QvTy-_BxHHgi6ZO2R7R6Jz4sms3O4KK_4r-CA81xgQuqIC2bO7yxAaX_RhDyxVOIUHS8Sj5Xg5kfTBZIU5Vo9RyTJEw/s320/1119_793_155_john_laforge_707.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">If anything
makes the case against today’s wars and puts the lie to campaign ads about
fighting for freedom or caring for veterans, it’s the overwhelming number of
suicides among active-duty and returning vets. General Sherman said, “War is
hell,” but war can make a hell of peacetime, too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
</div>
<br />
Suicide among soldiers should make everyone
shudder—not just people thinking of military service—and cause recruitment to
collapse. The Huffington Post reported on Oct. 4 that “One U.S. troop member
commits suicide each day.” The New York Times called the incidence “a rate of
nearly one each day this year.”<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Young people stuck in unemployment lines and
desperately eyeing the recruiter’s office should be warned that suicide kills
more soldiers than combat either in <st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> or </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. “For every soldier killed in war
this year, about 25 veterans now take their own lives,” Nicholas Kristof
reported in the Times, Aug. 12. [1]<br />
<br />Last April Kristof wrote, “An American soldier
dies every day and a half, on average, in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> or </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">. Veterans kill themselves at a rate
of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every
year—more than the total number of soldiers killed in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> combined since those wars
began.”[2]<br />
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Among active-duty soldiers, CBS News said on
Sept. 26 that in the first seven months of 2012, the Army recorded 116
suicides. In 2009, suicides in the military rose to 285 active-duty personnel
and 24 Reservists. On Oct. 8, the New York Times said that this year “the
numbers are on track to outpace the 2009 figures, with about 270 active-duty
soldiers, half of them from the Army, having killed themselves as of last
month.”<br />
<br />Under the headline “Record high suicide rate prompts
Army-wide initiative,” the </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Baltimore</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Sun found, “The number of suicides
each year has nearly doubled since 2005...” According to the Times, “There were
123 suicides from January to early June in 2010, and 133 during that period in
2009…”<br />
<br />Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one
explanation for the shocking rate self-destruction among our veterans. Kristof
noted that a study in The American Journal of Public Health found that for men
ages 17 to 24, “being a veteran almost quadruples the risk of suicide.”[3] </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Georgetown</span></st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">University</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> philosophy professor Nancy Sherman
told the Times, “This trauma manifests itself as moral injuries that endure
long after” a tour of duty. “The most pervasive of these moral injuries is
PTSD. Numerous studies have found a link between veteran PTSD, survivor’s
guilt and increased risk of suicide,” she says.<br />
<br />Another factor in the shocking rise in suicides could
be the mass prescription of psychiatric drugs to returning military
personnel. Investigative journalist Kelly Patricia O’Meara examined
the Pentagon’s statistics for the mental health watchdog Citizens
Commission on Human Rights. Writing for Examiner.com, Jeannie Stokowski-Bisanti
notes that O’Meara found:<br />
<br />1) A 150 percent increase in military suicides from
2001 to 2009 and a 76 percent increase in psychiatric drug prescriptions over
the same time period; 2) The Pentagon’s admission that nearly one-third of
suicides in the military occurred among vets who had never seen combat duty; 3)
The mass prescribing to soldiers of Seroquel, a powerful anti-psychotic drug
approved by the Food and Drug Administration for “schizophrenia” and
“bipolar disorder,” and how in just the last year, the military wrote more than
54,000 Seroquel prescriptions off-label for “disorders” not even approved by
the FDA; and 4) The FDA’s medication guide for Seroquel, which lists one of
Seroquel’s “serious side effects” as “risk of suicidal thoughts or actions.”<br />
<br />Left unexamined in most news reports on the subject is
the endless heartbreak and anguish of the survivors. Don Olsen, in his memoir
“A Butterfly Sleeps on the </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Temple</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bell</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">” (Cross Roads Press, 2003), made an
attempt to describe some of the agony he experienced after a son’s suicide:<br />
<br /> … it starts to end when there is a suicide.
After that, everything is different. No one is left untouched when there is a
suicide in the family. Everything changes. I seem to go on, but I’m not sure of
anything. There is an uneasy sense that all along I have been traveling without
direction. I feel suspended in time and adrift in this huge loss we have
suffered. The loss is made worse by the awareness that we knew it was a
possibility. …<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">His choice was death, and we must respect that
choice, but we do not have to agree with it, even though we are fully aware of
the despair and loneliness and mental terror that led to his decision.<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Albert Camus wrote that there is but one
fundamental question: is life worth living or not?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">It is. It is good to be alive, but sometimes
there is anguish that is more than a person should ever have to bear.<br />
<br /><i>> John LaForge is on the staff of Nukewatch, a nuclear
watchdog and anti-war group in </i></span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>Wisconsin</i></span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>. This article is reprinted from the Reader Weekly newspaper.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-38368914230323814082012-09-23T09:10:00.001-05:002012-11-10T18:02:55.352-06:00Protest the War in Afghanistan!<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">On Friday, Oct. 5, the Northland Anti-War Coalition will be holding a picket to mark the 11th anniversary of the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> invasion of </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">. The picket will be from </span><st1:time hour="17" minute="0"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">5-6pm</span></st1:time><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> on the corner of Lake Ave. & Superior St. in downtown </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Duluth</span></st1:place></st1:city></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><i>. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/496029773742952/" target="_blank">Sign up for it on facebook</a>! This protest is called in solidarity with the national call to action by the United National Antiwar Coalition outlined in the article below.</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPKAy8jaxLvUc7ko16x-GxMLbQ3OnlmfP8UYsSPN_g69z5KvidxS8HU-MbePOpgJT8TdK9g1E_nCVnMMxl62Jqp0RoXSQZROddFA0Xq7bTjwMussLwX0HKj4Asr28oBQDWxLUH5KfJ0ZQc/s1600/535854_10151100769585968_6851405967_12922993_1140342739_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPKAy8jaxLvUc7ko16x-GxMLbQ3OnlmfP8UYsSPN_g69z5KvidxS8HU-MbePOpgJT8TdK9g1E_nCVnMMxl62Jqp0RoXSQZROddFA0Xq7bTjwMussLwX0HKj4Asr28oBQDWxLUH5KfJ0ZQc/s320/535854_10151100769585968_6851405967_12922993_1140342739_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Antiwar groups around the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> have designated the weekend of Oct. 5-7, the 11th anniversary of the launch of the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> war on </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, as a time for public demonstrations and major educational events. The United National Antiwar Coalition hosted an Aug. 29 national phone organizing meeting attended by 49 representatives from peace groups wishing to participate in 19 states. The Veterans for Peace national convention, held in mid-August in </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Florida</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, ratified the UNAC call.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">UNAC-associated actions for which planning is already underway will take place in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">New York City</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Chicago</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Minneapolis</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">San Francisco</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Los Angeles</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">. In </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">New York City</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, the effort is being led by the Islamic Leadership Council, the Muslim Peace Coalition, Black is Back, and Desis Rising Up and Moving, all groups especially interested in highlighting the relationship between the war abroad and increasing repression against communities of color at home. In </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">San Francisco</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, civil liberties are to be the major theme of a large teach-in at </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Laney</span></st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">College</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Rising violence in </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, continued civilian casualties from drone attacks in </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, rising expenditures for weapons of war, and fears of U.S./NATO/Israeli attacks on </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> or </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Syria</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> are motivating activists from one end of the country to another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A “Keep Space for Peace Week,” Oct. 6-13, with activities in </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Maine</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Massachusetts</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">New Mexico</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Pennsylvania</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">England</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">India</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Sweden</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, is including demands to End the Afghanistan War, Stop the Drones, and Say No to NATO expansion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Meanwhile, a Code Pink Peace Delegation, organized out of the First International Drone Summit held in April in </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Washington</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">D.C.</span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, will be making its way to </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> to meet with victims of drone attacks and prepare reports on the humanitarian impact of the unending </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> war in the region. Despite the low level of mobilization that election years bring, and despite the disorientation that </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Washington</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s shift from promoting massive troop deployments to secretive drone warfare and special operations has wrought, the antiwar movement will be visible this fall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In part, this is because </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> is back in the news, and the unpopular nature of the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> occupation has been driven home once again. On Sept. 1, the Washington Post reported that the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> government is reacting to the recent escalation of “green-on-blue,” or “insider,” attacks on </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> troops by Afghan trainees by halting the training of Afghan troops until a new system of background checks can be implemented. On Sept. 2, The New York Times reported that </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> troops have been ordered to carry weapons at all times, including on supposedly secure </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> bases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Political columnist Tom Engelhardt noted that the mainstream media response to this glitch in the official narrative, the scenario in which the United States hands over most fighting duties to Afghan troops by 2014, has been to begin floating the idea that the U.S. just might not really be able to get out anytime soon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In this they concur with the assessment of former Afghan member of parliament Malalai Joya, who said at the May 13-14 Chicago People’s Summit: “Obama and Karzai claim the war will end in 2014, while on the other hand, they say that U.S. troops will remain in some capacity until 2024. My friends, when 2024 comes closer, they will say they plan to remain in </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> until 2034. The reality is that the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and their NATO allies plan to dominate </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and the larger region militarily for the next generation...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">As one of the longest running wars in </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> history, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Afghanistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and the accompanying drone war in </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Pakistan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, are well understood by the movement and will be a focus in the October actions. The level of </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> involvement in the rest of the region needs to be the subject of continuing and broad education if the movement is to be able to mobilize effective numbers in the street.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Since the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> withdrawal of combat troops from </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Iraq</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> in 2011, antiwar activists have been debating its meaning. Was the redeployment of </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> troops to regional bases a historic turning point regarding the dominance of </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> imperialism in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Middle East</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Certainly, the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> was thwarted in its plans to maintain huge military bases on Iraqi soil as part of its greater efforts to retain control over access to strategic energy resources vital to its international economic competitors, including </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">China</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">. Yet redeployment has not seriously impeded the suppression of the oil workers, the privatization of Iraqi oil, or its exploitation by British Petroleum, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and other </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and European companies. According to Greg Muttitt, author of “What Ever Happened to Iraqi Oil?”, Iraq’s output now places it in the number-two position in OPEC, a position previously held by Iran, whose oil exports have been cut in half by U.S.-ordered sanctions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> government’s momentary preference for “light-footprint warfare”—raids by special operations forces, drone assassinations, proxy militias, cyberwarfare, etc.—are the options available to an imperial power that has no real military competitors in most regions of the globe. This shift, however, does not correlate to a slowing of military intervention in terms of geography or dollars. The latest Congressional Research Service annual arms sales report was widely commented on by the antiwar community because it documented the fact that in just one year, 2011, the Obama administration boosted export arms sales by $42 billion. In the recent period, the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> government has facilitated a jump in arms sales to the developing world from the $9 billion level of the Bush administration years to $56 billion in 2011. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A stunning proportion of those sales have gone to </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> allies in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Middle East</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">. John Rees of the Stop the Wars Coalition </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">UK</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> recently wrote, “Between 1950 and 2006 </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Saudi Arabia</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> purchased $63 billion worth of weapons and equipment through the Pentagon’s Foreign Military Sales programme. In 2010 it announced a similar amount of military purchases—but in just 15 years, not half a century.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Proxy warfare, however, is not the only game plan. The </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> has been upgrading or building new bases in </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Kuwait</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Bahrain</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Oman</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Qatar</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Jordan</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">. In </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Kuwait</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, 15,000 troops are stationed in </span><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Camp</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><st1:placename><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Arifjan</span></st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In addition, the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> buildup for war with </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> is indisputable. Prof. Vijay Prashad recently described the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> naval deployment in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Persian Gulf</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, a deployment just boosted by the floating base known as the USS Ponce, as a “traffic jam of American power in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Persian Gulf</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.” The </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Ponce</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> joins USS Enterprise and USS Lincoln, both first-class warships that are supported by a considerable battle group, as well as the various marine and amphibious task forces of the U.S. Fifth Fleet based at the Naval Support Activity station in </span><st1:place><st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Manama</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Bahrain</span></st1:country></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The softening up of </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> via sanctions, assassinations, and covert ops continues with the new sanctions designed to lower </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s ability to export oil below the current level, which is already only 40% of their previous exports. The BritishGuardian has reported that the sanctions against the regime were already having a huge impact on the population, leading to the quadrupling of food prices and dramatic shortages of medicine, including for hemophiliac children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Clearly, the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> is not running from the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Middle East</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> with its tail between its legs. In short, Washington’s inability to establish a puppet Iraqi regime effective enough to make massive and permanent basing a reality was a setback but has not in any way forced the U.S. to contemplate giving up its military and imperial hegemony in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The reason is that the world capitalist economic crisis is intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry and moving the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> capitalist class to undertake a significant expansion in terms of dollars spent and in terms of the geographic swath of the planet on which they hope to exert military hegemony. Mass responses to the economic crisis by events like the Arab Spring and the Greek general strikes have alerted the big powers to the fact that their current method of economic rule, be it through despots or social democracy, is not guaranteed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Thus, not only the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> but every major power is striving to increase its military arsenal. Those who were formerly dependent on the U.S military to protect their interests now understand that either they develop their own military capacities or they will be shunted aside in the intensifying race for resources and profits. The U.S.-led NATO war against </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Libya</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> served as a perfect example, when the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">England</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">France</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">, and </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Italy</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> jockeyed for position regarding whose military forces would predominate in the destruction of that nation and which would secure the largest percentage of the oil booty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The already severe sanctions and covert operations against Iran and Syria and the increasing threats to implement a “no-fly zone” in Syria (which could only begin to be implemented after the massive bombing of strategic air bases with adjacent civilian areas) have but one objective, to re-integrate these nations into the economic and military framework of the great powers and to stymie competition from trade blocs led by China as they relate to energy resources, pipelines, and markets. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The heroic democratic upsurge of the Syrian people to depose Assad has to overcome not only the normal obstacles faced by a people without a well-organized working-class or revolutionary party but also U.S. intervention with arms via the Saudi and Gulf Coast monarchies, CIA operatives on the ground, and U.S.-backed NGOs advising from neighboring countries—all designed to prevent the taking of power by genuinely democratic and anti-imperialist groupings based on the Local Coordinating Councils. And soon, perhaps, the Syrian masses will have to face a Libya-style NATO intervention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Simultaneously, </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Israel</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> and the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> are theatrically playing hard cop / soft cop regarding a military assault on </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Iran</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">’s nuclear facilities. Both countries are also creating the kind of propaganda that will allow them to justify an assault on Hezbollah in </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Lebanon</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> as a military escalation occurs. Palestinian activists fear a scenario in which a regional conflagration will allow </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Israel</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> to take over the entire </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">West Bank</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> once and for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The expansion of the U.S. military on the African continent, a continent already wracked by the most destructive interventions—proxy imperialist wars over mineral resources, dramatic land grabs that are destroying subsistence agriculture, and other tools of the new scramble for Africa—now includes a “war on terror” game plan whose operatives are sited in continuous swaths from Algeria to Mali to Nigeria to Uganda and Somalia beyond. Glen Ford recently pointed out that the U.S. has pushed for renewed sanctions on Eritrea, one of only four countries on the African continent that have refused to work directly with the U.S. military command, Africom. By 2013, the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> plans to have a new 3000-soldier-strong roving unit of rangers, housed in safe spaces in Africom friendly nations, available for dramatic strikes anywhere on the continent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The so-called military “pivot to </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Asia</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">” that is accompanying the efforts of the </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> to challenge Asian centric trading blocs via the Trans Pacific Partnership and other measures is not mere propaganda. The new </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> base on Jeju island is designed to hold Aegis war ships, 38 of which make up President Obama’s </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">U.S.</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> missile-defense system. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced in June that by 2020 the greater part of American naval forces—including six aircraft carrier battle groups as well as a majority of the navy’s cruisers, destroyers, Littoral Combat ships, and submarines—would be stationed in the Asian Pacific.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The </span><st1:country -region="-region"><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Americas</span></st1:place></st1:country><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> are not exempted. Washington is greatly expanding the so-called “drug war “ in the Americas, with U.S. troops recently killing fisherman in the part of Honduras that is home to the most radical elements of the ongoing fight for land and sovereignty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In short, the global crisis guarantees that while the imperialists’ strategy and tactics may change—less counter-insurgency but more counter-terrorism, fewer troops but more drones and special ops, a “Presidential Kill List,” etc.—imperialist wars are not on the wane but on the upswing and will be a permanent feature of the political landscape. The efforts by the United National Antiwar Coalition and many other peace groups to use the Oct. 5, 6, and 7 weekend to educate new activists and regroup the veterans is a modest but important step toward deepening consciousness and sustaining an antiwar infrastructure. To find an organizing effort mounting activity for the 11th anniversary dates, visit <a href="http://october7actions.net/wordpress/">http://october7actions.net/wordpress/</a>. See the UNAC site at <a href="http://www.unacpeace.org/">www.unacpeace.org</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><i>> The article above was written by Christine Marie, and is reprinted from Socialist Action newspaper.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-51482697139519309512012-05-27T14:02:00.001-05:002012-09-16T18:01:03.286-05:00Report on the May 20 NATO Protest in Chicago<div class="MsoNormal">
Led
by Iraq
and Afghanistan
war veterans, 15,000 people took to the streets of Chicago
to protest on May 20, the opening day of the NATO summit. The demonstration
was the largest antiwar demonstration in the U.S.
in several years. The mass demonstration was the culmination of a week of
activity against NATO and the G8 summits. Both summit meetings were
originally planned for Chicago,
but as protest organizing gained momentum, the G8 summit was moved to Camp David while the NATO summit was
reduced to only 2 days from the week long summits originally planned. </div>
<a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTyp0CrifipgmVH3jrQPlLrKcZzWLLaidV_2k6RpfCtLNfZZzHWCsO7Pxvv-mWC9SrnWMU4qRG2itOrKxjZGvZklczemS_jmcOFNpo7fSUVZo5Xt5sGDLNZ28Y5dh7L0NrU-cQ0BbT0Hg/s1600/chicago1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTyp0CrifipgmVH3jrQPlLrKcZzWLLaidV_2k6RpfCtLNfZZzHWCsO7Pxvv-mWC9SrnWMU4qRG2itOrKxjZGvZklczemS_jmcOFNpo7fSUVZo5Xt5sGDLNZ28Y5dh7L0NrU-cQ0BbT0Hg/s320/chicago1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As
the summit approached, the May 20 demonstration gained impressive support
from many diverse groups, including Jesse Jackson and Operation PUSH, area
unions including many SEIU locals, the Chicago Teachers Union, UE locals,
National Nurses United, and many others. Peace organizations, community
organizations and Occupy groups from around the country supported the
actions, as did groups from many countries around the world.
International anti-NATO fighters came from several countries and solidarity
demonstrations were held in London
and several other European cities as well as in Iran, India, Bangladesh, Russia and Canada.
Click here for pictures and reports of some of the international
solidarity actions: <a href="http://nepajac.org/internationChicago.htm">http://nepajac.org/internationChicago.htm</a>.</div>
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Speakers
at the rally <span class="GramE">included Jesse</span> Jackson, Sr., a
member of the German Legislature, <span class="SpellE">Inge</span> <span class="SpellE">Hoger</span>, <span class="SpellE">Malik</span> <span class="SpellE">Mujahid</span> of the Muslim Peace Coalition, Vijay <span class="SpellE">Prashad</span>, author of “Arab Spring, Libyan
Winter,” Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, <span class="SpellE">Medea</span> Benjamin of Code Pink, Col. Ann Wright, Leah
Bolger, president of Veterans for Peace, Carlos Montes of the Committee to
Stop FBI Repression, and UNAC leaders, among others. Click here for
UNAC leader Chris <span class="SpellE">Gauvreau’s</span> message to the
rally: <a href="http://nepajac.org/chris.htm">http://nepajac.org/chris.htm</a>.</div>
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The
march, organized by an ad hoc coalition called the Coalition against NATO and
the G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8<span class="GramE">),</span> filled the
wide Chicago streets from
curb to curb for several blocks. Those attending were predominantly
youthful and energetic. The march was lead by the Iraq and Afghanistan
war veterans who, at the end of the march, conducted a powerful and historic
ceremony in which they threw their military medals, in the direction of the
NATO summit meeting where more wars in the interest of the 1% were being planned.
There was also a moving reconciliation ceremony with some of the war victims
being represented by members of Afghans for Peace. Click here for the
Democracy Now report of the medal ceremony: <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/21/no_nato_no_war_us_veterans">http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/21/no_nato_no_war_us_veterans</a>.</div>
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At
the end of the ceremony, as organizers urged people to start leaving the
area, long lines of police in riot gear started moving towards the stage,
preventing many from<span class="GramE"> leaving</span>. Police
pushed with their clubs into the crowd as people fell against the metal
barricades erected to contain the demonstrators. Soon the police were
swinging their clubs at protesters in full view of the TV cameras and
reporters; many people were hurt, some seriously. These were not
lone-individual, out of control cops; this was clearly a planned
attack. Perhaps it was needed by the city to justify the tremendous
costs of the security apparatus used by the Emanuel administration, including
pre-summit scare tactics and violence baiting protestors. But it was not the
demonstrators who were violent, it was the police. It is not peace
activists who are violent, it is NATO.</div>
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<b>
<br />
</b></div>
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<b>The
civil liberties fight</b></div>
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UNAC
first put in an application for a permit to march and rally in July of 2011.
Five months later, we were informed that there would be no protests during
the summits. But as a huge outcry developed, and after press
conferences and protests organized by CANG8, Occupy Chicago and many unions,
we were granted a permit. During this period, UNAC put a full page ad
in the Chicago Sun Times with a statement in support of the right to protest
signed by hundreds of people from the U.S.
and people from 13 other countries. During this period the Emanuel
administration also proposed, and got passed, new restrictive ordnances
governing protests. These were also protested by CANG8, Occupy and the
unions. </div>
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For
months leading up to the anti-NATO and G8 protests, the Chicago
police and city administration urged people to leave the area and scared
people with stories of how the protesters would be violent. CANG8
representatives continually told people that we were holding a peaceful,
family friendly demonstration. We organized “peace guides”
to ensure that the march and rally would happen as planned. Up until
the police attack on the demonstration at the end of the rally, it had been
peaceful.</div>
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In
the days leading up to May 20th, the police raided the homes of several
demonstrators and made several arrests. A total of around100 people
were arrested in the week preceding the demonstration. Three young men,
now known as the NATO 3, were charged with very serious terrorism
crimes. It appears that this was a set-up similar to the preemptive
prosecutions that Muslims have faced, as a provocateur was used in the same
ways they are used to frame Muslims as terrorists.<br />
<br />
<i>Click here for the
Democracy Now segment on these charges</i>: <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/22/attorney_nato_3_activists_detained_on">http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/22/attorney_nato_3_activists_detained_on</a>.</div>
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<i>Click
here for <span class="SpellE">Indymedia</span> videos of the police attack</i>: <a href="http://chicago.indymedia.org/node/946">http://chicago.indymedia.org/node/946</a>.</div>
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<i>Click
here for pictures of the police provocateurs: </i></div>
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<a href="http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2012/05/22/pictures-of-second-nato-5-informant-gloves-published-for-first-time-on-antiwar-com/" target="_blank">http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2012/05/22/pictures-of-second-nato-5-informant-gloves-published-for-first-time-on-antiwar-com/</a>
</div>
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<a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/9273-more-nato-summit-activists-charged-five-linked-by-two-informants" target="_blank">http://truth-out.org/news/item/9273-more-nato-summit-activists-charged-five-linked-by-two-informants</a></div>
<br />
<i>Please
donate to the defense of the NATO 3 by clicking here</i>: <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.wepay.com/donations/nato-arrestee-bail-fund">http://www.wepay.com/donations/nato-arrestee-bail-fund</a>.</span><span class="fullpost">
</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-44171658289922389042012-03-04T11:02:00.002-06:002012-03-04T11:02:45.677-06:00Letter to the Editor on Syria & Bahrain<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:ApplyBreakingRules/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif][if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoNormal">Everything possible to stop the bloody terror in Syria should be done, but as an all-out civil war it's qualitatively different from other recent movements in the Arab world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, neither sanctimonious<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>US pronouncements nor self-serving UN vetoes are likely to have much effect. </div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">More to the point are the many US client states that could be helped but aren't due to US "interests" in the region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The suppression of the Bahraini democracy movement on its 1-year anniversary is only the latest example of the blatant hypocrisy of US Mid-East policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Why is there no US support for democracy in Bahrain?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could it be because Bahrain is the home port of the US 5th Fleet "needed" to intimidate Iran and other Gulf states?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Jordan?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No support for democracy there either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe because Kingdom One is the biggest oil supplier in the world and Kingdom Two is a US toady that cooperates with Israel in the suppression Palestinians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Iraq and Libya, of course, are different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have oil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hence, Operation Iraq Liberation (OIL-1), Operation Independent Libya (OIL-2), and the plan to Ouster Iran's Leadership (OIL-3).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>US client state Yemen recently had an election--with one candidate!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The USSR would have been envious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, US elections won't change policy in the region either as every candidate and party priority seems to be declaring allegiance to Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vibrant democracy does not come from managed elections--not in the Mid-East and not in the US either.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>> The article above was written by Robert Kosuth, and was originally a letter to the editor sent to the Duluth News-Tribune.</i></div><span class="fullpost"> </span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-18683966614813545302012-01-15T18:17:00.000-06:002012-01-15T18:17:06.236-06:00Weekly Antiwar Pickets - Every Friday<span class="fullpost">While it may have fallen from the news headlines, the bloody U.S. war in Afghanistan continues, and is regularly spilling into neighboring countries like Pakistan. To keep the anti-war flag flying, the Northland Anti-War Coalition holds "Stand for Peace" pickets every Friday from <b>5-6pm at the corner of Lake Ave. & Superior Street</b> in downtown Duluth. Join us in holding signs and talking to people about the urgent need to bring the troops home now! Feel free to make and bring your own sign, though we always have a few extras on hand. And be sure to bring a friend! </span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-39897740267393525372011-08-03T21:51:00.000-05:002011-08-03T21:51:36.711-05:00Original Child Bomb - August 6<span class="fullpost"><i><b>by the Just Peace Committee of Peace UCC</b></i></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><a href="http://dfaperspective.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/ocbposterweb1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="OCBPosterWeb1" class="size-full wp-image-14 alignnone" height="198" src="http://dfaperspective.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/ocbposterweb1.jpg?w=265&h=198" width="265" /></a></div><span class="fullpost">In remembrance of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Just Peace Committee of Peace United Church of Christ, together with the Community of the 3rd Way, invite you to a showing of the film <i><b>Original Child Bomb</b></i> on Sunday, August 6th at 7pm at Peace UCC (1111 N 11th Ave E). </span><br />
<span class="fullpost"> <br />
</span><br />
<span class="fullpost">Inspired by Thomas Merton's poem, <i>Original Child Bomb</i> shows the human cost of nuclear weapons. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are depicted through declassified footage, photographs, drawings and testimonies of mothers, brothers and soldiers. Ordinary people gaze upon the nuclear past and its terrifying present. They expose the political rhetoric surrounding "security" and "weapons of mass destruction." The film is a wake-up call and an invitation to action. </span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="fullpost">This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Penny at 218-727-2972.<br />
</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-88281519437249053082011-06-24T08:48:00.002-05:002012-01-15T18:12:40.088-06:00Cuba caravan visits Twin Ports July 6<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><span class="fullpost"><a href="http://ifconews.com/">Pastors for Peace</a> will roll through the Twin Ports on Wednesday, July 6 as part of their 22nd caravan to Cuba. Caravan volunteers are visiting 130 cities in Canada, the US and Mexico before delivering hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to Cuba in nonviolent defiance of the US blockade. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="fullpost">Loaves and Fishes Community is hosting a gathering to welcome the caravan to Duluth. Potluck starts at 6pm at Dorothy Day House (1712 Jefferson Street), followed by a short presentation about the caravan by Rev. Luis Barrios, associate priest at St Mary's Episcopal Church in West Harlem and member of the Pastors for Peace board of directors. Freewill cash donations to support the caravan will be accepted.</span><br />
<span class="fullpost"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="fullpost">All are welcome, but RSVP to Loaves and Fishes at <a href="mailto:duluthcatholicworker@gmail.com">duluthcatholicworker(at)gmail(dot)com</a> or by calling 218-724-2054.<br />
</span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-62719002726802105632011-06-20T16:13:00.001-05:002012-01-15T18:12:50.601-06:00Colombian musician and human rights campaigner visits Duluth<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">This summer, Witness for Peace -- Upper Midwest is hosting a visit to Duluth by Colombian musician and community organizer </span><span style="font-size: small;">Daira Quiñones Preciado. Daira is a singer, dancer, and poet who has directly suffered from Colombia's civil war, and who now works to help others who have been similarly victimized by privileged, armed sectors of Colombian society. Daira is among 4.9 million Colombians displaced by violence and she works with displaced people in Bogotá, focusing on their need for food, shelter, and clothing, as well as organizing workshops on dance, music, identity, and human rights. Daira is </span><span style="font-size: small;">one of the founders of FUNDARTECP, the Foundation for Art and Culture of the Pacific.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daira will take part in two public events in June and July:</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><b><span style="font-size: small;">Women Leading the Way to Justice and Peace</span></b></i></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Thursday, June 23</span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">10am to noon</span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Center for Nonviolence (202 E Superior St, Duluth)</span></b></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daira will join local human rights activists for a report from an all-women Witness for Peace delegation to Colombia, looking at the role of women in transforming Colombian society and resisting war.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>Conversations in Song</b></span></span></span></i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>Friday, July 8 </b></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>Peace Church (1111 N 11th Ave E, Duluth)</b></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>6pm refreshments, 7pm performance</b></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Daira will team up with local talents Sara Thomsen, Beth Bartlett, Steve Horner and Ritchie Townsend for an evening of music and art. Freewill donations to benefit Witness for Peace. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><span class="fullpost"> </span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-39210173965103761762011-06-20T10:54:00.003-05:002012-01-15T18:13:00.469-06:00MN Senators call for troop drawdown in AfghanistanOn June 15, a bi-partisan group of 27 US Senators - including Minnesota's Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar - sent a letter to President Obama demanding an accelerated withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. In a press release issued the same day, Sen. Franken is quoted as saying: "When we started the surge in Afghanistan, the President said we would start drawing down our troops this July and we're holding him to that. Today we call for a sizable and sustained drawdown of our troops starting this summer."<br />
<br />
<blockquote style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"the President said we would start drawing down our troops this July and we're holding him to that" </i></span></b></blockquote><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><blockquote style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Al Franken<i><br />
</i></span></blockquote></div><br />
The Northland Anti-War Coalition calls for nothing short of an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all US troops and military contractors from Afghanistan. Still, the Senators' letter is a step in the right direction and reflects growing public frustration with endless US wars. Daniel Fanning, the northeast Minnesota Regional Outreach Representative for Sen. Franken, explained in a letter to NAWC and other organizations that Sen. Franken's office has heard from veterans, labor and faith groups across the state "and overall the message we've been hearing has been very consistent" for troop withdrawal.<br />
<br />
People power works, so keep it up! Contact Senators <a href="http://klobuchar.senate.gov/contactamy.cfm">Klobuchar</a> and <a href="http://franken.senate.gov/?p=contact">Franken</a> today. Thank them for signing the letter to Obama and urge them to work for complete US military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq NOW. <br />
<br />
Continue reading for the full text of the letter.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<i>June 15, 2011<br />
<br />
The President<br />
The White House<br />
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW<br />
Washington, DC 20500<br />
<br />
Dear Mr. President:<br />
<br />
We write to express our strong support for a shift in strategy and the beginning of a sizable and sustained reduction of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, beginning in July 2011. <br />
<br />
In 2001 the United States rightfully and successfully intervened in Afghanistan with the goals of destroying al Qaeda's safe haven, removing the Taliban government that sheltered al Qaeda, and pursuing those who planned the September 11 attacks on the United States. Those original goalshave been largely met and today, as CIA Director Leon Panetta noted last June, "I think at most, we're looking at maybe 50 to 100, maybe less" al Qaeda members remaining in Afghanistan. <br />
<br />
In addition, over the past few years, U.S. forces have killed or captured dozens of significant al Qaeda leaders. Then, on May 2, 2011, American Special Forces acting under your direction located and killed Osama bin Laden. The death of the founder of al Qaeda is a major blow that further weakens the terrorist organization.<br />
<br />
From the initial authorization of military force through your most recent State of the Union speech, combating al Qaeda has always been the rationale for our military presence in Afghanistan. Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily redeploying all regular combat troops. <br />
<br />
There are those who argue that rather than reduce our forces, we should maintain a significant number of troops in order to support a lengthy counter-insurgency and nation building effort. This is misguided. We will never be able to secure and police every town and village in Afghanistan. Nor will we be able to build Afghanistan from the ground up into a Western-style democracy.<br />
<br />
Endemic corruption in Afghanistan diverts resourcesintended to build roads, schools, and clinics, and some of these funds end up in the hands of the insurgents. Appointments of provincial and local officials on the basis of personal alliances and graft leads to deep mistrust by the Afghan population. While it is a laudable objective to attempt to build newcivic institutions in Afghanistan, this goal does not justify the loss of American lives or the investment of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.<br />
<br />
Instead of continuing to be embroiled in ancient local and regional conflicts in Afghanistan, we must accelerate the transfer of responsibility for Afghanistan's development to the Afghan people and their government. We should maintain our capacity to eliminate any new terrorist threats, continue to train the Afghan National Security Forces, and maintain our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts. However, these objectives do not require the presence of over 100,000 American troops engaged in intensive combat operations. <br />
<br />
Mr. President, according to our own intelligence officials, al Qaeda no longer has a large presence in Afghanistan, and, as the strike against bin Laden demonstrated, we have the capacity to confront ourterrorist enemies with a dramatically smaller footprint. The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits. It is time for the United States to shift course in Afghanistan. <br />
<br />
We urge you to follow through on the pledge you made to the American people to begin the redeployment of U.S. forces from Afghanistan this summer, and to do so in a manner that is sizable and sustained, and includes combat troops as well as logistical and support forces.<br />
<br />
We look forward to working with you to pursue a strategy in Afghanistan that makes our nation stronger and more secure.<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)<br />
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)<br />
Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM)<br />
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) <br />
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO)<br />
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)<br />
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)<br />
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)<br />
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)<br />
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) <br />
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)<br />
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)<br />
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)<br />
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)<br />
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)<br />
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)<br />
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)<br />
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)<br />
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) <br />
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)<br />
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)<br />
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)<br />
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) <br />
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)<br />
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)<br />
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)<br />
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)</i>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-89472299646187794132011-05-09T19:29:00.002-05:002011-05-10T21:38:07.718-05:00Government escalates crackdown on Midwest activists<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><b></b><div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">According to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the bank accounts of a Chicago-area human rights activist Hatem Abudayyeh and his wife Naima were frozen on May 6. Abudayyeh is one of 23 Midwest activists ordered to appear before a federal grand jury, and his home was among those raided by the FBI in September. The Abudayyehs have a 5 year old daughter.</div><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/hatem_ny_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="125" src="http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/hatem_ny_0.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-size: 18px;"> <b>Take action Tuesday:</b><br />
<span style="color: firebrick;"><b>Call the Office of Foreign Assets Control at </b><b>202-622-2410 or 202-622-1651. </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Demand: </b><br />
<b>--Unfreeze the bank accounts of the Abudayyeh family</b><br />
<b>--Stop repression against Palestinian, anti-war and international solidarity activists.</b></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">For more information, visit <a href="http://stopfbi.net/">stopfbi.net </a></span><br />
<br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b>UPDATE 5/10/11: Victory, sort of... TCF Bank appears to have illegally frozen the accounts, and today promised to issue a check for their value. The Committee to Stop FBI Repression reports: </b></div><blockquote><b>Michael Deutsch, attorney for the family, said, “In my opinion, the bank did not act out of the blue. I suspect that the FBI and U.S Attorney investigation caused the bank to overreact and illegally freeze the Abudayyehs’ banking accounts that had been there for over a decade.”</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
<b> In response to the seizing of the couple’s accounts, people across the country called the offices of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago, and those of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) demanding the return of their money and an end to the repression.</b></blockquote><br />
<blockquote> <b>A Code Pink activist from Washington, D.C., called Fitzgerald’s office and was told, “We’ve received hundreds of calls.” The OFAC office was bombarded as well, and journalists from a National Public Radio affiliate, Al Jazeera and other agencies contacted them for an explanation. </b></blockquote><br />
<blockquote><b>TCF is well known for having links to the right-wing think tank the Center for the American Experiment.</b></blockquote>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-67412131039017821742011-04-26T10:34:00.007-05:002012-01-15T18:18:32.254-06:00Coleen Rowley: Obama is not listening<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="fullpost">On April 12, FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley visited Duluth to rally support for Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist accused of leaking evidence of US war crimes to Wikileaks. Representatives of NAWC and Veterans for Peace joined Rowley for a noon press conference at the Duluth Civic Center, which was covered by local television stations and KUWS radio. </span><br />
<br />
<blockquote style="background-color: white;"><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 180%;">“Disclosing fraud, waste, abuse, a risk to public safety or an illegal act is heroic."</span></b></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 180%;">Coleen Rowley </span></div></blockquote><br />
<span class="fullpost">Tom Palumbo, a 12-year veteran of the US Army and registered nurse, told members of the media that the conditions of Manning's pre-trial confinement - including sleep deprivation and extreme isolation - were unethical and could lead to long-term physical and mental health problems for the 23-year-old private. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="fullpost">Rowley spoke about her experience exposing both the failure of US intelligence agencies to follow leads on the planned 9/11 attack and the increased risk of terrorism that would result from an invasion of Iraq. She said that after 24 years in the FBI she is convinced that transparency is vital to democracy and national security. </span>“Disclosing fraud, waste, abuse, a risk to public safety or an illegal act is heroic," she said, but added that "it’s very difficult to do,”<span class="fullpost"> especially for members of the military who have "no ability to speak up."</span><span class="fullpost"> Unfortunately, whistle-blower protection laws have little chance of clearing Congress, she said, and Obama appears more eager than Bush </span><span class="fullpost">to prosecute people who expose wrong-doing, as evidenced by Manning's case.</span><br />
<br />
Check out local coverage of the press conference here:<br />
<br />
<ul><li><span class="fullpost"><a href="http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S2063264.shtml?cat=10349"><b>WDIO</b>: FBI Whistleblower speaks in Duluth</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.businessnorth.com/kuws.asp?RID=3874"><span class="fullpost"><b>Business North/KUWS</b>: FBI 9/11 whistle blower in Duluth</span></a></li>
</ul><span class="fullpost">Later that evening, Rowley delivered the final lecture in the Terrorism and Human Rights series at the College of St Scholastica. If you missed it, here's the full lecture. You can watch other speakers in the series at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/SaintScholastica#p/c/A20368F398170299">St Scholastica's YouTube channel</a>.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NlqVaryD-fc?fs=1" width="425"></iframe>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-23953212145333944452011-04-08T19:01:00.005-05:002011-04-11T10:24:47.108-05:00Rally for Bradley Manning - April 12 in Duluth<div style="color: grey; font-family: 'bitstream vera sans',verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://bradleymanning.org/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="160" src="https://avaaz_images.s3.amazonaws.com/1207_BradleyM_1_460x230.png" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Stand with Brad!</span></b></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #134f5c;">Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime!</span></i></b></span></span></div><div style="color: grey; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tuesday, April 12</span></span></span></div><div style="color: grey; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12 noon</span></span></span></div><div style="color: grey; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Duluth Federal Building</span></span></span></div><div style="color: grey; font-family: 'bitstream vera sans',verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
Join Veterans for Peace and FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley for a rally in support 23-year old Pfc Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist accused of leaking footage of US war crimes in Iraq. While the perpetrators of those crimes walk free, Manning is enduring brutal pre-trial punishment at the Quantico Marine base in Virginia, including 23-hour a day isolation and forced nudity. Among dozens of charges filed against Manning is "aiding the enemy" - a capital offense. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">The <a href="http://blogspot.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=ed457136190060ee9bdeee18d&id=4ea119f59f&e=78d9b83a81" style="color: #5d7428; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">UK government</a> and the UN have moved to intervene in Manning's case, and former State Department spokesman <a href="http://blogspot.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed457136190060ee9bdeee18d&id=8640e281e1&e=78d9b83a81" style="color: #5d7428; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">PJ Crowley</a> called Manning's treatment "stupid and counter-productive" - an opinion that cost him his job. <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/apr/28/private-mannings-humiliation/">Two hundred and fifty legal scholars</a>, including Obama's former advisor Laurence Tribe, recently signed a petition condemning Manning's treatment as unconstitutional.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">President Obama's response? He <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/11/obama-bradley-manning-tre_n_834669.html">defends</a> Manning's abuse as "appropriate and meeting our basic standards." </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"> Exposing war crimes is not a crime. Stand up for Manning and your right to know. To learn more, visit <a href="http://bradleymanning.org/">bradleymanning.org</a>.</span></div><span class="fullpost"> </span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-36322635400378175912011-04-06T13:51:00.000-05:002011-04-06T13:51:43.254-05:00Military Math<span class="fullpost"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wu1X6T5DThk?hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wu1X6T5DThk?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span><br />
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<span class="fullpost">Thanks to markfiore.com</span><br />
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<span class="fullpost"> </span>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-88773752598177002212011-04-03T22:12:00.002-05:002011-04-06T22:19:18.688-05:00Rep. Hilty introduces priorities resolution to Minnesota House of Representatives<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><b><span style="color: #003399;"></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="200" hspace="5" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ed457136190060ee9bdeee18d/images/hilty.GIF" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0pt; margin: 5px;" vspace="5" width="155" /> On March 21, state representative Bill Hilty (8A) introduced a resolution to the Minnesota House urging the federal government to cut military spending and re-invest the savings into cash-strapped states. House File 1249 calls on President Obama and the Minnesota congressional delegation <i>"to shift federal funding priorities from war and the interests of the few, to meeting the essential needs of us all</i></span>."</div><blockquote><blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: firebrick;"><b>Current MN budget shortfall: </b></span></span><span style="font-size: 24px;"><b><span style="color: green;"></span></b></span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><b><span style="color: green;">$5,028,000,000</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: firebrick;"><b>MN taxpayers' projected contribution to the military budget over the next 2 years: </b></span></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 24px;"><span style="color: green;">$26,000,000,000</span></span></b></div></blockquote></blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;">HF1249 is co-authored by Kerry Gauthier, Mary Murphy and Tom Huntley of Duluth, and Range representatives Tom Rukavina and Tom Anzelc. A companion resolution has also been introduced to the Senate.<br />
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You can read the full text <a href="http://blogspot.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed457136190060ee9bdeee18d&id=3c6eb2ab13&e=78d9b83a81" style="color: #5d7428; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">here</a>.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Please help NAWC build support for HF1249 and educate our community about the cost of war. </b>NAWC would like to bring this resolution to unions, faith communities and other civic groups around our region and ask for their endorsement. If we can come to the next meeting of your organization, please contact Joel at northlandantiwar[AT]gmail[DOT]com, or by phone at 218-340-4356. </span></div>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-79692693417612349312011-03-16T10:26:00.105-05:002012-01-15T18:19:03.553-06:00Coleen Rowley at St Scholastica 3/22<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span class="fullpost">UPDATE 3/22: Coleen Rowley's lecture has been POSTPONED on account of the blizzard. It has been rescheduled to TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 7:30pm</span></b></i></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-size: small;">Tuesday, <strike>March 22</strike> April 12</span></b></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-size: small;">7:30 pm</span></b></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-size: small;">College of St Scholastica - Mitchell Auditorium</span></b></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b><i><span class="fullpost" style="font-size: small;">"Obama's Response to Terrorism"</span></i></b></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-size: small;"> with Coleen Rowley</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="fullpost"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Free and open to the public</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="fullpost"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Sponsored by the Alworth Center </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="fullpost"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> for the Study of Peace and Justice</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="fullpost"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Our friend Coleen Rowley is returning to Duluth to give the closing lecture of the <i>Terrorism and Human Rights</i> series at the College of St Scholastica. A retired, 23-year veteran of the FBI, Rowley was honored by TIME Magazine as a Person of the Year in 2002 for blowing the whistle on pre-9/11 intelligence lapses. We don't want to give away her talk, but it's safe to say she'll tear U.S. war policy and intelligence gathering to shreds as anti-democratic and counter-productive. Don't miss her... we're sure you'll learn something new from our favorite agent-turned-activist.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">While you're at it, check out these other fine speakers coming to our area:</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thursday, March 17</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">7:30 pm</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">College of St Scholastica - Mitchell Auditorium</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">"<i>Dying to Drive the Foreigners Out</i>"</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> with Robert Pape</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Dr. Pape is the director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism and a leading international authority on the psychology of suicide terrorism. Check out his article "It's the Occupation, Stupid" for <i>Foreign Policy</i> <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/10/18/it_s_the_occupation_stupid">here.</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Saturday, March 26</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">7:00 pm</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">College of St Scholastica - Burns Wellness Center 249</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">"<i>The Perils of Military Presence in Our Urban Communities</i>"</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;"> with Art Laffin</span></b></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="fullpost" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Art Laffin is an author, longtime peace activist and member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Community in Washington, DC. He has participated in numerous nonviolent actions for disarmament and upholding the rights of the homeless, prisoners, immigrants and victims of torture. Sponsored by the Duluth chapter of Pax Christi - the international Catholic peace movement. Free and open to the public.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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</div>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2330068725988255971.post-21955630247353430522011-03-08T16:21:00.004-06:002012-01-15T18:19:19.189-06:00Duluthian reports on protest in Iraq<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">While the corporate media in the U.S. have offered some coverage of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, they have almost completely ignored the massive protests sweeping Iraq, led by ordinary people fed up with government corruption and repression. U.S.-backed security forces have responded violently, with dozens of deaths reported. Duluthian Michele Naar-Obed is currently in the Kurdish north with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and has been able to send home regular reports. Below is a recent summary of events. You can read more and see photos from the protests on the <a href="http://www.cpt.org/taxonomy/term/4">CPT website</a>. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Voices of Iraqi Kurdistan Will Not Be Silenced </b></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><b>By Michele Naar-Obed </b></i></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Neither military forces firing indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed demonstrators, nor arrests, torture and disappearances of protest organizers nor empty promises made by government leaders have deterred the Kurdish people from continuing their demonstrations demanding an end to what they call a corrupt government run primarily by tribal parties. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Having watched the people of Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt force the step down of dictators, the people of the Kurdish north of Iraq are following their example and the wave of uprisings has washed over this land. Since 17 February, 2011, thousands of people flood the city center of Suleimaniya now dubbed “Freedom Square”, for daily demonstrations.<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Since the demonstrations began there have been deaths and injuries of unarmed civilians by military and security forces, imposed curfew, armed militias positioned throughout the city of Suleimaniya and surrounding Freedom Square, an independent television station burned to the ground, hundreds of organizers arrested and disappeared, Suleimaniya students studying in Erbil universities sent back to Suleianiya, roadblocks set up around the city of Erbil not allowing Suleimaniya cars to enter, KRG Parliament emergency sessions to negotiate the demands of the people, assassination attempts against religious leaders who advocate for this nonviolent revolution, five unidentified people assumed to be terrorists, shot dead by Kurdish security forces outside of Suleimaniya city. and scores of demonstrations occurring regularly in the sub districts throughout the Suleimaniya governorate. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">The White Group formed consisting of unarmed individuals forming a human peace wall standing between the thousands of soldiers and the thousands of demonstrators in order to create a safe environment for both demonstrator and soldier. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Both the Erbil and Dohuk governorates have banned demonstrations. Both of these governorates are KDP party controlled. Most people there appear too frightened to break the ban. </div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">The people who have found their voice are not willing to be silenced again. The demonstrators talk of a hunger strike followed by a general strike to force Mr. Barzani to step down from his position as KRG president and to force immediate elections for an interim government. Nobody knows how long this will take or what new efforts will arise to drive out this current government if these demands aren't met.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">It is clear that the current government and party leaders are feeling threatened of losing their positions of power that they have held since 1991. They have been fighting, often with dirty tactics, to regain control. If they do, the opposition people are sure that they will be killed, tortured, disappeared, arrested, and broken. The stakes are high.</div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">There has been little reporting outside of the highly controlled local media outlets and there is a plea to not let this struggle die in vain.<br />
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</div>adam ritscherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07936338634542415017noreply@blogger.com0