Taking Protest to the Streets

Veterans and military families will lead the March 20, Washington, DC demonstration against war as more organizations and individuals connect the dots of racism, poverty and war.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/

Veterans and military families speak out

Veterans and military families are joining with tens of thousands of others who will be marching on Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 20. 

If you are a veteran, active-duty service member or a member of a military family and would like to join the veterans, active-duty service members and military families contingent, click here.

[...]  We must continue the struggle. We must be louder than ever, as you will hear many tell us to shut up and go away. Don’t tell the public the truth that there has been no change … that we should not challenge the leaders of our country because they are now labeled Democrats rather than Republicans. As we have fewer voices, we must be louder now than ever before.

Read the entire release here:  http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/01/16/veterans-and-military-families-speak-out/

The group ANSWER is coordinating the demonstration:

All out for the March 20th March on Washington!

People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. To see a list of the initiators, click this link. 
We will march together to say “No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!” We will march together to say “No War for Empire Anywhere!”
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.

http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=m20_homepage

Pray for Peace

If you're reading this today then you, like me couldn't make it to DC to register your resistance to wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, on and on.  These wars are justified in our Amerikan minds because of 9/11, even though the jury is still out on who did what and why.  Here are excerpts from a very provocative article from the blog Veterans Today.

Special Report: 

YEARS OF DECEIT: US OPENLY ACCEPTS BIN LADEN LONG DEAD

BIN LADEN NEVER MENTIONED IN McCHRYSTAL REPORT OR OBAMA SPEECH

"HUNT FOR BIN LADEN" A NATIONAL SHAME

By Gordon Duff/STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Conservative commentator, former Marine Colonel Bob Pappas has been saying for years that bin Laden died at Tora Bora and that Senator Kerry's claim that bin Laden escaped with Bush help was a lie.  Now we know that Pappas was correct.  The embarassment of having Secretary of State Clinton talk about bin Laden in Pakistan was horrific.  He has been dead since December 13, 2001 and now, finally, everyone, Obama, McChrystal, Cheney, everyone who isn't nuts is finally saying what they have known for years.
However, since we lost a couple of hundred of our top special operations forces hunting for bin Laden after we knew he was dead, is someone going to answer for this with some jail time?  Since we spent 200 million dollars on "special ops" looking for someone we knew was dead, who is going to jail for that?  Since Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney continually talked about a man they knew was dead, now known to be for reasons of POLITICAL nature, who is going to jail for that?  Why were tapes brought out, now known to be forged, as legitimate intelligence to sway the disputed 2004 election in the US?  This is a criminal act if there ever was one.

[...]  What kind of man was Osama bin Laden?  This one time American ally against Russia, son of a wealthy Saudi family, went to Afghanistan to help them fight for their freedom.  America saw him as a great hero then.  Transcripts of the real bin Laden show him to be much more moderate than we claim, angry at Israel and the US government but showing no anger toward Americans and never making the kind of theats claimed.  All of this is public record for any with the will to learn.
[...] We know this:  Bin Laden always denied any ties to 9/11 and, in fact, has never been charged in relation to 9/11.  He not only denied involvement, but had done so, while alive, 4 times and had vigorously condemned those who were involved in the attack.
This is on the public record, public in every free country except ours.  We, instead, showed films made by paid actors, made up to look somewhat similar to bin Laden, actors who contradicted bin Ladens very public statements, actors pretending to be bin Laden long after bin Laden's death.
These were done to help justify spending, repressive laws, torture and simple thievery.
For years, we attacked the government of Pakistan for not hunting down someone everyone knew was dead.  Bin Laden's death hit the newspapers in Pakistan on December 15, 2001.  How do you think our ally felt when they were continually berated for failing to hunt down and turn over someone who didn't exist?
http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9641

As for today's demonstration, if you don't "subscribe" to cable or a dish, you will have to wait until tomorrow to get the meagre crumbs of information about the speeches and how it all played out.  Rather than feel frustrated, listen to "Listen", from Jordan Page.  Let's keep it in mind as we go about our daily chores.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_M_IO25xHg

Please remember:  no matter how difficult our lives are, we aren't living under fear of bombardment EVERY DAY.  Horrific as our 9/11 was, the people of those three countries suffer the horror as we divert out attention with entertainment.  Please, please pray for peace.

What Are We Hiding and Why?

The heady days of "hope" are long gone and we are now faced with the dilema of supporting a president most  of us only supported in theory.  He was unknown, untested and now, it seems, untruthful.  A man of the law who runs for president must completely comprehend and accept his campaign promises of transparency in governance and justice for ALL (not JUST US).  What is Obama protecting by messing around with linguistics in policy?  What have we done to maintain our security?  Why are lies and obstructions more pallatable to some citizens than truth and setting things straight?

The question that's haunting me is what could a person possibly do to make them "untriable?"  The answer keeps coming back that it isn't the prisoner who is untriable, but the legal system which "dissappeared" law abiding citizens.  Which brings us back to the question of what our president is  doing to protect and maintain our democracy, because democracy HAS to be for all, or it just ain't democracy.

I hope you have sufficiently digested and recovered from yesterday's food fest to stomach this.  And get ready when the news breaks out of our new Afghani Gitmo in Bagram.

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t;
Adapted: christophe dune / Flickr)

Obama's Fifth Category: The "Untriable" 

Tuesday 24 November 2009

[...]  According to The Washington Post, quoting an unnamed official, there are some 75 prisoners in this "fifth category." And the administration's position is that these people are untriable because the evidence against them was obtained through torture or because public trials would involve and potentially expose an unacceptable volume of classified material.

[...]  The Obama administration gave the human rights community apoplexy when it referred to "preventive detention." Now, it is simply saying that it's not going to seek any additional authority from Congress for such preventive detention. Which perhaps gives us a clue to the approach the administration has in mind. In a study by the Obama-friendly Center for American Progress, analyst Ken Gude suggests that the Obama administration "incarcerate detainees convicted in US criminal courts in maximum-security US prisons and transfer those who will remain in military custody to Bagram prison in Afghanistan." (Emphasis mine.)

That latter group would presumably include the untriable. Which appears to create a neo-GITMO at Bagram in Afghanistan.

http://www.truthout.org/1124094

No Time Out for the Iraqi People

In another time and place, this guy was a Maverick, too.

I like this brief essay, but also must add that we consider the needs of the innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and any other country we are bombing and/or intimidating into submission to full spectrum dominance.
Our Troops Don't Get a Time-Out for the Financial Crisis
Jon Soltz Posted September 24, 2008 05:56 PM (EST)
So, because there's a financial crisis, Senator McCain cannot take 90 minutes to address how he will face challenges around the world, including how and when he will send American troops to fight, and possibly die.
Wow. Troops would sure love that luxury.
Unfortunately, though, insurgents in Iraq don't stop shooting at us, or setting IEDs, because our Commander in Chief needs a breather to figure out Wall Street.
Al Qaeda in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region don't send our troops notes that read, "Hey, I hear you guys are tied up with Wall Street. Your President needs to concentrate on other things, so we'll give you a break. So, to make things easier on you, here's our coordinates."
Nor do our troops get a few days to figure out how to hold onto an area we've secured, if there's an unexpected attack. Sometimes we need to deal with multiple flare-ups at once in any warzone. We'd sure love a time-out, but sadly, the world isn't such a nice place that it gives us that kind of pity.
When you're Commander in Chief, I don't think there'd be a worse signal to send to our troops in harm's way than to say, "Hey, hold on guys. I know you're getting killed over there, but I have to get a time-out here to deal with Wall Street."
If troops need to multi-task without a break, is it so wrong that we demand that a potential President-in-waiting prove that he can manage a financial crisis, and still address crises around the world for 90 minutes? And, if a potential President-to-be can't manage that, is it wrong to think that maybe he ought not just suspend a debate and the campaign, but move aside and get out of the race?
Just something to think about.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-soltz/our-troops-dont-get-a-tim_b_129055.html

And the Oil Contract Goes to…China!

Here is a headline which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
China agrees $3bn Iraq oil deal
Iraq and China have agreed the terms of a $3 billion oil service contract, Iraq's oil minister says, announcing the first major oil contract with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The deal means China has taken the first opening since the US-led invasion for work on the world's third-largest reserves.
Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, warned that time was running out for big Western oil firms, which have jostled for years for Iraqi contracts, to seal even the short-term deals that were expected to mark their return to the country.
Iraq and China's state-oil firm CNPC agreed the renegotiated terms of an old deal signed in 1997 to pump oil from the Adhab oilfield, Shahristani said.
CNPC is Asia's biggest oil and gas company.
"Finally we have reached an agreement," Shahristani said after clinching the deal.
Tough bargains
Iraq has toughened the terms, changing the contract to a set-fee service deal from the oil production sharing agreement signed under Saddam.
Iraq needs billions of dollars of investment in its energy sector after years of war and sanctions.
But with high oil prices and strong competition for access to some of the world's cheapest oil to produce, Iraq has been negotiating from a position of strength.
Under the revised contract, Adhab will produce 110,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from the previous target of 90,000 bpd, Shahristani said.
First output would come in three years, and the field should pump for 20 years, he said.
CNPC would own 75 per cent of a joint venture to be set up for the contract, while Iraq's Northern Oil Company would own 25 per cent, he added. The value of the contract would be reviewed every quarter, he said.
The deal was pending the final seal from both countries' governments.
Hydroelectric deal
China's state hydroelectricity firm also signed a deal to build a new hydroelectric power station in Tajikistan on Wednesday worth up to $300 million officials said.
"The Chinese company undertakes to carry out the design and construction of the Nurobod" power station in eastern Tajikistan, read a memorandum of understanding signed by Sinohydro and the Tajik government.
The deal was signed on the sidelines of a visit by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, aimed at bolstering economic ties between the two neighbours.
The trade turnover between China and Tajikistan amounted to $283 million last year.
China is already a major player in Tajikistan's road infrastructure, telecoms and electricity sectors.
Iraqi demands
Iraq wanted six contracts to boost oil output by 100,000 bpd each to be signed in June and implemented within a year.
Baghdad does not want to extend the end-date for the contracts as it plans to sign long-term deals for the same fields by mid-2009.
"We only have about 10 months left," he said. "It seems more and more unlikely that these technical service contracts can be implemented now in such a short remaining time."
The firms that have been negotiating deals are Royal Dutch Shell; Shell in partnership with BHP Billiton; Exxon Mobil; Chevron with Total.
A smaller consortium of Anadarko, Vitol and Dome had negotiated for another deal but Anadarko walked away this month.
Iraq still aimed to boost output by 500,000 bpd by the mid-2009, Shahristani said.
Iraq pumped around 2.4 million bpd in July, according to a Reuters survey.
A long-delayed draft oil law to set the framework for foreign investment was unlikely to be approved in parliament in the near-future, Shahristani said.
"Different parliamentary blocs still have serious differences about the law," he said. "I have not heard anything new from the parliament to make me expect that the law will be passed any time soon."
But Iraq was going ahead with new deals anyway under existing legislation, he said.
Disputes with the regional government in Kurdistan have hobbled the progress of the law.
There had been no progress in resolving differences between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, Shahristani said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2008/08/200882813538226440.html

"Time Horizon" = Timetable!

Just because Mr. Bush's handlers creatively applied the term "time horizon" to keep his loyalists from taking the cyanide pills doesn't mean it isn't a plan for withdrawal. Obviously, Afghanistan, Pakistan and who knows what else are looming too large to ignore. Remember this was not reported on CNN. Thank you, Reuters!
Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan
Sat Jul 19, 2008
BERLIN (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months.
In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible.
"U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."
It is the first time he has backed the withdrawal timetable put forward by Obama, who is visiting Afghanistan and us set to go to Iraq as part of a tour of Europe and the Middle East.
[...] Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops would cause problems."
Maliki, who is due to visit Germany this week, has suggested a timetable should be set for a U.S. withdrawal but U.S. officials have been more cautious, despite an improving security situation. The White House said on Friday President George W. Bush and Maliki had agreed that a security deal under negotiation should set a "time horizon" for meeting "aspirational goals" for reducing U.S. forces in Iraq.
"The Americans have found it difficult to agree on a concrete timetable for the exit because it seems like an admission of defeat to them. But it isn't," Maliki told Der Spiegel.
Some five years after the U.S.-led invasion, there are still some 146,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Jon Boyle)
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSL198009020080719
So what will Obama do with the bases in Iraq? Does anyone believe he will turn them over to the Iraqis? If only! Click on the image to enlarge, then read Chalmers Johnson!

MeClellan Must NOT Profit from Murder

Dear MoveOn member,
There are laws to prevent criminals from profiting by selling their stories. But after spending years defending the Bush administration and perpetuating the lies that led our country into war, Scott McClellan is poised to make bank—his tell-all book is a bestseller and he may make hundreds of thousands or millions.
Meanwhile, our troops are still dying in Iraq.
Coming clean is admirable. But McClellan shouldn't profit off the role he played in our nation's largest foreign policy blunder.
So we have a proposition for him. Let's call on him to donate all of the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans, like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. If we make enough noise, he'll probably be asked about it on tomorrow's Sunday shows (he's on all three!)—so please sign on and pass this around. Clicking below will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/mcclellan/o.pl?id=12765-575351-ZWr4ub&t=3

The petition reads:

People who helped lie this country into an unnecessary war should not be rewarded for it. Scott McClellan should donate all the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans—like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Thanks for all you do.
–Nita, Wes, Ilyse, Eli, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Saturday, May 31st, 2008

P.S. Our friends at Americans United For Change just put out this new web video about McClellan. Check it out at the link below:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3725&id=12765-575351-ZWr4ub&t=4
Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
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Got $5 Billion? Know & Influence Your "Neighbors"

Hotels, shops, condos planned for Green Zone
By BRADLEY BROOKS and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press Writers
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Forget the rocket attacks, concrete blast walls and lack of a sewer system. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad.
That's all part of a five-year development "dream list" - or what some dub an improbable fantasy - to transform the U.S.-protected Green Zone from a walled fortress into a centerpiece for Baghdad's future.
[...] “When you have $1 billion hanging out there and 1,000 employees lying around, you kind of want to know who your neighbors are. You want to influence what happens in your neighborhood over time," said Navy Capt. Thomas Karnowski, who led the team that created the development plan.
Karnowski said a deal already has been completed for Marriott International Inc. to build a hotel in the Green Zone. He also said a possible $1 billion investment could come from MBI International, a conglomerate that focuses on hotels and resorts and is led by Saudi Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber.
[...] But the $5 billion plan has the backing of the Pentagon and apparently the interest of some deep pockets in the world of international hotels and development, the lead military liaison for the project told The Associated Press.
For Washington, the driving motivation is to create a "zone of influence" around the new $700 million U.S. Embassy to serve as a kind of high-end buffer for the compound, whose total price tag will reach about $1 billion after all the workers and offices are relocated over the next year.
[...] For the moment, however, it's mortars and rockets - not investment money - pouring into the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. and British embassies, key Iraqi government offices and other international compounds. Militants have escalated their shelling of the enclave since Iraqi forces began a crackdown on Shiite militias in late March.
But developers are clearly looking many years ahead and gambling that Bagdad could one day join the list of former war zones such as Sarajevo and Beirut that have rebounded and earned big paydays for early investors.
[...] Last week, a Los Angeles-based holding company for equity firms, C3, confirmed it was starting a $500 million project to build an amusement park on the outskirts of the Green Zone in an area encompassing the Baghdad Zoo. The first phase, a skateboard park, is scheduled to open this summer.
But any Green Zone project is literally starting from the ground up.
"There is no sewer system, no working power system. Everything here is done on generators. No road system repair work. There are no city services other than the minimal amount we provide to get by," Karnowski said.
He noted that of 500 development projects carried out in Baghdad last year, not one was done in the Green Zone - with the exception of the building of the new American embassy.
[...] Privately, American diplomats say the plan is, at best, wishful thinking.
Security is nowhere near the level needed for major development projects. Then there is the question of whether the Iraqi government even wants U.S. involvement in developing the center of their capital.
One diplomat, who asked not to be named because of no authorization to speak to the media, said they did not think Iraqis would want Washington to "turn this area into downtown Kansas City." [What’s their problem??? Girls just wanna have fun!] [...] "The Iraqi government wants to limit U.S. power in the Green Zone," a top adviser to al-Maliki said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
[...] Some Iraqi leaders even have drawn parallels to the U.S.-backed development plan and what Saddam Hussein did in the area - known by its Iraqi name of Tashri during his regime.
Hussein stocked the neighborhood with family and tribal allies, political loyalists and members of his elite Republican Guard. Karnowski called the accusation "partially true."
[...] The biggest hurdle to the plan is sorting out the true owners of property in the Green Zone, where "eminent domain by gun" was employed during the Saddam era, Karnowski said.
Air Force Lt. Col. Monte Harner leads the effort to discover who owns the titles and consolidate the areas held by the U.S. military.
[...] According to Karnowski, the United States will spend $120 million to demolish buildings damaged by air strikes during the opening days of the war.
Both Karnowski and Harner are aware their Green Zone plan is viewed as unrealistic by many, primarily U.S. Embassy officials.
"If you talk to people at the State Department, they still believe a hotel isn't going up. But it is a done deal," Karnowski said of the Marriott project.
Harner also believes even having a blueprint is important.
"You have to stake a goal in the sand before you can begin to move toward it," he said. "Without a vision of what could be, you're just treading water." [Or deluding yourself]

In this undated image released by the U.S. military, planners envision the
"Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club" in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq.

(U. S. Army/The Associated Press)

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_greenzone_050408/

What Are They Fighting For?

The ever wonderful Chris Floyd points out the decrepitude of "rules of engagement" during war.
Shoot, Kill, Lie, Repeat: America's New Moral Universe
Written by Chris Floyd Friday, 09 May 2008
Tell me that this doesn't sound like something out of a history of Nazi tactics in World War II:

The rules [of engagement]t explicitly allowed the killing of unarmed Iraqis under certain circumstances...Specifically, the snipers were allowed to shoot unarmed people running away from explosions or firefights....Of course, it's not unusual for innocent people to run from explosions.
Didier, who has since been promoted to captain, said that "if that individual makes contact with you and then breaks contact of their own accord and disarms themselves while they are breaking contact, they are still an engageable target because they are not wounded, nor did they surrender." He explained, "They are only breaking contact so that they can engage coalition forces at a later time." In court, Sgt. Anthony Murphy, one of the snipers who was responsible for a questionable kill, testified that he interpreted this order about breaking contact so they can engage at a later time as: "Engage fleeing local nationals without weapons."

In other words, if an innocent, unarmed Iraqi runs away to seek safety from a suicide bombing, a missile attack or a gunfight — which any human being would instinctively do — then he is fair game to be killed by an American sniper.
The excerpt above comes from a story in Salon.com, "Killing by the Numbers," about an "elite" U.S. sniper squad that murdered a captured, unarmed civilian in cold blood. A more detailed excerpt follows below, but I'd like to deal briefly with one ancillary aspect first.
The story expands to talk more generally about the sniper program in Iraq, and is careful — overly careful — to emphasize that the snipers responsible for so many "questionable kills" are operating in very stressful conditions: sleep-deprived, sweltering in deadly heat, surrounded by potential "hostiles," at constant risk of attack. All true, of course, but it prompts this simple question: What the hell are they doing there in the first place? Why are they squatting and sweltering in "hides" in a foreign land, looking to kill people who never attacked the United States?
Yes, it is entirely understandable that a soldier subjected to nerve-wracking, physically tormenting conditions might fail to act with reason, patience, judgement and prudence. But is this supposed to be some kind of excuse for crimes committed within the context of a larger crime: a war of aggression, the military invasion and occupation of a foreign country without any provocation? Surely many of the Nazi atrocities were committed by men under unbearable mental and physical strain as well. So what? Were they absolved of their crimes? And more importantly — were their leaders absolved for instigating the larger crime that engendered these atrocities?
For as the story also shows, the "questionable kills" by American snipers derive largely from the murderous "rules of engagement" they are given by their superiors — and by the anxiety of their officers to produce big "kill numbers" to appease the bloodlust — and PR needs — of the thugs in the White House and their "counterinsurgency genius," David Petraeus. [...]
A detailed recount of another two other incidences follow, but I'd rather return to the theme that people suffer in war, all people, soldiers and citizens alike.
[...] It goes without saying that the officers who put these men in this situation — not to mention the civilian "leaders" in Washington who instigated the mass murder in Iraq — suffered not the slightest adverse consequence of this crime, for which they bear the primary responsibility.
[...] When even the scapegoats escape justice, what possible hope can there be that the perpetrators and abettors of the Nazi-like war crime in Iraq will ever pay the price — or even suffer the slightest trouble — for their monstrous outrage?
http://atlanticfreepress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3898&Itemid=81
Bravo, Chris, and write on, please!

Bush Knew and Punished Plame

I am very glad that this story will not go away and will hope it will serve as the Pandora's box for BushCo. Scooter, Novack, Cheney, all those criminals deserve a serious dose of justice. But it won't do justice to this well written article to try and summarize it, so please go to the source and read the full article:
Lost E-Mails Obscure 'Plame-gate'
By Jason Leopold, May 9, 2008
Earlier this week, the White House disclosed that it could not recover lost e-mails from emergency backup tapes for the period covering the invasion of Iraq and the U.S. failure to find Iraq’s alleged WMD.
This new gap – from March 1, 2003, to May 23, 2003 – also may have wiped out evidence of how George W. Bush and his top aides reacted to the emerging criticism from former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson that the White House had sold the war using false claims about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger in Africa. [my bold]
“It seems clear now that the e-mail backups are spotty and that there is no guarantee that there are backup tapes for all of [Executive Office of the President] during the period of concern, March 2003-October 2005,” said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel of George Washington University’s National Security Archive, one of two organizations suing the White House in hopes of forcing the administration to preserve its e-mails.
“There are no tapes from earlier than May 23, 2003,” Fuchs added, referring to an apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. “So, anything deleted from the EOP network prior to May 23, 2003 (particularly between March 2003 and May 23, 2003) is missing from the backup tapes.” [...]
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/050908a.html
So is Daddy Bush, ol' 41 gonna speak about the traitor who outed a secure operative? Traitor off the old block, perhaps?

Why May Day is Labor's Victory Day

We must never forget our history because it will sustain us in the dark days when we indulge in negative ruminations about the "good old days," which never existed. Please read David Swanson brief historical essay to help put into perspective the various converging forces who will seize upon May Day with righteous passion, and it should be so.
MAY DAY: A Call To Action
Submitted by davidswanson on
Mon, 2008-03-24 13:32
May 1st is shaping up to be quite a day of resistance, with strikes by the ILWU and other unions, plus immigrant rights rallies, and peace and impeachment activities.
It's Mission Accomplished Day (5 Years!)
It's Downing Street Minutes Day (3 Years!)
It's Impeachment Off the Table Day (2 Years!)
It's May Day, the original Labor Day (122 Years!)
If you care about the future of our republic, we encourage you to visit your congress member's nearest office at high noon, local time, on May 1st, and ask for impeachment hearings for the Vice President for Torture, Dick Cheney. Let us know you plan to do it, and find others to do it with you at http://democrats.com/mayday
[...]
The ILWU has committed to blocking ports on May 1st in opposition to the occupation of Iraq.
May Day, the First of May, 2008, is a Thursday.
According to the Bush Administration it is Loyalty Day. Are you feeling loyal?
In case you aren't, FEMA has planned terrorism scare "exercises" on May 1st.
May Day is the real labor day, the commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre and the fight for an 8-hour day in Chicago – an American holiday celebrated everywhere except in America.
May Day had a long history in Europe as a seasonal celebration of rebirth and hope. It was also the first of a month, an ideal time for strikes in industrialized nineteenth-century America where workers tended to be paid at the end of the month. At its 1884 convention the American Federation of Labor adopted a resolution that all labor would strike on May 1, 1886, to demand an eight-hour day. The media, which in this country has always been completely fair and balanced, predicted a violent Communist insurrection. The Chicago Tribune reported responsibly: "Every lamp-post in Chicago will be decorated with a communistic carcass if necessary to prevent wholesale incendiarism or prevent any attempt at it."
As documented in "Labor's Untold Story" By Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, 62,000 workers in Chicago committed to strike on May 1, another 25,000 demanded an eight-hour day without threatening to strike, and 20,000 were given the eight-hour day before May 1. Meanwhile, the Armours, Swifts, Medills, Fields, and McCormicks [my bold] (Chicago's royalty, people who would have adored Loyalty Day) mobilized the National Guard, the Pinkertons, and specially deputized police.
Workers marched down Michigan Avenue in Chicago instead of working on May 1, 1886, and 340,000 did the same nationwide. Albert Parsons and August Spies spoke at the rally in Chicago, which ended peacefully. [my bold] The Communist insurrection proved as real as Saddam Hussein's long-range missiles. But two days later, Chicago police shot striking workers [my bold] outside McCormick Harvester Works, and labor leaders organized a protest in Haymarket Square for the next day. In the meantime, thousands of workers all over the country were winning the eight-hour day and returning to work.
As the relatively small and peaceful meeting at Haymarket Square was wrapping up, 180 policemen marched on the crowd, and a bomb went off -- which many believe was thrown by an agent provocateur. The Chicago Tribune demanded that Parsons, Spies, Michael Schwab, and Samuel Fielden be hanged for murder. The police began smashing up labor offices and beating up innocent people. "Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards," said John Ashcroft - oops, I mean Julius Grinnell, Chicago's State's Attorney. The four men named above were indicted for murder, along with George Engel, Adolph Fisher, and Louis Lingg. Parsons, who had escaped, became a modern Socrates and turned himself in to face certain death. Testimony from "witnesses" who had been threatened with torture and others who had been paid turned out so contradictory that the prosecution shifted to a focus on the defendants' thoughts and politics. Fielden and Schwab ended up with life sentences; Lingg died in his cell; the others were hung. Parsons left behind a note to his children that included this:
"We show our love by living for our loved ones. We also prove our love by dying, when necessary, for them."
In the tradition of those who have gone before us and sacrificed so much for so many benefits that we take for granted, we are proposing a day of action on May 1, 2008, to include a general strike for peace, impeachment, and human rights. Here are proposals that have already been made from a variety of quarters:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/mayday

NYC Lawyers for May Day

NYCLAW Support for ILWU May Day
Antiwar Work Stoppage
NYCLAW salutes:
The ILWU's Pacific Coast May Day
Shutdown to Stop the War in Iraq and Afghanistan By New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)
It will take a mutiny to end this war. The ILWU has a proud tradition of work stoppages to protest South African apartheid and U.S. death squads in Central America. Your May Day action shows how workers -- both in and out of uniform -- have the collective power to end this war, bring the troops home now, and get the U.S. out of the Middle East.
From the beginning, Bush & Co. have sought to justify this war for oil and empire with phony claims about "fighting terrorism," finding "weapons of mass destruction," and spreading "democracy." Despite overwhelming rejection of its policies at the polls, the administration has steadily escalated its war in the Middle East.
This has meant not only ordering thousands more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, but also arming and financing Israel's war on Lebanon and its increasingly brutal slow-genocide of the Palestinians, launching a proxy invasion of Somalia, bombing Pakistan, and threatening to attack Iran.
As in all such wars, ordinary working people pay the price. In Iraq and Afghanistan, this war has killed more than a million people, caused more than 50,000 G.I. casualties, promoted civil war, cost at least $1.2 trillion and pushed the economy into crisis — with no end in sight.
At home, the administration continues to attack civil liberties, the Arab-Muslim community, undocumented immigrants, Katrina refugees, people of color and labor.
Yet this is a bipartisan war. Congressional Democrats -- including senators Clinton and Obama -- have given Bush every penny he has asked for. They have refused to filibuster war spending (which requires only 41 Senate votes) and won't even promise to get out by the end of the next presidential term in 2013. At most, they call for "redeployment" to maintain U.S. control of the region.
A generation ago, a war ended when Vietnamese resistance and the Black freedom movement ignited a grassroots working class mutiny in the military, auto plants, ghettos and barrios, against what Martin Luther King Jr. accurately called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today . . . my own government."
It will take a similar mutiny to end this war. The ILWU has a proud tradition of work stoppages to protest South African apartheid and U.S. death squads in Central America. Your May Day action shows how workers -- both in and out of uniform -- have the collective power to end this war, bring the troops home now, and get the U.S. out of the Middle East.
Issued by NYCLAW Co-Conveners
(Other affiliations listed for identification only): Larry Adams, Former President, NPMHU Local 300, Michael Letwin, Former President, UAW Local 2325/Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys, Brenda Stokely, Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; N.E. Regional Coordinator, Million, Worker March Movement
By New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) nyclaw01@gmail.com

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/04/96527.html

Breaking Their Hearts

While we go about our daily lives, soldiers and civilians in Iraq suffer 10,000 9/11’s, every day.
We must bring our troops home and NOT WAIT for the politicians to do it. They will delay as long as possible, for lack of courage or desire for conquest. Neither is a just reason to continue. Let Iraqis find their way home without our interference. That’s what US citizens would want if we were invaded and occupied.
Stress of war takes its toll: More than bomb blasts or gunfire, chest pains plague those downrange
By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, 3/18/08
LANDSTUHL, Germany — After five years of the war in Iraq, you might think that most troops and civilians medically evacuated from the war are treated for blast, gunshot or other combat injuries.
You’d be wrong.
Atop the list is chest pain.
[...] Factors that bring on chest pain include stress, dehydration, lack of sleep, tobacco use and carrying heavy gear — just to name a few.
“Certainly carrying around all that gear, as well as the body armor, causes a lot of musculoskeletal symptoms that can often be confusing,” [Dr. Randolph] Modlin said. “There are a lot of reasons people develop chest pain. ... Stress has a lot of funny ways of coming out, and that’s also a big cause for the patients we see with chest pain.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080319.wtibet0319/BNStory/International/home

Is Bill Kristol an Idiot?

This article about a C-SPAN interview is a real hoot and not to be missed! There’s an update on this subject today on Jonathan Schwartz’ site: http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/
Tomgram: posted February 14, 2008 2:58 pm
Jonathan Schwarz, Bill Kristol's Obscure Masterpiece The Lost Kristol Tapes
What the New York Times Bought
By Jonathan Schwarz
[...] I'm talking about Kristol's two-hour appearance on C-Span's Washington Journal on March 28, 2003, just nine days after the President launched his invasion of Iraq.
[...] Opposite Kristol on the segment was Daniel Ellsberg, famed for leaking the Pentagon Papers in the Vietnam era. Their discussion jumped back and forth across 40 years of U.S.-Iraqi relations, and is easiest to understand if rearranged chronologically.
[...] To start with, Ellsberg made the reasonable point that Iraqis might not view the invading Americans as "liberators," since the U.S. had been instrumental in Saddam Hussein's rise to power: Here's how he put it:
"ELLSBERG: People in Iraq... perceive Hussein as a dictator... But as a dictator the Americans chose for them.
"KRISTOL: That's just not true. We've had mistakes in our Iraq policy. It's just ludicrous -- we didn't choose Hussein. We didn't put him in power.
[...] Ellsberg here is referring to U.S. support for a 1963 coup involving the Ba'athist party, for which Saddam was already a prominent enforcer -- and then another coup in 1968 when the Ba'athists consolidated control, after which Saddam became the power behind the nominal president. According to one of the 1963 plotters, "We came to power on a CIA train." (Beyond providing lists of communists and leftists to be murdered, the U.S. also gave the new regime napalm to help them put down a Kurdish uprising we'd previously encouraged.) James Crichtfield, then head of the CIA in the Middle East, said, "We really had the t's crossed on what was happening" This turned out not to be quite right, since factional infighting among top Iraqis required the second plot five years later for which, explained key participant Abd al-Razzaq al-Nayyif, "you must [also] look to Washington."
Yet it appears clear on video that Kristol is genuinely startled by what Ellsberg was saying.
[...] Later, when the discussion gets closer to the present. Kristol's demeanor changes. He appears to be better informed and therefore shifts to straightforward lies:
"ELLSBERG: Why did we support Saddam as recently as when you were in the administration? And the answer is--
"KRISTOL: We didn't support Saddam when I was in the administration.
[...] This is preposterously false. First of all, Kristol worked in the Reagan administration as Education Secretary William Bennett's chief of staff -- when the U.S. famously supported Saddam's war against Iran with loans, munitions, intelligence, and diplomatic protection for his use of chemical weapons. After George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988, Kristol moved to the same position in Vice President Quayle's office. During the transition, Bush's advisors examined the country's Iraq policy and wrote a memo explaining to the incoming President the choice he faced. In a nutshell, this was "to decide whether to treat Iraq as a distasteful dictatorship to be shunned when possible, or to recognize Iraq's present and potential power in the region and accord it relatively high priority. We strongly urge the latter view."
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174894

March 19--Into the Streets

No excuses! We the people have the power to stop this war machine, but only if we put our feet in the street in great numbers and with determination to keep the pressure up until we get what we want: justice AND peace! The fifth anniversary (5 years!!!) of the USA's invasion of Iraq will be an awesome demonstration of people power--if you make it so. Like Thom Hartman says at the end of his radio shows: Democracy begins with you. Tag, you're it!

Cookin' the Stats

From CounterPunch.org comes a very detailed and enlightening report on the latest "scientific" statistical report of Iraqi deaths compared to the much (unfairly) maligned Johns Hopkins study of 2004. To use the word "sloppy" for the NEJM study would be a gross understatement.
Andrew Cockburn is the author of Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy.
Gross Distortions, Sloppy Methodology and Tendentious Reporting
How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths
By ANDREW COCKBURN
[…] Now we have a new result complied by the Iraqi Ministry of Health under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization and published in the once reputable New England Journal of Medicine, (NEJM) estimating the number of Iraqis murdered, directly or indirectly, by George Bush and his willing executioners at 151,000--far less than the most recent Johns Hopkins estimate.
[…] In particular, while Johns Hopkins reported that the majority of post invasion deaths were due to violence, the NEJM serves up the comforting assessment that only one sixth of deaths in this period have been due to violence.
[…] Among the many obfuscations in this new report, the most fundamental is the blurred distinction between it and the survey it sets out to discredit. The Johns Hopkins project sought to enumerate the number of excess deaths due to all causes in the period following the March 2003 invasion as compared with the death rate prior to the invasion, [whereas this report] sought to analyze only deaths by violence, imposing a measure of subjectivity on the findings from the outset. For example, does the child who dies because the local health clinic has been looted in the aftermath of the invasion count as a casualty of the war, or not?
[…] As the authors themselves admit, they did not visit a significant proportion of the original designated clusters: "Of the 1086 originally selected clusters, 115 (10.6%) were not visited because of problems with security," meaning they were inconveniently situated in Anbar province, Baghdad, and two other areas that were dangerous to visit, (especially for Iraqi government employees from a Shia-controlled ministry.) While such reluctance is understandable--one of those involved was indeed killed during the survey--it also meant that areas with very high death tolls were excluded from the survey.
[…] Les Roberts, one of the principal authors of the Johns Hopkins studies, has commented: "We confirmed our deaths with death certificates, they did not.
http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew01122008.html

The Peoples' Peace Plan, March 15, 2008

Demonstration and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience

March 2008 -- Washington, DC
Iraq Occupation 5th Anniversary

http://www.year5.org/
Join us on Saturday, March 15th for a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C., at which we will exercise our rights to assemble and speak on behalf of the majority of Americans, the majority of Iraqis, the majority of U.S. troops, and the majority of people around the world who all say: U.S. Out of Iraq! This gathering will support the Iraq Veterans Against The War Winter Soldier Testimonial.
Organizations participating are listed below (Initial list)

In Solidarity for Peace and Justice,
> Gold Star Families for Peace > Camp Casey Peace Institute > ANSWER Coalition > CODEPINK Women For Peace > AfterDowningStreet.org > Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation > Common Ground Collective New Orleans > Hip Hop Caucus > World Can’t Wait – Drive Out The Bush Regime! > ImpeachBush.org > Cindy Sheehan and Cindy for Congress > National Council of Arab Americans > Grassroots America > Democracy Rising > Voters for Peace

SIGN ON & SUPPORT THIS CALL: http://www.year5.org/

Draft the Diplomats!

Big Macs, Starbucks, Blackwater, what's not to like about the Green Zone? Draft their asses!

US to force diplomats to go to Iraq
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2007
The US state department has said it will require its diplomats to staff its embassy in Iraq due to a lack of volunteers.
… Privately, many US diplomats say they fear being posted to Iraq because of the risks of working in a war zone.
In addition, it is an "unaccompanied" posting, meaning children and a spouse cannot join the diplomat because of the dangers involved.
Thomas said the state department had made "directed" assignments before, such as in 1969 when an entire junior foreign officer class was sent to Vietnam and again in the 1970s and 1980s for some difficult African postings.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3142E797-E1E7-4AC7-B477-4914DD9B6A26.htm

We DO Care

At the top of this wonderful blog, An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle... is the question, "Do you care?" I want Layla to know how much we Americans want this terrible regime destroyed because the longer it exists, the harder it will be for working people to recognize that the pain in another's eyes as their own pain.
Yes, it's true that Code Pink can seems frivolous and silly, but remember they reach Americans who never heard of Fallujah and they scream at the murderers inside the Capital. Any action which distracts the war machine is a good action, I think.

But we will grieve and mourn together while the murderers play their Congressional war games. There is no distance between us because the children aren't really playing anymore. The Christians talk about a heaven, but seem immune from practicing Jesus' wishes. If there were a "supreme being" who took care of us, why would such misery exist?
No, I'd rather believe we are responsible for our lives and deeds. My responsibility to you, dear Layla, is the same as my responsibility to my daughter. Rage on, woman, until we have a world where every person can be exactly who they are, no exceptions.
An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...
Pink and Red Clouds...
What do we need the Sharia’a for? Weren’t we Muslims before ? Weren’t we religious enough before ? Or maybe you think you have monopoly over the Truth, or maybe you think you have monopoly over God himself ?
And why should a non-Muslim be forced to live under a Sharia’a imported from Iran?
They tell me, don’t rock the boat. Why should I not rock the boat?
By God if I had the power, I would overturn that cursed boat and let all those on board ink right into the bottomless pits of the ocean.Why should I and other Iraqi women be forced to live under mullah rule? Has anyone asked for our permission? And who are these mullahs anyways?
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2007/10/pink-and-red-clouds.html

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week?!??!!!

World Can't Wait is out front & running to educate the "educators." This is their response to the right wingnuts attempt to convince college students that America must rule, even if everyone dies in the process.
Confront the Horowitz Fascists:
RESIST "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" -- October 22-26

David Horowitz and his army of Campus Republicans are launching "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" October 22-26 on hundreds of campuses across the country. …they plan to harass Muslim Student Associations and Women’s Studies Departments, and silence anyone that questions the Bush regime’s official narrative, including even those concerned about global warming!
Given the Bush regime’s escalating threats toward Iran, the danger of a complicit campus environment cannot be underestimated.
-Wear Orange: Orange is the color of the jumpsuits worn by detainees being tortured in Guantanamo. It is an urgent color. It is also the color of resistance. Imagine if, by October 22, the majority of students were wearing orange to show that they opposed "IFAW."
-Contact us: Let's build this resistance on a national level. Contact The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime! to share your ideas and get plugged in.

World Can't Wait will also be at Barnes & Noble on Thursday when Norman Podhoretz whores his book. Should be interesting.

http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4356&Itemid=5's