Support and Believe

Fortress Europe: 2 stowaways dead in Belgium

2006-01-07T16:44:00.000-08:00

Fortress Europe: 2 stowaways dead in Belgium http://www.noborder.org/dead.php meanwhile at the borders... this page documents incidents where immigrants have died while trying to enter Europe. the list is by no means complete as it only contains incidents that have been reported in the media. most of the deaths at the border never make it into the papers. also it only counts confirmed deaths while in incidents at sea (which make up the majority of the cases) there are often substantial amounts of people who are missing or unaccounted for. it is safe to assume that most of them have also died. Since we started collecting such incidents here in december 2002 the number of victims has risen to 1349. 22.Dec.05: two stowaways were found dead in the water on Wednesday in the Belgian port of Antwerp. they belong to a group of 10 who spendt the 10-day trip from the Lagos in an unheated machine room on board of a cargo vessel. source: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1854419,00.html Also - Stowaways rescued from death on container ship 22 December 2005: BRUSSELS Ten Nigerian stowaways suffering from severe hypothermia were found on a container ship near Antwerp port on Wednesday. The stowaways were taken from the ship at the Kallo lock (Beveren-Waas) after their discovery by a tugboat crew and workers at the lock. Lightly dressed and suffering from severe hypothermia, the illegal immigrants had made the crossing from Lagos in Nigeria with barely any food and freshwater. In the hours before their rescue, the stowaways had started drinking the salty Schelde River water just to survive. They were found in the ship's rudder room, barely protected from the December cold. "They were at the end of their strength and would not have made it to land," harbour pilot Frank De Cort said. The refugees were taken to the lock's medical post, where they said in broken English that two companions were missing. Some said they jumped overboard, whiled others said they were killed and then thrown overboard. Officially, they are listed as missing, newspaper 'De Standaard' reported. In further questioning on Thursday, the illegal immigrants have claimed the captain of the vessel had allowed them on board. The captain has denied the allegations and is assisting investigations being carried out by the Dendermonde public prosecution office. A prosecution spokesman said the stowaways had quickly gone through their food and were drinking sea water to survive. However, there is talk that there was a latch that served as an opening into the rudder room and the prosecution office is investigating. The ship will remain for several days at the habour and the stowaways will probably be repatriated back to Nigeria. If the death of the two missing stowaway proves to a crime that occurred in Belgian waters, the prosecution office will conduct inquiries. The ship, Sint-Elmo, sails under the Maltese flag for the Naples-based shipping company Grimaldi. It set sail originated from Lagos in Nigeria and was en route to Livorno (Italy). Second-hand cars were to be loaded onto the ship at Antwerp. Most of the cars were destined for Africa. A second load of cars was also to be loaded onto the ship in Italy. The journey from Lagos to Antwerp takes nine days and the ship departed from Lagos on 9 December. Between 200 and 300 stowaways make it to Antwerp each year. They are mostly Africans and then predominantly Liberians and Nigerians. A captain who finds stowaways on board is bound by international law to supply them with basic care. [Copyright Expatica News 2005] More recent:
Ship's captain cleared of role in stowaway drama
Stowaway ship departs on schedule from Antwerp

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=23586

Halliburton, other lobbyists stall Pentagon ban on human trafficking

2006-01-07T16:36:00.000-08:00

Halliburton, other lobbyists stall Pentagon ban on human trafficking Raw Story December 28 2005 Three years after a 2002 Presidential Directive demanding an end to trafficking in humans for forced labor and prostitution by U.S. contractors, the Pentagon is still yet to actually bar the practice, The Chicago Tribune reports. Congress approved a similar ban one year later, which was reauthorized by the Senate just last week. The President and Congress have demanded that government agencies include anti-trafficking provisions (covering forced labor and prostitution) in all overseas company contracts. It also extended the ban to subcontractors. According to the Tribune, the concerns of five lobbying groups - including representatives of Halliburton subsidiary KBR and DynCorp - are stalling Pentagon action. These companies are specifically targeting provisions requiring companies to monitor their overseas contractors for violations. Both KBR and DynCorp have been linked to human trafficking cases in the past. The original Bush order came on the heels of revelations that DynCorp employees had purchased women and girls as sex slaves during the 1990s U.S. military presence in Bosnia. The company responded by firing eight employees over the incidents, as well as involvement in illegal arms sales. An excerpt from the Tribune piece details Halliburton's role: In a two-part series published in October, the Tribune detailed how Middle Eastern firms working under American subcontracts in Iraq, and a chain of human brokers beneath them, engaged in the kind of abuses condemned elsewhere by the U.S. government as human trafficking. KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary, relies on more than 200 subcontractors to carry out a multibillion-dollar U.S. Army contract for privatization of military support operations in the war zone. The Tribune retraced the journey of 12 Nepali men recruited from poor villages in one of the most remote and impoverished corners of the world and documented a trail of deceit, fraud and negligence stretching into Iraq. The men were kidnapped from an unprotected caravan and executed en route to jobs at an American military base in 2004. At the time, Halliburton said it was not responsible for the recruitment or hiring practices of its subcontractors, and the U.S. Army, which oversees the privatization contract, said questions about alleged misconduct "by subcontractor firms should be addressed to those firms, as these are not Army issues." Once implemented, the new policy could dramatically change responsibilities for KBR and the Army.

Raw Story

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=23585

Cell Phone Tracking

2006-01-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

Bad Ruling on Cell Phone Tracking: What a Difference a G Makes Yesterday, Magistrate Judge Gorenstein of the federal court for the Southern District of New York issued an opinion permitting the government to use cell site data to track a cell phone's physical location, without the government having to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause. Judge Gorenstein's flawed legal analysis is in sharp contrast to three other federal court opinions strongly rejecting the governments legal arguments, including a decision by Magistrate Judge Orenstein in the Eastern District of New York. While Judge Orenstein referred to the government's legal arguments variously as "unsupported," "misleading," and "contrived," and a Texas court called the convolutions of the governments theory perverse and likened its twists and turns to a "three-rail bank shot," Judge Gorenstein bought the government's arguments hook, line and sinker. Unfortunately, this dangerous new opinion falls into a procedural black hole. Because the DOJ is the only party in these surveillance cases, there's no one left to appeal the decision. Meanwhile, the DOJ has refused to appeal all three times it has lost, despite emphatic requests by the Texas and Eastern District magistrates. The result is that other magistrates across the country won't get clear guidance from the appeals courts on this issue. That's why EFF will continue to follow this issue closely, and continue to urge other magistrates who face this question to follow the clear and convincing logic of the three courageous judges who stood up for civil liberties and said no to warrantless cell phone tracking. P.S. The DOJs practice of monitoring cell phone location without probable cause previously inspired us to ask: "What other new surveillance powers has the government been creating out of whole cloth and how long have they been getting away with it?" Recent revelations about President Bush authorizing warrantless wiretaps of Americans by the National Security Agency have given us the beginnings of an answer. Let's hope that's not just the tip of the surveillance iceberg. Fumanchu(myspacer): Incidentally, they cannot track your cell phone for location if you have the battery pulled out. For a while, people have known this was possible, but no court had ever given feds the authority to do so. Cell phones have a pretty bad surveillance record: the A5 algorithm that encrypts most cell phones was cracked by researchers almost ten years ago. Also cell phones can often be used as eavesdropping devices by piggy-backing the broadcast signal (the signal that gives you two or five or whatever bars), but this can be defeated simply by, again, removing the battery/ambient power source...turning it off won't do it. Cell phones can be tracked as to their physical location by triangulating the distance between two or three cell phone towers, which requires intercepting/piggy-backing the same broadcast signal, allowing the same eavesdropping to take place in the process (with the proper equipment).[/color] http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004272.php

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=23573

When Peace Activism Becomes Collusion With Colonial Occupation

2006-01-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

When Peace Activism Becomes Collusion With Colonial Occupation By Marta Rodríguez The recent abductions in Iraq of four Christian Peace Team activists produced two reactions within the American antiwar movement. Some forces, exemplified by the International Solidarity Movement, assumed the Iraqi Resistance was behind the abduction, and condemned the action. Others like Kurt Nimmo, who publishes frequently on the Uruknet site, speculated that the abduction could have only been the result of occupation black ops. We need only remember the October arrest of British soldiers dressed in Arab clothing and loaded with explosives -- not to mention the many bombings of Shiite mosques and other civilian venues denounced by the Association of Muslim Scholars as occupation efforts to sow distrust among Iraqis -- to see why Kurt Nimmo would point the finger at black ops. Unfortunately, all of our speculation won't help us determine who was behind this abduction, because the occupation's efforts to censor the resistance, or drown its message in the cacophony of its black ops propaganda, makes it difficult for us to be certain of what is going on sometimes. However, regardless of who is behind it, we need to consider the possibility that there could be instances where resistance organizations would have legitimate reason to oppose the presence of some nonbelligerent entities in their countries, like peace groups from an aggressor country. A reading of the CPT web site suggests that there very well could be legitimate reasons for Iraqis engaged in armed struggle to find fault with that organization's role in their country. The CPT not only engages in nonviolent protest, but promotes it to the Iraqis. They do this, not for the purpose of adding to the arsenal of tactics which should be at the disposal of any resistance movement, but for the purpose of replacing that armed resistance altogether. They have stated that their role in Iraq is to "take the initiative from those who would do violence." That would include the legitimate defensive violence employed by Iraqis against the war criminals and thieves who slaughter and torture them, in order to plunder their country without hindrance. In addition, the manner in which the CPT goes about seeking relief for Iraqis abused by the American military, takes them from the line of nonviolence and human rights advocacy, directly into the realm of collusion with the occupation. For instance, the 2004 CPT report offers us various descriptions of meetings between their activists and occupation forces, where the military is told by them that if it ends its abuses and excesses, their security situation will improve. This same report describes a January 24, 2004 meeting with Ambassador Richard Jones, (at the time Deputy Administrator and Chief Policy Officer of the Coalition Provisional Authority) and other American occupation personnel. In this meeting, Ambassador Jones discussed the creation of an executive board to work on the human rights abuses experienced by Iraqis. The CPT suggested that Ambassador Jones's staff arrange for regular meetings with Iraqi Human Rights lawyers, and "involve them in the planning for the new justice system in Iraq." Before the meeting was adjourned, the CPT says: "We left information with them about contacting three such groups that we work with on a regular basis and offered to help make initial connections with them." First of all, this may come as a shock to the CPT, but colonial occupiers have no right to security; least of all when their invasion hasn't been prompted by even the semblance of provocation, and when no war crime has been considered too heinous when it comes to terrorizing those who oppose it. How can people who claim to be against the occupation of Iraq offer advice to occupying troops about what might improve their security, even as a carrot for better treatment of the occupied population? What occupier is going to feel compelled to leave a country where it's not welcomed, if its soldiers feel safe to trample about at their leisure? Secondly, that "new justice system for Iraq" which the CPT is so pleased to have Iraqis help design, is the result of an illegal and unprovoked invasion. Its purpose is to legalize that invasion, and the plunder of resources it was meant to secure. Thirdly, anticolonial resistance movements require the support of their people, and their commitment to protect their fighters. This support and protection is in part guaranteed by the people's refusal to dialogue with their enemies, or to settle for anything less than their complete and utter defeat, and ultimate expulsion from their countries. The CPT's promotion of dialogue between Iraqis and their occupiers, and the stick and carrot approach from the other side that often accompanies such dialogue, compromises the security of the Resistance, because it presents the potential for infiltration. Fourth, promoting the collaboration of Iraqis in the design of any structure of the occupier is as good as promoting their acceptance and validation of the occupation of their country. Any relief that would result from this kind of collaboration with the occupiers would only serve to make the occupation palatable, thereby facilitating the U.S.'s hold on Iraq and its resources. This would give a resistance movement all the reason in the world to see the CPT agenda as a threat to their struggle for the liberation of their country, and to go after that organization. Few would find fault with some of the CPT's actions in support of Iraqis, like their attempts to relieve the suffering caused by U.S. sponsored sanctions, and their willingness to serve as human shields to prevent the invasion of their country. But that does not give their organization the right to collect on their efforts by influencing the Iraqi response to their invaders, so as to make life safer and more manageable for them. For anything that citizens from an aggressor country do on behalf of people attacked by their government is owed to them, by virtue of the fact that it is their government who is pursuing their victimization. If the CPT and other American pacifists are so determined to see the plight of their occupation soldiers as somehow equal to that of the people they invade and brutalize, they could at least be principled about the manner in which they pursue their safety. They could encourage them to desert the occupation of Iraq, instead of trying to tie the hands of people who barely have enough to defend themselves with. Relief for prisoners and other Iraqis abused by the occupation should not have to wait until the U.S. is forced to withdraw from Iraq. But there's no reason that Iraqis should have to trade that relief for the security of their movement, or their right to dictate the terms of the U.S.'s withdrawal. Here too the CPT's advocacy for civilians and prisoners is problematic at best, as they create a distinction between the "innocent" and "unjustly" imprisoned -- read those who do not combat the occupiers -- and Resistance fighters, which could undermine the support they require. Many of the objectors to the war in Iraq have described said war as criminal, because it was unprovoked, because it violates the sovereignty of the Iraqis, because of the many abominable war crimes the Americans and British have engaged in throughout its course, and because to prosecute it they've violated the international law they pay so much lip service to. If we truly believe that, then we have to consider all Iraqis intervened with by U.S./British forces as unjustly targeted, be they combatants, randomly brutalized civilians, or persons mistaken as Resistance fighters. As war criminals, international rogues and intruders, those occupiers lack the moral and political legitimacy to hold any Iraqi. Anyone wishing to alleviate the suffering of Iraqi civilians and prisoners should therefore pursue that work under the leadership of the Resistance, so that the relief is not obtained at the expense of their struggle for liberation, and doesn't produce artificial divisions among the population, that would compromise the support that all engaged in that struggle need and deserve. There are those who would argue that the CPT's actions in Iraq are well-intentioned. Perhaps they are the product of the paternalism and naiveté that is so prevalent in the American peace movement, rather than outright malice and investment in their colonial/settler privileges. But the movement here could have sought their release without acting as another mouthpiece of the occupation's demonization of the Iraqi Resistance, or placing their need for freedom and safety above that of Iraqis. They could have demanded that the occupation secure their release by freeing the prisoners the abductors want liberated. Their failure to do that demonstrates once again the self-indulgence, white exceptionalism, colonial arrogance, and anti-Arab bigotry that have driven this movement's response to people fighting colonial conquest in the Middle East. The International Solidarity Movement showed its unabashed opportunism when it attempted to bolster its anti Iraqi Resistance stance by distributing a communiqué, apparently redacted by Hamas, demanding the release of the CPT'ers. The ISM has never supported those in the Palestinian armed resistance, who sacrifice their lives for the liberation of their people. Yet here they are, hiding behind Hamas, in order to take a swipe at another resistance movement, on behalf of citizens of their colonialist regime. If American peace activists are at all interested in making their work relevant to people fighting colonial occupation, they might want to take a page from Ms. Ruth Reynolds, a U.S. pacifist who worked in Puerto Rico, when the Nationalist Party was leading our struggle for independence. Ms. Reynolds worked closely with the Nationalist Party. Though, as a pacifist, she chose not to partake of the party's efforts to organize insurrection against the United States, she did not treat the Puerto Rican people to the disrespect and colonial arrogance of attempting to dictate our methods of struggle. Her work to end violence in Puerto Rico was directed to the ones responsible for it -- the U.S. government who entered our country at gunpoint, and continues to repress our people in order to secure their stay there. Her work, and the work of the Nationalist Party, did not lead to our independence, as other forces derailed the Nationalists' efforts with the "nonviolent solution" of the "Commonwealth" status, which to this date keeps our country in the hands of the U.S. government. But the support work Ms. Reynolds did for our movement is greatly valued to this day by independistas throughout our country. This is the kind of support that Iraqis, Palestinians, and all peoples fighting colonial conquest are owed. Anything less is simply useless and irrelevant. Any support work which requires that colonized people wait till their aggressors are good and ready to stop their violence, or that they settle for anything less than full restitution of the lands and resources that have been stolen from them, is no support work at all. It's betrayal and collusion with colonial aggression, which is no less harmful than the bullets and bombs employed to force the subjugation of the colonized. From Iraq to Falasteen, long live the Mujahideen! Victory to the Iraqi Resistance! Libertad para Irak y Palestina! http://www.onepalestine.org/resources/articles/When_Peace_Activism_Becomes_Collusion.html

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=23574

Tennesseans: Join the Fight Against HIV/AIDS!

2005-12-03T04:43:00.000-08:00

Today, Thursday, December 1st, 2005 is World AIDS Day.
To remember the millions of people worldwide who have been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, PPMET is asking you to join us in communicating with Tennessee's Congressional representatives.
The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act provides funding to states to provide services to people living with HIV and AIDS. Despite the successes of the CARE Act, multiple years of flat funding for the CARE Act have stretched the program beyond its capacity to address the needs of those who come to CARE Act programs for services. The CARE Act must be reauthorized and adequately funded to ensure that all people living with HIV/AIDS will have a health services that meet their needs.
Join us in asking Congress to reuathorize the funding for the Ryan White CARE Act for 2006. You can send an email to your members of Congress simply by clicking on the link below.

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s): Your Congressperson Your Senators
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: Authorize the Ryan White CARE Act for 2006
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
In recognition of World AIDS Day on Thursday, December 1st, I urge you to reauthorize and adequately fund the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act for 2006. HIV/AIDS is a public health crisis in the United States. Over 40,000 people are newly infected in the United States every year. The services that the Ryan White CARE Act funds are vital to the health and lives of millions of our fellow citizens who are living every day with HIV/AIDS. I hope that you will remember the nearly 1 million Americans who are living with HIV/AIDS as you cast your vote for the reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act for 2006. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,

Tennessee school newspapers seized on account of Da Debble.

2005-12-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - Copies of a high school's student newspaper were seized by administrators because the edition contained stories about birth control and tattoos, stirring a First Amendment debate. Administrators at Oak Ridge High School went into teachers' classrooms, desks and mailboxes to retrieve all 1,800 copies of the newspaper Tuesday, said teacher Wanda Grooms, who advises the staff, and Brittany Thomas, the student editor. The Oak Leaf's birth control article listed success rates for different methods and said contraceptives were available from doctors and the local health department. Superintendent Tom Bailey said the article needed to be edited so it would be acceptable for the entire school. The edition also contained a photo of an unidentified student's tattoo, and the student had not told her parents about the tattoo, said Superintendent Tom Bailey. "I have a problem with the idea of putting something in the paper that makes us a part of hiding something from the parents," he said. The paper can be reprinted if the changes are made, he said. "We have a responsibility to the public to do the right thing," he said. "We've got 14-year-olds that read the newspaper." Thomas said she wasn't sure about making changes. "I'm not completely OK with reprinting the paper," she said. First Amendment experts were critical of the seizure. "This is a terrible lesson in civics," University of Tennessee journalism professor Dwight Teeter said. "This is an issue about the administration wanting to have control. Either the students are going to have a voice, or you're going to have a PR rag for the administration."

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Padilla Case Further Reveals Fallacy Of Al Qaeda And US War On Terror

2005-12-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

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Padilla Case Exposes Sham of 'War on Terror' Kevin Drum | November 25 2005

2005-12-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

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Police Rethink 'Always Armed' Policy By RAY HENRY, Associated Press WriterSun Nov 27, 1:56 PM ET

2005-12-02T09:20:00.000-08:00

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Miami cops to stage sieges, randomly check ID's, ride buses and trains

2005-11-30T20:30:00.000-08:00

Date: Nov 30, 2005 12:57 PM

American Police State: The Frog Has Cooked
Miami cops to stage sieges, randomly check ID's, ride buses and trains

Paul Joseph Watson | November 29 2005

How do you boil a frog?

You don't throw the frog into a pot of boiling water, it would immediately jump out. You let the frog sit in warm water and slowly heat the pan until the frog boils to death.

How do you erect the infrastructure of a police state?

You incrementally condition both the police and the public that relinquishing liberty in the name of security is necessary because 'we live in dangerous times.'

Be sure to make Grandpa remove his shoes at the airport but let that cargo through without inspection every time. The truth is that the mythical 'war on terror' was never meant to be won and can never be won because it doesn't exist.

The real terror is being waged against ordinary people by our own government.

To say we live in a police state is no longer an alarmist cliche. Perception has clearly and permanently shifted from the police being there to serve the people to the police being there to control the people.

The Associated Press reports today,

Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.

Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.

"This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there," Fernandez said.

Both uniformed and plainclothes police will ride buses and trains, while others will conduct longer-term surveillance operations.

"People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears."

Here we have American police chiefs using military terminology and directing it against American citizens. The random sieges, ID checking and public transport casing is the very benchmark of a police state.

During a recent trip to the States I realized that the 'land of the free' is in many ways less free than the quasi-Socialist European cesspit I call my home.

You have to carry your ID everywhere in America, it's almost impossible to get by without it. Buying a pack of cigarettes, renting a canoe, using any public service, requires you to show your ID. Americans are so used to being asked for it that the kind of random sweeps being planned in Miami won't raise an eyebrow. The frog has been sitting in the pot carelessly boiling to its death for too long now.

The Miami model is the very definition of a pervasive police state based on the fear of terrorists and the fear of being identified as a terrorist if you do not comply with every demand, no matter how much it brutalizes every notion of what it is to live in a free society.

And where are the terrorists exactly?

Those goatherders and shoemakers being tortured at Gimo?

The Pakistani citizens grabbed in the mountains and sold to the US as terrorists by Taliban gangsters for $25,000?

Jose Padilla, an American citizen, is interned in a military brig for over three years while so-called Al-Qaeda members are tortured to try and implicate him in a dirty bomb plot, it doesn't work and he's brought up on some lame charge of conspiracy. None of the dirty bomb claims can be proven because the other 'Al-Qaeda members' the defense lawyers would call to testify either don't exist, are dead, or their captures were staged by the US government for war propaganda.

The whole pantomime in quite pathetic but it is being scripted to convince Americans that giving up their rights aids the baloney war on terror.

The phantom terror cells waiting to strike inside America are about as real as Saddam Hussein's intercontinental biological weapons drones. They don't exist.

Yet the semi-retarded police chiefs and foot soldiers who salivate over the Miami model do so in the warped fundamentalist belief that they are protecting America from the evil Muslims.

The government terrorists that blew up trains and buses in Madrid and London chose those targets because they want to move the police state into areas which affect all of us on a day to day basis. That way the dictatorship has the excuse to be up close and personal.

If we do not radically increases our efforts to stop this horror, in a very short time America is going to look like a combination of 1984, They Live, The Running Man and 'V' all rolled into one.

Showing your ID to the federal stormtrooper as he cases the bus with an M16 will be the least of your concerns.

The behavior analysis surveillance cameras will be more of a worry. Will it pick up on the fact that you're sweating a little after running for that train? Have a big presentation to make at the conference today? A little nervous? Let's hope the mind scanner doesn't take that as potential signpost for Al-Qaeda membership.

This isn't a future dystopia, the technology is already in use.

The near future looks like this.

Biometric iris scanners in every mall, cinema, sports stadium and government building.

Behaviour analysis security cameras that will flag armed National Guard if your physical behaviour happens to be Al-Qaeda like in the opnion of Big Brother.

Brain scanners that detect stress, another benchmark of your potential to blow something up.

RFID-tracked ID cards with colored grades of security clearance denoting what public services you are allowed to access by the government. Don't worry, if you're a well behaved boot licker your food stamp quota will be high.

Federal stormtroopers on every corner of every major city randomly checking ID's, doing pat downs and searching bags.

Special alert signals that will help the public catch dissidents on the loose. High definition LCD mug shots of said evildoers on high rises in major cities.

Food stamp and credit bonuses for information leading to apprehension of said evildoers.

Mind control towers that send out calming beams of mental candy floss to keep the slaves in line. Conspiracy theory? Sound weapons that both disperse and calm protesters are already being used from Iraq to New York.

Talking telescreen surveillance cameras that bark orders at anyone not showing the proper bodily and mental characteristics and traits.

Surveillance drones watching Americans from up high.

Foreign troops and mercenaries utilized to dish out their particular brand of fascism and tyranny.

The torture cadres of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and the bloodthirsty serial killers now roaming Iraq, will be brought home to have their way with anti-government terrorists threatening to halt the construction of the glorious Fourth Reich.

Regular car bombs and suicide bomber attacks to keep the state of emergency high and provide the justification for all of the above. This is the Miami model and it's the ultimate goal of the psychopathic elite.

Sound like an alarmist rant?

Tell that to Deborah Davis, a war Mom now going to court in Denver for refusing to show her ID when a federal God stormed the bus and demanded to see it.

The consequences of the next staged terror attack will make all this look like milquetoast and Americans have been carefully prepared for such eventualities like a vetenarian pets a dog before the lethal injection.

The frog has cooked and if we don't figuratively jump out of the boiling pot right now we're going to be devoured by the gaping jaws of the insane, maniacal, sociopathic, remorseless, bloodthirsty Globalists who see the creation of total and absolute despotism as their divine calling.

FBI closes probe into Till's death By Charles Sheehan

2005-11-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

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Enemyboard

The struggle to maintain grassroots feminist responses to male violence By Anna Willats, Mandy Bonisteel and Marilyn McLean

2005-11-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

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The Ugly Business of Women’s Beauty By Jackie Esmonde

2005-11-30T10:24:00.000-08:00

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Enemyboard

Radio Station Launches "Kill Tookie Hour," Protests Mount By Houston Williams

2005-11-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

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Congress Helps Self to $3,100 Pay Raise but Postpones Action on Spending and Tax Bills By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent

2005-11-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1328285

http://abcnews.go.com/

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22188

House votes to cut $700 mln in food stamps

2005-11-29T18:23:00.000-08:00

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?id=2005111818110002569401&dt=20051118181100&w=RTR&coview=

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22188

A New Federal War on Dissent? by James Bovard, Posted November 16, 2005

2005-11-29T18:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0508c.asp

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22187

Wise Intelligent releases new singles from his upcoming solo

2005-11-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE…

Intelligent Muzik proudly presents the 1st offering from Wise Intelligent’s highly anticipated solo album, Wise Intelligent is…The Talented Timothy Taylor!

The first single is called, “A Genocide”. It scientifically breaks down the CIA’s deliberate and direct connection to the Crack Cocaine explosion that devastated families and communities from urban to suburban. The song has been described as a powerful lyrical and sonic assault on the senses.

The track was produced by PJ of the HavKnotz and Wise Intelligent. A Genocide takes Hiphop back to the glory days where substance and style were one and the same.

1. A Genocide +*
(T. Taylor ASCAP, PJ)
Produced by PJ for the HavKnotz and Wise Intelligent
Additional vocals by Somer Lane

The companion single is called, “Youths & Thugz” and has become the new revolutionary anthem for the next generation of Freedom Fighters. This song is a call to arms for every Man, Woman, and Child who is living below the poverty line and is sick and tired of being sick and tired.

The track was produced by Masada of the HavKnotz and Wise Intelligent. Youths & Thugz is the kind of revolutionary song that your favorite MC is afraid to make!

2. Youth & Thugz feat. Popular+*
(T. Taylor, ASCAP; Jumal Pierre, ASCAP; David Phillips, ASCAP)
Written by Wise Intelligent and Popula for UpTop Entertainment
Produced by Masada for the HavKnotz and Wise Intelligent

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE TRACKS HERE...

“A Genocide”
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8O5XB562

“Youths and Thugz”
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4PHT1SED

As a bonus...check out Wise Intelligent's "Niggaz Iz" (+ Lesson)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F96QHWCQ

IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS DOWNLOADING THE TRACKS FROM MEGAUPLOAD EMAIL ME DIRECTLY AND I'LL SEND THEM TO YOU...YOU CAN ALSO LISTEN TO THE SONGS AT WISE INTELLIGENT'S MYSPACE SITE...

www.myspace.com/wiseintelligent

For more information about Wise Intelligent and Intelligent Muzik, visit:
wise@intelligentmuzik.com
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For interviews and features, contact Born Free at bornfree9@hotmail.com

Lyrics to "A Genocide"

A Genocide
By Wise Intelligent

I’m living this ghetto life with a seed and a wife and it don’t look good…
Crack life done changed my hood; I’m take it back to 81’….
Nicaraguan coca rush contra’s selling coke to us…
CIA don’t make the bust but help it cross the border plus…

They organized the dealers cause Samoza’s contra’s need the…
Dough from off the ghetto streets to over throw the Sandanistas…
I’m young I’m black and I’m poor now dollars knocking at my door…
Couple of Nicaraguan cats said bring them 8 and I keep 4…

I’m getting this money I’m balling offing this shit to Bloods and Crips…
Locking down these ghetto strips sexing chicks and pushing whips…
Free-basin’s getting thick I’m cooking this powder straight to bricks…
Bout to see a million six never knew how thick this shit could get…

And now the gangs are banging claiming sets and drug possession…
Now we need some better weapons, contra AK-47…
UZI’S, SK-11’s, INTRA-TEKS, homicide…
I’m just a ghetto youth caught up in A GENOCIDE…

VS 2

Lotta innocent lives are lost, black communities paid the cost…
All the drugs and guns we bought financed CIA dirty wars…
I’m just a young boy born down in a ghet-to…
Hanging out on corners cooling with my fel-la’s…

Now I’m sitting in a 6 x 10…got life with no parole…
Crack life done stole my soul, and a nigga got all the blame…
I’m talking tons of crack flying cross the border black…
I ain’t have no part in that where my planes and vessels at?

I’m talking a Dark Alliance CIA, drug dealers, contra’s…
Bad boys who move in silence this a different kind of monster…
Ain’t none of them crackers locked, for the rest of they life in jail…
For the innocent folk they shot, or the drugs and guns they sale…

Now the government “war on drugs” making it look like I’m the reason…
Coca come from overseas and most Americans do believe’em…
Hit me with a CCE (Continued Crime Enterprise)…
But I’m just a ghetto youth, caught up in a genocide…

VS 3

If a nigga don’t eat, nigga gone starve, nigga don’t got no job…
Played high school ball hoop dreams but I really can’t read…
Start smoking weed gotta escape all the shit I need…
Try da make it to the NBA but a nigga just blew out both his knees…

I’m lonely in these streets…I’m crying on these beats…
But you know I gotta suck that up, cause don’t nobody give a fuck…
Who better to use than me…to move the contra’s coke?
I’m young, I’m black, and I’m poor, and now my spirits broke…

Youth violence escalates black property values drop…
Black leaders hesitate, to reach out to my block…
Ole Earth wanna sell her home for which she paid like ninety gees…
Gang bangers clappin chrome so the bank say it ain’t worth 33…

Gentrification making somebody rich but I know it ain’t me…
Incarceration prison population size increase…
The biggest business in the country now is giving me time…
I’m just a ghetto youth caught up in a genocide…

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=21948

Urgent Action Alert: Citizens of this planet, the people of Haiti remembering their roots, are calling out to you

2005-11-29T17:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/mediacall.html

Donate to the FreeHaitiMovement-Ezili Danto's Work, go to

Urgent Action Alert: Citizens of this planet, the people of Haiti remembering their roots, are calling out to you
********Stop the occupation of Haiti, support freedom, justice and democracy*Please send out appeals immediately.
***********************************************************************Remembering Haiti is hallowed ground for Charlemagne Peralte and DredWilmes, they offer their lives everyday, that's all they have to offer. It'severything. (See a face of Haiti's indigenous army facing off Manifest Destiny in 2004)* Moral suasion alone will not free Haitians: Remembering the 86th anniversary of the assassination of Carlemagne Peralte. Remembering our roots. Tousaint Louverture had tried to civilized the whites in Haiti. Instead all his efforts, negotiations and moral suasions ended in betrayal and Toussaint being treacherously and lowly blindsided, kidnapped and sent to die in a very cold prison exile. ***********************************************************************Bandits or Patriots?: Documents from Charlemagne Pèralte NY Chapter of Fanmi Lavalas denounces Marc Bazin and his renegadeFanmi Lavalas acolytes Pro-democracy groups protest Ron Daniels/Haiti Support Projectsymposium with coup d'etat supporters and orchestrators Ron Daniels and the Haiti Support Project is at is again and http://www.haitiprogres.com/2004/sm040804/eng08-04.html The White "Saviors" of Haiti vs. Haitian self-determination and actualization Facing Manifest Destiny's Iron Will. Haitians have - Been there. Done That Open Letter to the Little Girl in the Yellow Sunday Dress Reactions to poem in 2002 Controversy with US occupiers Africaspeaks.com
*********************************************************************
Urgent Action Alert, October 29, 2005(Please distribute widely)On the eve of the 86th anniversary of the assassination of Charlemagne Peralte by US Marines who cold-bloodedly killed this great son of Haiti on October 31, 1919 during the first US occupation of Haiti, we at the Haitian Lawyers Leadership lift up his name and that of all the Dred Wilmes, Claire Heureuse and Marie-Jeannes' in Haiti today as well as all Haitians, abroad and at home, who have honored themselves and our African ancestors by going against Euro/US barbarity, racism and colonialism in this new imperialist/neocon era.The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network, again, appeals for international support on the People of Haiti's right to self-respect, self-determination and self-defenseWe ask for help to stop the killing of innocent Haitian men, women and children. We ask all good-will peoples on this planet to denounce Ron Daniel's and his "honest brokering" and State Department "symposiums" that only resulted in a few disconnected-from-the-people's-umbilical chord, renegade Lavalas members sanctioning the Bush revenge on the people of Haiti with the "return of Marc Bazin." This time morphed by the imperialists and his Haitian and Ron Daniels sycophants as a "Lavalas" presidential candidate to confuse and destroy further the democracy movement in Haiti. A Marc Bazin on whose behalf Bush, the father, helped instigate the first coup d'etat against Haiti's first democratically elected President in 1991, which resulted in the murder of over 5,000 innocent Haitians, 70,000 Haitian refugees passing through the US penal colony, known as Guantanamo Bay and more than 350,0000 internal Haitian refugees.See, NY Chapter of Fanmi Lavalas denounces Marc Bazin and his renegade Fanmi Lavalas acolytes Pro-democracy groups protest Ron Daniels/Haiti Support Project symposium with coup d'etat supporters and orchestrators Ron Daniels and the Haiti Support Project is at is again and http://www.haitiprogres.com/2004/sm040804/eng08-04.htmlHaitians asks for the world's support in stopping USAID's "pacification" programs in Haiti. We ask that the citizens of this planet, please, do what's necessary to stop the killings in Site Soley Denounce the slaughter and abuse of Haitian women and girls and incarceration and slaughter of our men and boys by UN Troops, acting as proxy for Bush, the son, Canada and France.The people of Site Soley and in Haiti's poor neighborhoods are daily threatened by the UN with Jordanian urban guerilla units if they do not stop demonstrating for return to constitutional order, justice and law and participate in these sham foreign-sponsored (s)elections. Stop this repression, this forced voting, this racism, paternalism and help FREE the people of Site Soley, Bel Air, Delmas 2, Solino, Petit Cazeau, Martissant and throughout Haiti. Get background info by clicking here. Calls for international action to secure the immediate release of all political prisoners of this US-installed puppet government in Haiti. Get background info at Free Jean Juste.But please remember political action, economic boycott and public censure/exposure are essentially what pro-democracy Haitians are asking from solidarity groups.Since this 1995 massacre summer in Haiti, since the USAID/OIM-soccer match "pacification" and the appointment of Timothy M. Carney of the Haiti Democracy Project to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, along with documented UN Security Council's refusal to respect Haitian self-determination, CARICOM and African Union appeals, unlike the white leftist "saviors" of Haiti, Haitians can no longer justify whatsoever going to these very institutions (the UN, Timothy M Carney at the US Embassy, the Bush Gov. et al ) or, in other words, rely on moral suasion alone to redress our grievances. Our interests oftentimes converge in terms of general human rights issues, but historically white leftists, have faced-off with the likes of CLR James, Frantz Fanon, Ralph Ellison, Angela Davis and Malcom X., beginning with the split between Frederick Douglass and abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison. Why? Because, in general, the white leftist tolerates racism in a democracy. Can afford an ahistorical consciousness because of white privilege. And, having bought, consciously or unconsciously their own “goodness,” “whiteness” and unselfishness within the "grand narrative of human enlightenment called America," they can fail to see how their relative financial clout, white privilege and connections buys them more access, faster legitimacy, Haitian-faces to use as tokens and for plausible deniability, the same way the UN peacekeepers in Haiti and in the Congo, using their power-privilege, can fail to see how their offer of food and money for sex with desperate and impoverished black women and girls is not rape, but prostitution. HLLN has supported all who respect a Haitian's right to self-determination, self-reliance, self-respect and continues that support when our interests converge. But we have learn, through our experience these last 19-months alone and before with the first coup d'etat, that there are those white leftists who rely mainly on moral suasion as the agent for any needed reform. Problem is, Blacks do not have that luxury, white privilege destroys our humanity, renders us dependent and makes democracy impossible. Thus, our very survival demands real self-defense strategies and not empty appeals to the very racists and steeped-in-white-privilege institutions that created Haiti's hell. So, if you wish to help Haitians, please DO NOT waste your appeals to the UN, to the US-installed government, the coup d'etat governments or Haiti Democracy Project's Timothy M. Carney. You're better off telling your next door neighbor about what they are not seeing on CNN on Haiti then telling the UN and US what they already know and wishes to hide behind the headlines. Kindly send appeals and background info to the MEDIA. Flood the U.S. local, national and international media with your concerns about the abuse, occupation,genocide and re-enslavement of the people of Site Soley and Haiti. Help HLLN with Campaign Five: Denounce U.S. big-business neo-liberalism, "free trade", andglobalization initiatives and privatization schemes for Haiti (including the HERO ACT and other such measures) as financial colonialism. Also, boycott or otherwise expose and financially hamper U.S. companies in Haiti violating Haitian minimum wage, workers rights, union organizing or otherwise jeopardizing Haitian health, life, safety and human rights. Boycott the companies that support coup d'etat, injustice and underdevelopment in Haiti. Boycott Bush.Sponsor an HLLN's "To tell the Truth Forum About Haiti" and help promote the FreeHaitiMovement Support and circulate the Haiti Resolution and 5-points from the grass-roots in HaitiSupport FreeHaitiMovement events such as the Pan-Canadian Week of Action to Condemn Sham Elections in Haiti, November 12-20, 2005 Sponsored by The Canada Haiti Action Network FreeHaitiMovement Men Anpil Chay pa Lou!!!Maximum Respect,Marguerite Laurent, EsqFounder/Chair of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership NetworkOctober 28, 2005Remembering the struggles, life and legacies of Charlemagne Peralte and all of Haiti's Dred Wilmes and Marie Jeannes facing LeClerc's new and retooled armies**********To Donate, please support HLLN's work.**************************Oct. 17, 2005 - remembering our roots of liberty.****************** - Dred Wilme, A Hero for the 21st Century, Oct 17, 2005Emmanuel Dred Wilme: A hero for the 21st century - October 17, 2005, a day set aside for honoring Haiti's liberator, Jean Jacques Dessalines. Thank you Father Dessalines by Morisseau-Leroy (English translation) - We honor Defile, with a poem in Kreyol from Jafrikayiti entitled "Defile Manman "Chimè"?" Defile is the Haitian woman who honored Dessalines and gave him a proper burial after he was forsaken. (www.jafrikayiti.com ) - Mesi Papa Desalin (the Kreyol original of the poem "Thank You Father Dessalines") - EMMANUEL "DREAD" WILME, The Bandit King of Cite Soleil, formerly the US/UN Most Wanted Man SPEAKS - Dred Wilme Speaks (April 4, 2005 interview on Lakounewyork for Lakounewyork and for the Ezili Danto Witness Project) - The Crucifixion of Emmanuel "Dread" Wilme by U.N. Troops: A historical perspective by Marguerite Laurent Haitian perspective April 21, 2005******************************We won't be peaceful and let them kill us any longerhttp://www.sfbayview.com/101905/wewontbe101905.shtml "We are abandoning the position of the moderates who tell us to be peaceful and work within the system while we starve and the interim government kills us. While we don't have the weapons to go seeking out battles, we have decided as a community that enough is enough." 'We won't be peaceful and let them kill us any longer' Bel Air interview with Roaean Baptistehttp://www.sfbayview.com/101905/wewontbe101905.shtml*HLLN Note. Haiti is hallowed ground, set by our African ancestors as a place Black people could be free within a sea full of Euro/U.S. enslavers. We Haitians stand firm against the re-colonization of Haiti through dictatorship as being instigated and masked by the chaos and instability brought on by the bicentennial coup d'etat, phony elections fever, all, divide and conquer mechanisms and pretexts used to cloak and justify the poverty pimp's (USAID/US/IMF/WB) planned establishment of an ultimate US/UN protectorship in Haiti.************
******
The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network's Appeal for international support on the People of Haiti's right to self-respect, self-determination and self-defense
We Haitian democracy activists have taken on ourselves a great task. The Haitian people have been robbed again, not only of the wealth of our country, and not only of the lives and livelihoods of our countrymen, but of our sense of self-determination.The very essence of being Haitian is the connection to those freedom fighters of the revolution who would not lie down and obey the men who claimed to be their masters. Today, Haiti is being ruled by a regime that was selected by foreign powers. The legitimate officials are in exile, in hiding, or in captivity.All around, voices are telling us to suffer this indignity, to give up on our quest for self-governance, that somehow we are unfit to choose our own leaders or our own style of governance.We utterly reject this pattern of thought. It is the mental slavery from which Bob Marley calls us to emancipate ourselves. For the average Haitian "This Song of Freedom" is truly all we have ever had. And now they want to take that too.It is with this sense of insistence and urgency that we set forth our grievances and define our terms for reconciliation in the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Haiti Resolution. We ask that all Haitian democracy activists circulate this resolution, and address the issues and demands of the resolution to their own governments, and to the United Nations, which has the responsibility for protecting the right of self-determination. But most of all, we ask all solidarity groups who wish to sincerely help Haitians, to not just send their appeals to the UN, the US-installed government, the coup d'etat governments or Haiti Democracy Project's Timothy M. Carney. You're better off telling your next door neighbor about what they are not seeing on the conventional media about Haiti then simply telling the UN, US, Candadian officials (et al) what they already know and wish to hide behind the headlines. Kindly send appeals and background info to the MEDIA. Flood the U.S. local, national and international media with your concerns about the abuse, occupation, genocide and re-enslavement of the people of Haiti.http://www.margueritelaurent.com/contactinformation/local-national-media.htmlRemember letters of appeals to the media is a start, but political action, economic boycott and systemic and consistent public censure/exposure are essentially what pro-democracy Haitians are asking from solidarity groups. Please also do this by supporting our 7 Men Anpil Chay Pa Lou campaigns and boycotts. The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Haiti Resolution:1. Demand the return of constitutional rule to Haiti by restoring all elected officials of all parties to their offices throughout the country until the end of their mandates and another election is held, as mandated by Haiti's Constitution;2. Condemn the killings, illegal imprisonment and confiscation of the property of supporters of Haiti's constitutional government and insist that Haiti's illegitimate "interim government" immediately cease its persecution and put a stop to persecution by the thugs and murderers from sectors in their police force, from the paramilitaries, gangs and former soldiers;3. Insist on the immediate release of all political prisoners in Haitian jails, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, Interior Minister Privert and other constitutional government officials and folksinger-activist Sò Anne;4. Insist on the disarmament of the thugs, death squad leaders and convicted human rights violators and their prosecution for all crimes committed during the attack on Haiti's elected government and support the rebuilding of Haiti's police force, ensuring that it excludes anyone who helped to overthrow the democratically elected government or who participated in other human rights violations;5. Stop the indefinite detention and automatic repatriation of Haitian refugees and immediately grant Temporary Protected Status to all Haitian refugees presently in the United States until democracy is restored to Haiti; and6. Support the calls by the OAS, CARICOM and the African Union for an investigation into the circumstances of President Aristide's removal. Support the enactment of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's T.R.U.T.H Act which calls for U.S. Congressional investigation of the forcible removal of the democratically elected President and government of Haiti.
*****************************************************It is up to the Haitians living abroad to support the people of Haiti against Euro/US pressures and against desperate movesThe Leadership leads: Standing on Truth, Living without FearIt is up to Haitians living abroad to support the people of Haiti against Euro/US pressures and against desperate moves. Today the majority of the peoples of Haiti are cornered and hunted as in the times of slavery. On the matter of Fanmi Lavalas' participating in these elections, the respected pro-democracy militant of Site Soley, John Joël Joseph, accurately puts the matter in perspective when he says the people of Site Soley "have decided to vote in these elections to avoid providing a pretext for repression..." Thus there is NO QUESTION this "voting" in Haiti is being IMPOSED on the majority of Haitians. The people of Haiti are not exercising free will in this matter. They are operating under military occupation and censorship. Below is an AHP report on the matter of elections entitled "National grassroots cells of Fanmi Lavalas in Cité Soleil are declare support for René Préval and demand the release of all the political prisoners."There is no doubt the grassroots democracy movement in Haiti, the majority poor in Haiti, especially the resisting poor in Site Soley and Bel Air are under UN/US guns to vote as the whites settlers want them to, or be indefinitely incarcerated, or get shot. But we Haitians in the Diaspora are not under such desperate pressures. It falls, therefore, on us to hold the flame of hope and liberty alive. To clarify and clear the Willie Lynch-type deliberately strummed conflicts and confusion until Haitians in Haiti may exercise free will without fearing the UN/PNH's summary executions or arbitrary imprisonment. It falls on us-Haitians of greater means to mobilize against these elections and convey to our brothers and sisters in Haiti that they are indeed not alone in their fight against US/Euro might and imperialistic barbarity. HLLN stands on these truth, no matter how surreal these selections become. We shall always categorically denounce these rigged elections while understanding and supporting the people of Site Soley, Bel Air, Milot and throughout Haiti maneuvers to stay alive in accordance with the above quoted statement of Joël Joseph (See Oct. 24, 2005 AHP report below for full quote.) HLLN stands on the 5-points and shall carry them forth for the grassroots until the repression is lifted.In sum, on behalf of all who have perished for Haiti's liberty since 1503, HLLN takes this opportunity to strongly denounce all the current presidential candidates in Haiti without distinction, including Preval, Bazin, Simeus. All are collaborators. For, by their willingness to ignore that Father Jean Juste and Yvon Neptune, et al, are falsely imprisoned; by their willingness to run for office in these anti-democratic elections - by their sanctioning of these rigged elections in spite of the coup d'etat repression, massacres, jailings, apartheid and occupation climate- they indeed only formally legitimize and are helping to solidify dictatorship, occupation and the recolonization of Haiti. HLLN, Oct. 25, 2005****************National grassroots cells of Fanmi Lavalas in Cité Soleil are declare support for René Préval and demand the release of all the political prisoners Port-au-Prince, October 24, 2005 (AHP)- The members of national grassroots cells of Fanmi Lavalas declared support Monday for electing former Haitian President René Garcia Préval to a new mandate in the coming elections. During a press conference, a leader of the base cells, René Monplaisir, announced that a great mobilization will take place on October 27 as a sign of support for René Préval.Another official, John Joël Joseph, for his part said they have decided to vote in these elections to avoid providing a pretext for repression, even though, in his view, Fanmi Lavalas is not participating in the elections. He took this opportunity to call for the release of all the political prisoners and the return to Haiti of all those who have been exiled. ************************************************************‘Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.’--James Baldwin*********** *********************************
"Transformation is only valid if it is carried out with the people, not for them. Liberation is like a childbirth, and a painful one. The person who emerges is a new person: no longer either oppressor or oppressed, but a person in the process of achieving freedom. It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors."- Paulo Freire, from Pedagogy of the Oppressed*************************On Working White Liberals by Maya AngelouI don't ask the Foreign LegionOr anyone to win my freedomOr to fight my battle better than I can,Though there's one thing that I cry forI believe enough to die forThat is every man's responsibility to man.I'm afraid they'll have to prove firstThat they'll watch the Black man move firstThen follow him with faith to kingdom come.This rocky road is not paved for usSo, I'll believe in Liberal's aid for usWhen I see a white man load a Black man's gun.*************************Click here to go to: the Harvard Report, Small Arms report, Miami Law Center Report, Amnesty International ReportsHaiti's 5-points: a real foundation for the restoration of peace and security to Haiti.http://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/5_pointsgrassroots.htmlEndorsed by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network as a FreeHaitiMovement event******************(Donate to support HLLN's work: ) ******************Condemn the upcoming rigged (s)elections in Haiti*****************- Haiti's Biometric Elections: A High-Tech Experiment in Exclusionby Andréa Schmidt - US and UN are not Qualified to Teach Haitians about Democracy by Marguerite Laurent - The Elections Game is On by Justin Podur- Two Faced in Haiti by Justin Podur- Haiti Today - Voter Registration by Brad Workman ( for interview with OAS elections official Elizabeth Spehar Oct. 7, 2005)HLLN Note: these "National ID Cards" sponsored by the OAS and other foreigners are as repugnant as the World Bank debts and US, French and Canadian contracts being divvied up to foreigners to fleece Haiti under this US-installed government. Every decision made and contract entered into after Feb. 29, 2004 by these defacto, on behalf of Haiti as a nation, ALL are unconstitutional, a violation of Haitian sovereignty, dignity, and international laws and not binding on the peoples of Haiti, whatsoever. Haitians are human beings, vested with HUMAN RIGHTS, not anyone’s chattel to be DICTATED to by the OAS, UN, US, France or Canada or their Haitian overseers.- COHA: Haiti – And You Call This an Election? Oct. 11, 2005
- COHA: Haiti - And You Call This an Election? Oct. 11, 2005*********
CONTACT INFORMATION:Call and write the United Nations: 212-963-4879, presidentga58@un.org*UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)PHONE: 011.509.244.9650.9660FAX: 011.509.244.9366/67Or, Fax, Office of General Secretary (New York) - 212.963.4879Hon. Kofi Annan, Secretary-GeneralUnited NationsUnited Nations HeadquartersFirst Avenue at 46th StreetNew York, NY 10017inquiries@un.org; press office: (509) 510-2563 ext. : 6343Ambassador Anne PattersonActing Permanent U.S. representative to the United Nations:212-415-4050 or Peggy Kerry: kerryp@state.govBacre Waly NdiayeDirector-New York Office of the UN Office of the HighCommissioner for Human Rightsph: 212-963-1583 or 212-963-5930fax: 212-963-3463Louise ArbourUN High Commissioner for Human Rights1211 Geneva 10Switzerlandph: 41-22-917-9000fax: 41-22-917-9011email: ngochr@ohchr.orgPhilip AlstonSpecial RapporteurUN High Commissioner for Human Rights.1211 Geneva 10, SwitzerlandFax: 41 22 917 9006email: urgent-action@ohchr.org*Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Head of Human Rights DivisionJuan Gabriel ValdésUnited Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)385, Ave. John Brown, Bourdon, B.P. 557,Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)Fax: +509 244 3512Email: valdes@un.org *Thierry FagartHuman Rights Division, MINUSTAH385, Ave. John Brown, Bourdon, B.P. 557Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)Fax: +509 244 9366+509 244 9367*Email: fagart@un.orgFax No. (212) 963-4879Hon. Kofi Annan, Secretary-GeneralUnited NationsUnited Nations HeadquartersFirst Avenue at 46th StreetNew York, NY 10017inquiries@un.org and presidentga58@un.org*************************************Additional contact information:AmbassadorEmbassy of the Republic of Haiti2311 Massachusetts Ave.NW.Washington DC 20008Fax: 1 202 745 7215Email: embassy@haiti.orgU.S. Charge D'affairs, Timothy CarneyUnited States EmbassyPort-au-Prince, HaitiTelephones: 011-509-223-4711, or 222-0200 or 0354Fax: 011-509-223-1641 or 9038Email to Dana Banks, Human Rights Officer:BanksD@state.gov___________Canadian Ambassador to Haiti, Claude BoucherEmbassy of CanadaPort-au-Prince, HaitiTelephone: 011-509- 249-9000Fax: 011-509-249-9920Email: prnce@international.gc.ca________________________________________________Ambassador of France in Haiti, M. Yves GAUDEULEmbassy of France51 place des Héros de l'Indépendance - BP 312Port-au-Prince, HaitiTelephone: 011-509-222-0952Fax : 011-509-223 5675cc: Fax or send copies to:Fax. No. 011-509-245-0474Me. Henri DorlèansMinistre de la Justice et de la Sècuritè PubliqueMinistère de la Justice19 Avenue Charles SumnerPort-au-Prince, Haiti*General Director of the Haiti National PoliceMario AndresolDirecteur Général de la Police Nationale d'HaïtiGrand Quartier Générale la Police12 rue Oscar Pacot, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (W.I.)Fax: 011-509 245 7374*Prime MinisterGérard LatortueMinistère de l'Intérieure, Villa d'Accueil, Delmas 60Musseau, Port-au-Prince, HAITI (W.I.)Fax: +509 298 3901**************************************************Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Networkhttp://www.margueritelaurent.com/law/lawpress.html**************************************************

Empty bellies and empty elections By G. Dunkel

2005-11-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.workers.org/2005/world/haiti-1124/

See:Urgent Action Alert: Citizens of this planet, the people of Haiti remembering their roots, are calling out to you: Stop the occupation of Haiti, support freedom, justice and democracy * Please send out appeals immediately. http://www.margueritelaurent.com/campaigns/campaignone/presswork/mediacall.html Thank you.

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22166

Feds to Fund Controversial School Surveillance by Catherine Komp

2005-11-29T17:24:00.000-08:00

by Catherine Komp (bio)

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2632

Volunteers: Police Harassment of New Orleans Relief Workers Escalating by Jessica Azulay

2005-11-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2589

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22165

Damian Marley's new video Road To Zion feat. Nas

2005-11-29T16:54:00.000-08:00

http://www.melodymakers.de/video.html

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22088

Tenants Fight Back Against Displacement By Matt Ginbserg-Jaeckle and Ebonee Stevenson

2005-11-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

http://www.fightbacknews.org/2005/05/chicondos.htm

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22149

Surviving Controversy By Kirsten Anderberg (www.kirstenanderberg.com)

2005-11-29T16:42:00.000-08:00

http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/pagesurvivingcontroversy.html

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22150

You can receive Kirsten's articles, as they are written, via an email list called "Eat the Press." Go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/eatthepress to join the list.

Please help support alternative media! http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pagedonate.html

www.kirstenanderberg.com

Flexcar: Public Car Sharing in 2005 By Kirsten Anderberg (www.kirstenanderberg.com)

2005-11-29T15:50:00.000-08:00

http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/pageflexcar.html

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22150

You can receive Kirsten's articles, as they are written, via an email list called "Eat the Press." Go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/eatthepress to join the list.

Please help support alternative media! http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pagedonate.html

www.kirstenanderberg.com

La Haine director Matthieu Kassovitz speaks out

2005-11-29T15:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.mathieukassovitz.com/english/index.htm

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22136

Alabama closes Internet Cafes --Stop that gaming now

2005-11-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

http://67.19.9.2/?article=27927

http://www.publicenemy.com/pb/viewtopic.php?t=22305

The Juba Sniper legend

2005-11-28T22:11:00.000-08:00

If you watch the video please be warned that its not pleasant. The Juba Sniper legend Story Here's the story about the sniper Juba is the nickname given byAmerican forces to an insurgent sniper operating in southern Baghdad. They do not know his appearance, nationality or real name,but they know and fear his skill.They have never seen . They hear him, but by then it's too late: a shot rings out and another US soldier slumps dead or wounded. He : Killing 143 US soldier A wounding 054 US soldier Killing 005 USOfficers Killing 006 US soldier There is never a follow-up shot, never a chance for US forces to identify the origin, to make the hunter the hunted. He fires once and vanishes. Juba is unusual in targeting only coalition troops, a difficult quarry protected by armoured vehicles, body armour and helmets. He waits for soldiers to dismount, or stand up in a Humvee turret, and aims for gaps in their body armour, the lower spine, ribs or above the chest. He has killed from 200 metres away. Take look at an insurgent sniper known as Juba To see the VIDEO* of Iraqi Sniper picking off American Troops click Here http://www.twa9ef.com/uploads/e2ec5c30bd.zip To Listen to a reporter on the Sniper click Here http://www.here-now.org/shows/2005/09/20050912_2.asp Elusive sniper saps US morale in Baghdad http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1542824,00.html

US threatens to block £890m Spanish arms sale to Venezuela Giles Tremlett in Madrid and Jamie Wilson in Washington Thursday Nov. 24, 2005 The Guardian

2005-11-28T22:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,12716,1649300,00.html

US threatens to block £890m Spanish arms sale to Venezuela

2005-11-28T22:08:00.000-08:00

An Occupation Worth Applauding Celebrate Un-Thanksgiving By Mickey Z.

2005-11-28T22:07:00.000-08:00

Until the federal penitentiary was closed in 1963, Alcatraz Island was a place most folks tried to leave. On Nov. 20, 1969, the island's image underwent a drastic makeover. That was the day thousands of American Indians began an occupation that would last until June 11, 1971. The 1973 armed occupation of Wounded Knee along with the siege at the Pine Ridge Reservation one year later (which led directly to the incarceration of Leonard Peltier) are etched deeper in the public consciousness in terms of recent Indian history, but is was the Alcatraz Island occupation that ushered in a new era of Native American activism. "The occupiers," writes Ben Winton in the Fall 1999 issue of Native Peoples magazine, "were an unlikely mix of Indian college activists, families with children fresh off reservations and urban dwellers disenchanted with what they called the U.S. government's economic, social and political neglect." "We hold The Rock," proclaimed Richard Oakes, a Mohawk from New York. Oakes became the occupiers' spokesman...and his words became their motto. "The occupation of Alcatraz was about human rights," said Winton. "It was an effort to restore the dignity of the more than 554 American Indian nations in the United States." Over the course of the occupation, over 5600 American Indians took part-some for a day, some for the entire 18 months. Twenty-three year-old John Trudell, a Santee Sioux from San Bernardino, California heard about the occupation, packed a sleeping bag, and headed to Frisco. "He became the voice of Radio Free Alcatraz, a pirate station that broadcast from the island with the help of local stations" explains Winton. "When he hit the airwaves, the response was often overwhelming. Boxes of food and money poured in from everywhere-from rock groups such as The Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival (who staged a concert on a boat off Alcatraz and then donated the boat), Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, city politicians, and everyday folks." For the first time in modern American history, the plight of Native Americans was making headlines. The fledgling American Indian Movement (AIM) visited the occupiers and soon began a series of their own occupations across America. AIM would soon become a powerful multi-tribal protest organization...just one of the many important outcomes of the Alcatraz takeover. "Despite its chaos and factionalism, the event resulted in major benefits for American Indians," Winton states. "Years later, Brad Patterson, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, cited at least ten major policy and law shifts." Some of those policy shifts include: •Passage of the Indian Self Determination and Education Act •Revision of the Johnson O'Malley Act to better educate Indians •Passage of the Indian Financing Act and the Indian Health Act •Creation of an Assistant Interior Secretary post for Indian Affairs Even today, Alcatraz Island remains part of Native American culture as every November since 1975, on what is called "Un-Thanksgiving Day," Indians gather on the island to honor the occupation and those who continue to fight today. ****** Excerpted from "50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know: Reclaiming American Patriotism" (Disinformation Books) by Mickey Z. For more info, please visit: www.mickeyz.net. http://tinyurl.com/ohshittv

Activist Explains his 'Exterminate Whites' Comment

2005-11-28T22:02:00.000-08:00

By Cash Michaels, Contributing Writer November 21, 2005 http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20051121b via black.....My Story RALEIGH, N.C. (Special to the NNPA from The Carolinian) - It last month during a pre-Millions More Movement conference in Washington, D.C. about improving Black media and activist communications in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that Kamau Kambon's world was turned upside down. Activists at the televised "Pro-Black Media Forum" held at Howard University hammered home the same message - after the horrendous events surrounding Hurricane Katrina, African-Americans dare not trust the government again, and had better regain control over their communities and destinies. But Kambon, one of the invited speakers, angered by what he believed was a continuation of hundreds of years of White oppression of Black people without redress, and sickened by the self-genocide of the community he loves so much, stunned those gathered, and thousands more watching live on C-SPAN, with the following: "...[T]hey're monitoring our people to try to prevent the one person from coming up with the one idea. And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate White people, because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate White people off the face of the planet to solve this problem." After a scattering of applause, the college professor and Black Raleigh bookstore owner continued, "I don't care whether you clap or not, but I'm saying to you that we need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us." He reiterated the point by declaring, "White people want to kill us." In contrast to nonviolent leaders of the 60s like the NAACP's Roy Wilkins and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Black nationalists throughout history, like Malcolm X ("By any means necessary"), H. Rap Brown ("Burn, baby burn") and the late, fiery Nation of Islam ex-minister Khallid Abdul Muhammad ("Lift every voice and sing, yes, but also, lift every fist and swing") always warned that the day of the "final comedown" was approaching, where Blacks would have to take up arms against the White majority to stop police brutality, drug trafficking and racial discrimination. But none had ever publicly used the powerful word "extermination" before. When Kambon, a quiet, well-studied apolitical man who is unaffiliated with any group, religion or cause, used that term on television, intended or otherwise, it ignited a firestorm of national controversy that he neither expected, nor intended. By the middle of the following week, outraged Whites were abuzz on the Internet not only about Kambon's remarks, but that he was a visiting professor at North Carolina State University. They wanted him immediately fired. The school issued a statement distancing itself from the educator. He is no longer there. "Why hasn't this professor been arrested and charged with inciting violence, solicitation of mass murder, and promotion of genocide, which is an international crime against humanity?" wrote someone called "Umnumzana" at The Political Teen, a conservative Web site. One wrote, "This man is a true racist," while another stated, "This man is a human savage." Still another identified himself as "Angry Whitey." On other Web sites, bloggers who identified themselves as White, said they were arming themselves, using racially derogatory language in the process. Radio talk shows across the nation picked up on the controversy, and phone banks were jammed with angry White listeners. Conservative bloggers, still smarting from defending former U.S. Education Secretary Bill Bennett's abort "every Black baby" remark, spun the story to portray Kambon as "Black racist number one." Even Black leaders were called to task to publicly denounce Kambon's remarks. The problem was while the controversy was boiling over in the White community, few in the African-American community were aware it, even days after the fact. Conservatives at the John Locke Foundation tried to get North Carolina Black congressmen Mel Watt and G.K. Butterfield to sponsor a resolution in Congress to denounce Kambon, just like they did Bill Bennett. But neither was aware of the Kambon controversy. When William J. Barber, state NAACP president, was asked to denounce Kambon on NBC-17 News "At Issue" three weeks ago, he hadn't heard anything about it. Still, he made clear that "exterminating White people" was not something the NAACP believed in. "We don't believe in exterminating people," Barber said. " We believe in exterminating bad social policy." Every local African-American leader The Carolinian spoke to within three weeks of the controversy also knew nothing about it, and were surprised to hear it. Those who knew Kambon for many years were especially surprised and said they didn't agree with his "solution." But they added that he and his family throughout the years have always answered the call of the community when needed, allowing various causes to use their Blacknificent Books and More store, or adjoining Bennu' Cultural Center for important meetings and events. They reiterated they didn't agree with Kambon's "solution," but they did agree with what they understood he saw as the problem - the steady genocide, through violence, drugs, poor health and discrimination - of the Black community. Some also noted that while Kambon has always been upfront about his abhorrence of White racism and White supremacy, he knew that there were good, supportive Whites out there. The abolitionists of history who, under threat of death, taught enslaved Africans how to read, and helped found several historically black colleges and universities. And then there's Chapel Hill civil rights attorney Al McSurely, who represented the DOT-7 in the infamous hangman's noose case. McSurely also has represented Kambon when he sued St. Aug for age discrimination after he was terminated several years ago. Those Whites who, in Kambon's view, "just don't give a damn about the great, great, great grandchildren whose ancestors' blood is soaked in the very ground on which we stand," are the enemy, he says, though he's quick to note that liberal Whites are not standing for justice as they said they would. But those who see him as a "hater" have stopped at nothing to vilify him. Kambon's critics are so incensed that they've even created fake interviews online with "Kambon," even though he's never said a word publicly about the controversy until this interview. While all of the mania was going on, threats were being called in to both the store and his home, worrying his family and friends. There weren't a lot, but enough to give pause. There were also calls of support from around the country, however, particularly from young people. They encouraged Kambon to respond, to say something before his remarks were further distorted. Saying anything immediately would only ramp up the fire. Kambon felt it best to let things cool down for a while, and speak only when he was prepared to do so. That time came last week at the Bennu' Cultural Center. In a seven-page statement that was videotaped for later distribution and put up on the Web, Kambon set out to not only respond to critics, but even to those who didn't understand what he says he was saying. He felt the media ran wild with the "exterminate" line, but did not report the rest of what he said, the context for such a dire and dramatic assessment. "I made a statement on a panel in Washington, D.C. on October 14, 2005 and today I am prepared to bring remarks on my original comments," he told a select audience of community supporters. "My official statement today is that I speak for no one." Using that as his recurring theme, Kambon said he "spoke for no one" except "the ancient Afrikans of Kemet - the original name that was changed by the Greeks of Egypt - who were invaded and murdered in mass numbers over the course of centuries by" several peoples, including the Arabs, French, British and Romans Kambon took listeners through a history lesson he was well versed in, recounting the enslavement and "murder" of "Afrikans" by the Arabs over several centuries; the enslavement and imprisonment of millions of West Africans by the Europeans. "I speak for no one, EXCEPT for the millions of Afrikan men in those dungeons who refused to submit and were put three to four in a cell and were left there for all of the other enslaved Afrikans to see them die a slow and painful death," Kambon wrote." "The millions of Afrikan women who were selected by the white commander of the dungeon to be raped repeatedly and sometimes left to die in their own blood." As Kambon, the author of several books on Black history, Black genocide and other topics about how Black people struggle to overcome the horror of their history, sees it, there has been no historic redress for the millions of "enslaved" Africans, brought from their motherland of Africa, chained in great number in cramped, dark and inhuman conditions in the belly of slave ships. The Middle Passage; the Black Holocaust. Many of them ripped off their chained limbs, he says, to jump over the ships into shark-infested waters, preferring to face certain death than enslavement in the "New World." "I speak for no one EXCEPT for all of the Afrikans who arrived in North America bewildered, brutalized, weak, robbed of their culture, language, religions, families, cosmologies and longing for their own homeland," Kambon said." Kambon went on to cite heroes of Black history such as Harriet Tubman, Ida B Wells, W.E.B. DuBois and Frederick Douglass "....and all Black people who begged and petitioned the American government to intercede to stop White people from wanton beatings, murdering, lynching, raping and terrorizing of Black men, Black women and Black children. The government did nothing. The deaths continued." Kambon even paid tribute to the thousands of Black soldiers "who gave their lives" in every war of this nation, "only to return to their America and be lynched physically, economically or socially, while wearing their u.s. uniforms as White people sang "America the Beautiful." He also noted more than 2,000 lynchings of Black people at the turn of the 19th century. And Kambon didn't forget North Carolina history. "I speak for no one, EXCEPT for the many men, women and children who were murdered in Wilmington, NC and Tulsa, Oklahoma - both considered "Black Wall Streets" - and their land stolen from them with the sanction of the American government. The 7,600 Black and poor women in North Carolina, and [31] other states, who were sterilized without their knowledge or permission in clinics as part of the population control program. These sterilizations went on from 1929 to 1974. 65,000 Black and poor women, in this country, were sterilized during this period. Kambon also noted the infamous Tuskegee experiments conducted by the federal government, where black men with syphilis were allowed to die over a 40-year period. Kambon noted many other atrocities put upon Black people and their leaders throughout history that have never been redressed, though many had asked. He talked further about Black babies dying because of poor nutrition; the millions of Black men and women behind bars; elderly Black people not able to make ends meet and forced to give up their properties; the generations of Black people in Africa dying of AIDS. The "Black Holocaust" is still going on, Kambon says. "Some have asked White people, referring to the government and corporations, to just consider talking about reparations, and those requests have fallen on deaf ears," he writes. "Why are White people not listening to, and implementing the suggestions of all the civic groups trying to advance the social, economic, educational, health and cultural concerns of Black people? "I speak for no one, EXCEPT for my ancestors, our dead, and for myself, and I am saying that I don't even know half of the true history of Black people. but I have seen and know enough to be able to say, "The war and genocide against Black people, in all of the areas of life activity, worldwide, must stop." In further remarks to his audience, Kambon admitted that Black people are in no position to do what he said on Oct. 14, and that his remarks were more a reference to if something isn't done to stop the genocide of Blacks at the hands of whites, "we'll be wiped off the face of the Earth." Realizing that his "solution" is not popularly shared in the African-American community, Kambon closed by asking, "Do you have a better solution to offer to solve this problem?" (His full seven-page statement can be read www.blacknificent.com)

TiVo Files Patent For RFID Video Recoder Based On Implant Chip/TiVo Files Patent For RFID-Based Video Recorder

2005-11-28T21:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2005/241105tivofiles.htm

TiVo Files Patent For RFID Video Recoder Based On Implant Chip
Prison Planet November 24 2005
This is absolutely key. We have been told all along that implantable chips will only ever be voluntary, yet through security justifications and popular culture they're sqeezing us in a vice like grip.
In the future it will be a case of no chip, no TV. They want to create a society of outcasts who refuse to take the chip and then can be demonized and blamed for society's ills.
They are relying on peer pressure to push part of the agenda through. Clubs across Europe are already chipping people to enter VIP areas.
On the security/political side of the equation, Tommy Thompson is touring the US advocating the loving security chip.
----------------------------
TiVo Files Patent For RFID-Based Video Recorder
Information Week/Laurie Sullivan November 24 2005
TiVo Inc. has filed a patent application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month that suggests company inventors believe radio frequency identification (RFID) technology will become inserted into clothing, jewelry, key chains, and even under the skin in the body.
Whether TiVo actually decides to build in the feature, the patent is for a personal video recorder (PVR) that recognizes viewer preferences through an RFID chip embedded in clothing, jewelry or "inserted somewhere [in] the user's body."
The multimedia mobile personalization system would have a remote control that recognizes the viewer's RFID tag closest to the PVR. The remote control identifies and notifies the multimedia device through the RFID chip in the person's clothing or body to tailor the media content to their preferences.
The remote control device would identify and link the viewer to the system using an "RFID tag that is attached to a key ring, necklace, watch, in his wallet, or even a sub dermal tag inserted somewhere in the user's body." The remote control would detect the RFID tag in a limited radius so it wouldn't get confused by signals from others, the patent said.
Either broadcast or recorded television programs and music play lists stored on a local hard drive could be sorted, displayed or restricted, depending on the user identifier. Other methods of identifying the user are stated, too, such as computer vision recognition, biometric identification, and voice analysis.
http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174401575

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2005/241105tivofiles.htm

Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse? By Steven E. Jones

2005-11-27T20:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html

New Orleans Activists Fill Aid Gaps Left by FEMA, Red Cross

2005-11-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

by Jessica Azulay
Rather than wait for help from giant institutions preoccupied elsewhere, and instead of building a legacy of dependence, local groups have sprung up to recover poor and working-class neighborhoods through collective organizing. New Orleans, Oct 24 - At any given time, about 30 volunteers with the grassroots relief organization Common Ground Collective work from early morning until late at night in a small corner of the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. They unload trucks, patch people's homes, staff an on-site distribution center, and drive supplies out to surrounding regions. Throughout the day, people from the neighborhood drop by to pick up supplies. Stacks of canned food, bottled water, toiletries, bleach, diapers, baby food and other necessities are stored in what volunteers have dubbed "the tunnel," a long outdoor corridor roofed by tarps. "Over 100 people a day [are] coming in here, and each of those 100 people were serving on average between two and five people," said Isabelle Troadec, who came from Maine to volunteer with Common Ground, which was founded in the days following Katrina's blow to the Gulf Coast by prominent black activist Malik Rahim and a few friends. Toadec arrived about four weeks ago and now heads up distribution for the collective. "We are feeding a lot of people," she said. Though most Americans might be surprised that such grassroots level relief is still necessary a full two months after Katrina flooded New Orleans, the gaps left by federally funded programs and large charities are evident in the still-devastated Crescent City. People live in houses with holes in the roofs. Families struggle to find enough food, water and ice to get them through the day. And neighborhoods sit largely empty waiting for their residents to find the resources to return. In the face of the inadequate official response, small groups like Common Ground are struggling to pick up the slack. They work with few monetary resources and volunteer labor in an effort to reach those underserved by powerful relief agencies. They combine their humanitarian efforts with an alternative vision of rebuilding that seeks to empower and restore dignity to the people of this struggling city. "These folks have been given handouts, been pushed into places they never wanted to beâ€¦ [had] to beg for stuff, been denied things they needed â€" all that for a long time. Over a month [at least], and potentially [over] their whole lives," Troadec said. "So people here need to just recognize what it means to be here giving things out to people." Almost daily, trucks leave the makeshift relief center for poor communities in neighboring Terrebonne and Plaquemine Parishes, as well as closer neighborhoods in New Orleans. Common Ground volunteers, who run an organization younger than the crisis itself, say they have often been the first relief organization to arrive in the places they serve. The volunteers â€" most from out of town â€" sleep in tents outside Rahim's house, cook in an outdoor kitchen and organize themselves through daily meetings. While some stay on-site to help with local distribution and others drive trucks out to needy areas, still more volunteers help tarp people's roofs and clean homes damaged by wind, rain and flooding. The group has also set up a computer center in the garage where area residents can register online with FEMA. In addition to its distribution and aid projects, Common Ground opened a health clinic in the neighborhood a couple of weeks after Katrina hit. Staffed by another few dozen volunteers from all over the country and housed temporarily in a mosque, the clinic provides free primary care to anyone who comes through its doors. Volunteer healthcare professionals administer vaccines, check blood pressure, treat diabetes, fill prescriptions from an in-house pharmacy and provide other basic health care. The clinic is staffed by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and first aid activists who use donated supplies, and they report seeing well over 100 patients on a typical day. They also send mobile clinics into outlying neighborhoods. Volunteer Aislyn Colgan said she thinks the establishment of the clinic is proof that people can come together to meet needs without the government's involvement. "To think that just a bunch of volunteers with donations were able to provide this tremendous support when multiple government agencies could not do it," she said, "[is] just really beautiful." The health clinic also tries to help people deal with the emotional repercussions of the storm and its aftermath. "Every single person, no matter whether it's a blood pressure check or a tetanus shot or whatever, they're here for [emotional] trauma," said an RN who helps coordinate the clinic. "It's deep and it's unrelenting and there's a lot of loss, and the grief issues are hugeâ€¦ and so the medicine is just a vehicle to be able to deal and to provide an ear, just to listen to people's stories and to maybe give them a little bit of a chance to grieve." Across the river, in the Treme neighborhood, another grassroots initiative sprung up while the floodwaters were still rising. A group of residents there worked tirelessly during the storm to rescue their neighbors from the water when they were all but abandoned by various government-sanctioned responders. Dubbed the "Soul Patrol," the group of mostly young black men is believed by locals to have helped save and evacuate hundreds of people. A prominent community leader, Diane Frenchcoat, known around New Orleans as "Mama D," has since helped organize the Soul Patrol and several out-of-town volunteers into a cleaning force that is working to make the neighborhood as inviting as possible to returning residents. They have cleared debris from the streets and sidewalks, cleaned off neighbors' porches, and done as much as they can to make their immediate area livable, even though power and running water have yet to be restored. Then, as their neighbors return, volunteers help them clean out flood-damaged houses, providing them with protective gear and supplies to tackle the mold that grows like runaway moss in homes once submerged in putrid floodwaters. The volunteers also try to give moral support to residents as they struggle with the loss of loved ones and possessions. In an interview at her home, which still has no electricity, yet is constantly abuzz with activity, Mama D expressed the importance of having neighborhood support structure in place as those scattered by Katrina and the government return home. She said people are dealing with so much grief and loss that she wants to make sure they are accompanied through the process by their community. "This is just neighbors helping neighbors; that's all I can tell you," she said. Like most of her counterparts involved in other grassroots relief efforts, Mama D said what the community most needs are skilled volunteers to help with the rebuilding process and donations of cleaning and building materials. But she also wants people from New Orleans to come home and take part in the rebuilding. She said she plans to ask donors to pay stipends to some of the returning residents so they can be compensated for helping to clean up and rebuild the neighborhood. Mama D's vision of local empowerment and grassroots jobs is shared by the activists at Common Ground, who plan to start worker cooperatives that employ local residents, land trusts and affordable housing, training programs and free education. And they plan to make their health clinic permanent. In the short term, Common Ground is organizing buses of volunteers from all over the country to be joined by evacuees who want to return to New Orleans. They describe the Roadtrip for Relief as "a nation-wide caravan of activists, allies and returning evacuees, converging in New Orleans for the immense rebuilding project." It is scheduled for November 20-27. "Right now we are in the phase of spreading hope, and when there is hope, anything can happen," said Suncere Ali Shakur, a seasoned activist from Washington, DC who moved to New Orleans to work with Common Ground. "I think that's the first step in being able to have people get their feet up under themselves, and by providing that hope it provides a vehicle for people to express themselves politically." Shakur continued, "If we can act now, we can save people who are living in misery and we can save lives, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually." Editorsâ€™ note: The Common Ground Collective provided reporter Jessica Azulay with meals and internet access during the gathering of this story. http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2519

US declines UN request for information on Guantanamo

2005-11-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1495626.htm
US declines UN request for information on Guantanamo
The United States has turned down a UN human rights panel's request to provide information about its detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a report revealed on Tuesday. Washington declined to include information on detention facilities outside US territory in its report submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee, according to the document. The committee, made up of 18 independent experts elected by the UN General Assembly, in July 2004 pressed Washington for information about its overseas military detention centres. However, according to the US response late last month, these fall outside the committee's remit because they are "governed by the laws of war". Like the other 153 signatories of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the United States is bound to submit regular reports to the committee on its implementation of what is the UN's core human rights accord. Washington reaffirmed its stance that the covenant only applies on US territory - something the committee has disputed in the past. "The obligations assumed by the United States under the Covenant apply only within the territory of the United States," said the report. "The United States has sought to respond to the Committee's concerns as fully as possible, notwithstanding the continuing difference of view between the Committee and the United States concerning certain matters relating to the import and scope of provision of the Covenant," it added. The UN committee also gathers information from non-governmental sources. Released detainees and advocacy groups have made regular allegations of human rights violations at the US military's foreign detention centres, stoked by the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq. Controversy has raged over the Guantanamo centre, in a US military enclave in Cuba. About 500 people are being held there, most without charges, as enemy combatants in the US war on terrorism. Most were captured in 2001 in Afghanistan. Last week, Washington announced that it would invite three UN human rights experts to visit the base for a day, with the goal "to broaden understanding of US detention operations and to demonstrate that detainees at Guantanamo are treated humanely". But on Monday the experts - who are not part of the committee - said they would only go on their proposed December 6 mission if they have free access to the prisoners. - AFP

Family Stands by Suit Over 1969 Race Riot

2005-11-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

Family Stands by Suit Over 1969 Race Riot By MARK SCOLFORO ASSOCIATED PRESS HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Relatives of a black woman who was shot to death by a gang of white men in 1969 after driving into their neighborhood asked a federal judge on Monday not to throw out their civil lawsuit. The family of Lillie Belle Allen said they had lacked the necessary information to pursue a case against the city of York and five former police officers until after a 2002 trial when two men were convicted. The defendants have asked U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane to dismiss the case, arguing the statute of limitations has expired. "The (dismissal) motion hinges on the proposition that the plaintiffs - Ms. Allen's children and sisters - somehow knew or should have known more than the city of York itself about the police complicity in Ms. Allen's murder," attorney Harold I. Goodman wrote. Gregory H. Neff and Robert N. Messersmith are serving prison terms for Allen's death in July 1969 during a week of racial unrest in York. A third defendant, former York Mayor Charlie Robertson, was acquitted. The family's wrongful-death lawsuit accuses Robertson, who was a police officer at the time of the shooting, four other former officers and the city of inciting violence and covering-up evidence and identities of those involved. City solicitor Don Hoyt said the defendants could also seek dismissal by arguing they didn't cause Allen's death. "We do happen to know, no matter where we live in this area, that (other) men were convicted in her death," he said. Allen was visiting the Pennsylvania city from South Carolina when the car she was riding in with relatives was attacked by an armed mob of white men. There were no arrests until after the race riot's 30-year anniversary, when authorities began actively investigating the case. Ten white men were eventually charged in Allen's slaying. The other seven defendants all pleaded guilty or no contest to lesser charges.

Howard Students Protest Exclusion from First Lady’s On-Campus Confab

2005-11-05T06:53:00.000-08:00

Howard Students Protest Exclusion from First Lady’s On-Campus Confab
Date: Sunday, October 30, 2005
By: Ayesha Rascoe,
Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/howard1031 via: Black.....My Story Angry because Howard University students were denied access to an invitation-only youth summit on their own campus, nearly 200 black students protested the event last week, which featured President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. "We are the leaders of at-risk youth," Kari Fulton, a junior legal communications major at Howard who participated in the protest, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "We are the ones who should be able to tell them how to help [the youth] come out of risk." According to Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, "dozens of students locked arms around a flagpole in the Quadrangle, a designated forbidden zone at the center of the campus, and refused to move despite warnings from campus security that Secret Service rooftop snipers might open fire on them." Because security was tight, officials said, students experienced restricted access to some parts of the Washington, D.C. campus. "With the President of the United States on campus, security is to be expected," Howard University Prresident H. Patrick Swygert told protesters. But, in addition to the issue of being shut out of the conference, Howard students also protested Bush, the Republicans and their conservative agenda. The White House conference, called "Helping America’s Youth," was initiated by Laura Bush and designed to address a myriad of social and economic concerns that impact the nation’s young people, and young blacks in particular. Last week’s confab at Howard assembled more than 500 parents, civic leaders, faith-based and community service providers, foundations, educators, researchers, and experts in child development who gathered to discuss the various challenges facing America’s "at-risk" youth. Although many student protesters also complained about the Bush administration’s conservative social and economic policies, they focused the bulk of their anger on their lack of involvement during the conference where the First Lady delivered a speech and President Bush made a brief appearance. "Today's Conference on Helping America's Youth is about helping all young people -- boys and girls, children and teens -- grow up to be healthy and successful adults," Laura Bush said in her speech at Howard. "I'm honored that my husband asked me to lead this initiative, which has given me the opportunity to meet so many terrific young people, as well as the caring adults who have made it their life commitment to help the young people around them grow up.” "Children want us in their lives, and they need us in their lives," the First Lady added. "And as I've learned from the remarkable men and women I've met across our country, each of us has the power to bring hope and opportunity to children's lives." But most Howard students didn’t hear Mrs. Bush’s remarks. "Our campus was closed off to us," said Edna Hammett, a senior administration of justice and political science major. "We have to use the back door while visitors use the front door. This is ridiculous." "I think there definitely needs to be a committee of students and administrators to decide who comes here," Fulton said. Fulton was not alone in expressing her displeasure with Bush’s campus appearance. Some student protesters criticized President Bush’s administration by holding lime green signs that read: "Money For Education, Not War," and chanting "Books, Not Bush." The First Lady’s visit to Howard, a historically black university, appeared part of a larger effort of the Republican Party to attract more black voters. President Bush received 11 percent of the black vote in the 2004 presidential election, three percent more than the 2000 election. Donna Brazile, a Democratic political consultant, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that the GOP, under the leadership of its chairman, Ken Mehlman, has been extremely aggressive this year in reaching out to blacks. Brazile said Republicans are making inroads as some blacks are embracing the GOP message. In fact, Howard University has an active GOP coalition, College Republicans, which sponsored a campus appearance by Melhman a few months ago. At last week's protest, a number of students expressed frustration that very few Howard students were invited to the conference, and Swygert admitted that some changes are needed before similar events are held on Howard’s campus. "We need to address it ourselves and with the White House," Swygert said. "We’re going to be stronger for this experience." Students like Frank Tucker, a freshman political science major, said he believed the largely impromptu protest could have been more forceful. "I feel like you can’t make a compromise during a protest," Tucker told BlackAmericaWeb.com, referring to the willingness of some students to acquiesce to Campus Police commands to move farther back on the Yard. "This is a complete sign of the times. We have a bootleg march like this with unorganized people making compromises." Protester Ava Wilson, a sophomore African-American Studies major, disagreed with Tucker’s sentiments. "I feel that everyone’s saying it’s not organized, but we came together for one purpose," Wilson said. "We’re obviously making waves because we have not moved." While students may disagree with the outcome of the protest, some Howard administrators said they were pleased with the actions taken by Howard students. "I’m proud of them," said James Donaldson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "We try to instill in our students leadership, and as a part of that Leadership, they need to be able to take principled stands on important matters confronting humankind." --- Ayesha Rascoe is a junior at Howard University, majoring in journalism.

Elections Postponed in Bolivia

2005-11-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

Elections Postponed in Bolivia
By Luis Gomez,
Posted on Fri Oct 28th, 2005 at 09:30:05 PM EST

For about the last month this country has lived under the threat of an electoral postponement; the December 4 general elections were up in the air. Today, barely an hour ago, the Bolivian political parties represented in the National Congress were unable to reach an agreement in order to authorize elections as they had been expected to do. The pressures coming from the right (based in the department of Santa Cruz) to obtain more seats in the new session of congress have achieved their main goal: a climate of general uncertainty. Here's the story:

When the department of Santa Cruz requested that four new electoral districts be drawn in order for them to get four more deputies (members of the lower house) in the next Congress, the Bolivian political class cried up to high heaven (everyone from Evo Morales to neoliberal former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga): the redrawing of the electoral map in this country could hold up elections. Late last month, the Santa Cruz leaders insisted nonetheless on pressing for their demands, making a claim before the Constitutional Tribunal (Supreme Court) that turned out very well for them.

After that event, Congress was obligated to meet to discuss the various proposals for redistributing Bolivia's nine departments' representation. But a month later, after debates, threats, and exchanges of accusations, there was no agreement. In fact, today the deadline ran out for making decisions, modifying the necessary laws, and authorizing the National Electoral Court… and it was a bust; no one did anything in order to reach an accord. For the entire week, congressmen from all different regions were walking out of the sessions…

Yesterday, while the representatives of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz entrenched themselves in their respective regions, there was no session in Congress. There was not one today, either, of course; not even the Movement Toward Socialism's (MAS) representatives were in La Paz. All congressional activity was limited to a long meeting between party and regional leaders and a few representatives from President Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé… but they didn't get anything done.

And so, although Evo Morales accuses Tuto Quiroga and former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada of plotting against democracy; although Quiroga has been defending himself; although Deputy Williams Paniagua (a friend and fellow ideologue of Sánchez de Lozada) says that he and all his fellow Cruceños (people from Santa Cruz) are hoping for elections to go forward as planed; although everyone complains and says that they had always warned that "the wolf was on his way," none of them applied any pressure… Evo spoke today from the Chapare, Quiroga declined to pressure the congressmen that he controls (which are no small number), and the right wing representatives from Santa Cruz and those from Cochabamba, who seem to have made some kind of deal, are far away. No one was in his or her seat to defend democracy.

President Rodríguez, who spent weeks guaranteeing that elections would proceed, is doing nothing but analyzing the situation, and has yet to show his face. His representatives, especially Presidential Delegate Jorge Lazarte, could barely sum up the events and don't know if it will be possible to find a way out of this.

For now, the leaders of the political classthat work in Congress are still in meetings, trying to find a solution, which could take the form of a decree to redistribute seats (if the president is up to it). Rodríguez Veltzé will speak shortly to clarify his position…

This is a scenario full of Judases and Pilates that we will continue to report on, because the people, in the streets and in the communities, are already beginning to show their discontent (don't forget, kind readers, that the people did not ask for these elections during last May and June's mobilizations, but they accepted a truce in order to wait for them)… stay with us, as the air around here is heating up…

Pres. Rodríguez Veltzé Isn't Moving
by Luis Gomez on Fri Oct 28th, 2005 at 10:33:51 PM EST

The whole mess came about this afternoon when the National Electoral Court (CNE in its Spanish initials) released a statement announcing that it was now impossible to complete its work and organize the December 4 elections.

With this declaration, which court spokesman Salvador Romero Balliván (a man close to former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga) endorsed and explained one hour ago, the CNE demonstrated that it was incapable of printing and distributing ballots (and fulfilling all of its commitments) in a period of less than forty days. Ballivián, nevertheless, left open the possibility that the process could be carried out one or two weeks after the scheduled election day (on either the 11th or 18th of December, both Sundays).

A few minutes ago, the president's spokesman announced the government's official position on the matter in a brief press conference. Taking into consideration the CNE's announcement, President Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzá has "initiated an urgent evaluation" of what this implies, held meetings all afternoon with representatives of various sectors (businessmen, elected politicians, and his own government officials)… but not much more.

According to the presidential spokesman, the Bolivian president will try to meet with all the sectors involved in this conflict to "soften positions" and produce a result on Monday at the latest, "an accord to preserve de Bolivian democratic system and national unity," the spokesman said.

As for the possibility of making a decree to redistribute Congressional seats (specifically in the Chamber of Deputies), the government spokesman explained: "At the moment we have nothing defined on that issue," making it clear that they continue to see this method as a possible alternative.

Finally, Rodríguez Veltzé's position is that elections "be carried out in the month of December, within the terms of the call [for elections after the May-June uprising]," looking at a new timeframe in order to move elections ahead according to the CNE announcement. He also dismissed the possibility of holding the Constituent (Constitutional) Assembly (a solution that is already being examined) before the elections.

In fewer words, kind readers, the president of Bolivia is not moving from his spot, not making any concrete action… further feeding the uncertainty.

Spreading Bad Information on Elections in Bolivia
by Luis Gomez on Fri Oct 28th, 2005 at 11:18:09 PM EST

As always, our little colleagues from the international news services are contributing to the general chaos. In this case, kind readers, we can't let that happen, because even Evo Morales seems to be falling into their trap…

Let's make this very clear: in the climate of tension that the new distribution of congressional seats — endorsed by the Constitutional Tribubal — has caused, the National Electoral Court (CNE) has expressed its technical inability to carry out its organizational and logistical duties, BUT IT CANNOT SUSPEND ELECTIONS, because it is not empowered to do so.

Nevertheless, probably in order to sell more copy, both EFE and UPI are going around shouting that the CNE has suspended elections.

This issue, which may seem pretty insignificant, is a delicate one, because aside from accusing Congress (as EFE's reporter does), they don't mention the heart of the issue: it was the members of the Santa Cruz right wing (with the complicity of those from Cochabamba) that closed the doors to an agreement on the congressional seats: that is what is impeding the realization of the December 4 elections. The CNE is just an institution that threw the first stone at the democratic system, one which everyone is now following…

Don't let yourselves be confused, kind readers. The villains of the story are the members of Santa Cruz oligarchy (and not their messengers from the CNE)… people who couldn't find anything better to do than find a way to sabotage a process that, according to the polls, doesn't seem to be favoring them much…

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/10/28/21305/971

The Epic Crime That Dares Not Speak Its Name

2005-11-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

By John Pilger

10/27/05 "ICH
" -- -- A Royal Air Force officer is about to be tried
before a military court for refusing to return to Iraq because the
war is illegal. Malcolm Kendall-Smith is the first British officer
to face criminal charges for challenging the legality of the
invasion and occupation. He is not a conscientious objector; he has
completed two tours in Iraq. When he came home the last time, he
studied the reasons given for attacking Iraq and concluded he was
breaking the law. His position is supported by international lawyers
all over the world, not least by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary
general, who said in September last year: "The US-led invasion of
Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN Charter."

The question of legality deeply concerns the British military brass,
who sought Tony Blair's assurance on the eve of the invasion, got it
and, as they now know, were lied to. They are right to worry;
Britain is a signatory to the treaty that set up the International
Criminal Court, which draws its codes from the Geneva Conventions
and the 1945 Nuremberg Charter. The latter is clear: "To initiate a
war of aggression... is not only an international crime, it is the
supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in
that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

At the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leadership, counts one and two,
"Conspiracy to wage aggressive war and waging aggressive war", refer
to "the common plan or conspiracy". These are defined in the
indictment as "the planning, preparation, initiation and waging of
wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of
international treaties, agreements and assurances". A wealth of
evidence is now available that George Bush, Blair and their advisers
did just that. The leaked minutes from the infamous Downing Street
meeting in July 2002 alone reveal that Blair and his war cabinet
knew that it was illegal. The attack that followed, mounted against
a defenceless country offering no threat to the US or Britain, has a
precedent in Hitler's invasion of Sudetenland; the lies told to
justify both are eerily similar.

The similarity is also striking in the illegal bombing campaign that
preceded both. Unknown to most people in Britain and America,
British and US planes conducted a ferocious bombing campaign against
Iraq in the ten months prior to the invasion, hoping this would
provoke Saddam Hussein into supplying an excuse for an invasion. It
failed and killed an unknown number of civilians.

At Nuremberg, counts three and four referred to "War crimes and
crimes against humanity". Here again, there is overwhelming evidence
that Blair and Bush committed "violations of the laws or customs of
war" including "murder... of civilian populations of or in occupied
territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war".

Two recent examples: the US onslaught near Ramadi this month in
which 39 men, women and children - all civilians - were killed, and
a report by the United Nations special rapporteur in Iraq who
described the Anglo-American practice of denying food and water to
Iraqi civilians in order to force them to leave their towns and
villages as a "flagrant violation" of the Geneva Conventions.

In September, Human Rights Watch released an epic study that
documents the systematic nature of torture by the Americans, and how
casual it is, even enjoyable. This is a sergeant from the US Army's
82nd Airborne Division: "On their day off people would show up all
the time. Everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your
frustration you show up at the PUC [prisoners'] tent. In a way it
was sport... One day a sergeant shows up and tells a PUC to grab a
pole. He told him to bend over and broke the guy's leg with a mini
Louisville Slugger that was a metal [baseball] bat. He was the
fucking cook!"

The report describes how the people of Fallujah, the scene of
numerous American atrocities, regard the 82nd Airborne as "the
Murdering Maniacs". Reading it, you realise that the occupying force
in Iraq is, as the head of Reuters said recently, out of control. It
is destroying lives in industrial quantities when compared with the
violence of the resistance.

Who will be punished for this? According to Sir Michael Jay, the
permanent under-secretary of state who gave evidence before the
Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee on 24 June 2003, "Iraq was
on the agenda of each cabinet meeting in the nine months or so until
the conflict broke out in April". How is it possible that in 20 or
more cabinet meetings, ministers did not learn about Blair's
conspiracy with Bush? Or, if they did, how is it possible they were
so comprehensively deceived?

Charles Clarke's position is important because, as the current
British Home Secretary (interior minister), he has proposed a series
of totalitarian measures that emasculate habeas corpus, which is the
barrier between a democracy and a police state. Clarke's proposals
pointedly ignore state terrorism and state crime and, by clear
implication, say they require no accountability. Great crimes, such
as invasion and its horrors, can proceed with impunity. This is
lawlessness on a vast scale. Are the people of Britain going to
allow this, and those responsible to escape justice? Flight
Lieutenant Kendall-Smith speaks for the rule of law and humanity and
deserves our support.

First published in the New Statesman - www.newstatesman.co.uk

What Reagan Started, Bush Is Finishing

2005-11-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

By David Martin

10/26/05 "ICH"
-- -- In recent weeks, every morning’s newspaper
seems to carry another headline documenting the accelerating
tailspin of George Bush’s administration into disastrous fiasco.
Political pundits may attribute the ongoing self-immolation of
George Bush to the general ineptitude of the Mayberry Machiavellis
with whom he has surrounded himself.

But there is another, more historically correct explanation for the
current presidential unraveling: the disaster that is George Bush is
the inevitable culmination of the “revolution” wrought by Ronald
Reagan.

The Great Charlatan swept into office proclaiming that government
was the problem. If only it got out of the way, the energy,
creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector would
be unleashed and a golden economic age would dawn. A rising tide of
affluence would lift all boats, and we would all sail off into a
rosy sunset.

Now after eight years of the Gipper, four years of Bush I, eight
years of Republican Lite under Clinton, and five years of Shrub, we
see the truth of the Reagan Revolution. The gradual withering away
of the welfare and regulatory state has not unleashed the American
entrepreneurial spirit. Rather, it has set loose the predatory greed
of the 19th century robber barons, the class cannibalism of Social
Darwinism, and the winner-take-all rapacity of laissez faire
capitalism.

The bright and shining “morning in America” that Reagan touted has
turned into a cold, gray dusk as the sun rapidly sets on the
American dream. In the 25 years since Reagan was sworn into office,
the middle class is shrinking and the gap between wealthy and poor
is reaching Grand Canyon proportions. During this period the average
after-tax income of the lowest fifth of Americans has increased by
5%, the middle fifth by 15%, and the top fifth by 48%. The income of
the top 1% of Americans, in contrast, has more than doubled, growing
from $298,900 to $631,700, an increase of 111%.1

The trickle down promised by supply-side economists has diminished
to a slow drip. The tax policies of George Bush have only
exacerbated this problem. The combined effect of his tax cuts has
been to reduce federal tax revenue to its lowest level as a share of
the economy since 1950.2 The inevitable result is the return of
Reaganesque tax deficits that Bill Clinton worked so hard to erase.
George Bush is mortgaging our future, and the Chinese hold the note.

Reagan came into office promising to shrink government to keep it
from stifling private initiative. He and his successors may not have
been too successful in shrinking the size of the government, but
they have certainly magnified its ineptitude. The government that
once put a man on the moon now cannot deliver ice to the Gulf Coast.

The American military that conducted a multi-front war to defeat the
formidable powers of Germany and Japan cannot subdue shadowy car
bombers in Iraq or the remnants of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A
military logistical system that was able to supply its armies across
two oceans somehow can’t coordinate the delivery of armored Humvees
to troops stationed in Iraq or supply them with up to date bullet
proof vests.

Privatization was another of Reagan’s sacred tenets. The theory was
that privatizing services once provided by government would result
in greater efficiencies at lower costs. The Iraq occupation was to
be a textbook case for the miracle of privatization. First the
American forces destroyed the Iraqi infrastructure (except for the
oil industry), then the job of rebuilding was turned over to large,
private, well-connected construction firms.

Two years after the American invasion the Iraqis have only
intermittent electrical service and inadequate water supplies. But
the construction firms did prove efficient in at least one area:
ripping off the American taxpayer. Billions of dollars have
disappeared into the black hole of Iraq reconstruction, and contract
administrators can only shrug and mumble about difficult
circumstances.

The Bush administration may have fumbled relief efforts in the
immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But it was well prepared
to apply the lessons of Iraq reconstruction to the rebuilding of the
Gulf Coast. The Katrina clean up could have been one huge WPA
project to help alleviate the widespread poverty so cruelly exposed
by the monster storm. Instead George Bush rescinded wage and
environmental regulations and turned the Gulf Coast into a free fire
zone for crony capitalism.

The same well-connected, underperforming firms from Iraq were given
the same no-bid, no oversight contracts in Louisiana and
Mississippi. As a result, illegal immigrants are being paid at below
minimum wage rates to do the work that should be done by displaced
residents at Davis-Bacon wage rates. One can anticipate the
importation of workers from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan as New
Orleans displacees are shuttled from one government trailer park to
another.

Politicians and their supporters love to wax romantic about the
legacy they leave behind. Here’s the Reagan/Bush legacy: failed
wars, support of terrorists, environmental degradation, the income
distribution of a banana republic, a credit rating a third world
country would be ashamed of, falling health standards, the
disappearance of guaranteed retirement pensions, and corporate
malfeasance on an unprecedented scale.

George Bush loves to end his speeches with a request for God to
bless the United States of America. What he really needs to ask is
for God to save us.

David Martin -
<damrtn48@ntplx.net>

Notes

1 Figures taken from Congressional Budget Office report, Historical
Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2002, March 2005.

2 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Tax Returns, A
Comprehensive Assessment of the Bush Administration’s Record on
Cutting Taxes, April 23, 2004.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10779.htm

A State Of Inequality

2005-11-05T04:56:00.000-08:00

A State Of Inequality
By Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel
Fall is inequality season. Every autumn, as the leaves change color, we get a vivid new picture of the trends that pull us apart as a country. This year is no different. But after almost three decades of incrementally widening disparities of wealth and income, it's worth noting that we've entered a new version of economic apartheid, American-style. Let's call it Inequality 2.0. The United States is now the third most unequal industrialized society after Russia and Mexico. This is not a club we want to be part of. Russia is a recovering kleptocracy, with a post-Soviet oligarchy enriched by looting. And Mexico, despite joining the rich-nations club of the Organization for Economic and Community Development, has some of the most glaring poverty in the hemisphere. In 2004, after three years of economic recovery, the U.S. Census reports that poverty continues to grow, while the real median income for full-time workers has declined. Since 2001, when the economy hit bottom, the ranks of our nation's poor have grown by 4 million, and the number of people without health insurance has swelled by 4.6 million to over 45 million. Income inequality is now near all-time highs, with over 50 percent of 2004 income going to the top fifth of households, and the biggest gains going to the top 5 percent and 1 percent of households. The average CEO now takes home a paycheck 431 times that of their average worker. At the pinnacle of U.S. wealth, 2004 saw a dramatic increase in the number of billionaires. According to Forbes Magazine, there are now 374 U.S. billionaires. The growth in billionaires took a dramatic leap since the early 1980s, when the average net worth of the individuals on the Forbes 400 list was $400 million. Today, the average net worth is $2.8 billion. Wal-Mart's Walton family now has 771,287 times more than the median U.S. household. Does inequality matter? One problem is that concentrations of wealth and power pose a danger to our democratic system. The corruption of politics by big money might explain why for the last five years the President and Congress have been more interested in repealing the federal estate tax, paid only by multi-millionaires, than on reinforcing levees along the Gulf Coast. Now, to pay for hurricane reconstruction and the war in Iraq, Congress is considering cuts in programs that help poor people, such as Medicaid and Food Stamps. They have not yet considered fairer ways of reducing the deficit by reversing special tax breaks for the rich, such as the recent cuts in capital gains and dividend taxes. Inequality is non-partisan. The pace of inequality has grown steadily over three decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations and Congresses. The Gini index, the global measure of inequality, grew as quickly under President Clinton as it has under President George W. Bush. Widening disparities in the U.S. are the result of three decades of bi-partisan public policies that have tilted the rules of the economy to the benefit of major corporations and large asset owners at the expense of people whose security comes from a paycheck. Public policies in trade, taxes, wages and social spending can make a difference in mitigating national and global trends toward prolonged inequality. But our priorities are moving in the wrong direction. For example, the failure to raise the minimum wage from its 1997 level of $5.15 an hour guarantees continued income stagnation for the working poor for years to come. The President and Congress's focus on tax cuts for the wealthy and their disinterest in government spending to expand equal opportunity sets the stage for Inequality Version 3.0. We shouldn't tolerate this drift toward an economic apartheid society. Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel are co-authors of the new book, "Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity" (The New Press). © 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

http://www.alternet.org/story/27168/

Haiti...their lives in our hands

2005-11-04T21:39:00.001-08:00

Again ....Please act on this bulletin, repost it to your friends lists, take a couple of minutes out of your day to try stop our innocent brothas and sistas from suffering horrificaly under the Bush Regime.... can't you see? this is about your self-preservation too?Didn't Katrina show you something about what time it is ??..if we do not start to become interested in our own preservation ..... who will? ...Peace. the film by Kevin Pinashows the results of bullet shots to the head, administered indiscriminately to unarmed men women and children alike by UN troops. ... (not for the fainthearted).(see the whole article here at Indymedia)... To read the Transcript or Watch the TV interview with President Aristide after his kidnapping , click this link at democracy now .Read this article... abbout Aristide in exile by Naiome Kleine (JULY 2005) in the Nation.Aristide and the Endless Revolution... A Nicolas Rossier filmView the trailer ..... ___________________________________________________The petition document itself was authored with the approval of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network - see this article of thanks to the Hiphop community .....Click on the flag below for all details concerning the U.S Coup on Haiti and the Hiphoppas for Haiti movement.
Please make people aware of this atrocity.

Peru: Fujimori's Forced Sterilization Campaign VIDEO

2005-11-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

Peru: Fujimori's Forced Sterilization Campaign VIDEO.
"The police said to my husband 'if she doesn't get sterilised, the police will arrest you right now and you will be sterilised instead... they threw me on the trolley and tied me up" Rudesinda Quillawamang. When Fujimori launched a massive family planning campaign in the mid-nineties it was widely hailed and supported by the United Nations and international aid agencies alike. His aim, he said, was to liberate men and women from the burden of poverty and large families. Now, he's facing genocide charges. During the Fujimori regime, the current government says, over 300,000 men and women were sterilised against their will. Insight News Television investigates forced sterilisations in Peru. We talk to victims, health workers and others involved, and uncover a dark military plan of social engineering called 'Plan Verde.' In the Andes we meet Rudesinda, a young Quetchua Indian woman. She says she was dragged to the operating theatre and forcibly sterilised. And it wasn't just the countryside where poor people were targeted. Mary Elena says she was 17 when she went into a Lima hospital for a caesarean. After the birth of her son she found out that doctors had sterilised her. When her husband discovered that she was now infertile, he left her. 'In this hospital they ruined my life, she says. 'I think the government wanted to get rid of poor people like me.' We obtain a full, unpublished, government report about the scandal. The report exposes a sinister military plan, called Plan Verde, to exterminate entire social groups such as the poor and criminals. The military and intelligence sources in the report are all anonymous, but we track down one source. This former military officer details how the military was indeed deployed to sterilise people. Finally, we question one of the doctors responsible for the sterilisations. Dr Washington is now running for mayor in Anta. Despite the evidence against him, he's in comfortable denial. 'Many women are very happy for what was done to them. They have less children, definitely, but they are happy."
http://www.insightnewstv.com/d68/

Scooter Meet José Padilla

2005-11-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

Suddenly, Bush Embraces Right of Fair Trials
By DAVE LINDORFF
When President Bush was confronted by reporters as he left the White House for Camp David following the announcement of the five indictments of, and the resignation of Vice President Dick Cheney chief of state I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, he offered up a lame comment, which at the same time exposed him as a grotesque hypocrite. "In our system," he said, "each individual is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial." Sure. That's what will happen with Scooter, and with Karl Rove if he gets indicted when the other shoe drops. But what about Jose Padilla? This U.S. citizen, picked up at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport back in 2001, has been held in a military brig without charge, without access to an attorney, and in solitary confinement without any contact with family members for four years because President Bush has claimed the right, on his sole authority, to declare any American citizen to be an "enemy combatant" and to revoke their Constitutional rights and rights of citizenship. No formal charges have been filed against Padilla. Instead, the Justice Department has just made unsupported statements claiming first that he was planning to build and detonate a dirty-nuke bomb, then dropping that and claiming that he planned to blow up gas lines in apartment buildings. Since Padilla is unable to contest these charges-or really even to know what the charges are or who has been testifying against him-no one can know their veracity. The same thing was been done to another American-born citizens, Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was ultimately stripped of his birthright and deported to his parent's homeland, Saudi Arabia, after the government had to admit that it didn't have the evidence to try him as a terrorist. (The weakness of the President's case in revoking Hamdi's citizenship rights and his right to the fair trial Bush so ardently insists on as Libby's right, is that the government has said it's willing to allow Hamdi to return to the U.S. with his family to visit Disneyworld.) And what, for that matter, about the thousands of Muslim residents in America who have been rounded up and deported over the last few years without even a hearing, often on charges of minor traffic or visa violations which they were not given a chance to contest in court? Clearly Bush does not really believe that everyone in America has a right to the presumption of innocence and to a fair trial-only people in his administration who are charged with serious crimes. But as the noose starts to tighten on this administration for its lies in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, and for its many other crimes, from initiating a war on a country that posed no threat to the U.S. to subverting the electoral system and violating the Geneva Convention against torture, it is understandable that this President is suddenly invoking the very Constitution and Bill of Rights he has been trashing for the last five years. Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net. He can be reached at: dlindorff@yahoo.com http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff10282005.html

MEXICO: Double Standards in Treatment of Hurricane Victims

2005-11-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Oct 28 (IPS) - Most signs of the damages caused by Hurricane Wilma in Mexico's Caribbean resort of CancÃºn will have been wiped away before the Christmas holidays. But for those left homeless by Hurricane Stan in the nearby impoverished state of Chiapas, recovery is a distant goal. "Tourism operators in CancÃºn and the people in the poorest states are clearly receiving different treatment," Noe Pineda, spokesman for the Fray BartolomÃ© de las Casas Human Rights Centre, based in the southern state of Chiapas, told IPS. President Vicente Fox promised that 80 percent of CancÃºn's tourism infrastructure will be operating again by Dec. 15. To reach that goal, the president offered hotel owners and tourism operators financial aid and credit. The so-called Mayan Riviera on Mexico's southeastern Caribbean coast, where CancÃºn, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and other world-famous tourist resorts are located, was hit between Oct. 21 and 23 by a lingering Wilma, which was briefly the strongest Atlantic storm on record. Hundreds of hotels were hit by the storm, a number of beaches virtually disappeared, and thousands of tourism workers lost everything they owned. More than 11 million tourists visit the resorts along Mexico's YucatÃ¡n peninsula every year, leaving behind revenues of four billion dollars, more than one-third of the industry's total national revenues. According to the government, for each day the area is left without tourists, Mexico loses between 12 and 15 million dollars. The Fox administration promised to help CancÃºn and neighbouring resort areas to get back on their feet as soon as possible. Among the measures to be launched are a global tourism promotion campaign, which will include a major golf tournament and boxing match. But in Chiapas, things are looking quite different in terms of prospects for recovery. In that state, Mexico's poorest, where Hurricane Stan devastated dozens of poor, mainly indigenous villages in early October, people make a living growing coffee, corn, beans and other crops that have a much smaller weight in the national economy. "Here what we have is poverty, and very little tourism, so this is not a high priority area, which is reflected by the treatment it has received from the state," Pineda complained. While in CancÃºn, the number of storm refugees receiving support in shelters has diminished fast as tourists head home, there are some 80,000 people in Chiapas still living in shelters. In addition, many roads, railways and bridges in Chiapas are still out. Storm refugees interviewed by the local press and the Fray BartolomÃ© Human Rights Centre in several shelters say they are sleeping on cardboard and do not have enough drinking water or food. The government forgot about Chiapas in its rush to help CancÃºn, complained Senator Arely Madrid of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Fox denied the allegation. Both areas are being assisted equally, he said Thursday, when he visited CancÃºn to personally bid farewell to foreign tourists who were assisted in the shelters. He told them not to forget Mexico, and to return soon. According to Pineda, "one of the clearest signs that CancÃºn and the tourist services have been giving privileged treatment" was the government's announcement that it would seek financial support from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank for that area. "Some are offered foreign money, but for Chiapas, the president has already said that the state governments should seek loans for reconstruction on their own," the activist pointed out. The brunt of Stan's fury was borne by the state of Chiapas and the western part of neighbouring Guatemala. Around 10 people were killed in Chiapas, while the death toll reached 669 in Guatemala, while another 844 people are still missing. Most of the storm's victims were poor indigenous people. The torrential rains, flooding and landslides caused by the storm drowned or buried hundreds of people, and wiped out roads, bridges, power lines and telephone services. Economic losses are estimated at one billion dollars in Guatemala and 1.8 billion in Chiapas. In the case of CancÃºn and the surrounding area, where Wilma claimed seven lives, insurance companies have stated that they will pay more than two billion dollars to the owners of hotels and other tourism facilities. "It is clear that in Chiapas we will have to wait for years to overcome the blow dealt by Stan, while in CancÃºn, reconstruction will be fast, and high-end tourism will be back soon," said Pineda. (END/2005) http://www.worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30819

The police are not our friends

2005-11-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

The police are not our friends

The following speech was delivered this afternoon by Infoshop's webmaster to a rally of 40 rain-drenched people in Ilus Davis Park in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The rally was part of the national day of action against police brutality being observed in dozens of cities. Chuck0 delivered this rant from the steps of the mobile Tactical Ice Cream Unit as rained poured on our little rally.

by Chuck0
Police Accountability Alliance (Kansas City)
Kansas City Anarchist Action

The police are not our friends. Officer Friendly is more likely to beat you up, throw your ass in jail than they are to help you out in a difficult situation. There are terrorists on the streets and they wear blue uniforms. Of course, plenty can be said about the brutality of police and their monopoly on acceptable violence.

The police serve no useful purpose. Out in Leawood, where I live, the police spend most of their time giving out speeding tickets. In neighborhoods around the city, the police brutalize and terrorize people, especially people of color. The police are racists and many of them are violent sadists. Their chief mission is to protect the property of the rich. This is why during a strike or protest, the police face the strikers, not the capitalists or the rich. The police are the official violent arm of the state and of the ruling class. If you try to change the world, if you want a revolution that brings about a world full of freedom and free of poverty, the police and the army will be there to stop you.

The police are terrorists. They serve no useful purpose.

What can you do about the police?

KILL THE COP IN YOUR HEAD! Understand that you cannot have freedom and liberty as long as you obey that little policeperson in your head. This doesn't mean that you should go hurt people or get yourself in trouble, but think about how the state, schools, churches, TV and society tell you how to act and behave. Liberate your mind and challenge laws, especially unjust laws and rules. Why the hell are so many of our friends and family in prisons for years for smoking pot?

TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND NEIGHBORS ABOUT THE POLICE. Why do they police exist? Can our society function without them? IT CAN! Challenge deeply held ideas about the police, such as the idea that crime-ridden communities need more police.

WHAT IS CRIME? Talk to people about why police are needed to fight crime. Isn't most violent crime related to the conditions people live under? Wouldn't it make more sense to get rid of capitalism, or at least improve the lives of poor people, instead of bringing more cops into the hood?

DEFUND THE POLICE! Speak out in your community against more funding, or any funding, for the police. Most police goof around, eating doughnuts and playing video games and giving tickets out. They also ruin people's lives by arresting them for victimless crimes. Do you want to end violence in your neighborhood? Then demand that changes be made to address the underlying problems. Take direct action with your family and neighbors.

COPWATCH! Hold the police accountable. Set up a Copwatch on your block. Support citywide efforts to set up an independent police review commission.

DISARM THE POLICE! The police kill us. There is no reason for them to carry firearms around all of the time. Disarm the police before they kill one of your family members, a neighbor, or a friend.

A world without the police is possible! Let's make it happen!

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20051022153454938

END POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLE petition

2005-11-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

From the leonard peltier mailing list:
---

Dear Friends, please support this online petition for justice and an end
of violence against Native people at the hands of the police.

FWD From Tamra Brennan www.NDNnews.com:

We are up to 691 sig's right now. We must keep this going, please
forward this to everyone on your contact lists. It has made a huge
difference believe me. The more people we make aware of what has
happened, the more likely justice will be served! I have been working
on this non stop, speaking directly with the key people handling this
case. I spoke with the director of the ACLU & American Indian
Commission today, this report will be challanged once the ME report
becomes available to the public. This is why it is so important for
everyone to help spread the word. There are many major political
sources that are now jumping in on this to help. Thru a incredible
contact, I was able to get Mark Anderson onboard with this, he was
the Senior Policy Aide for Senator Wellstone in MN. I am also working
on trying to get a fund set up to help the family with expenses and
needs, which hopefully will be done soon. Once I have the info, I
will forward it to everyone. This could potentially take two years to
settle, but I am in it for the long haul.....how about you?
=====================================================================

From: http://www.petitiononline.com/Croud/petition.html
Justice must be served and we need to help make that happen! Tamra
www.NDNnews.com
"Providing news and information about Native American Issues &
Causes"
"Helping to make a difference for our people in Indian Country, one
day at a time. What will you do today to help make a difference?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Examiner rules death of White Earth band member under arrest was
accidental
================================================================

DULUTH - A member of the White Earth Band of Chippewa died
accidentally after a confrontation with police, according to the St.
Louis County medical examiner.

David Croud's death was caused by "anoxic encephalopathy due to
cardiopulmonary arrest due to acute alcohol intoxication and Haldol
administration," said Dr. Thomas Uncini of Hibbing.

Anoxic encephalopathy involves a lack of oxygen to the brain. Haldol
is an anti-psychotic drug used to treat a variety of things,
including mental disorders and to relieve the effects of cancer
drugs. It should not be taken with alcohol.

It was not clear whether Croud was taking Haldol himself, or whether
hospital staff gave it to him.

Croud, 29, died Oct. 18, six days after he was arrested. Duluth
Police Chief Roger Waller said Croud resisted when officers tried to
take him to the detoxification center.

Croud was medicated at St. Mary's Medical Center and never regained
consciousness after going into a coma.

A witness to the arrest said he saw police with a Taser gun, but
didn't know if it was used on Croud. Uncini's report said "trauma or
the use of a Taser played no role in his (Croud's) death."

The Washington County attorney's office is investigating to see
whether criminal charges are warranted.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota still has
questions about police conduct in the case.

"The fact is that a bystander called 911 on a police arrest because
of the violence of it," said ACLU of Minnesota Executive Director
Chuck Samuelson. The ACLU is investigating and may file a civil
rights lawsuit.

Close California's Youth Prisons

2005-11-04T19:34:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,The moment of truth is here. This month, on November 30, the state will deliver its final plan to fix the youth prisons. This plan could close Chad, the state's most abusive youth prison, and lay out a plan to close the rest of them, once and for all. But whether it will is up to you.When we began our campaign, we were told that closing youth prisons was a lost cause in California. But like the little engine that could, we've gotten state representatives, local officials, and major newspapers to call for closing them down.Still, strong opposition remains. Some top officials claim that closing Chad and the others is too drastic, too expensive, or too soon. After all, it's not their children in CYA.But we know that CYA youth are California's children. And we know there is another way. If one in five states across the country can figure out a way to close youth prisons and replace them with real rehabilitation, we know California can too. Now is the time to tell this to the Governor and CYA officials - and we need your help!On November 16th we are gathering at vigils all over the state to tell the Governor and CYA officials that keeping the abusive and costly youth prisons open is intolerable. Starting with the horrific Chad prison, they must be closed and replaced with small rehabilitation centers and community programs. Please join us as we light the way to a new system.
WHATStatewide Candlelight Vigils
WHENWednesday, November 16th6 pm
WHEREOAKLAND VIGIL400 Broadway (at 4th Street)
LOS ANGELES VIGILAgape Int'l Spiritual Center5700 Buckingham ParkwayCulver City
SACRAMENTO VIGILSol Arts and Culture Collective2010 Del Paso Blvd.
FRESNO VIGILJuvenile Court742 S. 10th St.
SAN JOSE VIGILCounty Building70 West Hedding (Near Juvenile Hall)RSVPDavid Kahn: 510.428.3939 x243 /// david@ellabakercenter.org

What Kinds of Wastes are Being Legally Dumped into Coastal Waters and Where is This Being Done?

2005-11-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (summary or full text ) prohibits the dumping of material into the ocean that would unreasonably degrade or endanger human health or the marine environment. In 1988, the Act was amended to also ban the ocean dumping of industrial waste and sewage sludge. Today, virtually all ocean dumping is dredged material (sediments removed from the bottom of water bodies in order to maintain navigation channels and berthing areas) or waste from fish processing operations. Ocean dumping requires a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with EPA's approval. EPA's oceans team assesses the impact of the dumping by taking water and bottom sediment samples.
There are four permitted coastal dumping operations in the U.S. EPA Mid-Atlantic Region. One is in Lake Erie and consists of dredged material. The other three are all off of Virginia:
Fish Waste Dump Site, Virginia-Location - 6 miles east of Hog Island, VA-Waste description: fish waste mainly from clam processing plants along the Eastern Shore
Norfolk Dump Site, Virginia-Location: 17 miles east of Fisherman's Island, VA-Waste description: dredged material primarily from US Navy dredging projects in the Lower Chesapeake Bay
Dam Neck Dump Site, Virginia-Location: 3 miles east of Virginia Beach, VA-Waste description: dredged material from the entrance channels to the ports of Norfolk and Hampton Roads
LINKS
EPA's Office of Water's ocean disposal of dredged materials and marine debris.
EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office's Dredging and Dredged Material Management on the Great Lakes.
An article on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's web site looks at "Deep-Sea Biodiversity and the Impacts of Ocean Dumping."

Environmental Assessment and Innovation Division Home
Mid-Atlantic Region Home

http://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/coast/dumping.htm

What's Off Virginia? 'There's No Guarantee'

2005-11-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

Large quantities of chemical weapons were dumped off the state's coast. Watermen and environmentalists are fearful and demand answers.

By John M.R. Bull
DailyPress.com10-30-5

Lurking off Virginia are tens of thousands of mustard gas shells and hundreds of tons of radioactive waste in at least five ocean dump zones created by the Army decades ago.

Newly released Army records show that four dumpsites containing a hodgepodge of deadly ordnance are in deep water off Chincoteague, near the Maryland state line on the Eastern Shore.

A fifth is in very deep water off Virginia Beach.

A sixth might - or might not - exist. A former ammunition inspector at Nansemond Ordnance Depot in Suffolk told Army investigators in 1970 that "some" chemical weapons had been dumped in the Atlantic off Norfolk after an "incident at port" during World War II.

The Army says no records exist to verify whether that was, indeed, done; where they were dumped; or whether the weapons are in dangerously shallow water.

Years of records about dumping after World War II are missing. The Army has never reviewed records of World War I-era dumping, when chemical weapons were routinely tossed into relatively shallow water.

As a result, more dumpsites likely exist off the country's shoreline, the Army says.

Could they be waiting to be found in shallow water off Virginia?

"There's no guarantee in the world, but I can tell you there was little history of chemical weapons in the area during World War I," William Brankowitz said. He's a deputy program manager of the Army's current chemical weapon stockpile and a leading authority on ocean dumping of chemical weapons.

"Virginia didn't figure prominently in that time period," when chemical weapons were tested and stored at dozens of bases nationwide, he said. This reduces the likelihood that chemical weapons were dumped off Virginia in undocumented shallow-water dump zones, he said.

The contents of known Virginia dumpsites appear to be in little danger of washing up on shore, judging by three Army reports obtained by the Daily Press.

But watermen and environmentalists were shocked to learn they exist and fear they could leak, endanger people and decimate economically critical fisheries.

"I'm not surprised we dumped toxic waste off our coast, but I am surprised about how much of it is out there and that it is what it is - mustard gas and maybe highly radioactive waste," said Michael Town, director of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.

"The question is: What are we going to do about it? Has there already been an impact on our marine environment? We think the Army or the government should go look. We need to know what the impact of it is."

Watermen also want answers. "It is surprising they would do it, but nothing the government does shocks me anymore," said Ernie L. Bowden, president of the Eastern Shore Working Watermen's Association.

He wondered whether the fragile fisheries that he relied on as a self-employed fisherman would be destroyed if the weapons leaked.

And are the 59 scalloping operations in Chincoteague, which dredge the ocean floor in the region, in danger of scooping up chemical weapons?

The seabed off Virginia's Eastern Shore is one of the country's best scalloping areas.

Dredgers often pull up strange metal objects. "On scallopers, guys are kicking stuff overboard with their feet," said James Kirkley, a William and Mary economics professor who has long studied the East Coast's scallop industry.

Three World War I-era mustard-gas-filled artillery shells were dredged up from about 130 feet of water in the summer of 2004 off New Jersey.

They were either jettisoned by the Army before reaching a deep-water dump zone or tossed in an undocumented location after World War I.

In those days, the Army instructed ship captains to make sure the water was at least 600 feet deep before dumping their chemical weapons, Brankowitz said.

After World War II, the Army went into deeper water, creating five dumps off Virginia.

In 1945, more than seven shiploads of chemical munitions were thrown into one dumpsite on the Virginia-Maryland line in water more than 2,000 feet deep.

In 1957, the Army dumped 48 1-ton containers of Lewisite - a blister agent akin to mustard gas - in 12,600 feet of water off Virginia Beach.

After dumping chemical weapons off other states, the Army returned to the Virginia-Maryland line in the early 1960s to create three more deep-water dumpsites. One site contains about 317 tons of unidentified radioactive waste and two 1-ton containers of Lewisite.

Another site, created in 1962, contains more than 700 mustard-gas-filled artillery shells, 209 drums of cyanide, 5,000 white-phosphorus munitions and more than 400,000 pounds of radioactive waste. In 1964, 1,700 mustard-gas-filled 75 mm artillery shells were dumped nearby, along with 800 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste.

Army records don't reveal what kind of radioactive waste was dumped. But National Archives records give one indication that it could be very dangerous nuclear waste with a half-life spanning generations.

Records of the chemical weapons escort unit - which planned and guarded shipments - reveal dozens of trips in the 1950s from a nuclear development laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., to Army bases where chemical weapons were slated for ocean disposal.

Oak Ridge was where thermonuclear weapons were being developed at the time.

"This report certainly raises concerns, and the governor will be closely monitoring the military's response to this," said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Gov. Mark R. Warner.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-09106sy0oct30,0,2395608.story?page=2&coll=dp-widget-news

http://www.rense.com/general68/must.htm

http://www.rense.com/

Army Dumped WMD Offshore in US

2005-11-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

By John Bull
Republished from The Morning Call
Millions of pounds of unused weapons of mass destruction were dumped in oceans before Congress banned the practice in 1972. The threat is still out there, and may be growing.
A clam dredging operation off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J., in 2004 pulled up an old artillery shell.
The long-submerged, World War I-era explosive was filled with a black, tar-like substance.
Bomb disposal technicians from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware were brought in to dismantle it. Three of them were injured, one hospitalized with large, pus-filled blisters on his arm and hand.
The shell was filled with mustard gas in solid form.
What was long-feared by the few military officials in the know had come to pass: Chemical weapons that the Army dumped at sea decades ago had finally ended up on shore in the United States.
While it has long been known that some chemical weapons went into the ocean, records obtained by the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., show that the previously classified weapons-dumping program was far more extensive than has ever been suspected.
The Army now admits in reports never before released that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard gas agent into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.
A Daily Press investigation also found:
These weapons of mass destruction virtually ring the country, concealed off the coasts of at least 11 states: six on the East Coast, including New Jersey and Maryland, two on the Gulf Coast, and in California, Hawaii and Alaska. Few, if any, state officials have been informed of their existence.
The chemical agents could pose a hazard for generations. The Army has examined only a few of its 26 dump zones, and none in 30 years.
The Army can’t say exactly where all the weapons were dumped from World War II to 1970. Army records are sketchy, missing or were destroyed.
More dump sites probably exist. The Army hasn’t reviewed records from the World War I era, when ocean dumping of chemical weapons was common.
”We do not claim to know where they all are,” said William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency and a leading authority on the Army’s chemical weapons dumping. “We don’t want to be cavalier at all and say this stuff was exposed to water and is OK. It can last for a very, very long time.”
A drop of nerve agent can kill within a minute. When released in the ocean it lasts up to six weeks, killing every organism it touches before breaking down into its nonlethal chemical components.
Mustard gas can be fatal. When exposed to seawater it forms a concentrated, encrusted gel that lasts for at least five years, rolling around on the ocean floor, killing or contaminating sea life.
Sea-dumped chemical weapons may be slowly leaking from decades of saltwater corrosion, resulting in a time-delayed release of deadly chemicals over the next 100 years and an unforeseeable environmental impact. Steel corrodes at different rates depending on the water depth, ocean temperature and thickness of the shells.
That was the conclusion of Norwegian scientists who in 2002 examined chemical weapons dumped off Norway’s coast after World War II by the U.S. and British military.
Overseas, more than 200 fishermen over the years have been burned by mustard gas pulled on deck. A fisherman in Hawaii was burned in 1976 when he brought up an Army-dumped mortar round full of mustard gas.
Although it seems unlikely the weapons will begin to wash up on shore, last year’s discovery that a mustard gas-filled artillery shell was dumped off the coast of New Jersey was ominous for several reasons.
It was the first ocean-dumped chemical weapon to make its way to shore in the United States.
It was pulled up with clams in relatively shallow water only 20 miles off the coast of Atlantic City. The Army had no idea chemical weapons were dumped in the area.
Most alarming: It was found intact in a residential driveway in Delaware.
It had survived being dredged up and put through a crusher to create cheap clamshell driveway fill sold throughout the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware and Maryland.
Decades of Dumping
The United States never used chemical weapons in war but amassed a huge stockpile to be unleashed if enemy forces used them first. Their existence was a known, ultimately successful, deterrent.
The Army’s secret ocean-dumping program spanned at least three decades, from 1944 to 1970.
The dumped weapons were deemed to be unneeded surplus. They were hazardous to transport, expensive to store, too dangerous to bury and difficult to destroy.
In the early 1970s, the Army publicly admitted it had dumped some chemical weapons off the U.S. coast. Congress banned the practice in 1972. Three years later, the United States signed an international treaty prohibiting ocean disposal of chemical weapons.
Only now have Army reports come to light that show how much was dumped, what kind of chemical weapons they were, when they were thrown overboard, and rough nautical coordinates of where some are located.
The reports contain bits and pieces of information on the Army’s long-running ocean dumping program. The reports were released to the Daily Press, which cross-indexed them to obtain the most comprehensive, detailed picture yet compiled of what was dumped, where and when.
To put the information in context, the newspaper also examined nautical charts, National Archive records and scientific studies and interviewed many experts on unexploded ordnance and chemical warfare, both in the country and overseas.
The Army’s Brankowitz created the seminal report on ocean dumping. He examined classified Army records and in 1987 wrote a lengthy report on chemical weapons movements over the decades. It included the revelation that more than a dozen shipments ended in the ocean. The report was not widely disseminated.
His follow-up report in 1989 revealed, through review of other previously classified documents, the rough nautical coordinates of some dump sites and the existence of more dump zones. In 2001, a computer database was created to include additional dump zones the Army discovered and more details of some of the dumping operations.
The database summary and the 1989 report had never before been released publicly.
”I know I didn’t find everything,” said Brankowitz, who has worked for more than 30 years on chemical weapons issues for the Army. “I’m very much convinced there are records at the National Archives that have been misfiled. Short of a major research effort that would cost a lot of money, we’ve done the best we can.”
The reports reveal that the Army created at least 26 chemical weapons dump sites off the coastlines of at least 11 states, but knows the rough nautical coordinates of only half the sites.
At least 64 million pounds of liquid mustard gas and nerve agent in one-ton steel canisters were dumped into the sea, along with at least 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, grenades, land mines and rockets as well as radioactive waste, according to the reports.
The Army’s documents are incomplete or vague. Years of records are missing or were destroyed to clear office space at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, a longtime chemical weapon research and testing base.
And the Army has not reviewed its records of chemical weapons dumping before World War II, when it was common to just throw the weapons into the ocean in relatively shallow water, Brankowitz said.
As a result, more dump sites probably exist, he conceded.
Possible Environmental Disaster
The environmental impact of chemical weapons dump sites is unknown, but potentially disastrous.
The ocean depth varies widely off the East Coast, as a rule gradually deepening to 600 feet before hitting the outer continental shelf, which drops off into very deep water. The shelf’s location can be as close as 60 miles or as far as 200 miles from shore.
”The perception at the time was the ocean is vast, it would absorb it,” said Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky, a grass-roots citizen group. “Certainly, it is insane in retrospect they would do it.”
”It would be inevitable, I assume, all of this will be released into the ocean at some point or another,” said Williams, who has fought Army plans to incinerate some of the 44 million pounds of chemical weapons the country now has stockpiled. “I don’t think anyone knows for sure the true danger. It’s just a matter of opinion. You can say, ‘It’s going to kill everyone,’ or you can say, ‘It’s not a problem.’ The truth is somewhere in between.”
Based on the information available, the Army presumes most of the weapons are in very deep water and are unlikely to jeopardize divers or commercial fishing operations that dredge the ocean bottom.
John Chatterton doesn’t believe that.
”I don’t think it all is where they say it is,” said Chatterton, a 25-year veteran diver who searches for undiscovered shipwrecks as host of the History Channel’s “Deep Sea Detectives.” “I’ve found a lot of stuff where it’s not supposed to be. Absolutely, positively, it is not a guarantee it is there [in deep water].”
Chemical weapons were dumped long before electronic navigation systems were invented. Their nautical locations are based on the word of ship captains, who surely wanted to ditch their cargo quickly and, Chatterton suspects, probably cut corners.
”The guys who were doing this were scared of this stuff. They were well-motivated to get rid of this stuff as fast as they could,” Chatterton said. “So they could take it all the way out there or else they could say, ‘This is good enough,’ and be back in port in three hours. I know what they did. It’s mariner nature.”
State officials in the dark
One of the first of the now-identified dump zones created at the end of World War II was also one of the largest.
The Army dubbed it Disposal Site Baker.
The Army has only the vaguest idea where it is on the ocean floor somewhere off Charleston, S.C., according to the most specific of surviving records.
”I have never had any information to suggest this was done,” said Charles Farmer, a marine biologist who has worked for South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources for almost 40 years. “I would say this is not well-known to us at all. This is something that is new, at least to me. It’s incredible some of the things we’ve managed to do.”
The first documented dump off that state took place in March 1946 when four railroad cars full of mustard gas bombs and mines were tossed over the side of the USS Diamond Head, an ammunition ship.
Several months later, an estimated 23 barges full of German-produced nerve gas bombs and U.S.-made Lewisite bombs were dumped in the same location. Lewisite is a blister agent chemically akin to mustard agent. A single barge carried up to 350 tons.
”If we don’t have any idea of depths of water or location, hell, they could be anywhere,” Farmer said. “As we have more and more activity and more and more development off the coast, I hope this was buried in 6,000 feet of water or a lot of this stuff is going to come back to haunt us.”
There is one indication those weapons were dumped in relatively shallow water: Army records show that many of those 23 slow-moving barges were unloaded in one-day, out-and-back operations.
The records leave no doubt that other chemical weapons were dumped close to shore:
In 1944, at least 16,000 mustard-filled 100-pound bombs were unloaded off the coast of Hawaii in deep water only five miles from shore.
Several mustard gas bombs fell into the Mississippi River near Braithwaite, La., in 1945 and have never been found.
A reported 124 leaking German mustard gas bombs were tossed in the Gulf of Mexico off Horn Island in Mississippi in 1946 from a barge that returned to port a few hours later. The island is part of Gulf Islands National Seashore, a popular vacation and fishing destination.
A 1947 dump site in the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, is only 12 miles from a harbor.
Dump Sites Moved North
By the 1950s, the Army shifted much of its chemical dump operations north to the Virginia-Maryland border and into deeper water.
In 1957 the Army dumped 48 tons of Lewisite off the coast of Virginia Beach in 12,600 feet of water.
Three more dump zones were created more than 100 miles off the coastline between Chincoteague, Va., and Assateague, Md., tourist spots known for their unsullied beaches and populations of wild horses.
Dumped there in roughly 2,000 feet of water were at least 77,000 mustard-filled mortar shells, 5,000 white phosphorous munitions, 1,500 one-ton canisters of Lewisite and 800 55-gallon barrels of military radioactive waste.
It could not be determined what kind of radioactive waste was dumped. But there is one indication it could be highly dangerous nuclear waste with a half-life of thousands of years.
National Archive records of the Army’s secretive chemical weapons escort unit, reviewed by the Daily Press, show numerous shipments in the 1950s between a laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., other Army bases with chemical weapons slated for sea disposal, and the Yuma Testing Station in Arizona.
Oak Ridge was where thermonuclear weapons were being developed at the time. Yuma was a military test ground for weapons in development. Records show a shipment on March 7, 1953, was of 35,000 pounds of unidentified “classified materials.” The Army apparently stopped dumping radioactive waste in the late 1960s, the records show, when chemical weapons disposal operations again headed north in the Atlantic.
Dumping off Jersey Coast
Two ships full of the most potent of all nerve gases, known as VX, were scuttled in 6,000 feet of water many miles off Atlantic City as part of Operation CHASE.
CHASE was Pentagon shorthand for Cut Holes And Sink ‘Em.
The nerve gas was in rockets that were encased in concrete before the ships were scuttled.
The Army desperately wanted to get rid of these particular weapons. They also contained jet fuel to propel the rockets. The fuel had a tendency to “auto-ignite,” or spontaneously explode.
The ships – the SS Corporal Eric G. Gibson and SS Mormactern – remain a potential danger. Although the rockets were encased in concrete, scientists don’t know how quickly concrete breaks down from water pressure at such depths.
A third ship that was scuttled nearby is no longer a hazard: It blew up on its way to the ocean floor on Aug. 7, 1968.
That ship, the SS Richardson, was filled with conventional, high-explosive weapons and 3,500 one-ton containers of mustard agent mixed with water. It was on its way to the bottom in 7,800 feet of water when a chain-reaction explosion went off, presumably caused by water pressure on one of the weapons that set off the rest.
”This is really quite disturbing,” said U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., who has been fighting Army plans to dump chemically neutralized nerve gas in the Delaware River. “I did not know of any of this. It’s a very serious problem that state officials haven’t been told.”
Not on Any Maps
Boaters, divers, fishermen and commercial seafood trawlers have no way to steer clear of the dump sites.
That’s because the Army has put only one of its 26 known chemical weapons dumps on nautical charts, according to records kept by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
The federal agency in charge of undersea cable-laying operations, as well as gas and oil ventures, has only a vague idea of where chemical weapons were thrown into the ocean, said spokesman Gary Strasburg.
That agency, Minerals Management Service, knows only what the Army has revealed to the agency: that chemical weapons were dumped at sea and that some are somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico and at a location somewhere off the coast of South Carolina, agency records show.
The impact of dumping operations has never been studied. Few scientists knew it was done, so studies of the decline in sea life over the years has never focused on the possibility of leaking chemical weapons.
Commercial fishing operations, as well as scallop and clam trawlers, have been forced to go farther and farther from shore over the last 25 years because sea life has thinned for unknown reasons. Some scallopers now dredge in up to 400 feet of water, which is more than 100 miles from the shore in some East Coast locations.
The bottom-dwelling cod population in the Northern Atlantic has been decimated.
Another Cause of Deaths?
Hundreds of bottlenose dolphins mysteriously washed up on Virginia and New Jersey shores in 1987. They died with massive, never-explained skin blisters that resembled mustard gas burns on humans.
Federal marine scientists ultimately attributed the unprecedented number of dolphin deaths to a combination of morbillivirus related to distemper in dogs and potent vibrio bacteria from industrial pollutants.
That combination has killed other marine mammals over the years. But none of them has ever been found with their skin partially peeling off.
One marine mammal specialist who suspects leaking chemical weapons killed the dolphins met with Army officials and was told dumping had been done but was assured the weapons were unloaded in water too deep to harm the coastal-living creatures.
”You’d see the photos and you’d say, ‘Man, this animal was burned by something,”’ said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, N.J. He said “it is a very good possibility” leaking chemical weapons killed the dolphins.
”It’d be nice to see the Army go down there and investigate, but nobody wants to open that book, it seems,” Schoelkopf said. “You’d think they’d want to go look at those sites and say once and for all this isn’t a problem. The amazing thing is they are not being monitored.”
The Army also wondered if its chemical weapons were responsible for the dolphin deaths and was preparing to investigate some dump zones. The project was scrapped when the deaths were attributed to the virus and bacteria, said the Army’s Brankowitz.
Little or No Monitoring
Over the decades, the Army has conducted environmental tests on only four of its dump sites, and none since 1975.
Some of the last tests the Army conducted were on the nerve gas-filled ships off the coast of New Jersey, and they found no evidence the weapons had leaked, Brankowitz said.
He said that leads the Army to presume the pressure on the weapons as they sank to the bottom crushed the shells and squirted their deadly contents onto the seabed, where they long ago broke down into their non-lethal chemical components.
That may be wishful thinking, according to some scientists.
Shells filled with chemical weapons are more likely to slowly leak over time than to be crushed while sinking, said Peter Brewer, a marine scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.
Regardless, he said, he considers the dangers of leaking chemical weapons in deep-water sites to be low.
He noted that the only Army chemical weapons dump site on nautical charts – the wreck of the SS William Ralston, which was scuttled 117 miles off the coast of San Francisco in the 1950s – has not been found to be leaking, although he said scientists have monitored it only “from a distance.”
Not far from that wreck, scientists have determined that drums of radioactive waste dumped by industry in the 1950s have so corroded they now are paper-thin with holes in some of them, said Richard Charter, a California environmentalist with Environmental Defense.
He said he fears recent congressional approval of offshore gas and oil exploration off the East and West coasts permitted through last year’s lifting of a 22-year-old moratorium could release the chemical agents from their containers.
”It certainly is within the realm of possibility,” he said. “This is an invasive activity.”
Seismic exploration is conducted by setting off massive air guns on the ocean surface and measuring the blasts when they bounce off the ocean floor. Such exploration, and drilling operations, have been conducted for decades in the Gulf of Mexico without releasing chemical warfare agents dumped by the Army in that body of water.
Leaking Shells
Overseas, scientists who monitor chemical weapons dump sites off the coasts of other countries have identified an unmistakable problem in the Skagerrak Straits, a narrow but deep body of water that separates Norway and Denmark.
In 2002, Norwegian scientists sent a deep-diving, remote-operated vehicle to investigate four ships full of captured German chemical weapons. The U.S. and British military scuttled them after World War II in roughly 2,000 feet of water.
The Norwegians discovered the sunken ships remain intact. Some of the shells had leaked. Others were slowly corroding. That revealed a problem that could last hundreds of years, the scientists concluded.
Soil sediment showed high levels of arsenic, a component of some of the chemical weapons. Arsenic is bioaccumulative. This means bottom-feeding shellfish are likely to be contaminated and pass arsenic up the food chain to accumulate in humans who eat them, the scientists discovered.
Also worrisome: Nets from fishing trawlers were found tangled on some of the weapons-filled wrecks.
”It might be possible to get chemical ammunition in the nets, which could then be brought up to the surface and poison fishermen,” the scientists wrote in a report on the expedition. “It is also a possibility that fishing equipment could damage the wrecks and expose the chemical ammunition to the water, increasing the release of the agents to the environment.”
While the Army may not have known better at the time, it is obligated to at least assess the danger the dump sites pose today, said Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, who has specialized in chemical weapons issues.
”If no one does a study looking for three-legged fish, how do they know it’s not a problem?” he asked. “My guess is the risks are remote in most cases, but I think you have to at least evaluate the risk. They have to take continuing responsibility.
”They need to see if there is an impact on the food chain. If there is, you have to warn people. If so, they have to do something with them.”
MONDAY: After World War II, the Army secretly dumped its overseas chemical weapons stockpiles off the shores of more than a dozen other countries. One scientist calls them a “disaster looming.”
———— John Bull is a reporter for the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

http://www.guerrillanews.com/headlines/5825/Army_Dumped_WMD_Offshore_in_US

Blood, sweat and fears in favelas of Rio More than a million of Brazil's poor targeted in an attempt to 'clean up' the city

2005-11-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

Blood, sweat and fears in favelas of Rio
More than a million of Brazil's poor targeted in an attempt to 'clean up' the city
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro Saturday October 29, 2005
The Guardian
Glorinha rarely leaves her rickety wooden shack. But, sat in the shade of a towering banana tree that flanks her house in southern Rio de Janeiro, the 68-year-old still has memories to help her while away the days. They are of her Portuguese father, one of the founders of the Vila Alice favela perched on the hilltops above the middle class borough of Laranjeiras; of the 14 children she has raised in her makeshift home; and of the hours spent nurturing the fruit trees that encircle it. By next month memories may be all she has. After a 12-year court battle with residents of a nearby apartment block, which owns the land on which Glorinha's father built his wooden shack nearly 100 years ago, Vila Alice's residents are preparing for eviction. "I won't leave here without being given compensation," she says. Glorinha, whose full name is Gloria Roque Adriano, slumped into a battered classroom chair outside her home. "What will I do? Sleep in the road?" Across Rio, hundreds of impoverished Brazilian families, like Glorinha's, are now facing the threat of eviction, as the idea of favela remoção (removal) gains increasing currency among better-off sections of Brazilian society. Fourteen shantytowns, the majority in upper-class boroughs such as Gávea and Jardim Botânico, were recently earmarked for removal by Rio's public prosecutor, while there has been a recent jump in the number of legal battles, like the one over Vila Alice. José Nerson de Oliveira, vice-president of the Federation of Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, believes as many as 70 communities could be at risk. "We won't let them come into the favelas that we have built with our blood and sweat and destroy everything we have managed to achieve," he told the Guardian. The official reasons for the evictions vary from ownership disputes to attempts to protect the environment and concerns over the safety of those living in the hilltop favelas. But for those fighting removal, the motivation is simple. "It isn't about land or trees or anything like that. They don't want the poor close to them," said Sebastião Machado, 47, a community activist and odd-job man involved in the battle for Vila Alice. Rio's wealthy benefit from the cheap labour provided by the favela, he says, but at the same they don't want to live with their poorer neighbours. "They want two things at the same time. Isn't it me who fixes things in the bacana's [rich kid's] house? Doesn't it look good when I do?" he jokes. The idea of remoção is nothing new to Rio de Janeiro, where nearly 20% of the population, a million people, now live in about 750 slums. During the 19th century, town planners forced thousands from the slums of central Rio in a bid to turn the city into a "tropical Paris". In the 1960s, the politics of removal again came to the fore as favelas were bulldozed in the city's south zone and their residents sent to the housing projects on its outskirts. Forgotten by the city's politicians, many of the projects, like Cidade de Deus or City of God, underwent a process of favelização or "favelisation", and are now controlled by drug-trafficking gangs. Now, after a campaign by sections of the Brazilian media, the question of favela removal has been thrust back on to the political agenda. Those in favour of removal, like the councillor Leila do Flamengo, whose proposals to reintroduce remoção are being considered in Rio's Assembly, see it as a way of preserving Rio's natural beauty, while creating bairros populares (popular boroughs) further away from the city centre that would offer good quality, low-cost housing to the city's poorest citizens. "The decadence of public power has allowed Rio de Janeiro to become a city without laws," she says. "This is called urban disorder ... The destruction of the environment here is leading us to an environmental catastrophe and people are joking about it. "Since so many politicians have electoral bases in the favelas, it has been more convenient to allow this destruction of the physical beauty with which Rio de Janeiro is blessed." Leila do Flamengo argues the rights of the taxpayers in the nearby apartment block are more important than those of the "squatters" in Vila Alice. Sectors of the tourist industry also back removal. With Rio hosting the Pan American Games in 2007, several partial removals are being planned around venues in the suburb of Barra da Tijuca, although compensation has been offered to those affected. "I'm absolutely in favour of removal," the president of the Brazilian Association of Travel Agents, Carlos Alberto Ferreira, recently told Globo newspaper, arguing that without the favelas blighting the landscape, tourism levels would rise, the profits of which could be channelled into fighting poverty. But from the granite outcrop on which Vila Alice's shacks are stacked, the view is different. Machado is unimpressed by claims that his community is being removed to protect the environment. "Look at those mansions up there," he says, gesturing across the hillside to clusters of towering homes with thick security walls and elegant balconies. "They destroyed the forest to build the road up there and they destroyed the forest to build the mansions. Isn't that the environment? Nature has nothing to do with it. They just don't want us. Their problem isn't nature - it's poverty." Ricardo Gouvêa, an architect and human rights campaigner from the Bento Rubião Foundation, says fear of urban violence is feeding support for the relocation of Rio's poor to more distant parts of the city. "People are confusing the issue of violence and the issue of favelas. The middle class are scared of the violence but it's not removal that will solve this. In the past ... removal has only helped change the address of this problem," he said, citing the example of the Catacumba favela, whose expelled residents went on to form the Complexo da Maré, a sprawling slum near Rio's airport often referred to as the "Gaza Strip" because of its high death rate. "In the 1960s more than 100,000 families were brutally removed and this didn't solve the problem," he said. Gouvêa also rejects the idea that Rio's shantytowns have a negative impact on its ability to attract foreign tourists. "Violence is a serious problem in Rio that needs a sensible public security policy. But if they put an end to the favelas there will be a big drop in the number of visitors because of the cultural question, particularly the favelas' links to samba and capoeira." As the planned eviction on November 8 gets closer, Gouvêa is supporting plans to use federal money to purchase the land for the residents of Vila Alice. But residents are pessimistic. "There are never enough resources for the poor," says Machado bluntly, standing by a tangle of plastic piping that siphons drinking water to Glorinha's home at the foot of Vila Alice. The pumps are turned on every two days, he says. A similar uncertainty continues for thousands of favelados. "How can I start over again? With what?" says João Carlos, who was born in Vila Alice and has grandchildren there. "You start thinking stupid things ... If they [the police] come here to destroy everything we have built up, it'll end in violence." http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,12462,1604120,00.html

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots (No. 220)

2005-11-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

The Top 10 Conservative Idiots (No. 220)
October 31, 2005
Indict, Sweet Prince Edition
Last week the rest of the country finally learned what we've all known for years: The country is being run by criminals, and the corruption reaches all the way (or damn close) to the top. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicted Scooter Libby (1), who just happens to be the Chief of Staff to the most powerful Vice President in the history of the United States. And presidential advisor Karl Rove (2) was publicly identified as the source responsible for leaking Valerie Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak, putting partisan politics before national security. Enjoy, and don't forget the key! 1Scooter Libby indicted Last week Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby had the dubious honor of becoming the first sitting White House official in 135 years to be indicted. According to prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald: Valerie Wilson's cover was blown in July 2003. The first sign of that cover being blown was when Mr. Novak published a column on July 14th, 2003. But Mr. Novak was not the first reporter to be told that Wilson's wife, Valerie Wilson, Ambassador Wilson's wife Valerie, worked at the CIA. Several other reporters were told. In fact, Mr. Libby was the first official known to have told a reporter when he talked to Judith Miller in June of 2003 about Valerie Wilson. Fitzgerald continued: Mr. Libby gave the FBI a compelling story. What he told the FBI is that essentially he was at the end of a long chain of phone calls. He spoke to reporter Tim Russert, and during the conversation Mr. Russert told him that, Hey, do you know that all the reporters know that Mr. Wilson's wife works at the CIA? And he told the FBI that he learned that information as if it were new, and it struck him. So he took this information from Mr. Russert and later on he passed it on to other reporters, including reporter Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, reporter Judith Miller of the New York Times. And he told the FBI that when he passed the information on on July 12th, 2003, two days before Mr. Novak's column, that he passed it on understanding that this was information he had gotten from a reporter; that he didn't even know if it was true. And he told the FBI that when he passed the information on to the reporters he made clear that he did know if this were true. This was something that all the reporters were saying and, in fact, he just didn't know and he wanted to be clear about it. Later, Mr. Libby went before the grand jury on two occasions in March of 2004. He took and oath and he testified. And he essentially said the same thing. He said that, in fact, he had learned from the vice president earlier in June 2003 information about Wilson's wife, but he had forgotten it, and that when he learned the information from Mr. Russert during this phone call he learned it as if it were new. When he passed the information on to reporters Cooper and Miller late in the week, he passed it on thinking it was just information he received from reporters; that he told reporters that, in fact, he didn't even know if it were true. He was just passing gossip from one reporter to another at the long end of a chain of phone calls. It would be a compelling story that will lead the FBI to go away if only it were true. It is not true, according to the indictment. In fact, Mr. Libby discussed the information about Valerie Wilson at least half a dozen times before this conversation with Mr. Russert ever took place, not to mention that when he spoke to Mr. Russert, Mr. Russert and he never discussed Valerie Wilson or Wilson's wife. So it seems Libby assumed that he would be safe to lay the blame at the feet of reporters because they would adhere to their ethical code and not out him as their source. Unfortunately for Libby, they weren't that stupid. (Except Judith Miller, and Libby let her sweat in jail for three months before he realized that the jig was up.) The result: perjury, making false statements, and obstruction of justice. Shortly after Libby handed in his resignation George W. Bush called him "one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known," and said, "We're all saddened by today's news." I guess this is what Our Great Leader was talking about when he promised to return honor and integrity to the White House. 2Karl Rove covering your ass Before we get started on Karl Rove's role in all this, let's take a look at what George W. Bush has had to say about the CIA leak case over the past two years (video hosted by CanOFun.com): If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. If the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of. - September 30, 2003 You know, there's a lot of leaking in Washington D.C. It's a town famous for it. And if this helps to stop leaks, this investigation, in finding the truth, it will not only hold someone to account who should not have leaked - it's a serious charge by the way, we're talking about a criminal action - and, uh, but, hopefully will help send a clear signal that we expect other leaks to stop as well, so I look forward to finding the truth. - October 6, 2003 I don't know if we're going to find out that the senior administration official. Now, this is a large administration, and there's a lot of senior officials, I don't have any idea. I'd like to. I want to know the truth. That's why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators. Full disclosure, everything we know, the investigators will find out. I have no idea whether we'll find out who the leaker is. Partially because, in all due respect to your profession, you do a very good job of protecting the leakers. But we'll find out. - October 7, 2003 REPORTER: Given recent developments in the CIA leak case, particularly vice president Cheney's discussion with investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, suggestion that it might be difficult to identify anybody who leaked the information, and do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so? BUSH: Yes. And it's up to the U.S. attorney to find the facts. - June 10, 2004 If somebody did leak classified information I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing. - July 12, 2005 I don't know all the facts, I want to know all the facts. Best place for the facts to be found is by someone spending time investigating it. I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts, and if someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration. - July 18, 2005 Now, according to Scooter Libby's indictment, "On or about July 10 or July 11, 2003, LIBBY spoke to a senior official in the White House ("Official A") who advised LIBBY of a conversation Official A had earlier that week with columnist Robert Novak in which Wilson's wife was discussed as a CIA employee involved in Wilson's trip. LIBBY was advised by Official A that Novak would be writing a story about Wilson's wife." There's little doubt that "Official A" is Karl Rove, and that he was the person responsible for leaking Valerie Plame's identity - which was classified - to Robert Novak. Last Friday Rove was yukking it up with reporters outside his home, saying "I am going to have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend and hope you do too." Funny - if someone I worked extremely closely with for five years was about to be indicted, I probably would have been a bit less upbeat. But then I'm not a heartless bastard like Karl Rove. So what are we to make of all this? As I mentioned, George W. Bush had previously said "I want to know the truth. That's why I've instructed this staff of mine to cooperate fully with the investigators. Full disclosure, everything we know, the investigators will find out." Bush also said that he stood by his pledge to fire anyone who leaked the information. It's also probably worth taking another look at what the president's father, George H.W. Bush, said to the CIA back in April 1999: Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors. To be sure there's certainly still a lot of confusion in this case. But one thing is clear: George W. Bush doesn't give a damn about returning honor and integrity to the White House. Because if he did, he'd have fired Karl Rove already. 3Bill Frist greed We noted recently (see Idiots 215) that Bill Frist was in a spot of bother over a dubious stock sale - he dumped shares in his family's medical corporation just before a disappointing earnings report. Bill says he did nothing wrong - and anyway, those stocks were in a "blind trust" so he could avoid a conflict of interest. Well consider that conflict of interest, um, unavoided. New documents released last week reveal that the trust managers "routinely informed Frist whenever shares of Hospital Corp. of America Inc. were added to his portfolio," according to the Denver Post. The Post continued, "If Martha Stewart can be jailed for lying about a quarter-of-a-million episode of insider trading, Frist may be sweating." True, but that also opens up the the exciting possibility of "The Apprentice: Bill Frist," which, let's face it, would be awesome. When he ditches a contestant at the end of every episode his catchphrase could be, "You're in a vegetative state." Or, "Step into my laboratory, Mr. Frisky." Incidentally, Bill Frist also said last week that the Senate won't be investigating the CIA leak case. Now there's a shocking surprise. 4Tom DeLay indicted excessive spin We all know that the Former Hammer, Tom DeLay (R-Shit Creek), was recently indicted on money laundering and conspiracy charges. But did you know that Mr. DeLay recently suffered a serious concussion? At least, that's what I'm gathering from his bizarre comments last week. Tom has decided to fight the charges against him by using a tried and true conservative tactic - blaming everybody else. In particular he's been going after the prosecutor Ronnie Earle, and, of course, those nasty mean Democrats who have apparently been engaging in "the politics of personal destruction." Not that Tom would ever indulge in such activity you understand. Have you seen that TV ad which compares Ronnie Earle to a snarling attack dog? Tom DeLay disapproves of it so much that he's, um, been echoing it's theme wherever he goes. The theme? "It's not a crime to be a conservative" - which brings me back to DeLay's bizarre comments. Last week he said, "What we're fighting is so much larger than a single court case or a single district attorney in Travis County. We are witnessing the criminalization of conservative politics." No Tom. What we're witnessing is people waking up to the fact that conservative politics are criminal. You probably should have figured out that out before you got yourself arrested. Oh well, too late now. 5Tom Noe indicted It seems that money laundering is the cool new thing for conservative big-wigs to do these days. But then, this is what happens when you have poor role-models. I imagine that half of these conservatives would jump off a bridge if Tom DeLay did it first. For shame. But anyway, Republican fundraiser Tom Noe of Ohio was indicted last week for "illegally funneling $45,400 to President Bush’s re-election campaign," according to the Toledo Blade. Mr. Noe allegedly broke campaign finance laws while raising money for Bush in 2004. Comically, he was later named a "Pioneer" by the Bush campaign for raising more than $100,000. If you're wondering how big a deal this is, the chief of the Justice Department’s public integrity section said, "This case represents one of the first and most important examples of this new enforcement posture under the new law and is one of the most blatant and excessive criminal campaign finance schemes we have encountered." My advice to Mr. Noe would be to find some friendly interest group to create a TV ad accusing the prosecutor of being a rapacious weasel or a poisonous spider or some other uncomplimentary animal, and then go around complaining about the criminalization of conservative politics. After all, WWTDD? 6PhRMA fearmongering Time to move on now from conservative criminals and get back to plain old conservative idiots. Last week it was revealed that a few years ago the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) approached an author with an unusual request. They wanted him to write a novel in which "a group of shadowy terrorists conspires to murder thousands of Americans by poisoning the medicine they're importing from Canada to beat U.S. drug prices," according to the Los Angeles Times. I'm not joking. They actually did that. But while this story may seem like a total farce, it does raise the possibility of other big corporations hiring novelists to disseminate propaganda among the masses: CHRISTINE sponsored by Exxon ...in which a hydrogen-powered car starts killing people. Or... THE RUNAWAY JURY sponsored by the Trinity Broadcasting Network In which a group of renegade judicial activists plot to turn America's children, like, totally gay. Or... DEBT OF HONOR sponsored by the White House In which terrorists crash an airplane into a government building, ultimately giving the president power to take the country to war in the middle east. Wait a minute. That actually happened. 7 Grant Dixton dumb Special notice to White House lawyers: the use of the presidential seal in the above item is a joke. Hey, I have to put that in - you never know what might happen these days. Just last week The Onion received a letter from White House lawyer Grant Dixton informing them that the presidential seal - which the satirical newspaper displays on their website as part of their regular parody on the presidential weekly address - "is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement." Honestly, does the White House have nothing better to do? Of course, Dixton isn't the first person to be fooled by The Onion's biting satire. However, he may well be the dumbest. "I'm surprised the president deems it wise to spend taxpayer money for his lawyer to write letters to The Onion," replied Scott Dikkers, editor-in-chief. All's well that ends well though - The Onion have refused to remove the seal from their website, but they have generously decided to give the White House a complimentary subscription. I'm sure they'll love that. 8GOP House "Leadership" hypocrisy You may remember Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Obviously) from his previous appearances in the Top 10 Conservative Idiots: the married Sherwood allegedly assaulted his mistress at his apartment in Washington DC (see Idiots 197 and 207). Sherwood originally denied that he had a mistress, then later fessed up and admitted that he had in fact been cheating on his wife for five years. He still denies attempting to choke her. Not that any of this matters to the Republican leadership. According to the Washington Post, Sherwood has recently received $26,000 in campaign contributions from: Keep Our Majority PAC (Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois), Rely on Your Beliefs Fund (Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri), the Freedom Project (John A. Boehner of Ohio) and TOMPAC (Thomas M. Reynolds of New York). Sherwood's campaign also received $2,500 from the PRYCE Project PAC (Deborah Pryce of Ohio) and the Prosperity Helps Inspire Liberty PAC (Phil English of Pennsylvania); and $1,000 from the Help America's Leaders PAC (Harold Rogers of Kentucky). Now why would these stalwart supporters of family values decide to funnel such generous campaign contributions to a man who admits cheating on his wife and may is still under investigation for assault and battery? Surely it couldn't be because they're despicable hypocrites. 9Dick Cheney just plain evil Vice president Dick might be breathing a sigh of relief after narrowly escaping the clutches of Patrick Fitzgerald, but let's face it: the guy is still scum. Last week the Washington Post called Cheney the "Vice President for Torture" after he asked the Senate "to approve legal language that would allow the CIA to commit ... abuses against foreign prisoners it is holding abroad." The Post continued: It's not surprising that Mr. Cheney would be at the forefront of an attempt to ratify and legalize this shameful record. The vice president has been a prime mover behind the Bush administration's decision to violate the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention Against Torture and to break with decades of past practice by the U.S. military. These decisions at the top have led to hundreds of documented cases of abuse, torture and homicide in Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, I think I preferred Cheney when he was tucked away in an undisclosed location. 10Harriet Miers cronyism And finally... Gee, and there I was thinking that conservatives were insistent on giving all judicial nominees an up-or-down vote. See you next week!

"Finding" America

2005-11-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

"Finding" America
By M. Treloar
Author's note: This is a discussion document from Bring the Ruckus. It draws on the work from several individuals, but should not be seen as an official statement of the organization. Before you read any further, let us suggest that you do a Kanye West. That doesn't just mean speaking the truth about President Bush. Words alone would be cheap here. It means calling your agent and telling them to send a big donation to grassroots organizations re-building. Don't have an agent? We'll do their work and list several organizations for you. You can figure out how to send the check, money order or electronic funds transfer. • Friends and Families of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC): http://www.jjpl.org/FamilyAndCommunityResources/FamiliesAndFriends/familiesandfriends.html • Common Ground: http://www.commonground.org/ • People's Hurricane Relief Fund: http://cluonline.live.radicaldesigns.org/ If you know of similar organizations in Southeast Asia doing work after the tsunami and the recent earthquake, we would commend you for sending help in those directions. This website is not written for liberals, meaning those who think that sufficient money given to the "proper" groups will make a difference. It is written for radicals and revolutionaries in the United States who understand that fundamental shifting of power and restructuring of societies are necessary and that 501(c)3 organizations will not be the social forces effecting those changes. But, in these circumstances, when groups that have been working for years to bring about those power shifts have been devastated, sending funds is an act of solidarity, not charity. To cite the experience of only one, FFLIC, after their offices in New Orleans were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, their new facilities in Lake Charles, Louisiana, were destroyed by Hurricane Rita. Some of their leadership have been forced to move twice in the last fifty days and are still living in motel rooms. They have not yet located all of their membership, much less the members' families in prison. Grassroots groups all over southern Mississippi and Louisiana suffered similar fates. Now read on with a clear conscience. Bring the Ruckus members have visited evacuee camps and re-settlement centers in several states. We have talked with several hundred evacuees while attempting to gather information for FFLIC and get information on contacting incarcerated family members to the evacuees scattered around the South. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates (posted in USA Today, 9/28/05) are to be believed—and those statistics are most likely to be reliable, since they are based on applications for aid—then over 1.3 million households are displaced. Given that we saw families ranging up to ten people crammed into RVs in the camp, it is reasonable to say that over two million people are now scattered across the U.S., mainly within 250 miles of New Orleans, in cities such as Houston, Mobile, Atlanta and other southern towns. It should be emphasized that no one, whether in FEMA or the Red Cross or any news agency, has an accurate number for the evacuees. Due to the criminal levels of incompetence within FEMA, widely acknowledged at every level of society, many families have not checked back in with the agency, especially after their initial interview. Undocumented workers in many cases never checked in, knowing what likely awaited them. Someday in the not-too-distant future, you will be moved to tears, when a hip hop artist or playwright somehow taps into one of those FEMA interviews with an over-worked bureaucrat listening to an evacuee describe how their life and family has been destroyed, then handing them a fistful of forms and then proceeding to tell them that no, the debit cards will not be issued further and no, their rent will not be covered and no, no and more no's. Despite their official posturing, the Red Cross does not know how to contact hundreds of thousands of people or even where they are. In Alabama the head official had no idea how many people were sited in the state's parks or had sought shelter with church groups. The widely touted website for finding family members is not accessible for a large portion of evacuees who did not use the Internet before Katrina, have not been trained in accessing it in the months since and, in any case, there are few laptops and no free wireless in the parks of rural Alabama and Arkansas. When one Bay Area Ruckus member sought assistance in locating families with children in the correctional system of Louisiana, they were advised by a Red Cross official in San Francisco to "leave this to the professionals. When grass-roots groups get involved they're likely to mess it up." As almost every non-Red Cross volunteer we talked to made clear: if they had waited for FEMA or the Red Cross to take steps, there would still be evacuees stuck in the Superdome waiting for food, water and shelter. And, of course, nowhere has the Red Cross provided information on the tens of thousands of prisoners located somewhere in Louisiana. POWs (except those in Gitmo Bay) are guaranteed better treatment than a sixteen-year-old who was awaiting trial on August 28,2005 in New Orleans. (Lest this be read as criticisms of individual Red Cross personnel, we have none. The volunteers we meet in camps and centers were some of the nicest people one could imagine. The institutional racism and homophobia of the Red Cross is being held up to the light of day in a number of articles that are just now appearing in mainstream media). There is now a diaspora in the United States, and it is not yet clear whether, like those who fled the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, most of the evacuees will attempt to settle where they are or where they can go soon or return to the communities they were driven from. This has consequences for the political battle that is now taking place in New Orleans and for coming political battles in the U.S. In a dreary repeat of the Great Flood of 1927, a small group of thirteen men representing the ruling class is meeting almost daily to decide the fate of New Orleans. Within a month or two we can expect the cover of Business Week to be touting, "How New Orleans Will Be Rebuilt." But right now it is not clear that any other social force is ready or able to put forth a contending vision and fight for it. Certainly without the backing of the dispersed population, no one can claim to represent an organized alternative. Despite some divisions within the ruling class (for example, those representing petrochemical corporations are not as concerned with the clean-up of the toxic sludge that covers every inch of New Orleans as those representing entertainment and casinos), some of their decisions are apparent even now from news reports. The mayor of New Orleans, who sits on the group deciding the city's future, announced that half of the city's workers have been laid off. This announcement came just a day or two ahead of the news story that over 200,000 cars will need to be hauled from within New Orleans and compacted, a task that is supposed to take a year, given the ten crews currently assigned. What are we to make of this? First, a sense of outrage should grab anyone when they realize that transportation was available for every single person who got caught within New Orleans by Katrina, including the over 1,000 who were killed there. Brand-new cars that were sitting on lots as well as empty city buses are now filled with sludge and inoperable, good only for recycling, when they could have been driven out of the city. Second, while towing vehicles is not an unskilled job, how many of the thousands of city workers who are being laid off could be trained in a week to drive a flat-bed or operate a tow truck? Like the decision to keep the police on salary—after all, there are still houses to be looted and Black people to be beaten—it is clear that the cleaning and re-building of New Orleans will be conducted in such a slow and deliberate manner as to guarantee that most of its population will not be able to return, since they will have neither a place to live nor a source of income in the next year. This then, justifies FEMA's announced plan to prepare for five-year encampments. While on the one hand that announcement appears to be a milestone of preparation and wisdom given FEMA's track record, on the other hand it means an abandonment of the city and surrounding areas to re-population by those who were living there in late August 2005. Of the 1.3 million households scattered from Alabama to Alaska, how many can afford to wait five years for the chance to return to a city where there may be no jobs, social services have just been slashed to non-existence, schools are not operating, and the neighborhoods that provided them with community and culture may exist only as a Disney park? How many, except those that have no other option, will choose to live in an RV in a encampment where armed strangers (FEMA, state troopers, park rangers and/or city police) will be able to come in at any time without a warrant since, after all, it is a government-owned residence on government property. While not all of the evacuees will end up in the encampments, the dispersal of them in church groups and rural areas has led to their dismissal as a political and social force by those who are planning the new New Orleans. After all, social movements in the U.S. know from bitter experience that unless you are willing to show up at a government office or factory gate with hundreds or thousands of people behind you, any skilled official or bureaucrat or boss can dismiss your demand with a simple: "You ain't got no support." This is the problem facing those who are contending with the ruling class of Louisiana and the South and the U.S. In order for the people to be heard, the people must speak. While the attempts by community/Labor United to rally forces, both with the Peoples' Hurricane Fund and their organizing efforts, deserve the support of all progressive and radical forces in the U.S., there are some steps that should be obvious to all of us. The first is simple and crucial. In every area where large groups of evacuees exist, efforts must be made to give them a place where they can speak without FEMA oversight. In the Bay Area, speak-outs were held in Oakland within a few weeks after Katrina. In other areas, tens of thousands of Katrina evacuees exist and could begin to meet and talk outside the boundaries established by those with guns and forms. If for no other reason, forums on the forthcoming February elections could be held and centers for absentee balloting established. This step would allow those who have the most compelling criticisms of U.S. capitalism within the U.S. to put them before the world. It would also insure that the questions that are being raised by others in their name are actually voiced by those who suffered. While Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam may be raising fundamental questions about the racism that pervades the "rescue" efforts when he claims that explosives were used to destroy the levees surrounding New Orleans, Malik Rahim from Algiers asserts that "the only explosive they used was greed." The questions raised by Mike Davis in his "25 Questions about the Murder of New Orleans" are an act of solidarity, but they are far more compelling when they come fromthose who were inside the Superdome or living in an encampment—and many of those same questions are being raised there. While there are numerous acts of solidarity that can be undertaken by organizers in New York City and Los Angeles, speaking for the evacuees is not one. Just as in the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee's self-creation over forty years ago, when one organizer successfully demanded that only those who had gone to jail be allowed to vote on strategy for the organization, so it is the case that only those who lived and worked and suffered in New Orleans and Mississippi should be speaking for the evacuees. Second, as raised by FFLIC and every other social justice group in Louisiana, the only functioning institution in Louisiana is the corrections system. It is functioning to incarcerate those who were arrested before Katrina and those who were arrested in attempts to survive during Katrina and the aftermath. Yet it is not cooperating in listing the names of the prisoners who are alive and accounted for, whether they are children or adults. Every group that can raise its voice should join in demanding that all the tens of thousands of prisoners be accounted for immediately. The long Southern tradition of losing prisoners when the levee breaks must be stopped. And finally, we want to endorse, with some small changes, the words of Texas Governor Rick Perry, when he was preparing the people of Texas for Hurricane Rita, as reported in Time. The head of Texas Children's Medical Hospital informed him that they had to break into a warehouse to "liberate a huge load of meat patties." The governor told them, "Don't ask permission, ask forgiveness." This should be the call for amnesty for all who "found" necessary supplies in the last weeks and are now facing criminal charges. But we should not be forgiving any of the survivors of Katrina; we should be honoring them. -------------------------------------- M. Treloar is a member of Bring the Ruckus. He recently returned from Alabama, where he met with hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees. http://www.agitatorindex.org/articles/finding_america.htm

Graffiti is not Art

2005-11-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

Days after the City of New York revoked Mark Ecko's permit to hold The Getting Up Block Party, the fashion designer is set to announce his plans to sue the city today. The Getting Up Block Party is free to a public and is set to feature a graffiti art exhibition next Wednesday, August 24th. Radio host Ron Kuby's law firm, Kuby & Perez, and several reputed graffiti artists are slated to join Ecko during his announcement today at Marc Ecko Enterprises in Manhattan at 2 pm. In July, the city's Community Assistance Unit issued a permit for the event only to revoke it a few days ago. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he doesn't support the exhibit, "Graffiti is just one of those things that destroys our quality of life, and why anybody thinks that it's funny or cute to encourage kids to go do that, I don't know. We have talked to them and asked them to not have a subway car motif to write graffiti. This is not really art or expression. This is - let's be honest about what it is - it's trying to encourage people to do something that's not in anybody's interest." A letter sent to Ecko said that the permit was for an art exhibition event rather than a commercial event. The event is set to feature ten 48-ft long by 8-ft high replicas of the legendary NYC transit blue-bird subway cars. Graf artists are scheduled to paint the cars. Renowned graffiti artists such as COPE2 and T-Kid are slated to take part in the event as well as other active NYC graf heads. Ecko has written an open letter to the city in which he responds to Mayor Mike Bloomberg's claims that graffiti is not an art form. In the letter, Ecko also notes that he's been going through all the proper channels to set up this event. "Unfortunately the spirit of the event, as it was originally conceived and as it has been presented to the appropriate civic groups and government officials since November 2004, seems to have been lost in the haste to stereotype all graffiti-style artists as 'vandals' and to brand this event as a 'promotion of crime,'" Ecko wrote in the letter. "At its core, this is an event designed to celebrate an art form born from the streets of New York over two decades ago as a means of creative self-expression, allowing the public a unique chance to experience the workmanship and skill that go into creating a piece of art fine enough to hang on the walls of any traditional gallery or museum. Upon completion, a 48-foot mural will be donated to The Point, a Bronx-based nonprofit youth development organization, while the remaining nine will be placed throughout the city for public display." Recently, upon being asked about the forthcoming graffiti event, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered, "Look, there is a fine line here between freedom of expression and going out and encouraging people to hurt this city. Defacing subway cars is hardly a joke."

Craddock Comments Elicit Both Outrage, Denials

2005-11-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

Craddock Comments Elicit Both Outrage, Denials By Bonnie Hobbs October 27, 2005 http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=58001&paper=62&cat=104 Chris Craddock At the center of a firestorm this week is Chris Craddock, the Republican candidate running for state delegate in the 67th District, after comments made last week to a Westfield High AP government class about both gays and sex in Africa. Some students were so incensed by what they heard that they contacted Centre View because, although they're too young to vote, they wanted the general public to know how they felt. Teacher Cynthia Szwajkowski's class is doing a project on the 2005 Virginia election, and Craddock, 27, was invited to address her students, Oct. 14. They then questioned him about his stance on topics including abortion and sex education. "When we asked him about gay marriage, he said he believes nobody's born gay — they turn gay," said senior Natalie McLarty, 17. "He said, in his experience, from the gay males he's known, there are three ways to become gay: You don't have a father figure in your life, you have an abusive father figure or you have no loving support in your family." "I was extremely offended because one of my relatives is gay, so that's an assumption he's making about my family," she said. "I don't know where he's getting his statistics, but I know a ton of people who are gay, and they have father figures and love and support in their family. He's young, and I don't know where he's getting these old-fashioned concepts." REGARDING SEX education, McLarty said Craddock said schools should teach that abstinence is the right choice until marriage, rather than providing information about condoms. "So I asked him, 'If we don't teach sex ed in school or give information about birth control, where are kids going to get this [knowledge]?'" she said. "Because, even if you do wait 'til marriage, you still need to know about birth control and protecting yourself against STDs and AIDS." McLarty said she added that, if people aren't educated about this, then "like in Africa, we'll end up with a huge number more of STDS and AIDS cases." She said Craddock told the class he had a friend who'd studied in Africa and told him the reason there's an AIDS epidemic there is because "Africans will have sex with anything that has a pulse." Added senior Erin Peterson: "He said, in some tribes, part of becoming a woman was having sex." She, too, said she heard the "pulse" comment and was surprised that he'd say such a thing: "I'm African-American, so I was a little shocked." Planning to major in International Relations in college, Peterson said she's researched this issue, too, and "a lot of studies say one of the reasons HIV turns into AIDS [in Africa] is because they're so poor and malnourished and can't afford medicines." She said she was at the candidates forum Westfield's PTSA hosted the previous night, Oct. 13, but Craddock seemed "more relaxed and comfortable in front of us. A lot of people in our class knew him because they volunteer for him, so it seemed like he wasn't worried about offending us. He didn't have a speech prepared and was very open. But I didn't see him saying that kind of thing to the audience [of adults] the night before." Peterson said she was also astonished by his comments about gays. "I thought it wasn't appropriate for him to generalize the whole gay community like that because these aren't the only reasons people are gay," she explained. "I think it was OK if it was his personal opinion, but I didn't think it was appropriate to express that in public — especially since he's a politician." "I don't think he'd want to exclude the entire gay community, or people who have friends who are gay," she said. "It didn't make sense. It doesn't seem like it was a very smart way to win votes." Senior Kate Villars said she was "appalled at how incorrect I think his views were. To say people were gay because of their relationship with their father was, I think, a completely inaccurate generalization." REGARDING CRADDOCK'S remarks about sex in Africa, Villars said, "I was completely taken aback. Our entire class — Democrats and Republicans alike — you could hear everybody gasping. There was complete silence; no one knew what to say. I went home and told my parents, and they were completely in shock." Villars said she didn't support him, anyway, because "he's so right wing and socially conservative." And after he spoke to her class, she said, "I lost a lot of respect for him." Likewise, senior Vish Apte, 17, a Democrat, "didn't think much of" Craddock before hearing him speak. Afterward, he said, "My opinion of him deteriorated even more." Regarding the gay comments, Apte said, "I was shocked that he put it out there like that and didn't leave it open for debate or any other suggestions." He said the African sex comments "came out of nowhere. I thought it was a cheap attack." Apte said he then turned around to look at the two black students in his class and "felt pretty ashamed for them." Previously, said McLarty, "I thought [Craddock] must have something going for him because he beat the other guy [Del. Gary Reese (R-67th) in the Republican primary]. But he wasn't a strong speaker and was kind of circular in answering questions. And he was completely offensive and out of line. I don't want people who hold opinions like he expressed to have a part in the government that's creating the country I'm going to grow up in and be part of." Senior Matt Banick said students in his class are extremely interested in politics and many are volunteering on the campaigns of Craddock and Democratic contender Chuck Caputo. So when Craddock spoke to them, he said, "Everyone got riled up and he got caught up in the moment." Regarding the African comment, said Banick, "The other mistake he made was quoting a source, but he didn't correct this broad, cutting generalization. So, to me, it doesn't make him a racist. It makes him seem ignorant about this issue." He said he's not working on anyone's campaign and doesn't particularly favor either candidate. But as for Craddock's comments to his class, said Banick, "This is something everyone's got to know about. It makes him seem too impulsive — like Howard Dean in last year's [presidential] election. You've got to have control. If you're going to go into politics, you've got to think about what you're going to say, no matter where you are."

Don't Support the Troops

2005-10-31T20:20:00.000-08:00

Don't Support the Troops by Brandon J. Snider
"I have already alluded to the difference hitherto existing between regiments of men associated for purposes of violence, and for purposes of manufacture; in that the former appear capable of self-sacrifice – the latter, not."~John Ruskin, Unto This Last, 1862This was the view of one of the 19th century's most prominent and influential leftists. Ruskin goes on to say that "the soldier's trade, verily and essentially, is not slaying, but being slain." It isn't the natural danger of being killed in battle that has Ruskin mesmerized. One can be killed doing almost anything. It is the fact that the soldier "holds his life at the service of the State." Service. This is Ruskin's euphemism for being a hired killer.Current Attitudes"Support the troops – Bring them home!" is a familiar refrain in current libertarian antiwar dogma. The slogan assumes they want to come home. It assumes they don't like what they're doing over there. It practically assumes they're libertarians. But are they? If so, why did they join the military? The fact is that American soldiers probably reflect the attitudes on war and interventionism of the US populace at large. Let's face an unpleasant truth: the voting majority in the US is pro-intervention. That same majority thinks that both World Wars were swell adventures, and that, if Vietnam was a failure, it was at least a noble effort. This is the pool from which the United States draws its military. Soldiers may think they're defending the country, or they may believe that action, whatever the consequences, is better than inaction. In other words, better to do something about an atrocity than stand by and allow it to happen. This kind of thinking needs to be debunked and it cannot be done successfully without reasoned criticism of the troops. Libertarians cannot say that war planners and the ideologues who drive them are evil, but that the instruments of those plans are peaceable innocents.There's a tendency in libertarian circles to think that radical criticism of supposed sacred cows will prove to be disastrous to the future of the movement. I look at it differently. I think the other side should be ashamed of themselves, and we should encourage such shame with our rhetoric. We should not apologize for our views; we should make the statists apologize. We are libertarians, they are totalitarians; is this not correct? When I see libertarians Supporting the Troops! and reserving criticism for policy-makers, I see this view in practice. Yet Supporting the Troops! is a distinctly collectivist idea. Self-sacrifice for the state – is there any principal more anathema to individualism? Why should anyone sacrifice himself for the state unless he is a mere worker bee? The state is greater than the individual; more important than anything else, and all must be sacrificed to protect it, even from its own parts. Those who are willing to sacrifice themselves should be held above all others – praised as though they were saints. This is what we're tacitly saying when we Support the Troops!Many libertarians I read regularly gloss over the issue of The Troops, and exactly what they're doing in their glorious adventures. When atrocities occur, it is reported as "the US did it…" or "the administration did it…" The terms are invariably abstract enough so that no names are named.The US has an all-volunteer army now. These aren't the days of the draft, where men are ordered to kill-or-be-killed (though even in the days of the draft, it was possible to peacefully resist). Still, many arguments abound against criticism of troops:The troops were lied to by the administration, specifically with regards WMDs. What a revolutionary idea, that politicians lie. Strange that we libertarians never believed those lies. Strange that we knew from the second that they escaped Colin L. Powell's lips that it was, as Powell himself said, "bullsh*t." I suppose we libertarians have access to special information that everyone else can't see or make any use of. The US military should only ever be used for defense; it says so in the Constitution. Please. When, oh when, has the US military ever been used as a defensive force? The US is not in danger of invasion, has never been in danger of invasion, and does not require a standing military. Even with these obvious truths, the US has had a standing military of ever increasing size since before the Cretaceous period. The US military is, was, and ever shall be, an offensive force, existing at the meddlesome whims of political masters. If GI Joe joined the military thinking he would only be used if the US were attacked, he was suffering from an incurable form of galactic foolishness. Let's not lionize a fool, especially one with a gun.Another thing, I could live without ever hearing a libertarian talk about again is the blasted Constitution. Lysander Spooner wrote a little book called [url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/SpoTrea.html]No Treason: the Constitution of No Authority[/url] 135 years ago. Allow me to summarize; the Constitution is a contract between parties which do not exist and have not signed it. Therefore, it clearly exists outside the law, got it? If you're going to be a radical, be a radical, don't talk like Republicrats. Besides, the Constitution is a Living, Breathing Document as long as there are living, breathing human beings in the state apparatus to interpret it. Get over your fantastical dreams about an all-powerful document which will restrain the power of the state. These kinds of tiresome, illogical arguments don't seem radical, just very, very. Don't even get me started on the Founding Fathers (Full disclosure: I'm Canadian).They're naïve; they didn't understand what they were getting into when they signed up. And yet, again, we do seem to understand. Libertarians did not sign up, because we didn't want to kill or be killed, for the state. What have we been doing right that they have not? Is the information so hidden that they cannot seek out and determine for themselves what they're getting themselves into? Certainly there is no substitute for experience, which they certainly lack. But is it not their responsibility, given what they do know about their impending duties, to seek out and inform themselves of what awaits? They are, after all, being asked to take a weapon and kill other human beings. They know that much. That's not the sort of thing one would do in Sunday school. How much more pathetic and contemptible does it make them that they didn't properly investigate the situation before they volunteered? It is also reasonable to assume that many of them do understand and are happy to carry out their orders, and it is reasonable to ask what we would do in their place, and why they do not do so. If we had joined the military, gone to Iraq, and suddenly become libertarians, what would we do? Would we not do as Kevin Benderman has done? Refuse to obey any future orders, and willingly go to prison for it. Better that than continue to kill. The fact that the troops continue to obey orders, and some no doubt enjoy their jobs, clearly reflects their attitudes – and suggests what level of sympathy they deserve.In joining, they're acting in their financial best interests, like we all do. It's not their fault, it's the system. Some equate the military to being on a public works project. Before you continue with this easy, lazy line of thought, be sure to draw a clear moral demarcation point between building a road and blasting someone's head off.Troops are victims of military planners. If so, they share equal responsibility for their victimhood. What do we call someone who's killed by an invading force? We usually try not to call them anything at all. We usually ignore them and focus on our own casualties. They are, however, clearly victims. The troops who have victimized them share responsibility with the military planners. Troops are not mindless machines, automatons carrying out prearranged instructions as if without free will. At any time, they can lay down their weapons and refuse (to) kill.War is just one big insane disaster; blaming individual troops for what happens is not fair. Military-worshipper Tom Hanks made a similar comment on Charlie Rose's program a while back. He said "In the Vietnam War, there were no bad guys." A deft maneuver – reducing thoughtful, reasoned analysis into a 2-second sound bite, while simultaneously granting pardons all around. This is an argument against war, not against joining the military and following orders. If you and I know that war is an insane kill-fest, then why doesn't GI Joe know it beforehand? And isn't it his responsibility to know?ConclusionIt's easy for libertarians to dislike politicians, but not so easy for them to dislike GI Joe. We hold brutal killers like John Wesley Hardin or Charles Manson in the lowest regard, but the difference between these killers and military troops is semantic and symbolic. It's time to address the issue of the troops with the brutality it richly deserves. It's time to deconstruct the myth of the glorious military adventure. It's long past time we shame people who think about military service. Perhaps then fewer young people will throw their lives away. "Kill the head and the body will die" is a truism that many libertarians no doubt use to justify their attitudes towards the troops. But the supply of troops and the attitudes regarding them is also a key. Shame people into refusing to join and the supply of cannon fodder will atrophy to the point where foreign adventures will not be possible without a draft. Will the populace accept a draft? I have an idea that a draft at this point would be the same as poking a sleeping grizzly bear with a stick. Try it, just try it.Brandon J. Snider [send him mail brandonjsnider@hotmail.com ] is a blogger for Antiwar.com. He is the webmaster of Weekendinterviewshow.comCopyright © 2005 LewRockwell.com

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/snider1.html

The Troops Don't Defend Our Freedoms

2005-10-31T20:16:00.000-08:00

The Troops Don't Defend Our Freedoms by Jacob G. Hornberger,How often do we hear the claim that American troops "defend our freedoms"? The claim is made often by U.S. officials and is echoed far and wide across the land by television commentators, newspaper columnists, public-school teachers, and many others. It's even a common assertion that emanates on Sundays from many church pulpits. Unfortunately, it just isn't so. In fact, the situation is the exact opposite — the troops serve as the primary instrument by which both our freedoms and well-being are threatened. Let's examine the three potential threats to our freedoms and the role that the troops play in them: 1. Foreign regimes Every competent military analyst would tell us that the threat of a foreign invasion and conquest of America is nonexistent. No nation has the military capability of invading and conquering the United States. Not China, not Russia, not Iran, not North Korea, not Syria. Not anyone. To invade the United States with sufficient forces to conquer and "pacify" the entire nation would take millions of foreign troops and tens of thousands of ships and planes to transport them across the Atlantic or Pacific ocean. No foreign nation has such resources or military capabilities and no nation will have them for the foreseeable future. After all, think about it: the U.S. army, the most powerful military force in all of history, has not been able to fully conquer such a small country as Iraq because of the level of domestic resistance to a foreign invasion. Imagine the level of military forces that would be needed to conquer and "pacify" a country as large and well-armed as the United States. I repeat: No foreign nation has the military capability to invade the United States, conquer our country, subjugate our people, and take away our freedoms. Therefore, the troops are not needed to protect our freedoms from this nonexistent threat. 2. Terrorists Despite widespread fears to the contrary, there is no possibility that terrorists will conquer the United States, take over the government, and take away our freedoms. At most, they are able to kill thousands of people, with, say, suicide bombs but they lack the military forces to subjugate the entire nation or any part of it. Equally important, while the troops claim that they are protecting us from "the terrorists," it is the troops themselves — or, more precisely, the presidential orders they have loyally carried out — that have engendered the very terrorist threats against which the troops say they are now needed to protect us. Think back to 1989 and the years following — when the Berlin Wall fell, East and West Germany were united, Soviet troops withdrew from Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union was dismantled. The Pentagon didn't know what to do. Unexpectedly, its 50-year-old "official enemy" was gone. (The Soviet Union had previously been America's "ally" that had "liberated" Eastern Europe from Nazi Germany.) With the fall of the Soviet empire (and, actually, before the fall), the obvious question arose: Why should the United States continue to have an enormous standing army and spend billions of dollars in taxpayer money to keep it in existence? The Pentagon was in desperate search for a new mission. "We can be a big help in the war on drugs," the Pentagon said. To prove it, U.S. military forces even shot to death 18-year-old American citizen Esequiel Hernandez in 1997, as he tended his goats along the U.S.-Mexican border. "We'll help American businesses compete in the world." "We'll readjust NATO's mission to protect Europe from non-Soviet threats." "We'll protect us from an unsafe world." Then along came the Pentagon's old ally, Saddam Hussein, to whom the United States had even entrusted weapons of mass destruction to use against the Iranian people, and gave America's standing army a new raison d'être. Invading Kuwait over an oil-drilling dispute, Saddam provided the Pentagon with a new official enemy, one that would last for more than 10 continuous years. Obeying presidential orders to attack Iraq in 1991, without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war, the troops ended up killing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Obeying Pentagon orders to attack Iraq's water and sewage facilities, the troops accomplished exactly what Pentagon planners had anticipated — spreading deadly infections and disease among the Iraqi people. Continuing to obey presidential orders in the years that followed, the troops enforced what was possibly the most brutal embargo in history, which ended up contributing to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, deaths that U.S. officials said were "worth it." Obeying presidential orders, the troops enforced the illegal "no-fly zones" over Iraq, which killed even more Iraqis, including children. Obeying presidential orders, the troops established themselves on Islamic holy lands with full knowledge of the anger and resentment that that would produce among devout Muslims. Obeying presidential orders, the troops invaded and occupied Iraq without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war, killing and maiming tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis — that is, people whose worst "crime" was to resist the unlawful invasion of their homeland by a foreign power. All that death and destruction — both pre-9/11 and post-9/11 — have given rise to terrible anger and hatred against the United States, which inspired the pre-9/11 attacks, such as the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, the attack on the USS Cole, and the attacks on overseas U.S. embassies, the 9/11 attacks, and the terrorist threats our nation faces today. Through it all, the Pentagon simply echoed the claims of the president — that all the death and destruction and humiliation that the U.S. government had wreaked on people in the Middle East, as well as its unconditional military and financial foreign aid to the Israeli government, had not engendered any adverse feelings in the Middle East against the United States. Instead, the president and the Pentagon claimed, the problem was that the terrorists simply hated America for its "freedom and values." If the American people had dismantled the nation's standing army when the Soviet empire was dismantled, the federal government would have lacked the military means to meddle and intervene in the Middle East with unconstitutional military operations, sanctions, no-fly zones, bases, invasions, and occupations. Therefore, there never would have been the terrorists attacks against the United States and a "war on terrorism" for the troops to fight, not to mention the USA PATRIOT Act, secret search warrants and secret courts, the Padilla doctrine, and other federal infringements on our rights and freedoms. Finally, but certainly important, despite being the most powerful standing army in the world, the U.S. troops were not even able to protect Americans from terrorist acts, as best evidenced by two terrorist attacks on the same target — the World Trade Center, first in 1993 and then again in 2001. 3. The federal government As our Founding Fathers understood so well, the primary threat to our freedom lies with our own government. That's in fact why we have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — to protect us and our freedoms from federal officials. If the federal government did not constitute such an enormous threat to our freedoms, there would be no reason to have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Yet, what is the primary means by which a government takes away the freedoms of its citizenry? Our American ancestors gave us the answer: its military forces. That is in fact why many of our Founding Fathers opposed a standing, professional military force in America — they knew not only that such a force would be used to involve the nation in costly, senseless, and destructive wars abroad but also that government officials would inevitably use the troops to ensure a compliant and obedient citizenry at home. Consider the words of James Madison: A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.Here's how Patrick Henry put it: A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?Would U.S. troops obey presidential orders to deploy against the American people and take away our freedoms? There is no doubt about it. Of course they would, especially if the president told them that our "freedom and national security" depended on it, which he would. As I suggested in my article, "[url=http://www.fff.org/comment/com0510c.asp]The Troops Don't Support the Constitution,[/url]" in the United States the loyalty of the troops is to the president as their supreme commander of chief, not to the Constitution. Recent evidence of this point, as I observed in my article, was the willingness of the troops to obey presidential orders to deploy to Iraq despite the fact that the president had failed to secure the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war. What if the president ordered the troops to deploy across the United States and to round up "terrorists" and incarcerate them in military camps, both here and in Cuba? Again, there can be no doubt that most of the troops would willingly obey the president's orders, especially in the middle of a "crisis" or "emergency" because they view themselves as professional soldiers whose job is to serve the president and not to question why but simply to do or die. Another good example of the allegiance that the troops have toward the president involves the case of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. Labeling Padilla a "terrorist," the president ordered the troops to take him into military custody, deny him access to an attorney, and punish him without a trial and due process of law. The troops obeyed without question. Do you know any troops who have publicly protested the Padilla incarceration or who have resigned from the army in protest? How many have publicly announced, "I refuse to participate in the Padilla incarceration because I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution"? Indeed, how many of the troops resigned in protest at the president's orders to set up a prisoner camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, knowing that the reason he and the Pentagon chose Cuba, rather than the United States, was precisely to avoid the constraints of the Constitution? If the troops didn't protest with respect to Iraq or Padilla or Gitmo, what is the likelihood they would protest when their commander in chief ordered them to arrest 100 other Americans "terrorists," or 1,000? I repeat: The troops, from the Pentagon on down, would not disobey orders of the president to disarm and arrest American "terrorists," especially in the midst of a "crisis" or "emergency." And even if some were to protest, they would be quickly shunted aside (probably punished as well) and replaced with those troops whose allegiance and loyalty to the president would be unquestioned. Now it's true that soldiers are supposed to disobey unlawful orders, but as a practical matter most of the troops are not going to overrule the judgment of their commander in chief as to what is legal or not. After all, how many troops involved in the torture and sex-abuse scandal refused to participate in the wrongdoing, especially since they thought that it was approved by the higher-ups? Again, how many refused orders to deploy to Iraq despite the fact that there was no constitutionally required congressional declaration of war? Imagine that the president issues the following grave announcement on national television during prime time: "Our nation has come under another terrorist attack. Our freedoms and our national security are at stake. I have issued orders to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to immediately take into custody some 1,000 American terrorists who have been identified by the FBI as having conspired to commit this dastardly attack or who have given aid and comfort to the enemy. I have also ordered the JCS to take all necessary steps to temporarily confiscate weapons in the areas where these terrorists are believed to be hiding. These weapons will be returned to the owners once the terrorist threat has subsided. I am calling on all Americans to support the troops in these endeavors, just as you are supporting them in their fight against terrorism in Iraq. We will survive. We will prevail. God bless America." Now ask yourself: How many of the troops would disobey the orders of the president given those circumstances, especially if panicked and terrified Americans and the mainstream press were endorsing his martial-law orders? The answer: Almost none would disobey. They would not consider it their job to determine the constitutionality of the president's orders. They would leave that for the courts to decide. Their professional allegiance and loyalty to their supreme commander in chief would trump all other considerations, including their oath to "support and defend the Constitution." Therefore, if the federal government is the primary threat to our freedom, then so are the troops: their unswerving loyalty to their commander in chief makes them the primary instrument by which the federal government is able to destroy or infringe the rights and freedoms of the citizenry. The solution No one can deny that we now live in a nation in which the president wields, albeit unconstitutionally, the omnipotent power to send the entire nation into war against another nation — and that he has the means — a loyal and obedient army — to exercise that power. President Bush made his position clear prior to his invasion of Iraq, when he emphasized that while he welcomed the support of Congress in the event he decided to wage war on Iraq, he didn't need its approval. His position was reconfirmed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who informed Congress on October 19, 2005, that the commander in chief's position was that he did not need the consent of Congress to send the nation into another war, this time against Syria. No one can deny that we now live in a nation in which the president claims the omnipotent power to jail and punish any American citizen whom the president labels a "terrorist," denying him due process of law, trial by jury, and other constitutional guarantees — and that he has the means — a loyal and obedient army — to exercise that power. Thus, as a practical matter the troops serve not as a defender of our freedoms but instead simply as a loyal and obedient personal army of the president, ready and prepared to serve him and obey his commands. It is an army that stands ready to obey the president's orders to deploy to any country in the world for any reason he deems fit and attack, kill, and maim any "terrorist" who dares to resist the U.S. invasion of his own country. It is also an army that stands ready to obey the president's orders to take into custody any American whom the commander in chief deems a "terrorist" and to punish him accordingly. There is one — and only one — solution to this threat to our freedoms and well-being: for the American people to heed the warning of our Founding Fathers against standing armies before it is too late, and to do what should have been done at least 15 years ago: dismantle the U.S. military empire, close all overseas bases, and bring all the troops home, discharging them into the private sector, where they would effectively become "citizen-soldiers" — well-trained citizens prepared to rally to the defense of our nation in the unlikely event of a foreign invasion of our country. And for the American people to heed the warning of President Eisenhower against the military-industrial complex, by shutting down the Pentagon's enormous domestic military empire, closing domestic bases, and discharging those troops into the private sector. "Oh, my gosh, if we did all that, how would our freedoms be protected?" Protected from what? Again, there is no threat of a foreign invasion. And again, terrorism is not a threat to our freedom. Moreover, dismantling the standing army would remove the primary means by which presidents have succeeded in engendering so much anger and hatred against our nation — anger and hatred that in turn have given rise to the threat of terrorism against our nation. And finally, the worst threat to our freedom is our own government, and by dismantling the standing army we would reduce that threat significantly. What would happen if a foreign nation ever began constructing thousands of ships and planes and mobilizing millions of people to invade the United States? The answer to that threat was also provided by our Founding Fathers: the foreign nation in question would be met by a nation of free well-armed citizens who would be prepared and willing to rally quickly to oppose any invasion and conquest of our nation. Invading a United States filled with well-trained, free men and women would be much like invading Switzerland — like swallowing a porcupine. Don't forget that the men and women who currently serve in the U.S. armed services wouldn't disappear; instead they would join the rest of us as citizen-soldiers, people whose fighting skills could be depended on in the unlikely event our nation were ever threatened by invasion by a foreign power. We should also keep in mind the tremendous economic prosperity that would result from the dismantling of America's enormous standing army. Not only would all the taxpayer money that is being used to fund the standing army be left in the hands of the citizenry for savings and capital, but all those new people in the private sector would be producing as well, instead of living off the IRS-provided fruits of other people's earnings. Thus, the economic effect would be doubly positive, and, while weakening the federal government, it would make our nation stronger. What about foreign monsters, tyrants, oppressors, and conquerors? The answer to that was also provided by our Founding Fathers: Our government would no longer go abroad in search of monsters to destroy, but foreigners suffering oppression and tyranny would know that there would always be at least one nation that would accept them — the United States of America. Rather than police the world, Americans would focus on producing the freest and most prosperous society in history as a model for the world and to which those who escaped tyranny and oppression could freely come. Of course, those Americans who would nonetheless wish to leave their families and jobs to help oppressed people overseas would still be free to do so. We should also bear in mind the perverse results of the federal government's military empire and overseas interventions. World War I brought World War II, which brought the Soviet communist occupation of Eastern Europe, which brought the Cold War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, along with an enormous standing army in our country. The Middle East interventions and meddling have brought us terrorism, the war on terrorism, the USA PATRIOT Act, the Padilla doctrine, military torture and sex abuse, and CIA kidnappings and "renditions" to foreign countries for the purpose of proxy torture. By their fruits, you shall know them. One vision — the vision of militarism and empire — will bring America more violence, death, destruction, impoverishment, and loss of freedom. The other vision — the vision of a limited-government, constitutional republic with citizen-soldiers — would put our nation back on the right road of peace, prosperity, harmony, and freedom. Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. Send him email jhornberger@fff.org
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0510g.asp

sending a word of love to Yvette...Domestic Violence

2005-10-31T20:00:00.000-08:00

repost, thanksi hear a small still voice...Date: Oct 30, 2005 6:05 AMOnly if it's on your heart to do...No pressure... Just lettin' you know
IF THE JUDGES ARE CLUELESS, EVERYONE'S IN DANGER.
2 Excerpts from articles below:
...SO IT WAS all a clerical error. At least, that's how a lawyer for Prince George's County Judge Richard A. Palumbo explained his client's decision last month to dismiss the protective order that was shielding Yvette Cade from her husband -- the husband who, three weeks later, allegedly doused her with gasoline at her workplace and set her on fire...
...As the following excerpt shows, he also berated Ms. Cade, as though she were asking something unreasonable of him, rather than simply imploring him to maintain the protection order he had issued some months earlier...
Yvette Cade
http://images.ibsys.com/2005/1013/5092973_400X300.jpg

YVETTE, OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU
"...Click here to email your messages and well wishes To The Family (yvetteca@yvettecadefund.org). We would love to hear from you. All messages will be read to Yvette, so make sure you let her know how much you care!..."
LINK TO THE WEBSITE FOR HER AND HER DAUGHER:
http://www.yvettecadefund.org/
...Any donations sent will be used to support Yvette and her young daughter. Donations can be made to the Yvette Cade Trust at:
Wachovia Bank
or mail donations to
Yvette Cade Trust
PO Box 951
Oxon Hill, MD 20750-0951

MD Judge Richard Palumbo
READ THEM ALL - FOR YVETTE & ALL THE YVETTES:
More Than a Clerical Error
The Washington PostThursday, October 20, 2005; Page A26
SO IT WAS all a clerical error. At least, that's how a lawyer for Prince George's County Judge Richard A. Palumbo explained his client's decision last month to dismiss the protective order that was shielding Yvette Cade from her husband -- the husband who, three weeks later, allegedly doused her with gasoline at her workplace and set her on fire. As Post staff writers Allison Klein and Ruben Castaneda reported, attorney William C. Brennan said Judge Palumbo intended after a Sept. 19 hearing to dismiss the request by the husband, Roger B. Hargrave, to modify the protective order, not to dismiss the order itself.
We don't doubt that Judge Palumbo was, indeed, confused about what was going on in his courtroom. That much is clear from the recorded hearing, and a few comments do suggest that he meant to dismiss Mr. Hargrave's request, though the chief judge of the court disputed the judge's suggestion that a clerk was at fault. But even if he's right, his explanation is only a partial one, for he didn't just dismiss the protective order. As the following excerpt shows, he also berated Ms. Cade, as though she were asking something unreasonable of him, rather than simply imploring him to maintain the protection order he had issued some months earlier:
Ms. Cade: Well, your honor, he's violating the peace order. He's contacting my family. He's still contacting me. He's intimidating my daughter, and he's vandalizing other people's property. I want you to look at these pictures. He has a girlfriend, friend, who's like, contacting me, giving me cards. And I don't want, uh, I want an immediate absolute divorce.
Judge Palumbo: Well, I'd like to be six-foot-five, but that's not what we do here. You have to go to a divorce court for that.
Ms. Cade: Ok. Well, I want you to look at these pictures, because I don't want him to continue to think --
Judge Palumbo: Uh, this case is dismissed -- at the request -- of -- the petitioner.
Ms. Cade: He was trying to force me to go to marriage counseling.
Judge Palumbo: It might not be a bad idea, if you want to save the marriage.
Ms. Cade: I don't want to, because --
Judge Palumbo: Well, then you're in the wrong place. Get a lawyer and go to divorce court. This petition is denied -- or dismissed. I mean it's silly! You have any children?
Ms. Cade: No.
[cross talk]
Judge Palumbo: Just get a lawyer, and get a divorce. That's all you got to do. Get a lawyer and go to family court and get a divorce.
Ms. Cade: You told him that the last time.
Judge Palumbo: No, no, no, no! Ma'am, you can get a lawyer and go. He doesn't have to get it. You can go!
Ms. Cade: He's like stalling me.
Judge Palumbo: Look. Do you work?
Ms. Cade: I do, but I have a lot of bills.
Judge Palumbo: Everybody's got bills! . . . . Go see a lawyer -- a divorce lawyer.
Ms. Cade: A lawyer costs a lot of money.
Madam, if you want a divorce --
Ms. Cade: I do.
Judge Palumbo: -- go get a lawyer. . . . I can't be your lawyer. I've got to be independent, you know, like an umpire.
The problem with Judge Palumbo's conduct, in short, was not that someone checked the wrong box on a court form. It was that the judge, faced with a woman who claimed -- rightly, as it turned out -- to be highly vulnerable to physical assault, could not take the time to figure out what was going on in the case. He treated her as a scammer trying to game the system for advantage in a divorce proceeding. Ms. Cade is grievously wounded; that might have happened even had the order, now belatedly restored, been in place. But at least a court wouldn't have made her more vulnerable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902011.html
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Family Shares Photos Of Burn Victim In Hospital
Burned Woman's Recovery Slow
POSTED: 6:53 pm EDT October 28, 2005
UPDATED: 7:44 pm EDT October 28, 2005
--> --> --> --> -->startindex-->WASHINGTON -- Eighteen days ago, Yvette Cade, 31, was doused with gasoline and set on fire. On Friday, her family shared with News4 photographs of Yvette to make a point about domestic violence.
The pictures were taken Friday in Yvette's hospital room.
Joyce Cade, the victim's mother, said her daughter wakes up afraid because she fears her husband is coming.
"She's been having some flashbacks from that and at times hearing his voice," Joyce said.
Yvette's estranged husband, Roger Hargrave, is charged with first-degree attempted murder in connection with the attack at Yvette's workplace.
Joyce said her daughter suffered severe burns over all of her face.
"She'll need plastic surgery on both ears," Joyce said.
Yvette is still listed in critical condition at Washington Hospital Center.
Joyce said her family is sharing photos of Yvette at the hospital because they want the world to know what she is suffering.
Yvette's family still is waiting for a response to the complaint she filed against Prince George's Count District Judge Richard Palumbo. He dismissed a protective order three weeks before the attack. Critics have called his behavior in the hearing rude and insensitive.
"The system has to change. It just has to," said Carol Bryant, the victim's aunt. "I don't ever want to see another person go through this."
Barring any complications, Yvette's family is confident she will recover.
"I know that we'll have to constantly reassure her that she's in a safe environment," Joyce said.
Yvette is expected to remain hospitalized for at least two more months.
Her family needs help paying mounting medical bills. Anyone who wants to help them out can send donations to:
Yvette Cade Trust FundP.O. Box 951Oxon Hill, MD 20750-0951
Or, you can stop at any Wachovia Bank and donate to the fund.
Anyone interested in getting updates on Yvette's condition can click here.
http://www.nbc4.com/news/5200660/detail.html
Family of Burned Woman Asks Md. to Remove Judge
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff WriterFriday, October 21, 2005; Page B02
The family of burn victim Yvette Cade sent a letter yesterday to the Maryland judicial disciplinary board asking that Prince George's District Court Judge Richard A. Palumbo be removed from the bench.
Palumbo dismissed a protective order Cade had obtained against her husband three weeks before Roger B. Hargrave allegedly went to the store where she worked, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire.
The judge said through his attorney that the dismissal was not his intention and was the result of a clerical error. The county's top District Court judge disputed that assertion, saying there was no clerical error.
Michael David Haynesworth, a cousin of Cade, said yesterday that he had expected an apology from Palumbo. He expressed that in the letter he sent to the Judicial Disabilities Commission in Annapolis, he said.
"Part of what was addressed in our letter is his insensitivity and blatant disregard for human life," Haynesworth said. "He's trying to throw off any responsibility on a clerk who follows his command."
Haynesworth said the judge's tone toward Cade was "cold and callous" during the Sept. 19 hearing at which the order was dismissed.
Through his attorney, Palumbo has expressed his "utmost sympathy" for Cade and her family.
Haynesworth said that Cade is still in the hospital in critical condition and that doctors say she needs about 40 more surgeries before her condition can be upgraded. The family has set up a fund to help pay for her medical care and other bills. Donations can be sent to the Yvette Cade Fund, P.O. Box 951, Oxon Hill, Md. 20750-0951.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102001903.html
Woman Set On Fire Shows ImprovementCade Remains In Critical ConditionNBC4POSTED: 3:58 pm EDT October 20, 2005UPDATED: 4:17 pm EDT October 20, 2005
CLINTON, Md. -- A woman who was set on fire inside a cell phone store in Prince George's County, Md., is showing signs of improvement, News4 reported.
Police said Yvette Cade's estranged husband, Roger Hargrave, went to her workplace last week, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire.
Cade remains in critical condition. She has undergone a number of surgeries, including some on Thursday. But relatives said her feeding tube has been taken out and that she is able to talk.
Meanwhile, Hargrave is being held without bond for attempted murder.
Judge Richard Palumbo, who dissolved Cade's protective order against Hargrave several weeks ago, has been removed from domestic violence cases.
http://www.nbc4.com/news/5135043/detail.html
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Md. Judge Got No Citation for Wreck He Caused
By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff WriterFriday, October 28, 2005; Page B04
Maryland state troopers said in a report two months ago that Prince George's County District Court Judge Richard A. Palumbo, the focus of controversy in recent days for a decision in a domestic violence case and a voided traffic ticket, caused a two-vehicle accident in Charles County. But they did not issue a citation to him.
The incident occurred six months after a trooper was "counseled" for deviating from official procedure by voiding a speeding ticket he had issued to Palumbo in Mitchellville. On Wednesday, the chief judge of the District Court temporarily removed Palumbo, 67, from the bench and reassigned him to administrative tasks following a Washington Post report on the voided ticket.
Palumbo has faced criticism for dismissing a protective order against a man who allegedly set his wife on fire three weeks later.
The Charles County accident occurred shortly after 1 p.m. Aug. 20 when Palumbo, driving a 2002 Ford F-150 truck that belongs to a cement company, was making a left turn into the parking lot of a general store on Chapel Point Road in the Port Tobacco area. Kimberly A. Corlette was driving a 2004 Nissan Xterra sport-utility vehicle south on Chapel Point Road, the report said.
The report identifies Palumbo's truck as Vehicle ..1 and Corlette's SUV as Vehicle ..2.
"Vehicle ..1 failed to yield right of way to Vehicle ..2, causing Vehicle ..2 to collide with Vehicle ..1," the report said. In an interview with The Post, Corlette said the front of her SUV was severely damaged and the vehicle had to be towed.
A trooper checked "yes" in the "fault" box underneath Palumbo's name and "no" under Corlette's.
But troopers did not issue a citation to Palumbo, Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley confirmed. Shipley said it is not unusual for troopers not to write a citation at an accident scene. "They have discretion," Shipley said.
Palumbo's attorney, William C. Brennan, said neither he nor his client had any comment. The trooper who investigated the accident and a corporal who is listed on the police report as a supervisor did not return phone calls.
Corlette, 32, was surprised to learn from a reporter this week that Palumbo did not receive a citation. "That's disgusting," she said.
Corlette said Palumbo did not want her to call police, tried to clean up debris before troopers arrived and told her four or five times that he was a judge. After he got out of the truck he was driving, Palumbo stumbled to his knees "five or six times," Corlette said.
"I asked him if he was okay. I was worried he was hurt in the accident," she said.
Corlette said that at one point Palumbo said, "You're going to be in trouble." When she asked why, Palumbo replied, "I'm a judge," she said.
"I told the [state trooper] I was intimidated," Corlette said. She said the trooper replied, "Sweetheart, I have no idea who that man is." Corlette said the trooper spoke to Palumbo, but she did not hear the exchange.
Asked whether Palumbo tried to influence the trooper, Shipley said, "I have no information about that." Shipley added, "It is not the policy of the Maryland State Police to withhold appropriate law enforcement action in any way based on someone's position."
Palumbo has been in the news because of his actions in a domestic violence case involving Yvette Cade, 31, and her husband, Roger B. Hargrave, 33.
On Sept. 19, Palumbo dismissed Cade's protective order against Hargrave. On Oct. 10, Hargrave allegedly doused Cade with gasoline and set her on fire. Cade suffered third-degree burns, the most serious level, on her torso and face. Hargrave is being held without bond on charges of attempted first-degree murder and assault.
Staff writer Joshua Partlow contributed to this report.
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"We Need a Movement of Millions" by Mumia Abu-Jamal

2005-10-31T19:58:00.000-08:00

"We Need a Movement of Millions" by Mumia Abu-Jamal via Noelle Hanrahan ================== here is the text from Monica (Moorehead's) paper Workers World of the Millions speech. best Noelle 'We need a movement of millions' Published Oct 13, 2005 2:12 AM The following transcript is taken from an audio commentary. Mumia Abu-Jamal Long live John Africa. On a move! I want to thank Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Millions More Movement for the kind invitation to join y'all here. As we gather, in person or electronically, we do so in a time of peril. We do so in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the state showed us all that they don't give a damn about Black life. But every day of our lives we see smaller but no less lethal Hurricane Katrinas. Every year in public schools, millions of Black, Latin@, and poor kids are miseducated, thereby destroying, as surely as any hurricane, their life hopes and chances. In our communities, our taxes pay for our own oppression, as racist and brutal cops make our lives hell daily. We are consumers of a media that is as dangerous as any hurricane, for it poisons our minds and the minds of millions of others by wholesale lies designed to demean and denigrate us. Look at the tale of horrors that came out of Katrina: the horror stories of mass rapes and mass murders, told by Black politicians and Black cops to deflect attention from the armed, roving gangs of New Orleans cops, who stole everything that they could get their hands on. By putting out these lies, they turned hearts and minds from their betrayal of their own constituency, Black and poor New Orleanians, who needed transport, food, clean water, toilet facilities, and medical care and safety. What's the point? That they represent, not the interests of those who voted for them, but the wealthy and well-to-do. If you doubt me, ask yourself what percentage of the tens of thousands of people in the Superdome or the convention center—those people the government left to starve, in the dark, thirsty, deathly afraid—were registered Democrat? If we're honest, we'll agree over 90 percent. What did it matter? It didn't. Their loyalty was rewarded with betrayal. Did it matter that there was a Democratic governor? Kathleen Blanco's first order was to send National Guard into the streets, where she authorized them to shoot to kill to protect property. Did any of you, in a week, see such governmental passion displayed to protect human life? Did you see any interest in protecting Black life? I didn't think so. What we saw then was what we've always seen—the government as adversary, not ally. In prisons all across America, in police stations, and in courthouses, we experience daily hurricanes of hatred and indifference. These institutions, just like other government branches, are threats to our welfare, not tools of our will. They are tools of white supremacy, even and sometimes especially when their leaders have Black faces. We have Black politicians with virtually no political power which means, once again, we pay for our own oppression. Our taxes pay for them, but they don't serve our people's interests. They serve the state of white supremacy. They serve the will of capital. We need a movement of millions to build true social power. To free our minds and our bodies from the mud that we languish in. We need a movement of millions to transform our current social reality of repression and destitution. We need a movement of millions to bring back light to the eyes of our people. To engage in a struggle for freedom, for justice, and for liberation. We need a movement of millions of the poor, of workers, of women, of youth, of students, of prisoners, of all those dedicated to change to build independent organizations that can't be bought or sold and will do the work necessary to be free. We need a movement of millions to bring freedom to the brothers and sisters of the Move 9, to bring freedom to Sundiata Acoli, to bring freedom to Mutulu Shakur, to Russell Maroon Shoats, and hundreds of other Black prisoners of war and political prisoners. We need a movement of millions to resist the state oppression that has brought us Patriot Acts, but not patriotic actions, wars for empire and countless attacks on the poor. We need a movement of millions to make common cause with oppressed people the world over. In Cuba, yes in Iraq, in Venezuela, in the Congo, in Haiti, in the Philippines. We need a movement of millions that is anti-imperialist, that is anti-racist, and that unites us, not divides us. We need a movement of millions, and let us begin right here. Thank you, on a move! Long live John Africa. Free the Move 9. From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal. www.mumia.org/freedom.now.

Malign Neglect or Imperialism? NGOs Blind to Canada's Crimes in Haiti

2005-10-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

Link: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?Secti..55&ItemID=8988

Haiti Turning into Canada's Iraq

2005-10-30T07:59:00.000-08:00

Link: http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/10/25/HaitiCanadaIraq/

Americas Watch Haiti: Continued Oppression and Killings in Haiti+Video

2005-10-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

Link: http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/10/1776640.php

'We won't be peaceful and let them kill us any longer' Bel Air interview with Roaean Baptiste

2005-10-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

'We won't be peaceful and let them kill us any longer'
Bel Air interview with Roaean Baptiste
by Lyn Duf
- On Oct. 28, 2004, the Haitian police entered Bel Air and shot these four young men execution style.
Photo: ©2004 Haiti Information Project
Since U.S.-funded death squads and "rebels" overthrew Haiti's popular democracy in February 2004, media reports have been filled with the voices of those with power, influence and money in Haiti. What's been missing are the voices of ordinary Haitians, members of the pro-democracy movement, who overwhelmingly oppose the new regime of Florida businessman turned prime minister, Gerald Latorture.
SF Bay View correspondent Lyn Duff spoke with Rosean Baptiste, a resident of Bel Air in Port-au-Prince, whose neighborhood has been targeted since 2004 for mass arrests and killings by both the United Nations and the Haitian National Police.
Lyn Duff: Last time we spoke, the situation in Bel Air was transforming for the first time since the invasion of Haiti by U.S. troops last year. For the first time since then, the people rose up and resisted the atrocities, the crimes being committed against them by the paramilitary death squads, the polices and the foreign military. What exactly happened?
Rosean Baptiste: We, the residents of Bel Air, took over our neighborhood. We erected barriers at the crossroads to prevent the police and the white ("white" is translated from the Kreyol "blan" which can also mean "foreign") military from entering our area. We also set up a special watch to warn the residents of attack from both the official forces and from the paramilitary groups, the reconstituted death squads. This rebellion in Bel Air continued for several months before it was quashed by the United Nations soldiers last December.
The situation in our neighborhood is grave, but we are hopeful because we know that we have taken matters into our own hands. We aren't sitting by peacefully watching while military snipers execute us one by one. We aren't sitting on our hands while each and every nonviolent manifestation (or demonstration) is met with murderous force on the part of the police.
Lyn Duff: How would you describe the movement in your neighborhood? Are you trying to seize power?
Rosean Baptiste: No, not at this time. We would like to build for a time when we could seize power, but we are not prepared yet for that and we don't have the resources or arms to launch a civil or a revolutionary war at this very moment.
Lyn Duff: When you say "we," you're talking about …
Rosean Baptiste: We are the poor majority. We are the ordinary Haitians, the 95 percent of the country that lives in the poorest conditions. We are the people who have no jobs or just have a little work to maybe buy a small amount of food to keep from starving each day.
We are the people who cannot pay for a doctor when we are sick. We are the people who cannot pay the 200 gourdes a year to send our children to school (17 gourdes equal one U.S. dollar). We are the people who live in houses made of sheets of hammered tin or concrete blocks or scraps of cardboard and trash.
Our movement at this point is a movement of resistance. We are abandoning the position of the moderates who tell us to be peaceful and work within the system while we starve and the interim government kills us. While we don't have the weapons to go seeking out battles, we have decided as a community that enough is enough.
When the white military comes in here with the police or the paramilitary death squads, we won't be peaceful and let them kill us any longer. We won't be peaceful and let them kidnap and disappear our children.
No, since the murders fired on our protest march on Sept. 30, 2004, we have changed our strategy, and today we say, "If you come in here to shoot us, we will resist. If you come in here to arrest us illegally, we will fight you off with stones and bottles and whatever weapons we can find or create."
Lyn Duff: How would you describe to me the conditions that made your resistance necessary?
Rosean Baptiste: Last year, on Feb. 29, 2004, the United States and France strangled our democracy. The members of the disbanded military who came together to overthrow President Aristide admit the CIA funded them.
Even the U.S. government acknowledges that they trained these men and that some participated in so-called "democracy enhancement" programs in the Dominican Republic which were paid for the U.S. government and were essentially a training and organizing workshop for the people who staged the coup.
I should say, this coup caused many deaths initially. Some say thousands were killed in the weeks that the reorganized death squads came across from the D.R. and began to take control over the countryside in the North. But since then, since the U.S. ambassador (Foley) put Latortue in place, since then many people have died.
Lyn Duff: If a person gets their news from the New York Times, they're going to be left with the impression that few people have been killed and those that have died in Haiti have primarily been killed by what they call the "pro-Aristide gangs."
Rosean Baptiste: And that is so ridiculous to us when we hear those kinds of reports. Do I look like a gang member to you? I am just a regular person, a woman who is tired of all this garbage. I don't hang out on the streets drinking and gambling all day.
By saying we are "gang members" or "chimères," the press are trying to discredit our demands for justice because the journalists think: Who cares about giving justice to those criminal gang members who just sell drugs and misbehave?
But our demands do have point and we should be listened to, but it is also because of this dynamic that that poor are ignored, that we have chosen not just to make peaceful demands but also to take actions to defend ourselves and promote our cause. Besides, if fighting back against the horrors of this government and the foreign governments that oppress us is criminal, well then I am proud to commit this crime.
By the way, we also wouldn't call ourselves "pro-Aristide" because even though most people in our neighborhood voted for Aristide - just like the majority of the country did - we do not limit ourselves to simply calling for his return. We have different opinions about this amongst ourselves.
Some here are Lavalas every moment of the day and in every kind of way, and for them this struggle will end when Titid returns to the National Palace. But for more and more of us, this is not just about Titid's return. It is about a real and lasting change that we are demanding, and if he returns to the National Palace then the conditions would need to change so that he could improve our lives.
Lyn Duff: And what is that change?
Rosean Baptiste: Well, some people say this is unrealistic for the poor to dream this, but we would like to be respected, to have human dignity. We would like to be able to work, to have food for our children.
There is a great distance from where we, the poor, are and where the rich are. We demand that that distance be closed and that the rich come closer to us and that they experience our lives, they experience hunger.
They need to come down from the mountains to the sea. (Areas where the wealthier people in Port au Prince live are all in the foothills or mountain suburbs such as Petion-ville and Kenscoff. The slums are most in the low-lying area, and in particular there are a number of slums that directly border the sea, such as Cite Soleil and La Saline. Bel Air, however, is actually on top of a hill and nowhere close to the water, but I think that she was speaking more metaphorically.) And we want to come closer to where they are and to have the same opportunities for education and for life that the rich already have.
You see that it is very difficult to be poor in Haiti because when you are poor you have nothing to rely on. If you have many children and you cannot feed them all you have to choose: Which one will I not feed this meal? This is a difficult choice that no mother should have to make. And it is not something that I would wish on a rich mother as revenge for how she treats me.
Lyn Duff: So let's back up a minute and return to the here and now. You've said you're afraid of what the HNP, the death squads or the foreign military would do to you if they heard you speaking out this way.
Rosean Baptiste: No, I am not afraid. I am realistic. You have to understand what is happening in our area every day to understand the reality that we face.
Even someone like you who knows what is going on, who is a friend of the Haitian people, who speaks Kreyol, even you do not feel the full weight of the basket we carry on our heads, because you can return to your home with your foreign passport and you will be safe. But we have no security.
Lyn Duff: Why don't you detail then the reality that you face, the horrors that daily life in Haiti under the new regime brings. What's going on right now that people all over the world who care about changing this horrible situation of exploitation, this malevolence, should know about?
Rosean Baptiste: Since Sept. 30, 2004, when we began to have an organized resistance to the Latortue regime, there has been a growing oppression of the poor in all areas of the country against all types of people - market women, students, residents of poor neighborhoods like ours, street children, pastors and priests - who tell the truth about what is happening. The oppression is widespread and systematic. When you speak the truth, you risk being murdered.
There have been many other incidents as well. Pastors and priests have been illegally arrested, assassinated or disappeared. Students have been dragged from their classes and beaten by other students who are part of a pro-occupation student organization funded by USAID. Police, foreign military and death squads have murdered women at the market.
The former military are armed with sophisticated weaponry, and they set up their own roadblocks, search people's cars and the tap-taps (communal taxis or buses) and arrest people. Those arrested just disappear. Sometimes their bodies are found in a few days or a few weeks dumped in a ravine. The hands are tied together and sometimes the heads are cut off or they are covered with burns on their backs.
Lyn Duff: Are all of these crimes that you have mentioned been committed by the members of the disbanded Haitian military that are now reformed into their own death squads?
Rosean Baptiste: No, the Haitian National Police have committed unbelievable atrocities. Since the coup, the HNP has hired and integrated into the police force many former soldiers who were part of the army that was disbanded after the last coup.
And let me remind you that the army was disbanded because they committed so many crimes against the people, like raping women and little girls, the massacre of peasants in the North and murdering people for sport. These rapists and murders were hired into the police force even though most of them were part of the armed groups that took over the country earlier this year and then set lose to wreak havoc on the population.
We know the conditions of violent repression are very bad. I think now the Latortue regime is exposing its true colors and that now is the time for people everywhere in the world who oppose this kind of system and these horrors to stand up and resist.
Email Lyn at athenadk@aol.com.
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Spain/Morocco: Amnesty International investigates recent incidents involving migrants

2005-10-30T07:27:00.000-08:00

Spain/Morocco: Amnesty International investigates recent incidents involving migrants

Dozens of people were killed and injured in the past few weeks when trying to gain entry into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco. They were confronted by law enforcement officials of both countries who used force to prevent them from entering the enclaves.

Hundreds of migrants, including possible asylum seekers, were rounded up by Moroccan security forces and transported to areas along Morocco's borders with Algeria and Mauritania, where they are alleged to have been left without adequate food or water leading to further deaths.

An Amnesty International delegation is in the region until 24 October to collect further information and to bring the organization's concerns about the treatment of migrants to the authorities of both Spain and Morocco.

A press conference will be held in Madrid on 26 October to present the findings of the mission.

For more information, please contact Lydia Aroyo on +44 (0) 20 7413 5599, +44 (0) 7771 796 350, e-mail: laroyo@amnesty.org; or Nicole Choueiry on +44 (0) 20 7413 5511, +44 (0) 7831 640 170, email: nchoueir@amnesty.org.

See also:
Morocco/Western Sahara: Amnesty International concerned by mass deportations http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde290072005

Spain/Morocco: Migrant rights between two fires http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engeur410112005

A Feminist Perspective on Katrina by Loretta J. Ross

2005-10-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

A Feminist Perspective on Katrina by Loretta J. Ross; Sistersong Since the tragedy of the Katrina hurricane that devastated the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans, SisterSong has contacted its two member agencies in Mississippi and Louisiana affected by the storm. We reached the Institute for Women & Ethnic Studies whose offices are on Canal Street, ground zero of the flooded part of downtown New Orleans. Their staff is now re-located all over the Deep South, including Atlanta. We also contacted Mississippi Families for Kids, whose offices in Jackson were undamaged by the storm, but who now face a tremendous flood of desperate families with children from all over the Gulf Coast region. They are accommodating many people in their offices and homes and they are seeking housing for hundreds more calling on them for assistance. To directly help these SisterSong member organizations, their addresses are listed at the end of this article along with the addresses of other women of color reproductive justice organizations in the Gulf Coast area needing assistance. A tragedy of this magnitude forces all of us to examine the impact of this storm and the response to it on women and children. The Deep South has some of the highest poverty in America affecting all races of people, and the world witnessed that great dirty secret that is America's shame. Black and brown people drowning in filthy flood waters alerted the world that this country does not protect the human rights of its own citizens. I was moved to write this article because I still have family members missing in New Orleans, one of them an 80-year old relative. I was privileged to attend a meeting September 10-14, 2005 on "Women's Global Strategies for the 21st Century" organized at Sarah Lawrence College by the Women of Color Resource Center, the Global Fund for Women, and the Center for Women's Global Leadership that brought together 100 women from around the world. The workshop on Militarization and Occupation helped me understand some of the issues we face here in the Deep South as we struggle to rebuild our lives after Katrina. From a feminist perspective, there are certain predictions we can make concerning what will happen to some women and children based on our collective experiences in helping women and children survive trauma. Poverty in America is not only racialized but it is also gendered. The aftermath of Katrina must be examined through a gender lens that identifies the myriad of violations experienced by women. A disaster like Katrina is a violation against the entire community, but when threats to women's lives are not recognized, and steps are not taken to ensure that they are, women become doubly victimized -- by the disaster and by the response to it. Vulnerability of Women and Children The hurricane and the subsequent flooding exposed the special vulnerability of women, children, the elderly and the disabled by revealing the harsh intersection of race, class, gender, ability and life expectancy. Many people could not escape not only because of poverty, but because they were not physically able to punch through rooftops, perch on top of buildings, or climb trees to survive. Horror stories of people abandoned to drown in nursing homes and hospitals emphasize that any disaster preparedness planning must take into account those unable to evacuate themselves. Instead, the mainstream media and government sources chose to blame the victims as if these vulnerable people simply made bad choices, ignoring the context in which these "choices" are made. Right wing pundits are already saying that the tragedy was the fault of single mothers who were not married so that their husbands could lift them out of poverty! Those in power do not speak about the intentional chaos in people's lives created by constantly scrambling for survival while living in poverty or with disabilities that leave many women feeling simply overwhelmed by life itself. We also know that women's issues will not be seen as "important" during the crisis, as we are advised that larger issues like maintaining law and order and securing the affected areas are of higher priority. But we need to examine the disaster in the Gulf Coast region from a feminist point of view. We can also learn lessons from the past that can help us understand the present situation, and we can ask for help from our sisters in other parts of the world who have survived military occupations and tsunamis. There is a risk of too much focus on the current crisis, shifting dollars from previous unmet needs, and forgetting older crises around the world and in our country. For example, Mississippi already had only one abortion provider before the storm. Women traveled to Louisiana or Alabama for services. What will an already under-served region do to help women receive reproductive health care? Re-defining Military Occupation We witnessed a very authoritarian militarization of New Orleans during the crisis as police and the military were given permission to forcibly evict survivors, arrest or shoot lawbreakers, and impose martial law on the city. No one in authority questioned whether it is ethical to give orders to shoot flood survivors, even if they are supposedly looting. More recent alternative media reports reveal that many of the alleged "looters" were actually heroes trying to find food to feed their families, securing food and relief supplies from stores whose inventories would have been lost to the flood anyway. The concentration camp like conditions of the Superdome and Convention Center provided no privacy for women, no safety for children and for days after the tragedy, no basic needs like food, water and sanitation. Notably, while the police and military were protecting the property rights of business owners, they somehow neglected to protect the lives of women and children jammed into the Superdome and the Convention Center. Women, children, the sick and the elderly died waiting for help. One of the ways in which the occupation was achieved was by controlling terminology through language coups. Did you notice that some news media reported that white people "find" food while black people "loot?" Control of communications became control of self-validation as the prejudices of the powerful constructed meanings that rendered any countervailing notion ineffective. There are reports of massive arrests, police brutality and even deaths at the hands of the police and military during this crisis, yet these reports were not featured in the mainstream news, just over alternative sources such as the Internet. There are also stories of people being shot by authorities in the Louisiana Superdome. One brief report on CNN told the story about the Gretna Police Department blockading a bridge by firing over the heads of people attempting to leave the city to enter this predominantly white suburb west of New Orleans. The Gretna police even confiscated food and water from women and children on the bridge at gunpoint, claiming they did not want their town "turned into another Superdome," an ominous racist reference to the fact that most of the people were African American. The normal brutality with which cops usually treat poor black people lends considerable credence to these unproven rumors, particularly if the police are operating in situations with little likelihood of formal investigations into their actions because they are "justified" by the crisis. "They came to help" language may thwart really seeing the negative effects of the occupation and may forever obscure any notion of accountability. Unfortunately, actions like these also denigrate the undoubtedly heroic actions many people in law enforcement and the military demonstrated as they risked their lives in contaminated water to rescue survivors. But as feminists, we should not confuse individual compassion with structural injustice. Both can exist in the same place at the same time. While the news media focused on the black/white conflicts during the crisis, little or no mention was made of the Native American, Asian American or Latino communities also devastated by the storm. Erasing these communities from the public's consciousness became another form of structural violence. What we need are expanded definitions and understanding of what is meant by military occupation. Occupation is about space, land, and resources. There is little consciousness in the minds of the American public that we live in occupied land or that we are occupiers. I don't believe the term only applies to Palestine, Afghanistan or Iraq. Communities of color, particularly Indigenous Nations, have always experienced law enforcement and the military as occupiers, but the Katrina crisis exposes how we must expand the concept of military occupation way beyond the narrow and limited definitions of the United Nations. There is a porous membrane between occupation and war as the Iraq invasion proves. It's as if these occupying armies read their orders from the same script. The residents of the affluent parts of New Orleans hired their own private security firms to "protect" themselves against the flood survivors. Our definition of occupation must be widened to include not only agents of the state such as the police and the military, but also must include transnational corporations, some of whom also operate their own private armies. We need to redefine occupation as a violent means to maintain order and confiscate our land. We must connect militarism with occupation and reveal who controls the resources and who benefits from the process of occupation. These are all expressions of the same phenomenon. Ironically, the occupation of New Orleans and the occupation of Iraq share one major obvious commonality. Both are greased by oil -- its production and its shipping. It is no coincidence that a port through much of America's oil flows is quickly militarized while hundreds of people die in flooded houses. Offshore platforms in the Gulf are responsible for about 30 percent of U.S. crude-oil production and states along the Gulf Coast are home to half of the nation's refining capacity. The same company in Iraq -- Halliburton -- will receive major contracts to help in the rebuilding of New Orleans. Was Iraq a practice run? What was particularly telling about the Gulf Coast crisis was that the owners of casinos and Wal-Marts were apparently able to return to their businesses much more quickly to repair storm damages long before federal assistance arrived to reduce the needless loss of lives. Perhaps we will become the United States of Wal-Mart after this. They may be the first businesses to offer jobs to the massive numbers of people forced into unemployment because of the storm. Will we be in any position to challenge their labor practices and impact on communities if they are the only employers available? Wal-Mart already discriminates against the women it presently employs. With President Bush relaxing the minimum wage laws for companies hired to rebuild the Gulf Coast, will more women make even less money, below the paltry $5.15/hour federal minimum wage? You bet they will because more than 400,000 jobs were lost in the disaster. Violations of International Human Rights Standards We also witnessed the incredible violations of the human rights of the Katrina survivors. Not only was their right to survive threatened by the painfully slow response of local, state and federal governments, but their right to stay united as families, their right to adequate and safe shelter, their right to social services, their right to accurate information, their right to health care and freedom from violence. All of these are human rights violations but the one that brings the Middle East most forcefully to mind is the violation of the right to return to one's home. For those of us with short-term memories, keep in mind that the Supreme Court ruled this year that governments have expanded powers of eminent domain that may be used to prevent some survivors from ever returning to their communities as land is turned over to corporate developers. New limits on the protections of bankruptcy laws will also cause further harm to Katrina's survivors. The concept of peace and security is dreadfully misused during this crisis to impose a police state. The United Nations urged societies a decade ago to re-examine what is meant by security, beyond law enforcement, the military and the state. The 1994 Human Development Report by the United Nations introduced a new people-centered concept for human security: "Human security means....safety from constant threats of hunger, disease, crime and repression. It also means protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of daily lives, whether in our homes, our jobs, in communities, or in our environment." Activists in the U.S., especially after 9/11, requested a re-consideration of security that included the protection of human rights and civil liberties, the meeting of people's basic human needs, and the use of peace processes and UN mechanisms that can avoid war and prevent genocides. The reality is that women live in a borderland of insecurity all the time, yet the needs of women are invisible during discussions on security pre-occupied with criminals and terrorists. Poverty, hunger and deprivation of human rights are the real threats to security because security is determined by the extent to which people have their basic needs met and can live in freedom and safety, not by the number of armed occupiers in their communities. A militarized community does not feel safer, just more policed, so that what is allowed and what is accepted is constantly determined by those outside of the community. Our people removed from New Orleans have been called "evacuees," a term that has no legal basis in international law. They are, in fact, internally displaced persons, a status that affords them legal rights and protections. The U.S. government is very careful not to use this term to describe the people from New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast because it would trigger obligations defined by human rights treaties to meet the needs of our people. The U.S. government is always careful not to use language that requires it to protect people's human rights. For example, the government was resistant to using the word "genocide" to describe the theft of Indigenous lands and the enslavement of Africans at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism. John Bolton, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations appointed by President Bush, will be busily trying to undermine anti-poverty goals at the UN Millennium Summit which begins this week, instead of focusing on eradicating poverty, improving education, and empowering women. The U.S. government's assault on the human rights framework is unending, and we must not let them get away with it. We must respond by ensuring that the Katrina survivors learn about their human rights and the obligations they are due from our government. Speaking of racism, it was racism that stopped the distribution of the $2000 debit cards to the survivors. Right wing critics, claiming that the (mostly black) poor people were irresponsible and likely to cheat the system, halted FEMA's distribution of this immediate cash relief. Instead, the government switched to a bank account deposit system, ignoring the fact that many poor people don't have bank accounts or can't access them if they do because of the disaster. Many do not have the identity documents required to use standard banking procedures. Some survivors who received the cards before they were discontinued report that they received much less than $2000; some received only $200. Who will do a race, gender and class analysis of who received what relief? Despite the magnitude of the catastrophe, it is amazing that the authorities found the time to harass undocumented immigrant women and men in the affected region. Reports of people targeted by immigration officials have surfaced, and many are afraid to seek help for fear that their suffering will be exploited as an opportunity to forcibly deport people. Those without social security numbers are being denied emergency assistance by some agencies. Another under-reported story is what happened to the survivors in some of the cities to which they escaped. Because of anti-poor ordinances in cities like San Antonio and Atlanta, some survivors have been arrested for panhandling and jaywalking in cities they perceived as refuges. Some have been concentrated into hastily erected camps resembling detention centers, isolating them from the communities that purportedly welcomed them. There will be an increase in the criminalization of the poor leading to a surge in growth for the prison industrial complex. Gender-Based Violence Often poor women and children are the first ones forced into prostitution to survive. There will be an increase in the demand for prostitution created by the massive military and police presence in the affected states, similar to the rise in prostitution that surrounds our military bases around the world already. Women are not "opportunities to relieve stress" as many soldiers are encouraged to believe. Because of the limited real choices women face, we expect that there will be a rise in the prostitution and trafficking of women and children. We also expect that there will be a rise in the exploitation and sexual abuse of displaced children. Increases in the abuse of women and children will mean rises in other things like unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. We expect these things because they occur to women and children even without the desperation and vulnerability created by such a national disaster. We have already received reports of the rapes and murders of women and children among the survivors herded together in the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center under inhumane conditions. We do not know whether or not media racism exaggerated these reports, but we already know that some men do not know how to cope with a lack of control over their lives and they often express their frustration by abusing and violating women and children. Domestic violence and sexual assault will increase because women are more vulnerable and more men will become violent as the occupation and displacement continues. This culture of violence breeds more violence against women. This happens every day anyway and a tragedy like Katrina exacerbates these dangerous tendencies, especially in a situation lacking any social control and order. Development for Whom? Using A Gender Lens to Rebuild There is a difference in how women see what ought to happen and how men see what should be done. It will be important during this crisis to listen to the women of the Gulf Coast and incorporate their perspectives on what should be done to help people recover from this disaster. We can learn a lot from our sisters around the globe who have endured terrible tsunamis and callousness from military occupiers and humanitarian agencies. Now is the time to contact our sisters from Asia who survived the December 2004 tsunami or women from the Middle East who have lived for years under military occupations. They can offer valuable lessons about empowering women during national crises. They are the experts we need, not the men with guns pointed at us as we sought food and shelter. This is a moment for global solidarity, even if the Bush Administration is too arrogant to accept help from people in countries they don't respect. This is not only a teachable moment for America but an opportunity for learning as well. This may be the moment to have serious discussions about the lack of human rights protections in this country by asking the question, "Why were we so vulnerable?" Even many government officials had to admit that the unjust war against Iraq decimated our country's ability to respond to this crisis in a timely and effective manner. This is a chance to connect issues of poverty, war, occupation, racism, homophobia, militarism and sexism, and make the distinction between natural disasters and man-made ones. Women's voices must be lifted to evaluate the role of humanitarian agencies that responded to the crisis. There will be many agencies and groups profiting from our suffering while ignoring our local women's organizations and our capacity for making decisions about what we need. In fact, some of these humanitarian agencies may actually facilitate the occupation of our communities by turning over lists of undocumented people to the authorities, not recognizing the family rights of same sex couples, or participating in re-development strategies that ignore the needs and perspectives of women. To counter this, women must seize our power and make our concerns known in the media, to government agencies, and to the humanitarian organizations. There are human rights standards that humanitarian agencies should follow and most require that women's perspectives are respected and incorporated. Women's organizations must work together, giving space to the creativity, energy and brains of young women. We cannot allow them to ignore the voices of local people or ignore the voices of women demanding inclusion. Women must ask critical questions during this crisis. Who are the groups benefiting from the disaster and who are the groups hurting or excluded? Women must help get the attention of people not immediately touched by the catastrophe and reach people who feel too comfortable to be outraged, because everyone is eventually affected by a tragedy of this magnitude. We must work together to address our collective trauma, fear and anxiety so that we can reduce its multi-generational impact. Under the classic style of economic development of poor areas of America, communities are destroyed, people are forcibly relocated, and transnational corporations are invited to re-develop the seized lands. They called this Urban Renewal in the 1950s and 1960s. The 1970s brought us Spatial Deconcentration. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was called Gentrification. Now it will be called Security. It may take as long as five years to rebuild the Gulf Coast, particularly the city of New Orleans, and right now we need to demand that the services to which we are entitled -- that are our human rights -- are delivered with respect, efficiency, and dignity. Our sisters from other countries advise us that disasters can wipe out the past and create an opportunity to better include people to reshape the future. We can use this moment to force bureaucracies to become more flexible, like changing normal admissions procedures to get our kids back in schools or demanding that quality public housing be provided instead of permanent refugee camps. We need schools, voter registration, immigrant services, drivers' licenses, housing, medical care, and public assistance put on the fast track, not bottle-necked services mired down in the typical bureaucratic snarls that characterize government assistance programs. We need to demand economic re-development strategies that center our needs, not those of casino owners, in the picture. It will be mighty tempting to use this as an opportunity to not rebuild our communities in New Orleans or the rest of the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is particularly at risk of becoming a tourist mecca with a French Quarter, plantation mansions, and endless casinos where the only jobs available to people of color will be low-paying ones supporting the tourist and oil industries. We have to claim our human right to sustainable development and insist on the enforcement of economic and social rights in re-development strategies. We have the right to quality schools for our children, jobs that pay living wages, communities free of environmental toxins, and opportunities to develop our full human potential. We have the right to reclaim our land, rebuild our homes, and restore our communities. Because many people lost their identities during the disaster, we can learn from our sisters in South Africa and Palestine who lost their identities when their countries were occupied. They took advantage of the chaos to create their own identities, determine their own facts, and promote community-based definitions of identity. They registered their own people as aid recipients and issued numbers and identity cards to help people have access to services. We have to define citizenship from our own point of view to challenge the powers that are taking over our communities and committing human rights abuses. People who are in occupied territories lose faith in the benefits of citizenship and in legal rights that are frequently denied. This is where international human rights laws become important. Claiming our identities as internally displaced persons forces our governments to not define us as charity cases, but as citizens with rights that must be respected and protected. It is also predictable that the people who name the repression by our government will be attacked and we must defend the women who will come under assault, like the human rights defenders movement. We will be called racist for pointing out the racism in America. Our inability to effectively defend people will lead to their isolation. Women already get attacked even before we're in the public sphere, in our personal lives through gender-based violence, but we can expect an escalation of these attacks if we loudly demand accountability from authorities. They will threaten to take away our children, deny us benefits, and accuse us of being unpatriotic and selfish. We cannot let them scare us because our lives -- and those of our families -- depend on us being united in resistance. Specifically, we must demand the full funding of services women will need to recover from this crisis. Of the billions of dollars that will be poured into the region, we must demand increased funding for domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, abused children's services, reproductive health programs, and services for the elderly, immigrants, and people who are disabled. We must demand that those doing assessments of what is needed not use gender-blind methods that fail to see the differences between the conditions of women and men, and fail to meet our need to be free from all forms of violence but especially sexual violence. It is vital that women and men, girls and boys are researched separately to understand the needs of each group. For example, research indicates that men are most likely exposed to violence in public places whereas violence against women is much more common in domestic spaces. We need to demand support for local women's organizations which are arguably the best way to get information to women and obtain information about women's needs. Yet often women's organizations are ignored either because they are not known to the decision makers or their work is not valued. We need the solidarity of feminists from around to world to help us claim our human rights. Ignoring women as a resource to help recover from this tragedy will affect the entire society for years to come. Following are four reproductive justice organizations affected by this crisis. We encourage you to send donations directly to them to help them out in this crisis: The Institute for Women & Ethnic Studies, a reproductive justice organization that works with young women in New Orleans on teen pregnancy, sexual health education, and training of physicians of color to deliver abortion and other reproductive health services, had its offices at 1600 Canal Street, in the heart of the flooded downtown of New Orleans. Because their staff is dispersed across several states in the Deep South, they are asking that people visit their website at http://www.iwes.org/ to make donations. One of their program assistants, La'Keidra Hardeman, has relocated temporarily to Atlanta and her email is hardeman@iwes.org. They will need new computer equipment, office furniture, and a host of other items basic to rebuilding their agency. Mississippi Families for Kids did not suffer direct damage because of the storm, but have responded to unprecedented demands for their services helping kids needing adoption and families in crisis. They are located at 620 N. State Street, #304, Jackson, MS 39202. Their phone number is 601-360-0591. Women With a Vision is a HIV/AIDS reproductive justice organization in New Orleans. They are presently working out of Houston, TX because of the relocation. Their temporary contact and address is Deon Haywood, 11614 Eaglewood Drive, Houston, TX 77089. Phone 504-931-7944. The Children's Defense Fund, Southern Regional Office is located at P. O. Box 11437, Jackson, MS 39283, Tel: (601) 321-1966, Fax: (601) 321-8736, http://www.cdf-sro.org./ Their program, The Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative (SRBWI), promotes the first human rights agenda in the United States aimed at eradicating historical race, class, cultural, religious and gender barriers experienced by southern rural black women. ----- Loretta J. Ross is the National Coordinator of SisterSong. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=8912

Rumsfeld To Profit From Bird Flu Hoax

2005-10-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

link: http://www.mercola.com/2005/oct/25/rumsfeld_to_profit_from_avian_flu_hoax.htm

Welcome to Support and Believe

2005-10-21T16:50:00.000-07:00

Support and Believe is a song by the punk band Doggy Style. The song appears on their one-sided 'Live in Sun City' 12". The song also appears as 'Support and Belief' on the 'Work as One' 7"....and may appear on some other releases/compilations that i am not aware of.Doggy Style was a great band and one of my all time favorites. It is hard to search for band info on the web due to all the porn and Snoopla. Doggy Style was a punk band but also put out a hiphop album called 'The Last Laugh'...big beastie boys influence (they cover 'she's on it'). Check out Doggy Style they are worth a listen.